The maiden to whom I was betrothed, having remained six or seven years at her father’s house, on account of her youth, we were at last apprised that she was become marriageable; and her parents informed mine that she was in a situation to fulfil all the duties of a wife, and might therefore join her husband.  My mother being at that time sick, and the house of my father-in-law being at the distance of five or six leagues from ours, she was not able to undertake the journey.  She therefore committed to myself the duty of bringing home my wife, and counselled me so to conduct myself, in words and actions, that they might not see that I was only a brute.  “Knowing thee as I do,” said my mother, as I took leave of her, “I am very distrustful of thee.”  But I promised to be on my good behaviour; and so I departed.

I was well received by my father-in-law, who gave a great feast to all the Brahmans of the village on the occasion.  He made me stay three days, during which there was nothing but festivity.  At length the time of our departure having arrived, he suffered my wife and myself to leave him, after pouring out blessings on us both, and wishing us a long and happy life, enriched with a numerous progeny.  When we took leave of him, he shed abundance of tears, as if he had foreseen the misery that awaited us.

It was then the summer solstice, and the day was exceedingly hot.  We had to cross a sandy plain of more than two leagues; and the sand, being heated by the burning sun, scorched the feet of my young wife, who, being brought up too tenderly in her father’s house, was not accustomed to such severe trials.  She began to cry, and being unable to go on, she lay down on the ground, saying she wished to die there.  I was in dreadful trouble, and knew not what step to take; when a merchant came up, travelling the contrary way.  He had a train of fifty bullocks, loaded with various kinds of merchandise.  I ran to meet him, and told him the cause of my anxiety with tears in my eyes; and entreated him to aid me with his good advice in the distressing circumstances in which I was placed.  He immediately answered, that a young and delicate woman, such as my wife was, could neither remain where she lay nor proceed on her journey, under a hot sun, without being exposed to certain death.  Rather than that I should see her perish, and run the hazard of being suspected of having killed her myself, and being guilty of one of the five crimes which the Brahmans consider as the most heinous, he advised me to give her to him, and then he would mount her on one of his cattle and take her along with him.  That I should be a loser, he admitted; but, all things considered, it was better to lose her, with the merit of having saved her life, than equally to lose her, under the suspicion of being her murderer.  “Her trinkets,” he said, “may be worth fifteen pagodas; take these twenty and give me your wife.”