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the bird's feathers, and entered the city.* Then he went to the palace, and entering it, he made the eyes of the princess quite clear.f The king gave him the half of his kingdom and the princess. Lalitánga married Pushpávatí in an auspicious moment. He ruled half of his father-inlaw's kingdom. After some time had passed, that very Sajjana, roaming like a beggar from house to house for what he could get to eat, came to the gate of the prince's palace. The king saw him. He said: 'I have seen my great friend Sajjana.' Then the prince made him abandon his mean dress, bathe, and take
food, And put on good clothes ; and then he thus addressed him : To-day my kingdom has borne fruit, since in it you, my companion
in misfortune, have arrived; Therefore enjoy all the happiness of it with a mind free from care.' The prince gave Sajjana a seat of honour. One day Pushpávatí asked him in private: ‘My lord, since yesterday you are on terms of great friendship with Sajjana. Who is this Sajjana ?' The prince immediately told the whole story from the very beginning, commencing with the events that happened in another country. The princess said: 'My lord, this is not a good man (sajjana], but a bad man; you ought not to be friends with him. By all means he must be abandoned ; considering this, give him up, king. Have you not heard this ? He who associates with the excellent, converses with the wise, And makes friends with those who are free from covetousness, is
never ruined. To this is applicable the instance of the swan and the crow: 'Great king, I am a swan free from conceit in a clear lake;
From addiction to the society of the vile comes death, without doubt.' Though the prince was thus advised, he did not abandon Sajjana : for It is hard, as fate goes, to prevent even the great from associating
with the vile; How can the camphor help having a love for the charcoal ?
* Compare my translation of the Katha Sarit Ságara,' vol.i., p. 221.
+ In Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,' the water of a magic well produces the same effect. See pp. 250 and 255.
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