Then he left that city with the anklet and the lotus, after promising to return, and his mother-in-law by the power of her magic knowledge carried him once more through the air to the cemetery. And then she stopped under the tree and said to him, "I always come here on the fourteenth night of the black fortnight, and whenever you come here on that [405] night, you will find me here under the banyan-tree." When Asokadatta heard this, he agreed to come there on that night, and took leave of that Rákshasí, and went first to his father's house. And just as he was gladdening by his unexpected arrival his parents, who were grieved by such an absence of his, which doubled their grief for their separation from their younger son, the king his father-in-law, who had heard of his arrival, came in. The king indulged in a long outburst of joy, embracing him who bent before him, with limbs the hairs of which stood on end like thorns, as if terrified at touching one so daring. [406] Then Asokadatta entered with him the palace of the king, like joy incarnate in bodily form, and he gave to the king those two anklets matched together, which so to speak praised his valour with their tinkling, and he bestowed on that king the beautiful golden lotus, as it were the lotus, with which the presiding Fortune of the Rákshasas' treasure plays, torn, from her hand; then being questioned out of curiosity by the king and queen he told the story of his exploits, which poured nectar into their ears. The king then exclaimed--"Is glittering glory, which astonishes the mind by the description of wonderful exploits, ever obtained without a man's bringing himself to display boldness?" Thus the king spake on that occasion, and he and the queen, who had obtained the pair of anklets, considered their object in life attained, now that they had such a son-in-law. And then that palace, resounding with festal instruments, appeared as if it were chanting the virtues of Asokadatta. And on the next day the king dedicated the golden lotus in a temple made by himself, placing it upon a beautiful silver vessel; and the two together, the vessel and the lotus, gleamed white and red like the glory of the king and the might [407] of Asokadatta. And beholding them thus, the king, a devout worshipper of Siva, with eyes expanded with joy, spoke inspired with the rapture of adoration, "Ah! this lofty vessel appears, with this lotus upon it, like Siva white with ashes, with his auburn matted locks. If I had a second golden lotus like it, I would place it in this second silver vessel." When Asokadatta heard this speech of the king's, he said, "I, king, will bring you a second golden lotus;" when the king heard that, he answered him, "I have no need of another lotus, a truce to your temerity!" Then as days went on, Asokadatta being desirous of bringing a golden lotus, the fourteenth day of the black fortnight returned; and that evening the sun, the golden lotus of the sky-lake, went to the mountain of