Vikram and the vampire Author:Richard Francis Burton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE VAMPIRE'S FIRST STORY. IN WHICH A MAN DECEIVES A WOMAN. In Benares once reigned a mighty prince, by name Pratapamukut, to whose eighth son Vajramukut h... more »appened the strangest adventure. One morning, the young man, accompanied by the son of his father's pradhan or prime minister, rode out hunting, and went far into the jungle. At last the twain unexpectedly came upon a beautiful " tank1" of a prodigious size. It was surrounded by short thick walls of fine baked brick ; and flights and ramps of cut-stone steps, half the length of each face, and adorned with turrets, pendants, and finials, led down to the water. The substantial plaster work and the masonry had fallen into disrepair, and from the crevices sprang huge trees, under whose thick shade the breeze blew freshly, and on whose balmy branches the birds sang sweetly; the grey squirrels2 chirruped joyously as they coursed one another up the gnarled trunks, and from the pendent llianas the long- tailed monkeys were swinging sportively. The bountiful hand of Sravana8 had spread the earthen rampart with a carpet of the softest grass and many-hued wild flowers, inwhich were buzzing swarms of bees and myriads of bright- winged insects; and flocks of water fowl, wild geese, Brahmini ducks, bitterns, herons, and cranes, male and female, were feeding on the narrow strip of brilliant green that belted the long deep pool, amongst the broad-leaved lotuses with the lovely blossoms, splashing through the pellucid waves, and basking happily in the genial sun. i A pond, natural or artificial; in the latter case often covering an extent of ten to twelve acres. 2. The Hindustani " gilahri," or little grey squirrel, whose twittering cry is often mistaken for a bird's. 3 The autumn or rather the rainy season personified—a hackne...« less