Additional notes in brackets are added throug-h the story,
as hints to the careful student, to guide mm through the
intricacies of the maze.—Annie Besant.]

Vasistha said : Listen to the tale of Llla, Prince !

Reigned once on earth a king" bearing' the name of Padma.
Llla was his queen. Great was the love between them. In
parks and forests, groves and leafy arbours, 'mongst beds
of flowers, in houses made of tender creepers, in royal palaces
and artificial lakes, on mountains covered with the sandal-
plant and full of the voice of the cuckoo, amid dark woodlands,
and in open glades, midst smiling lotus-beds and trees fruit-
laden, among bright waterfalls and showers of sparklino"
spray and slabs of crystal, they, day after day, enhanced their
mutual love and happiness with enjoyments tender and refined,
with stories, games and riddles, poems, recitations, dramas,
scenes of town and country, wreaths of flowers and gems and
graceful ornaments, swings made with chains of blooms,
journeys by boats, horses and elephants, sports in the water,
song and dance and dalliance, and the luxuries of music from
the Muraja and the Vina.(1)

Long years passed away in these enjoyments, and then
a care shadowed the beautiful brows of the queen. "Dearer
to me than life is my husband," so she thought "How may
he become immortal ? How may I remain for ever with him ?
So shall I endeavour, with Japa and with Tapas(2), that never
shall my husband's face fade from my sight."

And she consulted ^ ag^d Brahmayas, aged with
knowledge, ag6d with Tapas, ag6d with many^Js^@Qces.
One answer only they returned to ]
"All else may be attained, 0 Lady!
may be made immortal.9'

(1) Indian musical instruments.

(2) Bepetition of mantras, litanies, and ]