So it befell
    Jivala heard him ever sighing thus,
    And questioned:  “Who is she thou dost lament? 
    Say, Vahuka! fain would I know her name. 
    Long life be thine; but tell me who he is,
    The faultful man that was the lady’s lord.” 
      And Nala answered him:  “There lives a man,
    Evil and rash, that had a noble wife. 
    False to his word he was; and thus it fell
    That somewhere, for some reason (ask not me!),
    He quitted her, this rash one.  And—­so wrenched
    Apart from hers—­his spirit, bad and sad,
    Muses and moans, with grief’s slow fire consumed
    Night-time and day-time.  Thence it is he sings
    At every sunset this unchanging verse,
    An outcast on the earth, by hazard led
    Hither and thither.  Such a man thou seest
    Woful, unworthy, holding in his heart
    Always that sin.  I was that lady’s lord,
    Whom she did follow through the dreadful wood,
    Living by me abandoned, at this hour;
    If yet, in truth, she lives—­youthful, alone,
    Unpractised in the ways, not meriting
    Fortunes so hard.  Ah, if indeed she lives,
    Who roamed the thick and boundless forest, full
    Of prowling beasts—­roamed it, my Jivala,
    Unguarded by her guilty lord—­forsook,
    Betrayed, good friend!”
                           Thus did Nishadha grieve,
    Calling sweet Damayanti to his mind. 
    So tarried he within the Raja’s house,
    And no man knew his place of sojourning. 
      While, stripped of state, the Prince and Princess thus
    Were sunk to servitude, Bhima made quest,
    Sending his Brahmans forth to search for them
    With straight commands, and for their road-money
    Liberal store.  “Seek everywhere,” said he
    Unto the twice-born, “Nala—­everywhere
    My daughter Damayanti.  Whoso comes
    Successful in this quest, discovering her—­
    With lost Nishadha’s Lord—­and bringing them,
    A thousand cows to that man will I give,
    And village-lands whence shall be revenue
    As great as from a city.  If so be
    Ye cannot bring me Nala and my child,
    To him that learns their refuge I will give
    The thousand cows.” 
                       Thereby rejoiced, they went,
    Those Brahmans, hither and thither, up and down,
    Into all regions, rajaships, and towns,
    Seeking Nishadha’s Chieftain, and his wife. 
    But Nala nowhere found they; nowhere found
    Sweet Damayanti, Bhima’s beauteous child—­
      Until, straying to pleasant Chedipur,
    One day a twice-born came, Sudeva named,
    And entered it; and, spying round about
    (Upon a feast-day by the King proclaimed),
    He saw forth-passing through the palace gate
    A woman—­Bhima’s daughter—­side by side
    With young Sunanda.  Little praise had now
    That beauty which in old days