Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/69

Rh

Now that Kali had entered into and possessed Nala, the king had no longer any will of his own and became the mere slave of the wicked god. Forced by Kali he went to the palace of his brother Pushkara and engaged with him in a game of dice. But such skill in gaming as Nala had became useless now that he was but the creature of Kali. And through his careless play and the fall of the dice, which at Kali's command fell always in Pushkara's favour, the king never ceased to lose his stakes to his brother. At last the news of the king's senseless gaming spread through the city. His subjects, who loved Nala devotedly, came with the king's ministers to his palace. And they begged Queen Damayanti to ask the king to see them. For they wished to implore him to abandon his dicing. But when Damayanti went to the hall where Nala gambled with his brother, the king, possessed of Kali, would not speak with her nor even cast his eyes in her direction. So the queen went back to the subjects and the ministers and told them that the king would not receive them. They returned sorrowfully to their own homes. But the king day after day continued to lose stake after stake to his brother Pushkara.

At last the king had lost his statues of silver and gold and his chariots and horses and all his jewelled robes of state. So the queen sent her nurse Vrihadesena to call the ministers once again to the palace. And when they had assembled at the outer gate, she again went to the hall where Nala and Pushkara gambled. "Lord King," said the queen, "the ministers crave an