I am the captain of this caravan,
    But nowhere any named by Nala’s name
    Have I, or these, beheld.  Of evil beasts
    The woods were full—­cheetahs and bears and cats,
    Tigers and elephants, bison and boar;
    Those saw we in the brake on every side,
    But nowhere nought of human shape, save thee. 
    May Manibhadra have us in his grace—­
    The Lord of Yakshas—­as I tell thee truth!”
      Then sadly spake she to the trader-chief
    And to his band:  “Whither wend ye, I pray? 
    Please ye, acquaint me where this Sartha[23] goes.” 
      Replied the captain:  “Unto Chedi’s realm,
    Where rules the just Subahu, journey we,
    To sell our merchandise, daughter of men!”
      Thus by the chieftain of the band informed,
    The peerless Princess journeyed with them, still
    Seeking her lord.  And at the first the way
    Fared through another forest, dark and deep;
    Afterwards came the traders to a pool
    Broad, everywhere delightful, odorous
    With cups of opened lotus, and its shores
    Green with rich grass, and edged with garden trees—­
    A place of flowers and fruits and singing birds. 
    So cool and clear and peacefully it gleamed,
    That men and cattle, weary with the march,
    Clamored to pitch; and, on their chieftain’s sign,
    The pleasant hollow entered they, and camped—­
    All the long caravan—­at sunset’s hour. 
      There, in the quiet of the middle night,
    Deep slumbered these; when, sudden on them fell
    A herd of elephants, thirsting to drink,
    In rut, the mada[24] oozing from their heads. 
    And when those great beasts spied the caravan,
    And smelled the tame cows of their kind, they rushed
    Headlong, and, mad with must, overwhelming all,
    With onset vast and irresistible. 
    As when from some tall peak into the plain
    Thunder and smoke and crash the rolling rocks,
    Through splintered stems and thorns breaking their path,
    So swept the herd to where, beside the pool,
    Those sleepers lay; and trampled them to earth
    Half-risen, helpless, shrieking in the dark,
    “Haha! the elephants!” Of those unslain,
    Some in the thickets sought a shelter; some,
    Yet dazed with sleep, stood panic-stricken, mute;
    Till here with tusks, and there with trunks, the beasts
    Gored them, and battered them, and trod them flat
    Under their monstrous feet.  Then might be seen
    Camels with camel-drivers, perishing,
    And men flying in fear, who struck at men—­
    Terror and death and clamor everywhere: 
    While some, despairing, cast themselves to earth;
    And some, in fleeing, fell and died; and some
    Climbed to the tree-tops.  Thus on every side
    Scattered and ruined was that caravan—­
    Cattle and merchants—­by the herd assailed.