The World of Courtesans c11.18

c11.18

Vikarala relates to her the strategem that need to be employed to captivate a lover. She advises her first to turn her attention to Chintamani. She tells her he was a government servant and a man of independent means. Then she goes on to describe the general appearance of Chintamani. He wore a thick topknot and his falling hair measured five *angulas*. He wore *kankatika* in his earlobes, rings on his fingers and a gold chain. His clothes were pale yellow—the result of saffron applied to his body. He wore a heavy garland and necklaces. His footwear was shod with horseshoes and smeared with bees-wax and olibanum. His hair net was made of multi-coloured lace. In one of his ears he wore a heart-shaped earring (*dalavitakam*) and in the other a leaf-shaped one (*shisapatrakam*). He wore a brocaded *dhoti* coloured yellow with saffron. As he walked he was followed by a betel-tray bearer who carried a conch and a drum and whose nails were dyed red.