19. The king’s face shone forth with astonishment, and it was mixed with fear, at the remembrance of the charm of the magician; as the moon shines pale in the sky, after her deliverance from the shadow of an eclipse.
20. He saw the magician and said to him with a smile, as the serpent takshaka addresses his enemy—the weasel.
21. You trickster, said he, what was this snare which thou didst entrap me in, and how was it that thou didst perturb my tranquil soul by thy wily trick, as a gale disturbs the calm of the sea.
22. How wonderful are the captivating powers of spells, which they have derived from the Lord, and whose influence had overpowered on the strongest sense of my mind.
23. What are these bodies of men, that are subject to death and disease and what are our minds that are so susceptible of errors, and lead us to continued dangers.
24. The mind residing in the body, may be fraught with the highest knowledge, and yet the minds of the wisest of men, are liable to errors and illusion. (Hominis est errare. To err is human).
25. Hear ye courtiers! the wonderful tale of the adventures, which I passed through under this sorcery, from the moment that I had met this magician at first.
26. I have seen so many passing scenes in one single moment under this wizard, as had been shown of old by Brahma in his destruction of the theurgy of Indra. (The mighty Sakra spread his Indrajála or the web of his sorcery, in order to frustrate the attempts of the valiant Bali against him, and was at last foiled himself by the Brahma vidyá of Brahmá).
27. Having said so, the king began to relate smilingly to his courtiers, the strange wonders which he had beheld in his state of hallucination.
28. The king said:—I beheld a region full with objects of various kinds, such as rivers and lakes, cities and mountains, with many boundary hills, and the ocean girding the earth around.