EXTERIXG ANOTHER'S BODY. 29 



the elephant kept saying one to the other : " Too bad, our Lord has 

 become as one distracted by his journey to a strange land!" Then 

 that prince of the elephants, hearing this, reflected in great perturba- 

 tion : " Alas ! What is this, woe me ! The Brahman is certainly 

 disporting himself as king in my body. Because, though warned 

 by the Master, I yet induced him to bestow the Art upon this vilest 

 of Brahmans, therefore this consummation has speedily come about. 

 Because I forgot the precept taught me from childhood on, not to 

 be too confiding, I nevertheless reposed trust in this man, therefore 

 some trick of fate has surely taken place. The lowly may be raised 

 up by fate ; the lofty may be made insignificant — this very experi- 

 ence has brought him fortune, and robbed me of the same. All 

 possessions on earth, elephants, dependents and the like, follow the 

 body : since my body is gone all that is mine has come to belong to 

 another. Just as eye-witnesses observe in this world even so it 

 goes with a man in the next world. Therefore wise men arrange 

 for good deeds to go with them as their true companion karma. In 

 any case I shall now watch for an opportunity to make my escape : 

 he shall not mount as a tuft upon wretched me ! " 



Having arrived at this decision the elephant raised up his ears, 

 curved his trunk, and began to run swiftly, so that a great tumult 

 arose. He was pursued by foot-soldiers, horsemen, and others by 

 the thousand, but, as he ran more and more swiftly, they gave up 

 the chase in disgust. Tired out he reached a distant forest and 

 reflected dejectedly: "Compare now my former state of royal rule 

 by a mere contraction of my eyebrow with this flight of mine ! How- 

 ever, this plight is not a bit too sore for a fool who has taken up 

 with a rogue ! " Engaged in such reflections the king was assailed 

 by the pangs of hunger, thirst, and the ocean of his regrets. 



Vikrama Meets a Parrot-hunter, Enters the Bod\ of a Dead Parrot, 



and Induces tJie Hunter to Take Him to Avant'i to Be 



Sold as a Parrot of Price (i88-igj). 



He reached the shade of a banyan-tree, which appeared to him 

 like an only friend, and, when in time he had become composed, he 

 saw a man standing there among the trunks of the banyan tree. 



