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CH. III. ALAVANDAR. 19
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Find, if yon will, than me a second soul,
Who wots entire all Vedic dogmatics,
In all the stretch from Um(S,)-tread Hiraalay,
To Rama's bridge —the joy of Sita's soul
Or East to West, which mountain ranges bound,
With sun and moon in turn, their crests adorning.
On reading this, Akki's wrath grew : turning to the king :
" My royal patron ", implored he, " permit me to argue this
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boy out of his intolerable vanity, and crush him before ye all."
The kino' gently asked the boy if he was capable of standing a
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combat such as his pandit would give. Most certainly, your
Maiesty ! give me leave," answered he, " but you will not be
capable of judging between us and deciding as between the
winner and the loser ; nor can we own to you our mutual victory
or deleft. Appoint, pray, judges versed in the matters of
our contention." " Well said," agreed the king and selected
fit umpires to adjudge the issues of the intellectual contest
pending. It was an unparalled and exciting scene. And so
the king and his consort both took their seats to watch the
interesting proceedings.
The queen saw the boy an-l with her keen insight and
penetration decided to herself that he was going to be the
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victor. My lord ! she said, addressing the king, " if this boy
wins not, throw me to the dogs." " If he wins," exclaimed the
king in his turn, " I will part with half my kingdom for him."
Anon, Akki spoke :— " Vain stripling !
No drawn contest
between us is needed. A mere trick suffices to put thee down
before this august assembly, "witness ye all!" he said to
the assembly, and turning to Alavand&r said :
" if thou, proud
boy shouldst say ' yes ' in any matter, I will prove the ' no '
of it • and vice versa, ' yes ' to thy ' no ' ;
and the winner in the
end 'shall touch the head of the loser with his foot."
•' Agreed," promptly retorted Alavandar ;
and without further
ado made three short statements and challenged Akki to