Page:Vikram and the vampire; or, Tales of Hindu devilry (IA vikramvampireort00burtrich).pdf/345

 opinion, as opposed to the Shastras and to Raja Vikram, that the beautiful Unmadini belonged, not to the head part but to the body part. Because the latter has an immortal soul in the pit of its stomach, whereas the former is a box of bone, more or less thick, and contains brains which are of much the same consistence as those of a calf.'

'Villain!' exclaimed the Raja, 'does not the soul or conscious life enter the body through the sagittal suture and lodge in the brain, thence to contemplate, through the same opening, the divine perfections?'

'I must, however, bid you farewell for the moment, O warrior king, Sakadhipati-Vikramaditya! I feel a sudden and ardent desire to change this cramped position for one more natural to me.'

The warrior monarch had so far committed himself that he could not prevent the Vampire from flitting. But he lost no more time in following him than a grain of mustard, in its fall, stays on a cow's horn. And when he had thrown him over his shoulder, the king desired him of his own accord to begin a new tale.

'O my left eyelid flutters,' exclaimed the Baital in despair, 'my heart throbs, my sight is dim: surely now beginneth the end. It is as Vidhata hath written on my forehead – how can it be otherwise?