MONEA. 
37 
the black art is prevalent in a thousand different forms; 
and, seeing his children drop into the grave from 
day to day, his prayers to the gods unheeded, his 
boundless largesses to the Brahmins unrequited, the 
afflicted Raja had recourse to those dealers in the 
obscene and detestable rites of Tantra, who boldly 
declared their knowledge of the evil, and their ability 
to resist it. The heart-broken prince had long re- 
sisted, with religious dread, the secret promptings of 
his soul to apply to the demoniac professors of the 
abhorred system, but each of his beloved children had 
been laid upon the funeral pile, until one only, the 
youngest and the most beautiful of the daughters, 
remained to him. 
Hope yet lingered in his breast, so long as health 
continued to flow in the veins of the lovely child ; 
hope strengthened into confidence, as year succeeded 
year, adding new charms and vigour to Chahni, the 
rescued treasure of his heart; when, in the opening 
of her fourteenth year, while the fond father was in 
treaty with a neighbouring prince for the alliance of 
their families, the ruddy glow of health faded from 
the cheek of the intended bride, the fire burnt low 
within her once resplendent eyes, the vermillion of her 
lips declined to sickly pallor, and her full rounded 
form dwindled into a mere shadow of its wonted grace 
and beauty. The distracted father with a last and 
frantic hope fled to the accursed disciples of Tantra, 
in defiance of the gods of his faith, regardless of the 
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