li.

Over them his single garment--spreading light, he wrapped them round:
Up that single garment bearing--to the air they sprang away;
And the birds above him hovering--thus in human accents spake,
Naked as they saw him standing--on the earth, and sad, and lone:
"Lo, we are the dice, to spoil thee--thus descended, foolish king!
While thou hadst a single garment--all our joy was incomplete."

Husband and wife now wander on, until one night Nala, arising softly,
cut his wife's sole garment in two, and, wrapping himself in part of
it, forsook her during her sleep, persuading himself that if left
alone she would return to her father and enjoy comfort. The poem gives
a touching description of the husband's grief at parting with his
sleeping wife, of her frenzy on awakening, and of her pathetic appeals
for her husband to return.

Then we follow Damayanti in her wanderings through the forest in quest
of the missing Nala, and see how she joins a company of hermits, who
predict that her sorrows will not last forever before they vanish, for
they are spirits sent to comfort her. Next she joins a merchant
caravan, which, while camping, is surprised by wild elephants, which
trample the people to death and cause a panic. The merchants fancy
this calamity has visited them because they showed compassion to
Damayanti, whom they now deem a demon and wish to tear to pieces. She,
however, has fled at the approach of the wild elephants, and again
wanders alone through the forest, until she finally comes to a town,
where, seeing her wan and distracted appearance, the people follow her
hooting.

The queen-mother, looking over the battlements of her palace and
seeing this poor waif, takes compassion upon her, and, after giving
her refreshments, questions her in regard to her origin. Damayanti
simply vouchsafes the information that her husband has lost all
through dicing, and volunteers to serve the rani, provided she is
never expected to eat the food left by others or to wait upon men.

Before she had been there very long, however, her father sends
Brahmans in every direction to try and find his missing daughter and
son-in-law, and some of these suspect the rani's maid is the lady they
are seeking. When they inform the rani of this fact, she declares, if
Damayanti is her niece, she can easily be recognized, as she was born
with a peculiar mole between her eyebrows. She, therefore, bids her
handmaid wash off the ashes which d