“I have enjoyed the woman by night in a dream,” replied the chief.[12]
The merchants repeated this to the woman, who called upon the king’s men to arrest the merchant, saying, “As you have enjoyed my love, pay me five first-rate horses.”
“You lie, disreputable female,” replied the merchant.
So they two carried up their dispute to the palace.
The king and his court attempted to settle the question. Evening came, but still they did not succeed. Worn and fretted by hunger, they resolved to postpone the decision of the question, and went to their homes. [[164]]
When Mahaushadha came home that evening, Viśākhā said, “My lord, why have you tarried so long to-day?”
He gave her a full account of the whole question which they had not been able to settle.
“If a question remains unsettled by all of you,” she said, “after being thus considered and discussed, how comes it that you hold such a position?”
“Such being the state of affairs,” said Mahaushadha, “can you, perchance, decide the question?”
“I can,” she replied. “See how great is my judgment! Go and order the five good horses to be placed at the edge of a piece of water. Then let the king and the ministers meet together at that place and give their opinions on the matter. If it turns out that, as the woman says, the merchant has really enjoyed her, then let the five good horses be given to her. But if it be proved that he did so only in a dream, then let her be shown the image of the horses in the water. If she says that she can neither grasp nor use them, then let her be told that, just as it is impossible to grasp that image, so is it also with the fruition of love in a dream.”