The Little Clay Cart Part 15

_Mathura._ I am ruined! I am robbed!

_Madanika._ Inasmuch as these two are looking up to heaven, and sighing, and chattering, and fastening their eyes on the door, I conclude that they must be the gambling-master and the gambler.

[_Approaching._] I salute you, sir.

_Mathura._ May happiness be yours.

_Madanika._ Sir, which of you is the gambling-master?

_Math._

O maiden, fair but something less than shy, With red lip wounded in love's ardent play, On whom is bent that sweet, coquettish eye?

For whom that lisp that steals the heart away? 16

_I_ haven't got any money. You'll have to look somewhere else.

_Madanika._ You are certainly no gambler, if you talk that way.

Is there any one who _owes_ you money?

_Mathura._ There is. He owes ten gold-pieces. What of him?

_Madanika._ In his behalf my mistress sends you this bracelet. No, no! He sends it himself.

_Mathura._ [_Seizing it joyfully._] Well, well, you may tell the n.o.ble youth that his account is squared. Let him come and seek delight again in gambling. [_Exeunt Mathura and the gambler._

_Madanika._ [_Returning to Vasantasena._] Mistress, the gambling-master and the gambler have gone away well-pleased.

_Vasantasena._ Go, sir, and comfort your kinsfolk.

_Shampooer._ Ah, madam, if it may be, these hands would gladly practise their art in your service.

_Vasantasena._ But sir, he for whose sake you mastered the art, who first received your service, he should have your service still.

_Shampooer._ [_Aside._] A very pretty way to decline my services. How shall I repay her kindness? [_Aloud._] Madam, thus dishonored as a gambler, I shall become a Buddhist monk. And so, madam, treasure these words in your memory: "He was a shampooer, a gambler, a Buddhist monk."

[40.1. S.

_Vasantasena._ Sir, you must not act too precipitately.

_Shampooer._ Madam, my mind is made up. [_He walks about._]

I gambled, and in gambling I did fall, Till every one beheld me with dismay.

Now I shall show my honest face to all, And walk abroad upon the king's highway. 17

[_Tumultuous cries behind the scenes._]

_Shampooer._ [_Listening._] What is this? What is this? [_Addressing some one behind the scenes._] What did you say? "Post-breaker, Vasantasena's rogue elephant, is at liberty!" Hurrah! I must go and see the lady's best elephant. No, no! What have I to do with these things? I must hold to my resolution. [_Exit._

[_Then enter hastily Karnapuraka, highly delighted, wearing a gorgeous mantle._]

_Karnapuraka._ Where is she? Where is my mistress?

_Madanika._ Insolent! What can it be that so excites you? You do not see your mistress before your very eyes.

_Karnapuraka._ [_Perceiving Vasantasena._] Mistress, my service to you.

_Vasantasena._ Karnapuraka, your face is beaming. What is it?

_Karnapuraka._ [_Proudly._] Oh, mistress! You missed it! You didn't see Karnapuraka's heroism to-day!

_Vasantasena._ What, Karnapuraka, what?

_Karnapuraka._ Listen. Post-breaker, my mistress' rogue elephant, broke the stake he was tied to, killed his keeper, and ran into the street, making a terrible commotion. You should have heard the people shriek,

Take care of the babies, as quick as you can.

And climb up a roof or a tree!

The elephant rogue wants the blood of a man.

Escape! Run away! Can't you see? 18

P. 74.14]

And:

How they lose their ankle-rings!

Girdles, set with gems and things, Break away from fastenings!

As they stumble, trip, and blunder, See the bracelets snap asunder, Each a tangled, pearly wonder! 19

And that rogue of an elephant dives with his trunk and his feet and his tusks into the city of Ujjayini, as if it were a lotus-pond in full flower. At last he comes upon a Buddhist monk.[43] And while the man's staff and his water-jar and his begging-bowl fly every which way, he drizzles water over him and gets him between his tusks. The people see him and begin to shriek again, crying "Oh, oh, the monk is killed!"

_Vasantasena._ [_Anxiously._] Oh, what carelessness, what carelessness!

_Karnapuraka._ Don't be frightened. Just listen, mistress. Then, with a big piece of the broken chain dangling about him, he picked him up, picked up the monk between his tusks, and just then Karnapuraka saw him, _I_ saw him, no, no! the slave who grows fat on my mistress' rice-cakes saw him, stumbled with his left foot over a gambler's score, grabbed up an iron pole out of a shop, and challenged the mad elephant--

_Vasantasena._ Go on! Go on!

_Karnap._

I hit him--in a fit of pa.s.sion, too-- He really looked like some great mountain peak.

And from between those tusks of his I drew The sacred hermit meek. 20

_Vasantasena._ Splendid, splendid! But go on!

_Karnapuraka._ Then, mistress, all Ujjayini tipped over to one side, like a s.h.i.+p loaded unevenly, and you could hear nothing but "Hurrah, hurrah for Karnapuraka!" Then, mistress, a man touched the places where he ought to have ornaments, and, finding that he hadn't any, looked up, heaved a long sigh, and threw this mantle over me.

[41.19. S.