And after they had finished their dinner, the king dismissed the Brahmans to their apartments and sent for the loveliest lady of his court.  And in the evening he sent that fair one, all whose limbs were of faultless beauty, splendidly adorned, to the second Brahman, who was so squeamish about the fair sex.  And that matchless kindler of Cupid’s flame, with a face like the full moon of midnight, went, escorted by the king’s servants, to the chamber of the Brahman.  But when she entered, lighting up the chamber with her brightness, that gentleman who was so fastidious about the fair sex felt quite faint, and stopping his nose with his left hand, said to the king’s servants, “Take her away; if you do not, I am a dead man:  a smell comes from her like that of a goat.”  When the king’s servants heard this, they took the bewildered fair one to their sovereign, and told him what had taken place.  And the eking immediately had the squeamish gentleman sent for, and said to him, “How can this lovely woman, who has perfumed herself with sandal-wood, camphor, black aloes, and other splendid scents, so that she diffuses exquisite fragrance through the world, smell like a goat?” But though the king used this argument to the squeamish gentleman he stuck to his point; and then the king began to have his doubts on the subject, and at last, by artfully framed questions, he elicited from the lady herself that, having been separated in her childhood from her mother and nurse, she had been brought up on goat’s milk.

Then the king was much astonished, and praised highly the discernment of the man who was fastidious about the fair sex, and immediately had given to the third Brahman, who was fastidious about beds, in accordance with his taste, a bed composed of seven mattresses placed upon a bedstead.  White smooth sheets and coverlets were laid upon the bed, and the fastidious man slept upon it in a splendid room.  But, before half a watch of the night had passed, he rose up from that bed, with his hand pressed to his side, screaming in an agony of pain.  And the king’s officers, who were there, saw a red crooked mark on his side, as if a hair had been pressed deep into it.  And they went and told the king, and the king said to them, “Look and see if there is not something under the mattress.”  So they went and examined the bottom of the mattresses one by one, and they found a hair in the middle of the bedstead underneath them all.  And they took it and showed it to the king, and they also brought the man who was fastidious about beds, and when the king saw the state of his body, he was astonished.  And he spent the whole night in wondering how a hair could make so deep an impression on his skin through seven mattresses.[FN#499]

And the next morning the king gave three hundred thousand gold pieces to those fastidious men, because they were persons of wonderful discernment and refinement.  And they remained in great comfort in the king’s court, forgetting all about the turtle, and little did they reck of the fact that they had incurred sin by obstructing their father’s sacrifice.[FN#500]