--- title: A Sleep and a Dream., part 3 — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · full text with trees · page 2 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/page/2/) [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 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/5/) **2** Then said the Wairágí: Rajpoot, thou hast opened my eyes.[69](../../69/ "tree and pragmatics") Learn now from me a portion of thy own way.[70](../../70/ "tree and pragmatics") And he lay down on the ground, and suddenly abandoning the form of a hermit, became a weasel, which stuck out at Umra-Singh a long red tongue, and entered the ground by a hole, and disappeared.[71](../../71/ "tree and pragmatics") And as Umra-Singh stooped down to examine the hole, he saw the Wairágí again beside him in his old shape, save that he continued to stick out of his mouth the weasel's tongue.[72](../../72/ "tree and pragmatics") And he said, angrily: What is this delusion of a weasel, and why dost thou stick out thy tongue?[73](../../73/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said the Wairágí: Ho! ho\![74](../../74/ "tree and pragmatics") I have shown thee a way for a way, and one riddle for another.[75](../../75/ "tree and pragmatics") And now, tell me the Way of a Woman, and learn yet another third of thy own road.[76](../../76/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Umra-Singh said to himself: Surely this is no hermit, but a vile Rákshasa, who only seeks to delude me.[77](../../77/ "tree and pragmatics") Nevertheless, I will give him an answer, for the sake of my way, and the blue light in the eyes of Shrí.[78](../../78/ "tree and pragmatics") And he said to the Wairágí: Know, then, that the Way of a Woman is this: There dwelt long ago, in the Windhya forest, an old Rishi.[79](../../79/ "tree and pragmatics") And the gods, being jealous of his austerities, sent to interrupt his devotions a heavenly nymph.[80](../../80/ "tree and pragmatics") Then that old Rishi, overcome by her beauty, yielded to the temptation, and had by her a daughter.[81](../../81/ "tree and pragmatics") But afterwards, repenting of his fall, he burned out his eyes with a fiery cane, saying: Perish, ye causes of perishable illusions: and so became blind.[82](../../82/ "tree and pragmatics") Then his daughter grew up alone with that old blind sage in the forest.[83](../../83/ "tree and pragmatics") And she was more beautiful than any woman in the three worlds.[84](../../84/ "tree and pragmatics") Verily, had the God of Love seen her, he would instantly have abandoned Rati and Príti\[6\], counting them but as her domestic servants.[85](../../85/ "tree and pragmatics") And she dressed in bark garments, with no mirror but the pools of the forest.[86](../../86/ "tree and pragmatics") Then one day a crow that was acquainted with cities came to her and said: Why dost thou live here, with no companion but an old blind father, who cannot even see thee, and does not know the value of his pearl?[87](../../87/ "tree and pragmatics") The whole world does not contain a beauty equal to thine.[88](../../88/ "tree and pragmatics") Go and show thyself in cities, and I tell thee, the Kings of the earth would quit their kingdoms, and follow thee about like a swarm of bees.[89](../../89/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said the Rishi's daughter: And who, then, would fetch for my father his sacrificial fuel, or water to cook his cakes of rice and milk?[90](../../90/ "tree and pragmatics") And she drove away the crow, and lived on in the forest, serving her father, and at the last became old, and died in the forest, and no man ever saw her face.[91](../../91/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said the Wairágí: Thou foolish Rajpoot, I asked thee for the Way of a Woman, and thou hast told me the Way of Emancipation.[92](../../92/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said Umra-Singh: Thou miserable root-eater, since the creation every woman has sacrificed herself for another, or else she was not a woman, for this is the nature of them all.[93](../../93/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said the Wairágí: Learn now from me, another portion of thy own way.[94](../../94/ "tree and pragmatics") And as Umra-Singh watched him, suddenly that deceitful Wairágí became a bat, and stuck out at him again his tongue, and flew away through the trees.[95](../../95/ "tree and pragmatics") And Umra-Singh said to himself: Beyond a doubt this is no ascetic, but the very King of Rákshasas; nevertheless, he shall tell me my road, if he comes again, or it shall be the worse for him.[96](../../96/ "tree and pragmatics") And suddenly again he saw the Wairágí standing by his side, and sticking out at him, as before, his tongue.[97](../../97/ "tree and pragmatics") And he said to Umra-Singh: Now thou hast only to tell me the Way of Salvation, and thy own way will be clear before thee.[98](../../98/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said Umra-Singh: Thou art but an old Rákshasa; nevertheless, once more will I give thee an answer, for the sake of my way, and the colour of the eyes of Shrí.[99](../../99/ "tree and pragmatics") Know, that the Way of Emancipation is this: There was formerly a King of the race of the Sun, and he was very old, and all his hair was as white as the uppermost peak of the Snowy mountain.[100](../../100/ "tree and pragmatics") And one day he looked from his palace window, and saw in the street a child, drawing behind it a toycart.[101](../../101/ "tree and pragmatics") And the cart fell, and was broken, and the child cried over its broken toy.[102](../../102/ "tree and pragmatics") Now it happened, by the ordinance of fate, that long ago, when he was himself a child, exactly the same thing had happened to that old King.[103](../../103/ "tree and pragmatics") And as he looked at the child, suddenly the years were annihilated, and became as nothing.[104](../../104/ "tree and pragmatics") And like a picture he saw before him, the image of himself, a child.[105](../../105/ "tree and pragmatics") And seized with grief, and an unutterable longing for the repetition of his life, he exclaimed: O Maheshwara, Maheshwara, let me live my life again.[106](../../106/ "tree and pragmatics") Then suddenly Maheshwara stood before him, and laughed, and said: Remember thy former births.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") And suddenly memory came upon that old King, and out of the darkness of the past there rose before him the series of his former lives.[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") And Maheshwara said: See, nine and ninety times, in nine and ninety births, thou hast made of me the same request, and now this is a hundred.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") And every time I have given thee thy wish, in vain.[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") For every time thou hast forgotten, and hast known the value of thy youth only after becoming old.[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") Then said the old King: How, then, can emancipation be obtained?[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") Maheshwara said: It depends not on time, but knowledge: and even an instant can bring it when ten thousand years have failed.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") And thou hast but a little left of life, yet even to thee knowledge may come before the end.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he disappeared.[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") Now that old King had a daughter whom he loved better than his own soul.[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") And, even while he spoke with Maheshwara, she was bitten by a snake and died, and he did not know it, for they feared to tell him.[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") So he went as usual to see his daughter.[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") And when he entered her room, he looked, and saw her lying still.[119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") And as he watched her, there came a fly, which buzzed about her, and settled on her lips.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") Then horror came on that old King, and illusion fell suddenly from his eyes, and the desire of life was destroyed in him at its root.[121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") And he turned, and went without waiting to the Ganges, and remained there a few years washing away his crimes, like one to whom life and death are the same, and at last entered the river, and it drowned him, and carried his body out to sea.[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/5/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/5/) - next →: [A Sleep and a Dream., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/6/) - ↑ back to [The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/)