Atondido Stories
The Soothsayer's Son
A soothsayer when on his deathbed wrote out the horoscope of
his second son, whose name was Gangazara, and bequeathed it
to him as his only property, leaving the whole of his estate to his
eldest son. The second son thought over the horoscope, and said
to himself:
"Alas! am I born to this only in the world? The sayings of my
father never failed. I have seen them prove true to the last word
while he was living; and how has he fixed my horoscope! 'FROM
MY BIRTH POVERTY!' Nor is that my only fate. 'FOR TEN
YEARS, IMPRISONMENT'—a fate harder than poverty; and
what comes next? 'DEATH ON THE SEA-SHORE'; which means
that I must die away from home, far from friends and relatives
on a sea-coast. Now comes the most curious part of the horo-
scope, that I am to 'HAVE SOME HAPPINESS AFTERWARDS!'
What this happiness is, is an enigma to me."
Thus thought he, and after all the funeral obsequies of his fa-
ther were over, took leave of his elder brother, and started for
Benares. He went by the middle of the Deccan, avoiding both the
coasts, and went on journeying and journeying for weeks and
months, till at last he reached the Vindhya mountains. While
passing that desert he had to journey for a couple of days
through a sandy plain, with no signs of life or vegetation. The
little store of provision with which he was provided for a couple
of days, at last was exhausted. The chombu, which he carried al-
ways full, filling it with the sweet water from the flowing rivulet
or plenteous tank, he had exhausted in the heat of the desert.
There was not a morsel in his hand to eat; nor a drop of water to
drink. Turn his eyes wherever he might he found a vast desert,
out of which he saw no means of escape. Still he thought within
himself, "Surely my father's prophecy never proved untrue.
454