When the Vetála had gone through these reflections, he said to the king, “King, though you have been worried with so many journeys to and fro in this cemetery terrible with black night, you seem quite happy, and you do not shew the least irresolution. I am pleased with this wonderful courage that you shew.[5] So now carry off this body, for I am going out of it; and listen to this advice which I give you for your welfare, and act on it. That wicked mendicant, for whom you have fetched this human corpse, will immediately summon me into it, and honour me. And wishing to offer you up as a victim, the rascal will say to you, ‘King, prostrate yourself on the ground in such a way that eight limbs will touch it.’ Then, great king, you must say to that ascetic,[6] ‘Shew me first how to do it, and then I will do exactly as you do.’ Then he will fling himself on the ground, and shew you how to perform the prostration, and that moment you must cut off his head with the sword. Then you will obtain that prize which he desires, the sovereignty of the Vidyádharas; enjoy this earth by sacrificing him! But otherwise that mendicant will offer you up as a victim; it was to prevent this that I threw obstacles in your way for such a long time here. So depart; may you prosper!” When the Vetála had said this, he went out of that human corpse, that was on the king’s shoulder.
Then the king was led by the speech of the Vetála, who was pleased with him, to look upon the ascetic Kshántiśíla as his enemy, but he went to him in high spirits, where he sat under that banyan-tree, and took with him that human corpse.
[1] i. e., possessed of beauty.
[2] I read viśvasya with the Sanskrit College MS. in place of viśramya which means “having rested.”
[3] I adopt Dr. Kern’s conjecture of hata for ahata.
[4] I read param with the MS. in the Sanskrit College.
[5] This idea is also found in European story-books. See Kuhn’s Sagen aus Westfalen, p. 277; “Diese Unerschrockenheit gefiel dem Teufel so sehr, dass sich sein Zorn nicht nur legte, sondern &c.” See also Grimm’s Irische Elfenmärchen (which is based on Croker’s Tales), p. 8.
[6] Śramaṇa.