After this the voices ceased, and I thought I could hear a rustling among the branches as if the speakers were moving from tree to tree.  This strange occurrence greatly excited my curiosity.  I said to myself:  “Who are these creatures whose voices I have heard? who can that magician be, and what dreadful thing is it which he is about to do?” With these thoughts, I determined if possible to discover the mystery, and followed, as well as I was able, the direction which the demons, or whatever they were whom I had heard conversing, had taken.  Guided by the rustling sound which I still heard above me, I made my way through the darkness, till at last I thought I saw a light in the distance, and going a little further, I perceived a fire shining through the thick foliage.  Approaching very cautiously, I saw a Siddha standing near it, his head covered with a large mass of tangled hair, his body begrimed with the dust of charcoal, and a girdle of human bones round his waist.  He was throwing at intervals handfuls of sesamum and mustard-seed into the fire, causing flickering flames to rise up and dispel the surrounding darkness.  Before him, in humble attitude, stood two Rakshas, male and female, whom I supposed to be those whose voices I had heard in the tree.  They said to him, “We await your commands.  What are we now to do?”

“Go,” he answered in a stern voice, “immediately to the palace of the King of Kalinga, and bring here his daughter Kanakalekha.”  This they did in an incredibly short time.  As soon as she was brought he seized her by the hair, and disregarding her tears and entreaties and screams for help, was about to cut off her head with a sword.

Meanwhile I had cautiously crept nearer, and perceiving the danger of the princess, I made a sudden rush at him, snatched the sword from his hand and cut off his head.

Seeing this, the two Rakshas approached me, and showing great delight at the death of their cruel master, said to me:  “That wicked man has for a long time had power over us; we have continually been compelled to go on his vile errands, and have had no rest night or day.  You have done a truly good deed in killing him; your valour has freed us from this slavery; he is gone to the kingdom of Yama, where he will receive the reward of his evil deeds, and we are ready to serve you; say only what is to be done.”

I thanked them for their grateful offer, and said:  “I have only done what every good man would have done under the circumstances; but if you are willing to serve me, all that I require of you is to carry this lady again to her father’s house, from which she was so cruelly taken.”