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dominated by disinterested compassion, went in the direction of the cry, and saw a great snake exclaiming : " Rescue ! rescue!' He said to himself: “How does this serpent know my name or family? Or how comes it that a serpent speaks with a human voice ?' While in amazement at these strange things, Nala threw his upper garment to draw the snake towards him. When the garment reached the bottom of the pit, the snake coiled his body round it, and Nala drew it up out of the pit like a rope. When Nala was trying to put the snake in a place free from grass, it bit his hand. He flung the snake down on the ground, and said: “You have shown gratitude and done a noble action in thus benefiting me your benefactor. Certainly, this is true, that whoever gives your race milk to drink, is bitten by them. When Nala had said this, he proceeded to go away, but the poison of the serpent in a moment made him hunchbacked, yellow-haired, like a Piçácha, with attenuated hands and feet like a camel, and with protuberant belly like Ganeça. Such did Nala become.* When Nala saw that all his limbs were thus of repulsive appearance, he said to himself: 'With this shape my life is worthless, so I will take a vow that will do me good in the next world.' While Nala was engaged in these thoughts, the god abandoned the form of a serpent, and manifested himself, and said: 'King, abandon your despondency; I am your father, Nishada by name. On that occasion, when I resigned the throne to you, I took a vow, and dying was born in the world of gods presided over by Brahmá, as a god. I knew this condition that you are in by my limited knowledge. So I assumed by my delusive power the form of a serpent, and have made your body, as you have fallen into an unhappy state, thus deformed. You must look upon that like the drinking of a bitter medicine. Since you have reduced all kings to the position of servants, this deformity has become
* As the metamorphosis of King Nala was really a benefit, we may compare this incident with one in a Servian story referred to by Preller in his Griechische Mythologie,' vol. i., p. 475. A shepherd saves the life of & snake in a forest fire. In return for this, the snake's father gives him endless treasures, and teaches him the language of birds.
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