in a former birth.  For know, that long ago, when I was young, I conquered the entire earth, and brought it all, from sea to sea, under the shadow of one umbrella.  So when I was reposing, after my exertions, one day there came to see me Narada and another rishi.  And Narada entered first.  And when he complimented me, as the chosen husband of the earth, I said to myself:  Now, I must make him some suitable return.  And accordingly, I presented him with the whole earth.  Then he replied:  O King, what is the use of the earth to me?  And he gave it back to me, with his blessing, saying:  Obtain an incomparably beautiful offspring[11]! and so he went away.  And then the other great rishi entered, and congratulated me also.  And I presented him also with the entire earth.  Then that rishi looked at me with eyes that were red with anger.  And he said slowly:  What!  Is my merit utterly despised?  Dost thou presume to offer me only the leavings of another?  Thou shalt indeed obtain offspring, but only of the female sex.  And beautiful it shall be indeed:  but little shall that beauty profit either thyself or her.  So having uttered his curse[12], he laughed, and instantly went away, refusing to be propitiated or to throw any light upon the future.  And thereafter in due time there was born to me, not the nectar of a son, but this lump of grief in the form of a daughter.  And as if her sex were not enough[13], her almost inconceivable beauty and accomplishments have only added to my calamity:  nay, they are the very root of it, and the essence of its sting.  For all has come to pass, exactly as that testy old rishi said.  For though she is, as thou seest, beautiful as the moon, and like it, full of arts[14], and above all, a dancer that would turn even Tumburu green with envy, all this nectar has become poison by the curse of that old ascetic, and the very perfection of her beauty has become the means of undoing us both.  For about two years ago, as we were walking together at midnight, on the terrace of the palace, that forms the edge of the city wall, enjoying the cold camphor of the moon after the heat of a burning day, suddenly, out of the desert, we heard as it were the rush of wings.  And as we stood and listened, there arose in the air a sound of voices, like those of a man and woman in vehement dispute.  But though we could distinguish the tones, we could not understand the meaning, for the language was unknown to us.  And then, after a while, those two invisible air-goers appeared all at once before our eyes, seated on the battlements, in the form of a pair of vultures[15].  And immediately, the male vulture spoke with a human voice, saying:  O King, give me now this daughter of thine to wife.  And instantly I answered rashly:  Never will I bestow my daughter on a bird of ill-omen such as thou art.  Thereupon that evil-minded suitor laughed like a hyaena:  and instantly my daughter fell into a swoon.  And as she lay in the moonlight,