. Ha! he looks like the tutelary deity of the city come to
defy me, bringing the god of love to his aid in the form of his own
marvellous and incomparable beauty. Aye! and I feel that I am defeated
already, before the battle has so much as begun. And then, all at once,
a spasm of rage shot through her heart, and she turned pale. And she
exclaimed: Ah! but I am anticipated by this accursed King's daughter,
who will rob me of him, nay, has already done it, by her undeniable
hateful beauty, and her priority of claim, Alas! alas! O why did I not
see him first, before her abominable loveliness had made an impression
on his heart? For he is very young, and it must be, open to the spell of
beauty, and artless, and sincere. Ha! And suddenly, she started up, as
if an idea had rushed into her mind. And she stood for a moment,
thinking. And then she exclaimed, with a gesture of resolution: Yes, I
also am beautiful. Now, then, I will efface her image from his heart,
and replace it by my own. Now I will assault him, by all the power of my
charms[6], and we will see whether he will be proof against the glamour
of a beauty such as mine, multiplied and magnified by magic sorcery and
fierce determination. Aye! I will move heaven and earth to steal his
heart from the King's daughter, and turn Patala[7] upside down, to make
him mine instead of hers. But if I fail? And again she turned deadly
pale. And after a while, a bitter smile curled over her lips. And she
said: If, if I fail; no, but I will not fail. But if I fail, then, I
will take another way.

[2] This method of disposing of objectionable suitors is
unfortunately not available in Europe. A great swallowing
capacity is a feature of the species Rakshasa. The "coming
as soon as thought of" (_dhyatagata_) is the Indian
equivalent of "rubbing the lamp" in the Arabian Nights.

[3] _Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?_ Every
Oriental would side with Shakspeare in this matter: love,
in the East, is not love, unless it comes like a flash of
lightning.

[4] This might be either that of a woman or a snake, for
the Nagas, to whom she belonged, waver between the two. The
Naga, it may be well to remind the reader, is a being
possessed of magic powers, especially that of _glamour_ or
_blearing the eye_, which appealed so powerfully to Spenser
and Sir Walter Scott.

[5] Krishna, whose colour, it is to be noted, is blue.

[6] In e