Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 edition. Excerpt:...attendant goes back to her royal mistress, and the king arrives, very dull and very silent. He says to Manava, "What shall we do for recreation?" Manava replies, "Pay a visit to the kitchen." King. "With what intent?" Man. "Why, the very sight of the savoury dishes in course of preparation will be sufficient to dissipate all melancholy ideas." This proposal not being agreeable to the king, Manava tries to make him observe the beauty of the garden, "heralding, as it were, the presence of the spring." The king replies, "I mark it well. In the kuruvaka1 Behold the painted fingers of the fair Red-tinted on the tip and edged with ebony; Here the asoka2 puts forth nascent buds, Just bursting into flowers; and here the mango Is brown with blossoms, on whose tender crests Scant lies the fragrant down."8 Manava proposes that they should repose in a "bower of URVASI. THE QUEEN. 197 jasmines, with its slab of black marble." Whilst enjoying this luxurious retreat, Urvasi and a companion hover around them in the air. Being themselves invisible, they overhear the king lamenting for Urvasi, longing for her presence, and calling her cold and unfeeling. Hereupon, Urvasi takes a leaf, and inscribing her thoughts upon it, lets it fall near Manava, who quickly picks it up. The king only longs the more to meet "face to face, eye encountering eye." He bids Manava take care of the leaf, which he does not; for shortly after, Urvasi became visible, and he was so fascinated, that the leaf dropped from his hands. The interview is hastily ended by a summons from above, requiring the presence of Urvasi and her companion at the palace of the Lord of air. At this moment, the queen and her...