After that, full of the longing to enjoy the happiness of youth, he
left his own withered body by magic and entered the body of the Brahman
youth. So the Brahman youth came to life on the funeral pyre and stood
up. And a cry of joy arose from all the relatives: "See! The boy is
alive! He is alive!"
Then the magician in the body of the Brahman boy said to the relatives:
"I went to the other world, and Shiva gave me life and directed me to
perform a great vow. So now I am going off to perform the vow. If I do
not, my life will not last. Do you then go home, and I will come later."
So he spoke to those gathered there, having made up his mind what to
do, and sent them home full of joy and grief. He went himself and threw
his old body into a pit, and then went off, a young man.
When the goblin had told this story, he said to King Triple-victory,
who was walking through the night: "O King, when the magician entered
another person's body, why did he weep before doing it, or why did he
dance? I have a great curiosity about this point."
And the king was afraid of the curse, so he broke silence and said:
"Listen, goblin. He thought: I am leaving to-day this body with which
I won magic powers, the body which my parents petted when I was a
child.' So first he wept from grief, and from love of his body which he
found it hard to leave. Then he thought: With a new body I can learn
more magic.' So he danced from joy at getting youth."
When the goblin heard this answer, he returned quickly to the sissoo
tree. And the king pursued him, undismayed.
TWENTY-SECOND GOBLIN
_The Father and Son who married Daughter and Mother. What relation were
their children?_
The king paid no attention to the terrible witch of night, clad in
black darkness, with the funeral piles as flaming eyes. He bravely went
through the dreadful cemetery to the sissoo tree, put the goblin on his
shoulder, and started as before. And as he walked along, the goblin
said to him: "O King, I am very tired with these comings and goings,
but you do not seem to be. So I will tell you my Great Puzzle. Listen."
Long ago there was a king named Virtue in the southern country. He was
the best of righteous men, and was born in a great family. His wife
came from the Malwa country, and her name was Moonlight. And they had
one daughter, whom they named Beauty.
When this daughter was grown up, the relatives conspired to wreck the
kingdom and drive King Virtue out. But he escaped by night, took a
great many jewels, and fled from his kingdom with his beautiful wife
and his daughter. He started for his father-in-law's house in Malwa,
and came with his wife and daughter to the Vindhya forest. There they
spent a weary night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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