Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/249

 dead on a sofa in the golden city, and yet see you here alive?" When the princess Kanakarekhá had been asked this question by Śaktideva, and furnished with this token of his truth, she said in the presence of her father: " It is true that this great-hearted one has seen that city, and in a short time he will be my husband, when I return to dwell there. And there he will marry my other three sisters; and he will govern as king the Vidyádharas in that city. But I must to-day enter rny own body and that city, for I have been born here in your house owing to the curse of a hermit, who moreover appointed that my curse should end in the following way, ' When you shall be wearing a human form, and a man, having beheld your body in the Golden City, shall reveal the truth, then you shall be freed from your curse, and that man shall become your husband.' And though. I am in a human body I remember my origin, and I possess supernatural knowledge, so I will now depart to my own. Vidyádhara home, to a happy fortune." Saying this the princess left her body, and vanished, and a confused cry arose in the palace. And Śaktideva, who had now lost both the maidens, thinking over the two beloved ones whom he had gained by various difficult toils, and who yet were not gained, and not only grieved but blaming himself, with his desires not accomplished, left the king's palace' and in a moment went through the following train of thought: " Kanakarekhá said that I should attain my desire; so why do I despond, for success depends upon courage? I will again go to the Golden City by the same path, and destiny will without doubt again provide me with a means of getting there." Thus reflecting Śaktideva set out from that city, for resolute men who have once undertaken a project do not turn back without accomplishing their object. And journeying on, he again reached after a long time that city named Vitankapura, situated on the shore of the sea. And there he saw the merchant coining to meet him, with whom he originally went to sea, and whose ship was wrecked there. He thought, " Can this be Samudradatta, and how can he have escaped after falling into the sea ? But how can it be otherwise ? I myself am a strange illustration of its possibility." While he approached the merchant thinking thus, the merchant recognised him, and embraced him in his delight, and he took him to his own house and after entertaining him, asked him " When the ship foundered, how did you escape from the sea?" Śaktideva then told him his whole history, how, after being swallowed by a fish, he first reached the island of Utsthala, and then he asked the good merchant in his turn: " Tell me also how you escaped from the sea." Then the merchant said, " After I fell into the sea that time, I remained Heating for three days supported on a plunk. Then a ship suddenly came that way, and I, crying out, was descried by those in her, and taken on board her. And when I got on board, I saw my own father who had gone Lo a distant island long before, and was now returning