"'When, with much surprise, I asked who she was, and how she came to
be in that wild forest, with such a retinue, and why I was so favoured
by her, she told me the reason of her coming, saying: My name is
Târâvali. I am the daughter of a chief Yaksha. A short time ago I
went to visit a friend, living on the Malaya Mountains, and while
flying through the air on my return, as I passed over the cemetery of
Benâres, I heard the cry of a child.

"'Moved with compassion, I alighted on the ground, took it up and
carried it to my father. He took it to our master, the god Kuvera, who
sent for me, and asked, "What induced you to bring this child?" "A
strong feeling of compassion," I answered, as if it had been my own.

"'You are right,' he replied; 'there is good reason for what you have
done;' and he showed me how, in a former existence, when you were
Sudraka and I Aryadâsi, the child, now born of the Princess Kantimati,
was ours; therefore, I am really your wife, and it was indeed a
maternal instinct which prompted me to save the infant. Kuvera,
however, would not allow me to keep the boy, but ordered me to take
him to the Queen Vasumati, that he might be brought up together with
her son, who will one day become a great monarch.

"Having performed the command of the god, I am permitted by him to
find you out, and relieve you from your present distress."

"So saying, she embraced me, and afterwards took me to a fairy palace
in the forest, furnished with all comforts and luxuries, where I
passed some time with her in great happiness.

"One day, when she was expressing her great love for me, I said: 'I