Thereupon ascertaining that he says thus through willingness that he should marry the King’s daughter to him, he said, “I am not willing to give my daughter to thee. Shouldst thou say, ‘Why is that?’ seven times now, seven Princes married (baen̆dēya) that person. They having died, on the following day after the Princes married her it befel that I must bury them. Because death will occur to thee in the very same way, I am not willing to give my daughter to thee,” he said.
Thereupon the Prince said thus, “To a person for whom death is not ordained death does not come; death having been ordained that person will die. Because of that, I am wishful to marry (ban̆dinṭa) that very Princess,” he said. Then the King fulfilled his wish. Thus they two having married, according to the custom he sent them away [into a separate dwelling].
While he was with that very Princess, having remembered the warning given on that day by the astrologer-teacher, being heavy with sleepiness while eating betel, he woke up many times. At this time the Princess had gone to sleep.
[At last] he hears a sound in the house. The Prince having heard it and become afraid, at the time when he was looking about [after] taking his sword in his hand, he saw a cobra of a size equal to a Palmira trunk descending from the roof. This cobra, indeed, was a young man who had tied his affection to this Princess, a person who having died through his love [for her] was [re-]born a cobra. Through anger towards all who marry the Princess he killed them.
The royal Prince having gone aside, in a little time it descended until it was near the ground. [Then] the Prince by one stroke of the sword cut the cobra into three pieces. Thus the danger which there had been for much time that day was destroyed.
On the following day, according to custom with fear the servants arrived in front of the Princess’s house. But the Prince having come out, placed the three pieces of the cobra upon a post. Thereupon having been amazed, the royal servants very speedily ran off and told the King (rajuhaṭa) about this. The King, also, having arrived there was astonished, and commanded them to take the trunk of the cobra to the cemetery, and burn it.
During these very days, another King having asked the Great King for assistance for a war, sent letters. And the King sent this Prince to the war, with the army. When he had thus gone, in a few days the Princess bore a son.
The war lasted twelve years. After twelve years, having conquered in the war he was ready to come to his own country. By this time the Princess’s son had become big. But the people of the country, not knowing whose son [he was], thought him a person who had married the Princess. And this news had become spread through the country.
The royal Prince having arrived near his own country, the Prince got to hear the news; but having remembered the warning of the astrologer-teacher, he thought that to believe it in the future he must make inquiry.
Coming close to the royal palace by degrees, he addressed the army; and thereafter, after he had beaten on the notification tom-tom, “Assemble ye,” having allowed them to go, when it became night he arrived inside the palace by an outer window. Thus he arrived in the house called after the Princess.