Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/187

 remorse, the next morning the king saw Phalabhúti arrive with the earrings in his hand. So, being bewildered, he questioned him about the earrings immediately; and when Phalabhúti had told him his story, the king tell on the earth, and cried out; " Alas my son !" blaming the queen and himself, and when his ministers questioned him, he told them the whole story, and repeated what Phalabhúti had said every day " ' The doer of good will obtain good, and the doer of evil, evil.' Often the harm that one wishes to do to another, recoils on one's self, as a ball thrown against a wall rebounding frequently; thus we, wicked ones, desiring to slay a Brahman, have brought about our own son's death, and devoured his flesh." After the king had said this and informed his ministers, who stood with their faces fixed on the earth, of the whole transaction, and after he had anointed that very Phalabhúti as king in his place, he made a distribution of alms and then, having no son, entered the fire with his wife to purify himself from guilt, though already consumed by the tire of remorse: and Phalabhúti, having obtained the royal dignity, ruled the earth; thus good or evil done by a man is made to return upon himself. Having related the above tale in the presence of the king of Vatsa, Yaugandharáyana again said to that king; " If Brahmadatta therefore were to plot against you, O great king, who, after conquering him, treated him. kindly, he ought to be slain." When the chief minister had said this to him, the king of Vatsa approved of it, and rising up went to perform the duties of the day, and the day following he set out from Lávánaka to go to his own city Kauśámbi, having accomplished his objects in effecting the conquest of the regions; in course of time the lord of earth accompanied by his retinue reached his own city, which seemed to be dancing with delight, imitating with banners uplifted the taper arms* of the dancing girl. So he entered the city, producing, at every step, in the lotus-garden composed of the eyes of the women of the city, the effect of the rising of a breeze. And the king entered his palace, sung by minstrels, praised by bards, and worshipped by kings. Then the monarch of Vatsa laid his commands on the kings of every land, who bowed before him, and triumphantly ascended that throne, the heirloom of his race, which he had found long

troduction, page 1. Douce says that the story is found in Scott's Tales from the Arabic and Persian, p. 53 and in the Contes devots or Miracles of the Virgin. (Le Grand, Fabliaux, v. 74.) Mr. Collier states upon the authority of M. Boettiger that Schiller founded his ballad upon an Alsatian tradition which he heard at Mannheim. Cp. also the 80th of the Sicilianischo Marchen which ends with these words, "Wer gutes thut, wird gutes erhalten."