Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/252

 world of men in consequence of a curse. For when I was a Vidyádharí, I bit asunder some strings with my teeth and fastened them to lyres, and it is owing to that that I have been born here in the house of a fisherman. So, if such a degradation is brought about by touching the mouth with the dry sinew of a cow, much more terrible must be the result of eating cow's flesh !" While she was saying this, one of her brothers rushed in in a state of perturbation, and said to Śaktideva, " Rise up, an enormous boar has appeared from somewhere or other, and after slaying innumerable persons is coming this way in its pride, towards us." When Śaktideva heard that, he descended from his palace, and mounting a horse, spear in hand,* he galloped to meet the boar, and struck it the moment he saw it, but when the hero attacked him the boar fled, and managed, though wounded, to enter a cavern: and Śaktideva entered there in pursuit of him, and immediately beheld a great garden-shrubbery with a house. And when he was there, he beheld a maiden of very wonderful beauty, coming in a state of agitation to meet him, as if it were the goddess of the wood advancing to receive him out of love.

And he asked her,— " Auspicious lady, who are you, and why are you perturbed?"— Hearing that, the lovely one thus answered him; " There is a king of the name of Chandavikrama, lord of the southern region. I am his daughter, auspicious sir, a maiden named Vindurekhá. But a wicked Daitya, with flaming eyes, carried me off by treachery from my father's house to-day, and brought me here. And he, desiring flesh, assumed the form of a boar, and sallied out, but while he was still hungry, he was pierced with a spear to-day by some hero; and as soon as he was pierced, he came in here and died. And I rushed out and escaped without being outraged by him." Then Śaktideva said to her, " Then why all this perturbation? For I slew that boar with a spear, princess." Then she said, " Tell me who you are," and he answered her " I am a Bráhman named Śaktideva." Then she said to him, " You must accordingly become my husband," and the hero consenting went out of the cavern with her. And when he arrived at home, he told it to his wife Vindumatí, and with her consent he married that princess Vindurekhá. So, while Śaktideva was living there with his two wives, one of his wives Vindurekhá became pregnant; and in the eighth month of her pregnancy, the first wife Vindumatí came up to him of her own accord and said to him, " Hero, remember what you promised me; this is the eighth month of the pregnancy of your second so go and cut her open and bring the child here, for you cannot act contrary to your own word of honour." When she said this to Śaktideva he was bewildered by affection and compassion; but being bound by his promise