troubled stream.
When that caravan they gazed on--with their slumbering beasts at rest,
The tame elephants they scented--those wild forest elephants;
Forward rush they fleet and furious--mad to slay, and wild with heat;
Irresistible the onset--of the rushing ponderous beasts,
As the peaks from some high mountain--down the valley thundering roll;
Strewn was all the way before them--with the boughs, the trunks of trees;
On they crash'd to where the travellers--slumbered by the lotus lake.
Trampled down without a struggle--helpless on the earth they lay,
"Woe, oh, woe!" shrieked out the merchants--wildly some began to fly,
In the forest thickets' plunging;--some stood gasping, blind with sleep;
And the elephants down beat them--with their tusks, their trunks, their
feet.
Many saw their camels dying--mingled with the men on foot,
And in frantic tumult rushing--wildly struck each other down;
Many miserably shrieking--cast them down upon the earth,
Many climbed the trees in terror--on the rough ground stumbled some.
Thus in various wise and fatal--by the elephants assailed,
Lay that caravan so wealthy--scattered all abroad or slain.
Such, so fearful was the tumult--the three worlds seemed all appalled,[95]
"'Tis a fire amid th' encampment--save ye, fly ye, for your lives.
Lo, your precious pearls ye trample--take them up, why fly so fast?
Save them, 'tis a common venture--fear ye not that I deceive."
Thus t' each other shrieked the merchants--as in fear they scattered round.
"Yet again I call upon you--cowards! think ye what ye do."
All around this frantic carnage--raging through the prostrate host,
Damayanti, soon awakened--with her heart all full of dread;
There she saw a hideous slaughter--the whole world might well appal.
To such sights all unfamiliar--gazed the queen with lotus eyes,
Pressing in her breath with terror--slowly rose she on her feet.
And the few that scaped the carnage--few that scaped without a wound,
All at once exclaimed together--"Of whose deeds is this the doom?
Hath not mighty Manibhadra--adoration meet received.
And Vaisravana the holy[96]--of the Yakshas lord and king,
Have not all that might impede us--ere we journied, been addressed?
Was it doomed, that all good omens--by this chance should be belied!
Were no planets haply adverse?--how hath fate, like