KING.--As you think proper. [_Remains under the tree_.
MATALI.--Great King, I go. [_Exit._
KING [_feeling his arm throb_].--Wherefore this causeless throbbing, O
mine arm?
All hope has fled forever; mock me not
With presages of good, when happiness
Is lost, and nought but misery remains.
A VOICE [_behind the scenes_].--Be not so naughty. Do you begin already
to show a refractory spirit?
KING [_listening_].--This is no place for petulance. Who can it be whose
behavior calls for such a rebuke? [_Looking in the direction of the
sound and smiling_.] A child, is it? closely attended by two holy women.
His disposition seems anything but childlike. See,
He braves the fury of yon lioness
Suckling its savage offspring, and compels
The angry whelp to leave the half-sucked dug,
Tearing its tender mane in boisterous sport.
_Enter a child, attended by two women of the hermitage, In the manner
described_.
CHILD.--Open your mouth, my young lion, I want to count your teeth.
FIRST ATTENDANT.--You naughty child, why do you tease the animals? Know
you not that we cherish them in this hermitage as if they were our own
children? In good sooth, you have a high spirit of your own, and are
beginning already to do justice to the name Sarva-damana (All-taming),
given you by the hermits.
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