Lives of Alcyone

out of shame; the eldest son Pollux was banished; and the Raja
removed Alcyone from prison and appointed him to an office in his
service.
The father being dead and the elder brother away, Alcyone
was now the head of the family, and inherited all its traditions and
obligations, and also its debts and difficulties. The salary of his office
was sufficient to prevent starvation and to keep the house going in a
modestly comfortable way, but it was not at all enough to restore the
long-lost glories of the family. Alcyone therefore pondered often over
the state of affairs, and wondered what he could do to carry out the
life-long wish of his father, which he regarded as a sacred charge
laid upon him.
After a time he decided to go and consult Neptune, the chief
Brahman of a neighbouring temple, who had a great reputation for
sanctity and wisdom. The Brahman heard his tale sympathetically,
and after much consideration advised him to undertake a short
pilgrimage to a certain well-known shrine, and there to offer up a
series of special prayers and meditations to the deity. This advice he
accepted; he performed the necessary ceremonies, and prayed
earnestly to the deity to help him in this matter, not for the sake of
the money, but because of his father’ s command.
During these days of special prayer he had to live and sleep in
the temple, as near as might be to the image of the deity. On the last
night of his stay he had an exceedingly vivid dream, which told him
to go home to his castle, to go down into a certain unused dungeon
among its foundations, and there to take up the stones of the floor
and to dig to a certain depth. He return home, but doubted whether
he should pay attention to the dream; eventually, however, he