Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/85

Rh and each with ten curls on its forehead.

When King Rituparna entered the chariot the horses fell and the king said, "O Vahuka, these lean horses will never draw our chariot to Vidarbha." But King Nala patted and stroked the horses until they stood once more on their feet. Then with a touch of his whip he made them gallop. And such was their speed that soon Rituparna thought that he was travelling through the sky. And the king was so delighted that he asked Nala whether he would teach him how to drive a chariot, if in return he taught Nala his own skill in calculation. King Nala readily agreed. He knew that Rituparna was unrivalled in the art of dicing and in calculation. For as they drove alone through the woods Rituparna would often tell Nala how many leaves each tree had. And when King Nala had got down and counted the leaves, he had always found Rituparna's figure to be right. So, as King Nala drove King Rituparna from Ayodhya to Vidarbha, Rituparna expounded to him the whole art of dicing and King Nala in turn showed Rituparna the various devices by which he trained horses to do his bidding.

Now all the time that King Nala had been at Ayodhya the poison of Karkotaka the snake king had been tormenting the evil god Kali, and at last Kali could bear the torments no longer. While King Nala was learning King Rituparna's skill in dicing, the god Kali left his body and with folded hands stood humbly before him. Then King Nala, freed from his possession, knew how Kali had brought about his ruin and turned in anger on the god, meaning to curse him. But the god, fleeing from King Nala, hid himself in a Vibhitika tree. And King Nala, no longer seeing him, continued to drive Rituparna's chariot