lish way.

And the king fell in love with her and thought: "Who is she? Is she a
goddess come to bathe in these waters? Or Gauri, separated from her
husband Shiva, leading a hard life to win him again? Or the lovely
moon, taking a human form, and trying to be attractive in the daytime?
I will go to her and find out."

So he drew near to her. And when she saw him coming, she was astonished
at his beauty and dropped her hands, which had been weaving a garland
of flowers. And she thought: "Who can he be in this forest? Some fairy
perhaps. Blessed are my eyes this day."

So she rose, modestly looking another way, and started to go away,
though her limbs failed her. Then the king approached and said:
"Beautiful maiden, I have come a long distance, and you never saw me
before. I ask only to look at you, and you should welcome me. Is this
hermit manners, to run away?"

Then her clever friend made the king sit down and treated him as an
honoured guest. And the king respectfully asked her: "My good girl,
what happy family does your friend adorn? What are the syllables of her
name, which must be a delight to the ear? Or why at her age does she
torture a body as delicate as a flower with a hermit's life in a lonely
wood?"

And the friend answered: "Your Majesty, she is the daughter of the
hermit Kanva and the heavenly nymph Menaka. She grew up here in the
hermitage, and her name is Lotus-bloom. With her father's permission
she came here to the lake to bathe. And her father's hermitage is not
far from here."

Then the king was delighted. He mounted his horse and rode to the
hermitage of holy Kanva, to ask for the girl. And he entered the
hermitage in modest garb, leaving his horse outside. Then he was
surrounded by hermits with hoary crowns and bark garments like the
trees, and saw the sage Kanva radiant and cool like the moon. And he
drew near and fell at his feet.

And the wise hermit greeted him and let him rest, then said: "My son
Moon, I will tell you something to your advantage. Listen. I know what
fear of death there is in mortal creatures. Why then do you uselessly
kill the wild beasts? Warriors were made by the Creator to protect the
timid. Therefore protect your subjects in righteousness, and root out
evil. As Happiness flees before you, strive to overtake her with all
your means, elephants and horses and things. Enjoy your kingship. Be
generous. Become glorious. Abandon this vice of hunting, this sport of
Death