went away; he carrying Sarwar in his bosom, and she with Nir in her lap.  For a time they lived on the fruits and roots of the forest.  At length the rani gave her husband her (jewelled) bodice to sell in the bazar, in order to procure food.  He offered it to Kundan the merchant, who made him sit down and asked him where he had left the rani and why he did not bring her with him.  Amba told him that he had left her with their two boys under the banyan-tree.  Then Kundan, leaving Amba in the shop, went and got a litter, and proceeding to the banyan-tree showed the rani the bodice, and said, “Thy husband wishes thee to come to him.”  Nothing doubting, the rani entered the litter, and the merchant sent it off to his own house.  Leaving the boys in the forest, he returned to Amba, and said to him that he had not enough money to pay the price of the bodice, so the raja must take it back.  Amba took the bodice, and coming to the boys, learned from Sarwar how their mother had been carried away in a litter, and he was sorely grieved in his heart, but consoled the children, saying that their mother had gone to her brother’s house, and that he would take them to her at once.  Placing the two boys on his shoulders he walked along till he came to a river.  He set down Nir and carried Sarwar safely across, but as he was going back for the other, behold, an alligator seized him.  It was the will of God:  what remedy is there against the writing of Fate?  The two boys, separated by the river, sat down and wept in their sorrow.  In the early morning a washerman was up and spreading his clothes.  He heard the two boys weeping and came to see.  He had pity on them and brought them together.  Then he took them to his house, and washed their faces and gave them food.  He put them into a separate house and a Brahman cooked for them and gave them water.[FN#516] He caused the brothers to be taught all kinds of learning, and at the end of twelve years they both set out together to seek their living.  They went to the city of Ujjain, and told the raja their history—­how they had left their home and kingdom.  The raja gave them arms and suitable clothing, and appointed them guards over the female apartments.[FN#517] One day a fisherman caught an alligator in his net.  When he cut open its body, he found in it Raja Amba, alive.[FN#518] So he took him to the raja of Ujjain, and told how he had found him in the stomach of an alligator.  Amba related his whole history to the raja; how he gave up all his wealth and his kingdom to a fakir, how his wife had been stolen from him; and how after safely carrying one of his young sons over the river in returning for the other he had been swallowed by an alligator.  On hearing of all these misfortunes the raja of Ujjain pitied him and loved him in his heart:  he adopted Amba as his son; and they lived together twenty years, when the raja died and Amba obtained the throne.