I9I3.] ADVENTURES OF MULADEVA 625 



does not remember that they had previously exchanged repartee. At 

 night he recalls himself to her memory, when she says : " Yes, 

 country bumpkins are tricked in this way by city wits." Then he 

 replies : " Rest you fair, city wit ; I vow that the country bumpkin 

 will desert you and go far away." She then vows in her turn that 

 a son of hers by him shall bring him back again. He puts a ring on 

 her finger, and promptly makes off to Ujjayini, in love with her, 

 but wishing to make trial of her cleverness. 



Then the Brahman's daughter starts off to Ujjayini in the guise 

 of a splendidly equipped hetsera, calling herself Sumarigala. There 

 she poses as the beauty of the world, a position which she is able to 

 maintain through her father's wealth and her own charm. She is 

 approached by many suitors, but manages to elude them. Miiladeva 

 narrates with gleeful unction, how his own friend Cagin was chased 

 from pillar to post in an attempt to reach her. Finally Muladeva 

 himself is admitted to her presence and favor. He does not recog- 

 nize her as his own wife, but lives with her in great mutual love for 

 some time, until she forges a letter from her supposititious sovereign, 

 and disappears as she came, returning, of course, to her home in 

 Pataliputra. 



In due time she gives birth to a boy by Muladeva. This boy, at 

 the age of twelve, is wonderfully accomplished. In a quarrel he 

 beats with a creeper a fisher-boy who is, of course, of low caste, and 

 the boy throws into his teeth : " You beat me, tho nobody knows 

 who your father is ; for your mother roamed about in foreign lands, 

 and you were born to her by some husband or other."^^ The boy 

 then extracts from his mother the whole story, including his father's 

 name, and finally exclaims : " Mother, I will go and bring my father 

 back a captive ; I will make your promise good ! " 



At this point Miiladeva's own narrative becomes too good to be 

 shortened. "The boy set out and reached this city of Ujjayini. 

 And he came and saw me playing dice in the gambling-hall, making 

 certain of my identity from the description his mother had given him, 

 and he conquered in play all who were there, and he astonished every 

 one there by showing such remarkable cunning, tho a mere child. 



1' Cf. Prabandhacintamani, p. 170. 



