. But she
thought: If it is not worth hearing, I will simply go to sleep as he
reads. And Maheshwara said: Nay, O Snowy One, I will guarantee that
thou dost not go to sleep.

And then, the goddess suddenly threw her arms about his neck, and hid
her face on his breast. And she said: What is the use of trying to
hide anything at all from thee? Read. But for all that, I will go to
sleep, if I choose. And the Moony-crested god said with a smile: Aye!
but thou wilt not choose.

And then he began to read, throwing away the leaves as they ended, one
by one into the stream, which carried them away. And the crocodiles
all lay round him in a circle, worshipping their Lord, as he read.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Maheshwara is the ascetic _par excellence_, who punished
Love for trying to tempt him by burning him up like a moth with a
fiery glance from his third eye. And yet for all that, the Master Yogi
was not always proof against feminine fascination: he might be chaste
as ice, yet he has not escaped scandal.]

[Footnote 3: Nandi is the divine Bull, on which, or whom, the Great
God rides.]

[Footnote 4: Had the awful words passed her lips, Nandi was a doomed
bull, as a curse once uttered is irrevocable.]

[Footnote 5: Because he is the Lord of Creatures animate or inanimate,
which all obey him.]

II

The heart of a Woman

I

As the black cobra sits up, and puffs his hood, and hisses, giving
warning to his prey, ere he strikes: so I, Shatrunjaya[6] the
lute-player, son of a king, do send this my menace to thee, Narasinha,
the lover of a queen too good for so vile a thing as thou art: that
none hereafter may be able to say, I struck thee unwarned, or took
thee unawares. Know, that night doth not more surely or more swiftly
follow day, than I and my vengeance will follow on the messenger who
carries this threat: whom I have bidden to reach thee with his utmost
speed, so as to allay my thirst for thy life; since every day that I
wait seems to me longer than a _yuga_. And I will slay thee with no
other weapon than my two bare hands--

And suddenly, the great god stopped, and he laughed aloud. And he
exclaimed: See now, how this poor lute-player deceived himself! For
his message not only never reached his enemy at all, but almost as
soon as it had left him, he was himself slain by the emissaries of the
very man he meant to kill, who never sent him any warning at all, but
took him unawares, and slew him, escapin