The Bengali Poem, Candi. 
9 
“ You have no sister-in-law, nor rival wife ; 
Whom have you quarrelled with in deadly strife ? ” 
“ I have no rival wife at home but you ; 
Fate has indeed been cruel, you untrue ! 
Waking or dreaming—heaven my words will prove— 
You never found me faulty in my love ! 
How have you turned your heart to villany ? 
Why thus become a Ravan’s self to me ? 
Whence this young wife and all her rich array ? 
Beware, the ant gets wings, hut falls a prey.* 
Kalinga’s cruel tyrant watches near ; 
He will soon strip you bare, if once he hear.” 
“ Come, wife, and tell the truth, deceive me not, 
Or I will beat you soundly on the spot.” 
“ Yama he witness: at our door at home 
A lady stands now waiting till you come.” 
Poor Phullara, when she flew to reach her lord, 
Had with her brought her basket and her board: 
Homeward now start the two, this guest to find, 
But board and basket both are left behind! 
She leads the way in eager hurry back, 
While Kalu,f pondering, follows in her track. 
They reach the hut; ’t is filled with dazzling light, 
As though ten thousand moons illumed the vault of night. 
With lowly how of reverence he thus addressed the stranger fair: 
“ A poor and lowly hunter I; tell me, bright lady, who you are; 
And why, yourself of brahman race, or, it may be, of race divine, 
You with your peerless beauty come and enter this mean hut of mine. 
This house betrays my bloody trade; a lady, if she steps within 
This cemetery strewn with bones, must bathe to cleanse away the sin. 
Go home in haste, while yet the sun lingers in yonder western sky; 
Go home, I pray, or slanderous tongues will hunt you with their hue and cry. 
Hid you come here, fatigued, to rest ? howe’er it be, I pray you, go; 
Phullara glad will go with you, and I will follow with my bow. 
* For this proverb cf. Wilson’s translation of the SanJchyakariJca , p. 113. It also 
occurs in Don Quixote, pt. ii, ch. 53. 
f This is a frequent abbreviation of Kalaketu. 
