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

me both in soul and body by preventing a re-union of them.
Certainly—oh, unhappy destiny !—what has been fated
must come to pass, and I have therefore only to bear
it with patience. Oh, perfidious wretch ! Oh, most
ungrateful villain ! I will never appear in thy detestable
form, so full of deceit, ingratitude, and wickedness !"
In this state of grief, bordering on despair, a sudden
thought crossed his mind, which gave him some relief. He
knew that he had very kind and faithful friends in Soodew
and Veytal.* On this he endeavoured to restrain his
sorrow, and become more calm and collected. Believing
he would be preserved from all danger, he started for the
city of Sendoornuggry. While journeying along, he was
led into considering the great danger he ran by continuing
in the form of a serpent, a reptile held in deserved detestation
by mankind, in consequence of the bitter enmity between
them, and the venomous nature of the former. It chanced,
however, that he found, shortly after his musings, under a
Vurt† tree, a dead parrot, and knowing it to be a bird held
in high repute for its beauty, colour, and other estimable
qualities, he lost no time in taking its form, by which he
not only lessened his danger, but acquired speed in his
movements,—a thing by no means to be despised, situated
as he was. Having transformed himself into the parrot,
he ascended high into the air, and after having satisfied
himself in all that delighted him in his new form,—perching
on a tree here, picking a fruit there, and so on,—he arrived
just without the walls of Sendoornuggry in much less time
than he could have done without the wings of a parrot, and
its light and active frame. The parrot (that is, the king)
alighted on a tree, under the inviting shelter of which a
troop of Bahooroopees,‡ who were in very distressed cir-
cumstances, had shortly before taken up their residence.

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* The king of demons.
† The Indian fig-tree.
‡ A wandering tribe, who go about as dancers, actors, maskers, &c.