Then he who sat on the western branch uttered this verse: “As the sun has risen on the right hand, the ploughers go forth from the village. As I knew not the appointed time, I have not closed my eyes during the night.”
After a while he who sat on the northern branch said: “The wind has shaken me the whole night long. He who goes after strange women suffers thus and in other ways.”
Then said the superior officer: “If the wind has shaken you well, I shall not complain. The fig-tree, in nought to blame, complains that its branches are broken.”
The deity who dwelt in the tree, seeing that they were tricked, said: “You will complain, and the four others too. When the Vaiśākha month[2] comes, the tree which men have maimed recovers.”
Having given up their hopes with respect to the woman, the men came down from the tree and went homewards. But the woman had been released by her husband, and she betook herself secretly to that tree. When they saw her they asked her why she had deceived them. She told them the whole story. They said, “So you are now come to light!” As she reflected that she could not have to do with five men after the fashion of dogs, she said that she would yield herself to him among them who should bring her the most beautiful flowers. Now there was in the royal castle a keeper of the king’s lotuses, whose nose and ears had been cut off. To him they betook themselves. But they thought that they would certainly get nothing from him by way of purchase, though they might if they flattered him. So one of them said: “As the bulrush [[301]]grows again after being cut, so may your nose grow again. Give flowers to him who prays.”
The second said: “As the kuśa grass grows again after being mown, so may your nose grow again. Give lotuses to him who prays.”
The third said: “As the Dūrvā grass[3] and the Vīraṇa[4] grow again even when cut down, so may your nose grow again. Give flowers to him who prays.”
The fourth said: “As hair and beard, although shorn, yet grow again, so may your nose grow again. Give flowers to him who prays.”
The fifth said: “The lotus-cravers have all talked nonsense to you. Whether you give lotuses, or do not give them, your nose will never grow again.”
The watchman said to himself: “Those four men have talked to me useless stuff. But the fifth has kept steadily to the truth. To him will I give the lotuses.”