palace to see him. All the doctors in the place at once hastened to
obey, each of them hoping that he would be the one to cure the king
and win a great reward. So many were they that the big reception
room was full of them, and they all glared at each other so angrily
that the attendants kept careful watch lest they should begin to
fight. One at a time they were taken to the king's private room,
but very much to their surprise and disappointment he seemed quite
well and in no need of help from them. Instead of talking about his
own illness, he asked each doctor who his patients were in the town,
and what medicines he was giving to them. Of course Prasnajit's
questions were carefully answered; but the king said nothing more,
just waving his hand to shew that the interview was at an end. Then
the attendants led the visitor out. At last however a doctor came,
who said something which led the king to keep him longer than he had
kept any of the others. This doctor was a very famous healer who had
saved the lives of many of Prasnajit's subjects. He told the king
that a merchant named Matri-Datta was very ill, suffering greatly,
but that he hoped to cure him by giving him the juice of a certain
plant called nagaballa. At the time this story was written, doctors
in India did not give their patients medicine, or write prescriptions
for them to take to chemists to be made up, because there were no
chemists in those days, such as there are in all the towns of Europe,
who keep the materials in stock for making medicines. A doctor just
said to his patient, "you must take the juice of this or that plant";
and the suffering person had to go into the fields or woods to find
the plant or else to send a servant to do so.

When the king heard that the doctor had ordered Matri-Datta to take the
juice of the nagaballa plant, he cried "No more doctors need come to
see me!" and after sending away the one who had told him what he wanted