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The Princes Amarasena and Varasena
149
Varasena from her house. His magic possession gone, he wandered outside the city to a cemetery (146). In the middle of the night four thieves came there. He overheard them quarrel about the division of their loot: a pair of shoes, a staff, and an old garment; and learned that every morning 500 jewels fall from the garment; that the staff beats off swords; and that the shoes carry one to any place that one thinks of.13 Offering to arbitrate their quarrel, he sent one thief to each of the four directions, while pretending to reflect on the case. As soon as they were gone, he put on the shoes, flew off with the other two magic articles, went back to the city, and lived in great state on the proceeds of the jewels, like a Dogundaga 14 god (163). The bawd, hearing of this from a servant maid, again waxed greedy. Having dressed up Magadhā in a white garment,15 she told Varasena that she had expelled him from her house because of her excessive attachment to Magadhā. But why, on coming to the city, did he not return to his own house? Magadhā, from the day of his expulsion on, had been angry, and had not spoken to her; tho he was alive, Magadhā had mourned him; she had lived only thru him; and so on. Varasena saw thru the slut's guile, yet decided to return. In due time, in answer to her greedy importunities, he told her about the shoes; that he was in the habit of fetching his wealth by putting them on and flying with them. After a while, feigning sickness, she made him carry her by means of the magic shoes to a temple of Kāma, on an island in mid
- Stock motif, from the story of Putraka, Kathās. 3. 45 ff., to Pancadandachattraprabandha 1 (p. 17), to Chavannes, Cinq Cent Contes Chinois, vol. iii, p. 259 (hat of invisibility; shoes for walking on water; stick that strikes dead).
* See p. 226. * Mourning costume.
