अवन्तिसुन्दरीकथासारः /43

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
 
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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 Käāveriī; 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

me. 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 S
I learnt from the woman that Śabaras assaulted the caravan

and snatched away the child from her hands. Then I met a
S
Śabara 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.