विक्रम चरित (उज्जैन सम्राट् विक्रमादित्य - पराक्रम, न्याय एवं ३२ पुतलियों की कथा सटीक)

me both in soul and body by preventing a re-union of them. Certainly—oh, unhappy destiny !—what has been fated must come to pass, and I have therefore only to bear it with patience. Oh, perfidious wretch ! Oh, most ungrateful villain ! I will never appear in thy detestable form, so full of deceit, ingratitude, and wickedness !" In this state of grief, bordering on despair, a sudden thought crossed his mind, which gave him some relief. He knew that he had very kind and faithful friends in Soodew and Veytal.* On this he endeavoured to restrain his sorrow, and become more calm and collected. Believing he would be preserved from all danger, he started for the city of Sendoornuggry. While journeying along, he was led into considering the great danger he ran by continuing in the form of a serpent, a reptile held in deserved detestation by mankind, in consequence of the bitter enmity between them, and the venomous nature of the former. It chanced, however, that he found, shortly after his musings, under a Vurt† tree, a dead parrot, and knowing it to be a bird held in high repute for its beauty, colour, and other estimable qualities, he lost no time in taking its form, by which he not only lessened his danger, but acquired speed in his movements,—a thing by no means to be despised, situated as he was. Having transformed himself into the parrot, he ascended high into the air, and after having satisfied himself in all that delighted him in his new form,—perching on a tree here, picking a fruit there, and so on,—he arrived just without the walls of Sendoornuggry in much less time than he could have done without the wings of a parrot, and its light and active frame. The parrot (that is, the king) alighted on a tree, under the inviting shelter of which a troop of Bahooroopees,‡ who were in very distressed cir- cumstances, had shortly before taken up their residence.

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* The king of demons. † The Indian fig-tree. ‡ A wandering tribe, who go about as dancers, actors, maskers, &c.