THE RÁMÁYAN OF VÁLMÍKI, VOL. III - Gujarat Knowledge Centre

366 ADDITIONAL NOTES.
but the continuance of her union with him depends
on the condition that she never sees him unclothed.
But the Gandharvas, impatient of her long sojourn
among mortal men resolved to bring her back to their
bright home; and Purflravas is thus led unwitingly
to disregard her warning. A ewe with two lambs was
tied to her couch, and the Gandharvas stole one of them ;
Urvasi said, "They take away my darling, as if I
lived in a land where there is no hero and no man."
The stole the second, and she upbraided her husband
again. Then PurAravas looked and said, " How can
that be a land without heroes or men where I am ?"
And naked he sprang up; he thought it was too long
to put on bis dress. Then the Gandharvas sent a
flash of lightning, and Urvasi saw her husband naked
as by daylight. Th6n she vauished. " I come back."
she said, and went. ' Then he bewailed his vanished
love in bitter grief.' Her promise to return was fulfllledi
but for a moment only, at the Lotos-lake, and PurAravas
in vain beseeches her to tarry longer. ' What
shall I do with thy speech V is the answer of Urvasi.
' I am gone like the first of the dawns. Puriiravas, go
home again. I am hard to be caught lik e the winds.
Her lover is in utter despair ; but when he lies down
to die, the heart of Urvasi was melted, a nd she bids
him come to her on the last night of the year. On
that night only he might be with her ; but a son should
be bora to him. On that day he went up to the golden
seats, and there Urvasi told him that the Gandharvas
would grant him one wish, and that he must make his
choice. ' Choose thou for me,' he said; and she an-
swered, 'Say to them. Let me be one of you.'
397.
Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations. Vol, L p.