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116
CHAPTÉR THREE who are devoted to their husbands.
With her hair disheveled like a Pulinda woman;131 stained with the water of perspiration, as if she had recently bathed her whole body; with blood dripping from contacts with thorny trees such as the acacia and jujube, like an olibanum wet with its running resin; having another skin, as it were, of dust acquired from the road; going fast, fast, like a cow-elephant terrified by a forest-fire, she saw a caravan camped on the road, crowded with carts, et cetera, magnificent as a king's camp. .
She thought: “ If I meet a caravan, it would be a boat on the sea of the forest because of my wealth of merit.' Just as she was feeling safe, bandits surrounded the caravan on all sides, like asuras an army of gods. When the members of the caravan saw the army of thieves approaching like a plague consisting of thieves, they were terrified. For fear is easily experienced by the wealthy.
Nala's wife, like a household-deity said: 'Listen, people of the caravan! Do not be afraid ! Do not be afraid !' She addressed the thieves: 'Evil-minded villains, go! This caravan is under my protection. You will experience a calamity.' The robbers paid no attention to Davadanti saying this, as if she were crazy or possessed by a demon. Then the daughter of the king of Kuņdina uttered menacing shouts destroying the insolence of the thieves for the sake of the caravan. The bandits fled when shouts, by which the forest was deafened, were heard, like crows at the sound of a bow.
'She is some goddess, surely, attracted by our merit. She protected us from the robbers,' the people of the caravan said. The leader of the caravan bowed to her like a mother with devotion and asked, “Why do you wander here in the forest? Who are you?' Bhaimi tearfully told her whole story beginning with Nala's gambling to the caravan-leader like a brother. The caravan-leader said, “You are deserving of honor from me because you are the wife of long-armed King Nala. Today
131 568. Pulinda is the name of a barbarous tribe.
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