FIRST ATTENDANT [entering with the china peacock in her hand].—­Sarva-damana, Sarva-damana, see, see, what a beautiful Sakoonta (bird).

CHILD [looking round].—­My mother!  Where?  Let me go to her.

BOTH ATTENDANTS.—­He mistook the word Sakoonta for Sakoontala.  The boy dotes upon his mother, and she is ever uppermost in his thoughts.

SECOND ATTENDANT.—­Nay, my dear child, I said, Look at the beauty of this Sakoonta.

KING [aside].—­What! is his mother’s name Sakoontala?  But the name is not uncommon among women.  Alas!  I fear the mere similarity of a name, like the deceitful vapor of the desert, has once more raised my hopes only to dash them to the ground.

CHILD [takes the toy].—­Dear nurse, what a beautiful peacock!

FIRST ATTENDANT [looking at the child.  In great distress].—­Alas! alas!  I do not see the amulet on his wrist.

KING.—­Don’t distress yourself.  Here it is.  It fell off while he was struggling with the young lion.

          [Stoops to pick it up.

BOTH ATTENDANTS.—­Hold! hold!  Touch it not, for your life.  How marvellous!  He has actually taken it up without the slightest hesitation.

[Both raise their hands to their breasts and look at each other in astonishment.

KING.—­Why did you try to prevent my touching it?

FIRST ATTENDANT.—­Listen, great Monarch.  This amulet, known as “The Invincible,” was given to the boy by the divine son of Marichi, soon after his birth, when the natal ceremony was performed.  Its peculiar virtue is, that when it falls on the ground, no one excepting the father or mother of the child can touch it unhurt.

KING.—­And suppose another person touches it?

FIRST ATTENDANT.—­Then it instantly becomes a serpent, and bites him.

KING.—­Have you ever witnessed the transformation with your own eyes?

BOTH ATTENDANTS.—­Over and over again.

KING [with rapture.  Aside].—­Joy! joy!  Are then my dearest hopes to be
fulfilled?
          [Embraces the child.

SECOND ATTENDANT.—­Come, my dear Suvrata, we must inform Sakoontala immediately of this wonderful event, though we have to interrupt her in the performance of her religious vows.
          [Exeunt.

CHILD [to the King].—­Do not hold me.  I want to go to my mother.

KING.—­We will go to her together, and give her joy, my son.

CHILD.—­Dushyanta is my father, not you.

KING [smiling].—­His contradiction convinces me only the more.

Enter Sakoontala, in widow’s apparel, with her long hair twisted into a single braid.

SAKOONTALA [aside].—­I have just heard that Sarva-damana’s amulet has retained its form, though a stranger raised it from the ground.  I can hardly believe in my good fortune.  Yet why should not Sanumati’s prediction be verified?