--- title: A Sleep and a Dream., part 3 — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · full text with trees description: A Sleep and a Dream., part 3, «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: [4] A _rajpoot_ means only _the son of a king_, and it is to be observed that there were rajpoots in India long before the presen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/5/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/) / A Sleep and a Dream., part 3 # A Sleep and a Dream., part 3 A Sleep and a Dream., part 3 of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown: the whole text, 122 sentences and 2866 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/5/page/2/) \[4\] A \_rajpoot\_ means only \_the son of a king\_, and it is to be observed that there were rajpoots in India long before the present 'Rajpoots' ever came there.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") \[5\] i.e. the Sun. There are double meanings in this period, comparing him to the Sun.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") \[6\] \_adrishta\_: a peculiar technical term, meaning something that has its roots in the unseen circumstances of a former birth.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") \[7\] No translator can give the alliterative jingle of the \_vathás\_ and \_tathás\_, \_vads\_ and \_tads\_ of this and the answer of Shrí below.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") IV.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") Inspiration[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") But Umra-Singh lay in the street, more like a dead than a living man, covered with bruises and bereft of sense.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") And the people crowded round him, jeering and scouting and pointing at him, and giving him blows and kicks.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") And he looked in the midst of those base mockers like a black antelope smitten by the hunters with a mortal wound, and surrounded by a troop of chattering monkeys.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Then by and by those scoffers left him lying, and went every man his way, for the sun was going down.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") And after a while, he came to himself, and rose up, though with difficulty, from the ground, and wandered away with stumbling feet, till he came to a tank in a deserted quarter, and lay down on its brink to rest.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") And sore though he was in all his limbs, he never felt the pain of his body: but his eyes were dazed with the blue glory of the bitter scorn of the eyes of Shrí, and the sound of her voice and her laughter rang in his ears, and in his heart was shame.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") So he lay long, gazing at the image of Shrí as it floated before him, and stung his soul like the teeth of a serpent, and yet soothed it like sandal, while the moon rose in the sky.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") And then suddenly he sat up, and looked round.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") And he saw the tank, and the trees, and the moon's image in the water, and remembered where he was, and all that had occurred.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") And he sighed deeply, and said to himself: Woe is me\![16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") I have, like a dishonest gambler, cast my die, and lost the game.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") And now, I have gained no kingdom and no King's daughter, but only blows and shame.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") Alas! no sooner had I found my dream than again I lost her, through the terrible operation of sins committed in a former birth.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") So now, nothing remains but to do as quickly as possible what I was about to do before I went to the palace, and put myself, in very truth, to death.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") For life seemed unendurable, before I had found the woman of my dream: but now it is worse by far, since I have found her only to become in her eyes a thing of scorn, more horrible than a hundred deaths.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") And he took his sword, and felt the sharpness of its edge, and put it to his throat.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") And as it touched his skin, at that moment he heard in the silence of the night the voice of a warder, singing as he went his round upon the city wall: \_Whatsoever high-caste man has been to the Land of the Lotus of the Sun, let him come to the King: he shall share the King's kingdom and marry the King's daughter\_.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") And the sword fell from his hand, and he sprang to his feet, and exclaimed: What! she is for the man who has seen the Land of the Lotus, and here am I, a Rajpoot of the Race of the Sun, dreaming of death by this moonlit tank, while the Land of the Lotus is yet unfound\![24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") Now will I find that Lotus Country, be it where it may, and then come back and claim her, not as I did before, in jest, but by the right of the seer and the seen.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") And instantly he picked up his sword, and threw it into the air.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") And the sword turned like a wheel, flashing in the moonlight, and fell back to the ground.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Umra-Singh took it up, and immediately went out of the city, making for the quarter pointed out like a finger by the blade of his sword.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") V.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") Nightwalker[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") And then as a black bee roves from flower to flower he wandered from city to city, and from one country to another: and he went north and east and west and south, till the elephants of the eight quarters knew him as it were by sight.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Yet he never found anyone who could tell him his way, or had ever heard the name of the Land of the Lotus of the Sun. And meanwhile the suns of the hot seasons burned him like a furnace, and the cold seasons froze the blood in his veins, and the rains roared over his head like a wild-elephant, and at the last, he said to himself: Now for thrice six seasons have I been seeking, and yet I know no more of my way to the Land of the Lotus than I did before.