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CHAPTER ONE remained in this hermitage. The rainy season was at hand. Living there with him, like Janārdana with Bala, he was taught all the manuals, weapons, and missiles. : When the end of the rains, charming with the twittering of the blue cranes, had come like a brother, the ascetics went to the forest for the sake of fruit, et cetera. Though restrained urgently by the abbot, Brahmadatta went with them to the forest, like an elephant with elephants. Roaming here and there, he saw elephant-sign and, sharp-witted, thought, “ There is an elephant not far away." Though restrained by the ascetics, he followed its track and at the end of five yojanas saw an elephant like a mountain. His loin-cloth tied firmly, giving a loud roar, the man-elephant challenged the rutting elephant unhesitatingly, like a wrestler challenging a wrestler.
The elephant, the hair on his body erect from anger, his trunk curled up, his ears motionless, his eyes red, ran at the prince. When the elephant came near him, the prince threw his upper garment in between in order to deceive him like a child. Very angry, he caught the garment, which was like a piece of cloud falling from the sky, instantly on his tusks. By various gestures the prince made the elephant move to and fro with ease, like a snake-catcher a snake. Just then a cloud, like a friend of Brahmadatta, making a loud noise, overwhelmed the elephant with streams of water. Then, after crying out with a disagreeable sound, he ran away, putting the deer to flight.
The prince, confused about directions by the rain, arrived at a river in his roaming. The prince crossed the river like calamity personified and saw on its bank an old deserted city. Entering, the prince saw in it a bamboo-thicket and in this a sword and a shield like a portentous Ketu and Moon. The prince, curious about weapons, took them and cut the large bamboo-thicket with the sword, (like) cutting a plantain. In the bamboo-thicket he saw a head with quivering lips that had fallen on the ground in front of him, like a lotus on dry ground. Looking fully, Brahman's son saw the trunk of some one
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