word of the king's arrival, and Ummadanti bade her take a basket of flowers, and standing near the window she threw the flowers over the king with all the charm of a sylph. And looking up at her the king was maddened with passion and quite unable to control his thoughts, and he failed to recognise the house as that of Ahiparaka. So addressing his charioteer, he repeated two stanzas in the form of a question:

Whose house is this, Sunanda, tell me true,
All girt about with wall of golden hue?
What vision fair is this, like meteor bright,
Or sunbeam striking on some mountain height?

A daughter of the house perchance is she,
Herself its mistress, or son's wife maybe?
Your answer quickly in a single word--
Is she unwed . or owns she still a lord?

[214] Then, in answering the king, he repeated two stanzas:

All that your Highness asks I know full well,
And of her parents on both sides can tell:
As to her husband, night and day, O king,
He serves thy cause with zeal in everything.

A powerful minister of thine is he,
Vast wealth he owns and great prosperity;
She's wife of Ahiparaka the famed,
And at her birth was Ummadanti named.

On hearing this the king, in praising her name, repeated yet another stanza:

Alas! how ominous a name is here
Given to this maiden by her parents dear;
Since Ummadanti fixed her gaze on me,
Lo! a mad haunted man I grew to be.

On seeing how agitated he was she closed the window and went straight to her fair chamber. And from the moment when the king set eyes on her, he had no more thought of making solemn procession round the city. Addressing his charioteer he said, "Friend Sunanda, stop the chariot; [215] this is not a festival suitable for us; it is fit only for Ahiparaka, my commander-in-chief, and the throne also is better suited for him," and stopping the chariot he climbed up to his palace and, as he lay chattering upon the royal couch, he said,

A lily maid, with eyes soft as a doe's,
In the full moon's clear light before me rose,
Beholding her in robe of dove-like hue,
Methought two moons at once came into view.

Darting one glance from her bright, lovely eyes,
The temptress took me captive by surprise,
Like woodland elf upon some mountain height,
Her graceful motion won my heart at sight.

So dark and tall and fair the maid, with jewels in her ears,
Clad in a single garment, like a timid doe, appears.

With long-tressed hair and nails all stained red,
O'er her soft arms rich sandal essence shed,
With tapering fingers and a gracious air,
When will she smile on me, my charmer fair?

When will Tiriti's slender-waisted maid,
A gold adornment on her breast displayed,
With her soft arms embracing cling to me,
E'en as a creeper to some forest tree?