Markandeyapurana 74.16

74.16

vijñāya sānurāgaṃ taṃ pṛṣṭhasparśanatatparam /
narendraṃ tadvanasyāntaḥ sā mṛgī tamuvāca ha //

Afterwards there occurred, while he practised his austerities, a great flood day after day in the rainy season, with the clouds pouring down rain incessantly. The east could not be distinguished, nor the south, nor the west, nor the north; everything looked as if besmeared with darkness. The king, forced then in the excessive flood to seek the river bank, could not reach it although seeking it, being carried away by the exceedingly furious current. Now the king, after being carried a long way by the swollen water, chanced upon a Rauha doe in the water and seized her by her tail. Borne along by that flood he passed over the surface of the land hither and thither in the darkness; at length he reached a bank. Crossing an expanse of mud, which was extremely hard to be crossed, the king being drawn along by her still, gained another charming forest. The Rauha doe dragged the illustrious king along in the darkness there, while he clung to her tail, enfeebled throughout his nervous system. And he experienced an intense pleasure which arose from touching her, as he wandered continually in the darkness, with his mind drawn out in love to her. Perceiving that the king was enamoured of her, and teas engrossed in touching her back, the doe verily spoke to him within that forest:—