bidden to all females. In consequence of Bharat's
curse she is instantly metamorphosed into a creeper. The king beside
himself with grief at her loss, seeks her everywhere. The nymphs in a
chorus deplore her fate. Mournful strains are heard in the air.

The king enters a wild forest, his features express insanity, his dress
is disordered. Clouds gather overhead. He rushes frantically after a
cloud which he mistakes for a demon that carried away his bride.

He addresses various birds and asks them whether they have seen his
love,--the peacock, 'the bird of the dark-blue throat and eyes of
jet,'--the cuckoo, 'whom lovers deem Love's messenger,'--the swans, 'who
are sailing northward, and whose elegant gait betrays that they have
seen her,'--the chakravaka, 'a bird who, during the night, is himself
separated from his mate,'--but none responds. He apostrophises various
insects, beasts and even a mountain peak to tell him where she is.

Neither the bees which murmur amidst the petals of the lotus, nor the
royal elephant, that reclines with his mate under the Kadamba tree, has
seen the lost one.

At last he thinks he sees her in the mountain stream:--

"The rippling wave is like her frown; the row of tossing birds her
girdle; streaks of foam, her fluttering garment as she speeds along; the
current, her devious and stumbling gait. It is she turned in her wrath
into a stream."

At last the king finds a gem of ruddy radiance. He holds it in his
hands, and embraces the vine which is now transformed into Urvasi. Thus
is she restored to her proper form, through the mighty spell of the
magical gem. The efficacious gem is placed on her forehead. The king
recovers his reason. They are thus happily re-united and return to
Allahabad.

Several years elapse. An unlucky incident now comes to pass. A hawk
bears away the ruby of re-union. Orders are sent to shoot the bird, and,
after a short while, a forester brings the jewel and the arrow by which
the hawk was killed. An inscription on the shaft shows that its owner is
Ayus. A female ascetic enters, leading a boy with a bow in hand.

The boy is Ayus, the son of Urvasi, whom his mother confided to the
female ascetic who generously brought him up in the forest and now;
sends him back to his mother. The king who was not aware that Urvasi
had ever borne him a son, now recognises Ayus as his son. Urvasi also
comes to embrace her boy. She now suddenly bursts into tears and tells
the king