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Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
ocean, where, she pretended, she could divest herself of her evil. On arriving there she told him to precede her in worshiping Kāma. When he entered the temple, leaving the shoes behind, she stepped into them, and flew away, leaving Varasena to his sad reflections (186).
As Varasena wandered about there, a Vidyādhara arrived in the air, inquired the cause of his trouble, and imbued him with courage. He bade him stay there a fortnight, worship the divinity of the temple, and enjoy himself in the park which had been planted by the gods; after that period he would conduct him home. The Vidyādhara forbade him to go near two trees 18 which were standing in front of a cāitya; after that he provided him with provisions, and went away. Yet it happened one day that Varasena smelled of the blossom of one of these two trees, whereupon he was immediately transformed into an old ass.17 On his return the Vidyādhara, by making him smell of the blossoms of the other tree, restored him to his original form (204). After five days the Vidyādhara took him back to Kāñcanapura, with a blossom from each of the two trees in his possession. Again the bawd appeared before him, this time with her knees bandaged. She pretended that a Vidyadhara had snatched the shoes, while Varasena was performing his devotion in the temple of Kāma, and that she had thus injured herself while following lim. On arriving at her house, Varasena tricked her into the belief that he had a drug which re
*For taboo, or forbidden things see Kathås. 26. 72; Vagavadatta (Gray's Translation), p. 138; Steel and Temple, Wide-Awake Stories, p. 415; Parker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, vol. I, p. 121.
17 Animal transformation: see Kathāg. 71. 273; Prabandhacintamani, p. 174; Kathākoça, pp. 50, 130, note, 135, 137. See Tawney, Translation of Kathäsaritsägara, vol. ii, p. 168, note 2, and Index, under, Animal Transformation.
