The ocean of story, being C.H. Tawney's translation of Somadeva's ...

58 THE OCEAN OF STORY
" When I was flung away on that occasion by Manasa-
vega, some divinity took me up in her hands, and, placing
me in a distant forest, disappeared. Then I wandered about
MarubhTiiis afflicted, and anxious to obtain some means of
Account of his committing suicide, when I saw a certain hermitage
Adventures
encircled by a river. I entered it, and beheld
an ascetic with matted hair sitting on a slab of rock, and
I bowed before him and went up to him. He said to me :
Who are you, and how did you reach this uninhabited
land ? '
understood and said to me :
Thereupon I told him my whole story.
' Do not slay yourself now !
Then he
You
shall learn here the truth about your master, and afterwards
you shall do what is fitting.'
" In accordance with this advice of his I remained there,
eager for tidings of : you, my liege and while I was there
some heavenly nymphs came to bathe in the river. Then
c
*
the hermit said to me : Go quickly and carry off the
clothes of one of those nymphs bathing there, 2 and then
you will learn tidings of your master.' When I heard that,
I did as he advised me, and that nymph whose garments I
had taken followed me, with her bathing-dress dripping with
moisture, 3 and with her arms crossed in front of her breasts.
" '
That hermit said to her : If you tell us tidings of
Naravahanadatta you may have back your two garments.'
Then she said :
'
Naravahanadatta is at present on Mount
Kailasa, engaged in worshipping Siva, and in a few days he
will be the emperor of the Vidyadharas.'
1 I.e. asu ; but the D. text reads asu, which suggests that the hermit
pointed out one particular girl from "
"among them {asu) and told the youth
to get her clothes. Either reading might be correct. n.m.p.
2 See Appendix I. n.m.p.
3 There seems to be a corrupted reading here. Both the B. and D.
texts read : hrita-vastrd 'ardra-vasana, which literally means, " the robbed one
clothed in wet clothing/' which is absurd. We have just read that she has
taken off her clothes to bathe, and on seeing they had been taken, follows
the thief, covering her nakedness as best she
to make sense, Tawney changes
can with her hands. Unable
"dress" to "bathing-dress," which is, of
course, ridiculous. The intended sense is fairly clear, though the correct
reading is unknown. It must either be "with moisture as her only dress,"
or "with her body (or skin) dripping with moisture." The italics show where
the substituted word occurs. n.m.p.