me. Is this hermit manners, to run away?"

Then her clever friend made the king sit down and treated him as
an honoured guest. And the king respectfully asked her: "My good
girl, what happy family does your friend adorn? What are the
syllables of her name, which must be a delight to the ear? Or why
at her age does she torture a body as delicate as a flower with a
hermit's life in a lonely wood?"

And the friend answered: "Your Majesty, she is the daughter of the
hermit Kanva and the heavenly nymph Menaka. She grew up here
in the hermitage, and her name is Lotus-bloom. With her father's
permission she came here to the lake to bathe. And her father's
hermitage is not far from here."

Then the king was delighted. He mounted his horse and rode to the
hermitage of holy Kanva, to ask for the girl. And he entered the
hermitage in modest garb, leaving his horse outside. Then he was
surrounded by hermits with hoary crowns and bark garments like
the trees, and saw the sage Kanva radiant and cool like the moon.
And he drew near and fell at his feet.

And the wise hermit greeted him and let him rest, then said: "My
son Moon, I will tell you something to your advantage. Listen. I
know what fear of death there is in mortal creatures. Why then do
you uselessly kill the wild beasts? Warriors were made by the
Creator to protect the timid. Therefore protect your subjects in
righteousness, and root out evil. As Happiness flees before you,
strive to overtake her with all your means, elephants and horses
and things. Enjoy your kingship. Be generous. Become glorious.