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

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oath," said the parrot, "is sacred, and must therefore be preserved inviolate. Do not break your promise on any account. You no doubt recollect the account given of the promises made by Shriyal and Chakravati—how faithfully they observed them, even to the very death. Listen to me," continued the parrot to Dushwant, "I will give you a brief account of king Myrodhwaj, who had commenced a certain sacrifice, when Kristna and Arjoon, assuming the guise of brahmins—the former that of a Gooru, and the latter as his disciple,—appeared before him. Myrodhwaj, seeing them, received them with great respect, and besought them with much entreaty to make known to him their wants. Kristna said, 'I, with my son and pupil, were passing through the wood, when a tiger pounced upon my son and seized him. Seeing him in this awful position; I besought the tiger with streaming eyes not to injure my son; I said that he was an only child, the prop of my old age. The fierce animal replied, that he had been without a morsel of food for eight days successively, and that he would release my son only on one condition,—that I should, in lieu of my son, supply him with the flesh of another living person. He awaits my return, with my son in his possession as a hostage for the due fulfilment of the promise I was com- pelled under the circumstances to give him. On my way I heard that you were about to perform a sacrifice, and this induced me to wait on you, and to seek your aid in releasing my son from the tiger, and restore me to my wonted ease.' The king hereupon ordered one of his attendants to get some flesh to appease the hunger of the ferocious denizen of the forest. The brahmin, hearing this mandate, cried out to the king, that the tiger would accept of nothing else than the flesh of a living being. There was a pause, and the minister, who was present, suggested to the monarch that one out of the many malefactors that were impri- soned might be offered as food for the tiger. The brahmin again raised his voice, and said that the tiger had some knowledge of the sacrifice the king was about to perform,