378 Essay on Telugu Literature. [Oct, 



converse with them : at last it accompanied them to their home in the 

 isle of Salmali. Here she rejoiced in the variety of strange trees, and 

 the nectareous mango above all. She was assured that those who ate 

 of it should, though old, recover the bloom of youth she considered that 

 her prince would be benefited by tins fruit ; which she therefore crop- 

 ped in her beak to bring it home to the palace. 



But there was a serpent lying near the tree who saw what she did and 

 in wrath exclaimed. Surely 1 had come to obtain this fruit, and have 

 waited here for a year in anxious expectation enduring every hardship, 

 and now I can get neither good nor bad of it.* Is it fair for thee to 

 carry it ofT? Give it me ! 



But the parrot ro.se up in the air, and so far from granting his request 

 bent her way home to the palace, and laid the fruit before the king, re- 

 lating affectionately all that had passed. The prince was delighted, 

 and thus addressed his wife in the chair ber. If I avail myself of this, 

 I shall indeed regain a youthful form, but, lady, this will benefit 

 myself alone. I therefore think it wiser to plant this as a seed, 

 let it sprout, and become a great tree, loaded with continued fruit, and 

 the fruits shall be distributed to the aged to restore them to juvenility. 

 Thus shall I acquire the fame of a virtuous deed. His spouse assent- 

 ing to this he planted the noble fruit, he duly watered it, it sprouted, 

 and grew to be a tree. 



But the serpent who erst remonstrated w : ith the bird did not fail to 

 pursue her, and took up his abode in a termite-hill at the foot of the 

 tree, rejoicing to think he would now be revenged. Af:er a while the 

 mango tree bloomed, and shot forth its branches, flowering gaily, and 

 bearing abundance of fruit- At last one mature fruit fell on the soil, 

 and he satiated his malice by biting it so as" to infuse mortal poison into 

 it : he filled it with venom, and then returned with all speed to the isle 

 of Salmali. 



The watchers in the grove perceived that a fruit had fallen. They 

 took it to the king who rejoiced over it, with his ministers, and said 

 " surely this is the first fruit ! let us therefore present it to a bramin, 

 and then shall we securely enjoy the rest. He therefore sent for the 

 (raj a-p n roh i tii) royal confessor, and reverencing him, requested him to 

 eat it. The bramin ate the envenomed fruit, the poison struck him, and 

 he gave tip the ghost. The people were mute with horror, at beholding 

 that highest of crimes the murder of a bramin. The prince was alarm- 

 ed at this horrid event, he cursed his fate, and it occurred to him that 



the parrot had brought him this ill fated boon, wishing to cause his 



»* 



* This and similar vulgarities are continually met with in the Telugu poems : even in 

 the Ramayan and the Vasu Chaiitra: and such we find in Spenser and Shakspearc. 