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") And undoubtedly, if such a Land exists in the world, it can be known only to the birds of the air.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") Therefore now I will abandon the dwellings of men, and enter the Great Forest, for only in this way will it ever be possible for me to discover a land of which no human being has ever heard.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") So he went into the forest and proceeded onward, turning his face to the south.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") Then as he went the trees grew thicker and thicker, and taller and taller, till they shut out the light of the sun. And at last there came a day when he looked before him, and saw only a darkness like that of the mouth of death: and he looked behind him, and saw the light of evening glimmering a great way off, as if afraid to keep him company.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") And as he went on slowly, feeling his way with the point of his sword, suddenly in the darkness another face peered into his own, and stuck out at him a long red tongue.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") And Umra-Singh started back, and looked, and saw before him a root-eating Wairágí\[1\], clad in a coat of bark, with long hair, and nails like the claws of a bird, and his legs and arms were bare, and his skin like that on the foot of an elephant.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said Umra-Singh: Father, what art thou doing here, and why dost thou stick out at me thy tongue?[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") The Wairágí said: Son, what art thou doing here, in a wood full of nothing but trees and Rákshasas\[2\], and dark as the Hair of the Great God, of which it is an earthly copy?[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") Umra-Singh said: I am a Rajpoot who has quarrelled with his relations, and I am looking for the Land of the Lotus of the Sun. Then said the Wairágí: They are very few that wish to find that Lotus Land; and fewer still who find it; fewest of all those, that having found it ever return.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Umra-Singh said, in astonishment: And dost thou know that Lotus Land?[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") Tell me how I must go to reach it.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the Wairági laughed, and said: Ha! ha\![44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") Thou art one more ready to ask than to answer questions: but I give nothing for nothing.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") Know, that I also have all my life been looking, not for one way only, but for three.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") And now, if thou wilt tell me my three ways, I will tell thee thine.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said Umra-Singh: One for three is no bargain; but what, then, are thy lost ways?[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") The Wairágí said: All my life I have tried to discover the Way of the World, and the Way of Woman, and the Way of Emancipation\[3\], and yet could never hit on the truth as to any one of them.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") And this is a wonderful thing.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") For anything characteristic of multitudes must be very common: and yet how can that which is common escape the notice of all?[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") Tell me, then, the Way of the World, and I will tell thee in return a third of thy way to the Land of the Lotus of the Sun.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said Umra-Singh: Thou puttest a knotty question, and drivest a hard bargain; nevertheless, I will give thee an answer, for the sake of my own way and the blue eyes of Shrí.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") Know, that this is the Way of the World.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") There was formerly, on the banks of Ganges, an old empty temple of Shiwa.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") And one night, in the rainy season, an old female ascetic entered the temple, to shelter herself from the storm.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") And just after her there came in an owl for the same purpose.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") Now in the roof of that temple there lived a number of the caste\[4\] of bats, that never left the temple precincts, And seeing the owl, they said to the old woman: Who art thou, and what kind of animal is this?[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the old woman said: I am the Goddess Saraswatí, and this is the peacock on which I ride\[5\].[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") Then, the storm being over, that old impostor went away.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") But the owl, being pleased with the temple as a place of residence, remained; and the bats paid it divine honours.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") Then some years afterwards, it happened, that a real peacock entered the temple.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") And the bats said to it: What kind of animal art thou?[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") The peacock said: I am a peacock.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") The bats replied: Out on thee, thou impostor! what is this folly?[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") The peacock said: I am a peacock, the son of a peacock, and the carriage of the Goddess Saraswatí is a hereditary office in our caste.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") The bats said: Thou art a liar, and the son of a liar; dost thou know better than the Goddess herself?[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") And they drove the peacock out of the temple, and paid, as formerly, worship to the owl.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/5/page/2/) - ← previous: [A Sleep and a Dream., part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/4/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/5/page/2/) - ↑ back to [The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/)