Page:The Enchanted Parrot.djvu/66

62 of the anklets is silent: where everything incites to love. Go ! where the universal law of love prevails. For —

" ' Health; pleasure; peace; power; lordship;

These are as nothing without love.'

" It has been said — " ' The women with long half-closing eyes: looking at their own forms resplendent with beauty in the curving mirrors, wait with longing for the lover's approach. It is through their attractiveness that women gain the fruit of love.' "

The parrot answered:

" Men are easily won over: they always speak fair: It is the speaker of unpleasant though wholesome truths who cannot find a listener. But why say more ? You and your friends are determined on evil deeds." The parrot continued: —

There is a town called Padmavatî: where the rays of the sun shine on streets paved with jewels, as though the glow of the gems on the hood of the serpent king had come down to earth. The king's name was Sudarśana.

What praise can be too great for such a king as this, devoted to the guardianship of his subjects, the prince of a city where the sun looks down upon no evil?