Page:The Dravidian Nights Entertainments.djvu/69

Rh than a cat; that time. And he accordingly left that city in search of better wares.

The prince in passing outside the town saw a snake-charmer approaching him. He carried in two baskets, suspended in the ends of a large bamboo supported on his neck, several serpents and other snakes. Among them was the son of Adisêsha too. That serpent left his palace in the infernal regions and came to take a view of the world. The snake-charmer perceiving him took hold of him unawares by the superiority of the incantations that he used over serpents, and hence that son of Adisesha was among the enslaved snakes. When the prince saw the snake-charmer he asked him what goods his baskets contained and what they were worth: The man said, "Gentleman, this contains the finest serpents ever caught in the world, and I shall get for each of them five hundred pagodas if I just made them play their tricks before my king." Now, the prince in earnest words requested him to sell one of the serpents to him for a hundred pagodas which, by the bye, was the only sum he had with him. The snake-charmer, though glad at heart, reluctantly parted or rather seemed reluctantly to part with one of his serpents—the very son of Adisesha—to the prince, and thanking all his Gods for the hundred pagodas they gave him went his way. The prince too went to his mother a