‘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![165] 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?[166] Still listen, O mighty Raja, whilst I recount to you a true story, and Saraswati[167] sit on my tongue.’
THE VAMPIRE’S TENTH STORY.[168]
OF THE MARVELLOUS DELICACY OF THREE QUEENS.
The Baital said, O king, in the Gaur country, Varddhman by name, there is a city, and one called Gunshekhar was the Raja of that land. His minister was one Abhaichand, a Jain, by whose teachings the king also came into the Jain faith.
The worship of Shiva and of Vishnu, gifts of cows, gifts of lands, gifts of rice balls, gaming and spirit drinking, all these he prohibited. In the city no man could get leave to do them, and as for bones, into the Ganges no man was allowed to throw them, and in these matters the minister, having taken orders from the king, caused a proclamation to be made about the city saying, ‘Whoever these acts shall do, the Raja having confiscated, will punish him and banish him from the city.’