Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/74

68 as she spoke a great flame shot down from heaven and enveloped the hunter. Damayanti, blinded by the flame, turned her eyes away. When she looked again she saw a heap of ashes where the man had stood.

Leaving the spot, and more than ever oppressed by grief, the queen went deeper still into the forest. When evening fell, she saw approaching her a tiger looking for its prey. "I shall go to this tiger," she murmured to herself, "and I shall ask him whether he has seen King Nala. Perhaps he may tell me; and even if he tears me to pieces, death is better than life without my beloved." Fearlessly Damayanti went close to the ravening brute and said, "O forest Lord! I am Damayanti, Queen of the Nishadas, and I seek my husband King Nala. If you have seen him tell me how I can find him. But if not, tear me to pieces, for I am sick of life." The tiger looked at Damayanti as if he would spring on her and devour her. Then, wondering at her, he turned aside and left her to seek his prey elsewhere. Damayanti sadly renewed her search until she came to a great mountain that reared its crest high into the heavens. "O Lord of Mountains," she cried, "I am a king's daughter and the wife of a king and the mother of a king to be. I am clad in a single soiled garment, yet my ancestors led forth hosts to conquer the earth. Tell me whether you have seen anywhere my husband Nala the true King of the Nishadas." But the mountain answered never a word and the wind sighed drearily through the trees overhead and Queen Damayanti turned away to renew her quest.

For three whole nights and days she wandered, her feet leading her to the North. At last she saw stretched in front of her gardens full of beautiful flowers and