विक्रम चरित (उज्जैन सम्राट् विक्रमादित्य - पराक्रम, न्याय एवं ३२ पुतलियों की कथा सटीक)

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were done most zealously ; but they went but a little way
with the king, who, to his other bad qualities, added that of
conceit. We will leave him for the present, and treat of
the serpent which had been brought into life, and which
we left in the woods.
The serpent, then, after coiling and sporting in the woods
for a time, returned, with the same speed that marked his
onward course, to the spot whence he first started, and
found there the body of Koobjuck alone in the place
where he had left him in life. At first sight, the serpent
(who it will no doubt be recollected was the rightful king
in disguise) was rooted to the spot, with rage and astonish-
ment contending within him. He could scarcely believe
his own eyes. After a long gaze at the body of Koobjuck,
he exclaimed, "How now! I am scarcely out of my na-
tural frame and within the woods, but thou committest such
a daring outrage upon my person!" While contemplating his
position, he became dejected and melancholy ; in a word, he
was quite beside himself. He again burst forth in terms of
mingled rage and disappointment, and casting his eyes on
the body lying before him, said, "What a dreadful and un-
paralleled instance of duplicity and mischief hast thou shown
towards me, in assuming my form and going away, and
leaving me the choice of yours, or retaining that of the ser-
pent! If I enter thy body, so cursed that if I look on it
I incur a great sin ; and if I converse with such as thee,
then my crime is equivalent to a murder; if I eat with
such it is even worse, for the murder will then be as that
of a brahmin; and equally unfortunate will it prove, should
I receive even a drink of water from such a person's hands.
The company of the wicked is ever pregnant with evils, and
places a man in danger. It is said in the law, that a man
should not approach to within five paces of a bullock, ten of
a horse, and a thousand of an elephant; but that one
should abandon the city altogether, when the residence in
it of a wicked man is fully ascertained. Oh! what mis-
fortune hast thou not brought on me!—thou hast injured