636 SACCOUNTALA. 



burning with anxiety to see the young hero in all the splendour of his 

 royal progress, advanced to the terraces which lined his route, to greet 

 him as he passed. " It is the dauntless Vasou* himself/' they exclaimed 

 with transports of joy. " Indra,t armed with his thunderbolts, ad- 

 vanced with less magnificence." Flowers were showered in emulation 

 on his head from a thousand hands, while virtuous Brahmans extended 

 their arms towards heaven, to call down the favours of Brahma^ on the 

 youthful monarch. 



A numerous train of citizens of every class followed their sovereign 

 to the forest. Borne on a chariot as rapid as Souparna, the bearer of 

 Vichnou,|| in its flight, soon carried him into its impenetrable shades, 

 where every thing inspired a religious terror, abandoned by man, and 

 inhabited only by the wild elephant, the lion, the tiger, and other fero- 

 cious animals, incessantly rending the air with their frightful howlings. 

 Disturbed in their retreat, they rush with fury on the huntsmen, who 

 close upon them, and who have need of all their skill and courage to 

 make themselves masters of so terrible a prey. 



Douchmanta was the first to shew his followers an example of reckless 

 intrepidity, and more than one furious tiger fell under the weight of his 

 club, or pierced by his rapid arrows. Roused on all sides might be 

 seen lions and elephants in troops, covered with sweat and foam, 

 approaching the waters, to quench the fire which devoured them ; but 

 the greater part fell exhausted with fatigue on the borders of the pool, 

 and died with cries of agony. Others, urged by despair, turn furiously 

 on their imprudent enemies, and treading them under foot, or grasping 

 them with their enormous trunks, exact a terrible vengeance. Thus the 

 forest presents already the aspect of a field of carnage, devoted to silence, 

 covered with dead- bodies, stained with blood, and strewed with the 

 shafts of broken lances, clubs, and bows, and the remains of every sort 

 of weapon employed in the chase. 



The huntsmen, whose hunger has been sharpened by their exertions, 

 cut to pieces a certain number of the stags and wild deer which, 

 escaped from the murderous tooth of the beasts of prey, had also fallen 

 under their blows, and having roasted the flesh in slender portions, on a 

 burning brazier, strengthen themselves with their repast, and enjoy a 

 few hours repose. 



But Douchmanta soon renews the order to depart, and, pursuing his 

 march, traverses a barren plain, and enters with his train a second forest, 

 of an aspect very different from the first. It is no longer that savage 

 horror which nature, abandoned to herself, imprints on boundless soli- 

 tudes. Here every thing bespeaks the presence and labours of man. It 

 is no longer the roaring of the lion or the tiger which alarms the travel- 

 ler, but the distant braying of the stag, the song of birds, and the 



* Vasou the name of a very ancient king, who reigned, it is said, in the country 

 called Tcheidi. This prince is also sometimes distinguished by the name of Oupa- 

 ritchara, on account of the faculty he possessed of traversing the sky in a celestial 

 chariot received from the gods. 



j- Indra the Indian Jupiter. 



% Brahma, under his attribute of Creator. 



Souparna, the same with Garouda, a fabulous bird, the Pegasus j)f Vichnou, or 

 rather the eagle of Jupiter in Grecian fable. 



|| Vichnou the second person of the Indian Trinity Brahma considered as Pre- 

 server. 



