42 PADUMĀWATI [85-8 CANTO VIII. NAGAMATI AND THE PARROT. 85. When five or ten days had passed, the king departed somewhither to hunt. Nāgamati, his beauteous queen, was the chief of his harem. She adorned herself, and took a mirror in her hand; and, as she looked at the reflection, she became filled with vanity. Smiling went the Lady to the Parrot, and offered to him a touchstone of polish. “Parrot,' she said, 'Thou art worthy and the beloved of my Lord. In the whole world is there any so fair as I? Test thou the colour (of my beauty). How fair is this gold, and how fair is thine Isle of Simhala ? How fair to look upon are the beauties there? Am I the more fair to see, or is the Padumani (Padmāvati) ? Parrot, if thou tell me not the truth, -I adjure% thee by the King. Is there any on this earth so fair as I?' 86. When he thought of the beauty of Padmāvati, the parrot laughed and looked the queen in the face. Replied he, ' In the lake to which the swan cometh not, there the paddy bird in the water is called a swan. God so perfectly did make this world, that every creature excelleth 3 another (in some beauty). Vanity becometh no one's soul. The very moon waneth and is devoured by Rāhu. Who can call a woman fair or unfair ? Fair alone is she, who is beloved of her lord. Why asketh thou me concerning the 1 So literally. It means that she called npon the parrot to apply the tonchstone of beanty to her. Opanā is polish, and aupana-wāri means that which gives polish, or which shows the true polish of the gold which is being tested. There is a pun in the words so mari, 'the Lady.' They may also be translated as sonārin 'the goldsmith's wife,' who owns the gold to be tested. 2 Anå equals the Skr. ajna. 3 Agara = Agrya, excelling.
- We are unable to trace any legend of the vanity of the moon being the cause of its
waning or of its eclipse. Rāhu is the demon of eclipge who swallows the moon on that occasion, see note to y, xcviii.
