Note.
Oesterley, page 217, gives a story which resembles this in its conclusion. A king finds a girl being carried off by robbers. He delivers her and places her in a temple, promising to bring her food. But on his way he meets a kuṭṭiní, who conducts him to another girl, with whom he falls desperately in love, and so forgets the girl he rescued. She is found by a merchant. He takes her to his house and sets food before her. He then kills a rat, and boasts of his valour; (see page 16 of this volume.) This conduct, contrasted with that of the king, makes the girl die of disgust. The merchant kills himself. The king, not finding the first girl where he left her, commits suicide. The kuṭṭiní considers that she has caused the death of three persons, and kills herself in a fit of remorse. The Vetála asks, “Which of these four deaths was the most extraordinary?” The king answers, “That of the kuṭṭiní, for the others died of excess of passion.”
[1] ushmá should probably be ushṇá.
[2] In the Sanskrit College MS. ati is inserted before durbalatám.
[3] The moon is the patron of the kumuda; the sun of the kamala or lotus. Kamalákara means a collection of kamalas.
[4] The Sanskrit College MS. reads achúrṇam without powder.
[5] I take anyávinítavanitáhásiní as one word, and read vilapantí instead of vilapantím̱.
[6] I insert sutám̱ at the beginning of the line. The su is clear enough in the Sanskrit College MS. but the rest of the word is illegible.
Chapter XCVI.
(Vetála 22.)
Then king Trivikramasena again fetched the Vetála from the top of the aśoka-tree, and put him on his shoulder, and as he was going along, the Vetála said to him on the way, “King, you are good and brave, so hear this matchless tale.”