The king’s encounter with a Vetala

172 THE KING'S ENCOUNTER WITH A VETALA (pp. 46-55):—In the evening he offered the necklace to the image-goddess during the course of his evening worship. No sooner did the king put it at the feet of the image, he heard a terrible laughter, which, however, could not frighten the king. Looking for the source or it, he saw, to the left of the image, an extremely black tall terrible figure of a Vetala, on whose thin bloodless. legs the veins were clearly visible. In one of his hands he held a big skull from which the blood dripped on the temple pillars.Serpents residing along his head, ears, nostrils and chest were his ornaments. his tk tongue repeatedly licked the flesh from under his nose. He was busy eating some part of the body of a Sudra sadnaka. His eyes wre red like fire. He wore a garland of human skulls and armlets of human bones. Between his teeth clung a piece of half-chewed human bone.A lion- -skin covered his body along his waist and downwards. Having looked at him from top to toe, the king inquired of the Vetala the cause of his laughter.The latter replied: 0 King! You have been worshipping the Goddess-of-Prosprity for days together. But you have neglected me, who am an important servavtx of hers.this is quite contrary to the accepted usage. You should 3

173 mend the mistake lest some evil befalls you". The king replied: "I am thankful to you for enlightening me in regard to the servant's right of priority in being worshipped! But now that I have already advanced too far in the worship, I cannot pay attention to you, unless I complete my present worship of the Goddess-of-Prosperity. } In the meantime if you wish to have something to eat, please take as many as you like from these fruits,roots, sweets and others brought for the worship of the deity." The Vetala, however, said that being a demon he had no use for vegetarian eatables, but wished to have, for a new bowl, the head of somebody who was the best of the human beings. At that the king said: "It is not possible for me at this moment to fetch you somebody else's head. I would rather offer my own head if it fulfils your requirements". The Vetala readily agreed. The king, then, declined the help offered by the Vetala in severing the head and drew out his own sword in the right hand and applied it to his neck. By the time the sword was half-way into the neck, his right hand got benumbed. He tried with his left hand to finish with the neck, when, lo: there arose a groaning outcry of divine damsels. Following with his eyes, he saw

174 nearby a suddenly appearing fogure of the goddess Sri, seated on the lotus and brightening all the quarters by her bodily lustre. She had put on a divine white silk garments. In her neck was a necklace of pearls and in her ears she wore Mandara sprouts. By her left hand she was caressing her well-bound braid of hair. And she was surrounded by her tutelary goddesses like Prajnapti, Rohini and others.