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even rubbing some alleviation?' Then Rukmini flew in a passion, and revealed to the prince the daring deed that she had some time ago committed, and at that moment Rishidattá the hermit was delighted in her soul at the taking away of her reproach. When the prince heard this, he looked terrible with knit brows, and, flinging Rukminí from his lap, scolded her severely in the following words : 'You wicked and cruel woman, you have hurled yourself and me into hell! Alas! of that accomplished and virtuous and beautiful woman that was, the memory only subsists, and this you have done. Why did you commit a deed detestable in the eyes of all men in order to serve your own interests ?' While he was reproaching Rukmini in these words, the day broke, and she fled weeping. Then the prince, afflicted at the loss of his wife, had a pyre built up in the court of the house, and, though his followers tried to dissuade him, he proceeded to ascend it. Then the King of Káverí came there with speed, and tried to dissuade him, saying: 'Prince, this womanish proceeding is not becoming to men like you.' But the prince did not desist from his persistent intention. Then the attendants said to Rishidattá, the hermit: Reverend sir, this prince will do whatever you tell him, so dissuade him from suicide.' The hermit, when entreated by those attendants, laughed, and said to the prince: Prince, why do you die for a mere woman? How comes it that you have forgotten the promise that you made when you brought me away from the forest? Moreover,
'Even the idea of union with your beloved will be impossible when you are dead,
But if you live she will return from some place or other, and be reunited with you.'
Then the prince said to the hermit: 'Hermit, why do you deceive me? Does a dead person anywhere ever come back to life ?' The hermit answered: 'Give the word, and, owing to this virtue of yours, Rishidattá, though dead, shall come back to life.' Then the prince said to the hermit My lord, let me hear this again quickly: have
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