Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/513

 having my head cut off." When the hermits heard that, they experienced an emotion of pity, and they said to her, " There is a famous bathing-place in this forest, called Tíithibhasaras, for a certain chaste woman named Títhibhí, being falsely accused by her husband, who suspected her of familiarity with another man, in her helplessness invoked the goddess Earth and the Lokapálas, and they produced it for her justification. There let the wife of Ráma clear herself for our satisfaction." When they said that, Sítá, went with them to that lake. And the chaste woman said— " Mother Earth, if my mind was never fixed even in a dream on any one besides my husband, may I reach the other side of the lake,"— and after saying this she entered the lake, and the goddess Earth appeared, and, taking her in her lap, carried her to the other side. Then all the hermits adored that chaste woman, and enraged at Ráma's having abandoned her, they desired to curse him. But Sítá, who was devoted to her husband, dissuaded them, saying,— " Do not entertain an inauspicious thought against my husband, I beg you to curse my wicked self." The hermits, pleased with that conduct of hers, gave her a blessing which enabled her to give birth to a son, and she, while dwelling there, in good time did give birth to a son, and the hermit Válmíki gave him the name of Lava.* One day she took the child and went to bathe, and the hermit, seeing that it was not in the hut, thought— " She is in the habit, when she goes to bathe, of leaving her child behind her, so what has become of the child? Surely it has been carried off by a wild beast. I will create another, otherwise Sítá, on returning from bathing, will die of grief." Under this impression, the hermit made a pure babe of kuśa grass, resembling Lava, and placed him there, and Sítá came, and seeing it, said to the hermit, " I have my own boy, so whence came this one, hermit?" When the hermit Válmíki heard this, he told her exactly what had taken place, and said, " Blameless one, receive this second son named Kuśa, because I by my power created him out of kuśa grass." When he said this to her, Sítá brought up those two sons Kuśa and Lava, for whom Válmíki performed the sacraments. And those two young princes of the Kshatriya race, even when children, learned the use of all heavenly weapons, and all sciences from the hermit Válmíki.

And one day they killed a deer belonging to the hermitage, and ate its flesh, and made use of a linga, which Válmíki worshipped, as a plaything. The hermit was offended thereby, but at Sítá's intercession he appointed for those youths the following expiatory penance: " Let this Lava go