2023-02-26 04:07:35 by ambuda-bot
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SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
25
his child into the stream. When I was carried away by the
current with the child in my hold, I took hold of the branch of
a tree floating along the river. A snake was clinging to the
branch; it bit me and was about to bite the child also. At
this moment, a vulture snatched the venomous creature with
its beak and flew up. Almost senseless from the effects of the
poison, I reached the bank and fell down. When I recovered
consciousness I saw a sage sitting by my side and dealing
antidotes for poison. I asked him if he had seen a child. I
know nothing of it,' he replied. 'I am just experimenting on
your person the efficacy of the art of curing poison I have just
learnt.' The sage and myself searched for the child but
could not find him. In despair I courted death and you have
brought me back to life.'
(Av. Sāra IV. 113-38; Av. pp. 193-99)
"Having heard her tale of woe, I went on searching for
the child and came across a man with his legs cut off, on the
shore of Pampā. 'Sir', he said, 'I rescued a child from the
river Käveri; but a water spirit deprived me of my legs and
the child slipped off my hands and fell into the water.' I con-
soled him; and resuming my search I learnt that a fisherman of
the Kola city had got a child from within the bowels of a
crocodile and had sold it away to a merchant. I ran to that city
and found a man within a well struggling for life. When I
helped him out of the danger, he said, 'My father, a merchant,
neglected me, his legitimate son, and confided all his affection
to the child of a fisherman. In my attempt to push the child
into a well, by accident, I fell into it and the child escaped. I
do not know what became of him.'
Reproaching the wretch,
I went to a forest in the north and saw a man bleeding from
wounds in his chest. He said, 'I saw a child near the wall of
a well and as I was carrying him home, a wild deer mangled
And the animal took the child in between its horns and
ran away.' Then I was told that the child fell into the hands
of robbers who sold it to a woman of a caravan for a cloth.
I learnt from the woman that Sabaras assaulted the caravan
and snatched away the child from her hands. Then I met a
Sabara woman looking sad and carrying a child on her hip.
She said, 'My brother got this child from a caravan and
presented him to me. But my husband compels me to hand
him over to his junior wife. In a fury, I have carried him
me.
25
his child into the stream. When I was carried away by the
current with the child in my hold, I took hold of the branch of
a tree floating along the river. A snake was clinging to the
branch; it bit me and was about to bite the child also. At
this moment, a vulture snatched the venomous creature with
its beak and flew up. Almost senseless from the effects of the
poison, I reached the bank and fell down. When I recovered
consciousness I saw a sage sitting by my side and dealing
antidotes for poison. I asked him if he had seen a child. I
know nothing of it,' he replied. 'I am just experimenting on
your person the efficacy of the art of curing poison I have just
learnt.' The sage and myself searched for the child but
could not find him. In despair I courted death and you have
brought me back to life.'
(Av. Sāra IV. 113-38; Av. pp. 193-99)
"Having heard her tale of woe, I went on searching for
the child and came across a man with his legs cut off, on the
shore of Pampā. 'Sir', he said, 'I rescued a child from the
river Käveri; but a water spirit deprived me of my legs and
the child slipped off my hands and fell into the water.' I con-
soled him; and resuming my search I learnt that a fisherman of
the Kola city had got a child from within the bowels of a
crocodile and had sold it away to a merchant. I ran to that city
and found a man within a well struggling for life. When I
helped him out of the danger, he said, 'My father, a merchant,
neglected me, his legitimate son, and confided all his affection
to the child of a fisherman. In my attempt to push the child
into a well, by accident, I fell into it and the child escaped. I
do not know what became of him.'
Reproaching the wretch,
I went to a forest in the north and saw a man bleeding from
wounds in his chest. He said, 'I saw a child near the wall of
a well and as I was carrying him home, a wild deer mangled
And the animal took the child in between its horns and
ran away.' Then I was told that the child fell into the hands
of robbers who sold it to a woman of a caravan for a cloth.
I learnt from the woman that Sabaras assaulted the caravan
and snatched away the child from her hands. Then I met a
Sabara woman looking sad and carrying a child on her hip.
She said, 'My brother got this child from a caravan and
presented him to me. But my husband compels me to hand
him over to his junior wife. In a fury, I have carried him
me.