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

34 THE OCEAN OF STORY
visit my friend Vegavati, and I did not find her there, as
she had gone somewhere to perform asceticism. But hearing
from her mother Prithividevi that your beloved Madanai/'j
-ji .manchuka was there, I went to her. I beheld
1 he v , idyadhari * * i i t i
her emaciated with
reproaches
fasting, pale and squalid, with
Naravahana- ori \y one lock, weeping, talking only of your
virtues, surrounded by tearful bands of Vidyadhara
princesses, who were divided between grief produced
by seeing her, and joy produced by hearing of you. She told
me what you were like, and I comforted her by promising to
bring you, for my mind was overpowered by pity for her, and
attracted by your excellences. And finding out by means
of my magic skill that you were here at present,
I came to
you, to inserve * her interests and my own also. But when I
found that you had forgotten your first love and were talk-
ing here of other persons,
I bewailed the lot of that wife of
'
' "
yours, and exclaimed : Ah, how sad !
When the prince had been thus addressed by her, he
became impatient and
"
said : Take me where she is, and
think fit." When the
impose on me whatever command you
Vidyadhari Prabhavati heard that, she flew up into the air
with him, and proceeded to journey on through the moonlit
night. And as she was going along she saw a fire burning
in a certain place, so she took Naravahanadatta 's hand, and
moved round it, keeping it on the right. In this way the
bold lady managed by an artifice to go through the ceremony
of marriage with Naravahanadatta, for all the actions of
heavenly beings have some important end in view.2 Then
she pointed out to her beloved from the sky the earth look-
ing like a sacrificial platform, the rivers like snakes, the
mountains like ant-hills, and many other wonders did she
show him from time to time, until at last she had gradually
accomplished a long distance.
Then Naravahanadatta became thirsty with his long
1 This is the second time Tawney has used this obsolete word (cf. Vol. VII,
p. 50). Murray, Oxford Dictionary, gives but a single reference (1683) of its
use. N.M.P.
2 I have altered the division of the words, as there appears
misprint in Brockhaus' text.
to be a