daily to increase in favour with him, he bestowed
on me the hand of his daughter, and declared me his successor.

Being thus arrived at the height of prosperity and happiness, I had
but one cause of sorrow--my absence from you. I am on my way to
Mahakala, to worship Siva there. I have stopped at this place, hoping,
at a festival so much frequented, I might at least hear some tidings
of you, and now the god has favoured his worshipper, and through this
happy meeting all my wishes are fulfilled.

Rajavahana, who delighted in valour, having heard Somadatta's story,
while expressing his sorrow for his undeserved imprisonment,
congratulated him on the happy result of it, and told him his own
adventures.

He had scarcely finished the relation of them when a third person came
up, and the prince, warmly greeting him, exclaimed, "O, Somadatta,
here is Pushpodbhava." Then there were mutual embracings and
rejoicings, after which they all three sat down again, and Rajavahana
said: "Somadatta has told me his adventures, but I know nothing of the
rest of my friends. What did you do when you missed me that morning in
the forest?" Then Pushpodbhava respectfully spoke as follows:--

* * * * *

ADVENTURES OF PUSHPODBHAVA.

My lord, your friends being convinced that you had gone on some
expedition with the brahman, and knowing nothing of the direction
which you had taken, were greatly perplexed. At last we agreed to
separate, each going a different way, and I, like the rest, set out by
myself. One day, being unable to bear the heat of the noonday sun, I
sat down in the shade of a tree at the bottom of a mountain. Happening
to look up, I saw a man falling from the rock above, and he came to
the ground very near me.

On going up to him, I found that he was still alive, and having
revived him by throwing cold water over him, and by other means, I
found that he had no bone broken, and did not appear to have received
any serious injury.

When he was sufficiently recovered, I asked him who he was and how he
came to fall from the precipice. With tears in his eyes, and a feeble
voice, he said: "My name is Ratnodbhava; I am the son of a minister of
the King of Magadha; travelling about as a merchant, I came, many
years ago, to the island of Kalayavana. There I married a merchant's
daughter, and going with her by sea to visit my relations, was
overtaken by a violent storm, during which the ship sank,