A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s2.43

v2.c19.s2.43

The money is soon spent and in order to earn something, he announces himself as a doctor in a town where he hears that the wife of a rich merchant is very ill. Jīvaka puts a little melted butter into her nose, this comes into her mouth and she spits it out, whereupon she instructs the maid to preserve the melted butter. Jīvaka is at once anxious about his fee, as he regards the woman as mean. She reassures him, however, that she is merely a good house-wife, for the melted butter could still be used by the servants as grease or for the lamp. She recovers, and rewards the doctor with 4,000 florins; in addition, her son, her daughter-in-law and her husband, each gives him 4,000 florins, and the latter also gives him a male slave, a female slave and a carriage with a team.