--Your remark is just; but your wonder will cease when I tell
you that his mother is the offspring of a celestial nymph, and gave him
birth in the hallowed grove of Kasyapa.
KING [_aside_].--Strange that my hopes should be again excited!
[_Aloud._] But what, let me ask, was the name of the prince whom she
deigned to honor with her hand?
ATTENDANT.--How could I think of polluting my lips by the mention of a
wretch who had the cruelty to desert his lawful wife?
KING [_aside_].--Ha! the description suits me exactly. Would I could
bring myself to inquire the name of the child's mother! [_Reflecting._]
But it is against propriety to make too minute inquiries about the wife
of another man.
FIRST ATTENDANT [_entering with the china peacock in her
hand_].--Sarva-damana, Sarva-damana, see, see, what a beautiful Sakoonta
(bird).
CHILD [_looking round_].--My mother! Where? Let me go to her.
BOTH ATTENDANTS.--He mistook the word Sakoonta for Sakoontala. The boy
dotes upon his mother, and she is ever uppermost in his thoughts.
SECOND ATTENDANT.--Nay, my dear child, I said, Look at the beauty of
this Sakoonta.
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