with grief and (pale) as the autumnal moon, with those Brahmanas versed in the Vedas that had survived the slaughter of the caravan.  And departing speedily, towards evening, the damsel came to the mighty city of the truth-telling Suvahu, the king of the Chedis.  And she entered that excellent city clad in half a garment.  And the citizens saw her as she went, overcome with fear, and lean, melancholy, her hair dishevelled and soiled with dust, and maniac-like.  And beholding her enter the city of the king of the Chedis, the boys of the city, from curiosity, began to follow her.  And surrounded by them, she came before the palace of the king.  And from the terrace the queen-mother saw her surrounded by the crowd.  And she said to her nurse, “Go and bring that woman before me.  She is forlorn and is being vexed by the crowd.  She hath fallen into distress and standeth in need of succour.  I find her beauty to be such that it illumineth my house.  The fair one, though looking like a maniac, seemeth a very Sree with her large eyes.”  Thus commanded, the nurse went out and dispersing the crowd brought Damayanti to that graceful terrace.  And struck with wonder, O king, she asked Damayanti, saying, “Afflicted though thou art with such distress, thou ownest a beautiful form.  Thou shinest like lightning in the midst of the clouds.  Tell me who thou art, and whose.  O thou possessed of celestial splendour, surely, thy beauty is not human, bereft though thou art of ornaments.  And although thou art helpless, yet thou art unmoved under the outrage of these men.”  Hearing these words of the nurse, the daughter of Bhima said, “Know that I am a female belonging to the human species and devoted to my husband.  I am a serving woman of good lineage.  I live wherever I like, subsisting on fruit and roots, and whom a companion, and stay where evening overtaketh me.  My husband is the owner of countless virtues and was ever devoted to me.  And I also, on my part, was deeply attached to him, following him like his shadow.  It chanced that once he became desperately engaged at dice.  Defeated at dice, he came alone into the forest.  I accompanied my husband into the woods, comforting the hero clad in a single piece of cloth and maniac-like and overwhelmed with calamity.  Once on a time for some cause, that hero, afflicted with hunger and thirst and grief, was forced to abandon that sole piece of covering in the forest.  Destitute of garment and maniac-like and deprived of his senses as he was, I followed him, myself in a single garment.  Following him, I did not sleep for nights together.  Thus passed many days, until at last while I was sleeping, he cut off half of my cloth, and forsook me who had done him no wrong.  I am seeking my husband but unable to find him who is of hue like the filaments of the lotus, without being able to cast my eyes on that delight of my heart, that dear lord who owneth my heart and resembleth the celestials in mien, day and night do I burn in grief.”