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CHAPTER SIX The man, delighted, the hollows of his ears filled with the stream of nectar of the king's speech, said to the king :
Silver, gold, all kinds of jewels, fathers, mothers, sons, and everything else, house, etc., can be handed over as a deposit with even a little confidence; but not a wife anywhere even with much confidence. O king, you and no other are the home of such confidence. Here Mt. Malaya alone is the home of sandal. My enemy has been killed by you alone by taking my wife as a deposit, I think, O vexer of enemies. The deposit of my wife being accepted by you, I, steadfast from confidence in you, shall now, indeed, make widows out of the wives of my enemies. I, springing up like a lion, will soon show my power to you remaining here, O king. With your permission I shall go instantly of my own free will through the air with unstumbling gait like Garuda.'
The king replied, 'Go at will, Vidyādhara, great soldier. Leave your wife in my house like her father's house.'
Then the man flew up in the air like a bird, spreading the hilt of the sword and shield like wings. His wife, addressed by the king with the same respect as his daughter, remained there with an easy mind. The king, remaining there, heard a battle-cry being produced in the sky, like the thunder of clouds. He heard the sounds of blows of various swords and shields—tadat, taạiti, like the sounds of lightning breaking forth. The words, 'You are ! you are !' 'You are not! you are not!' 'Stay! stay!' 'Go! go!' 'I am going to kill you, kill you,' were heard in the sky. The king, seated in his council with his councilors, astonished, stood for a long time looking up just as at the time of an eclipse.
Then an arm ornamented by a jeweled bracelet fell on the ground in front of the king while he was so watching. The Vidyadhara-woman came before him to examine the arm fallen from the sky, looked at it and said,
This is my husband's arm, which became a pillow for my
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