Page:The Dravidian Nights Entertainments.djvu/50

Rh were the thoughts of the prince—the second son —and they were quite natural. He saw only then the evil intentions of his teacher. He wanted to inform his parents of them and was waiting for the night to proceed to them.

The night came on. After his duties of the evening as a student were over, he retired for rest or rather pretended to retire for rest. For no sleep could now close down his eye-lids since the evil intentions of his master became plain to him. He therefore left his bed and walked out to the public road. To his joy he found there the dead body of a kite. He transferred himself into its corpse, flew at once to his parents and reached them in the dead of night. Then resuming his own shape he awakened them from their slumber. They were surprised at first, and when they were certain that it was one of their sons who stood before them, kissed their boy and inquired into the welfare of his brother and the way by which he managed to come such a long distance. Their second son related to them in haste everything; how he acquired all the rare arts, how his elder brother had been ruined, how the master's intention stood, and how they must act themselves. He also requested them to come soon and reclaim him and not to take the elder brother who would be quite useless, then, for them. He assured them that he would afterwards himself manage for his rescue. Thus advising