29. She happened to have here a husband as beautiful as the moon, who was a king and chanced to pass by this way. By this accident they were matched together, in the manner that an ass finds by chance a pot of honey lying on her way in the forest.
30. She lived long with him in connubial bliss, and produced to him both sons and daughters, who grew up in the covert of this forest, as the gourd plant grows on a tree serving as its support.
CHAPTER CXXI.
Proof of the Futility of Mind.
Argument. Lavana’s return to his Palace and the interpretation of his dream by Vasishtha.
The Chandála continued:—O lord of men! After lapse of sometime, there occurred a dearth in this place owing to the drought of rain, which broke down all men under its diresome pressure.
2. Pressed by extreme scarcity, all our village people were scattered far abroad, and they perished in famine and never returned.
3. Thence forward O lord! we are exposed to utmost misery, and sit lamenting here in our helpless poverty. Behold us lord, all bathed in tears falling profusely from our undrying eyelids.
4. The King was lost in wonder, at hearing these words from the mouth of the elderly lady; and looking at the face of his follower the faithful minister, remained in dumb amazement as the figure in a picture.
5. He reflected repeatedly on this strange occurrence, and its curious concurrence with his adventures in the dream. He made repeated queries relating to other circumstances, and the more he heard and learned of them, the more he found their coincidence with the occurrences of his vision.
6. He sympathised with their woes, and saw them in the same state, as he had seen them before in his dream. And then he gave suitable gifts and presents to relieve their wants and woes.