quadrupeds, a preceptor the foremost of all superiors, so is the son foremost of all objects agreeable to the touch. Let therefore, this handsome child touch thee in embrace. There is nothing in the world more agreeable to the touch than the embrace of one's son. O thou chastiser of the foe, I have brought forth this child, O monarch, capable of dispelling all thy sorrows, after bearing him in my womb for full three years. And, O monarch of the Puru race, "He shall perform a hundred horse-sacrifices" were the words uttered in the skies when I was in the lying-in room. Indeed, men going into places remote from their homes take up others' children on their laps and smelling their heads feel great happiness. Thou knowest that Brahmanas repeat these Vedic mantras on the occasion of the consecrating rites of infancy. "Thou art born, O son, of my body! Thou art sprung from my heart. Thou art myself in the form of son. Live thou for a hundred years! My life dependeth on thee, and the continuation of my race also on thee. Therefore, O son, live thou in great happiness for a hundred years." He hath sprung from thy body—this second being from thee. Behold thyself in thy son as thou beholdest thy image in the clear lake! As the sacrificial fire is kindled from the domestic one, so hath this one sprung from thee. Though one, thou hast divided thyself. In course of hunting while engaged in the pursuit of deer, I was approached by thee, O king, I was who was then a virgin in the asylum of my father! Urvasi, Purva-chitti, Saha-janya, Menaka, Viswachi, and Ghritachi, these are the six foremost Apsaras. Amongst them again, Menaka, born of Brahma, is the first. Descending from heaven on earth, after intercourse with Viswamitra she gave me birth. That celebrated Apsara, Menaka, brought me forth in a valley of the Himalya. And bereft of all affection, she went away casting me there as if I was any body else's child. What sinful act did I do of old in some other life that I was in infancy cast off by my parents and at present am cast off by thee! Cast off by thee I am ready to return to the asylum of my father. But it behoveth thee not to cast off this child who is thy own.'
"Hearing all this, Dushmanta said, 'O Sakuntala, I do not
