Note 5 — Chapter LXIV

The next morning, after he had departed, the king hearing of it, removed those guards who had been stupefied, and placed others there, and said; “You must guard these bones, and you must arrest whoever attempts to take them away, and you must not accept food from any outsider.” When the guards were thus instructed by the king, they remained on the lookout day and night, and Ghaṭa heard of it. Then he, being acquainted with the operation of a bewildering charm granted him by Durgá, made a wandering mendicant his friend, in order to make them repose confidence in him. And he went there with that wandering mendicant, who was muttering spells, and bewildered those guards, and recovered the bones of Karpara. And after throwing them into the Ganges, he came and related what he had done, and lived happily with the princess, accompanied by the mendicant. But the king, hearing that the bones had been carried off, and the men guarding them stupefied, thought that the whole exploit, beginning with the carrying off of his daughter, was the doing of a magician. And he had the following proclamation made in his city; “If that magician, who carried off my daughter, and performed the other exploits connected with that feat, will reveal himself, I will give him half my kingdom.” When Ghaṭa heard this, he wished to reveal himself, but the princess dissuaded him, saying, “Do not do so, you cannot repose any confidence in this king, who treacherously puts people to death.”5 Then, for fear that, if he remained there, the truth might come out, he set out for another country with the princess and the mendicant.