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

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oath," said the parrot, "is sacred, and must therefore be
preserved inviolate. Do not break your promise on any
account. You no doubt recollect the account given of the
promises made by Shriyal and Chakravati—how faithfully
they observed them, even to the very death. Listen to
me," continued the parrot to Dushwant, "I will give you
a brief account of king Myrodhwaj, who had commenced
a certain sacrifice, when Kristna and Arjoon, assuming the
guise of brahmins—the former that of a Gooru, and the
latter as his disciple,—appeared before him. Myrodhwaj,
seeing them, received them with great respect, and besought
them with much entreaty to make known to him their wants.
Kristna said, 'I, with my son and pupil, were passing
through the wood, when a tiger pounced upon my son and
seized him. Seeing him in this awful position; I besought
the tiger with streaming eyes not to injure my son; I said
that he was an only child, the prop of my old age. The
fierce animal replied, that he had been without a morsel of
food for eight days successively, and that he would release
my son only on one condition,—that I should, in lieu of
my son, supply him with the flesh of another living person.
He awaits my return, with my son in his possession as a
hostage for the due fulfilment of the promise I was com-
pelled under the circumstances to give him. On my way I
heard that you were about to perform a sacrifice, and this
induced me to wait on you, and to seek your aid in releasing
my son from the tiger, and restore me to my wonted ease.'
The king hereupon ordered one of his attendants to get
some flesh to appease the hunger of the ferocious denizen
of the forest. The brahmin, hearing this mandate, cried
out to the king, that the tiger would accept of nothing else
than the flesh of a living being. There was a pause, and
the minister, who was present, suggested to the monarch
that one out of the many malefactors that were impri-
soned might be offered as food for the tiger. The brahmin
again raised his voice, and said that the tiger had some
knowledge of the sacrifice the king was about to perform,