fashioning the nymphs of heaven.

When she had grown out of childhood, there came from the city of
Kanauj three Brahman youths, endowed with all the virtues. And
each of them asked her father for her, that she might be his own.
And though her father would rather have died than give her up to
anyone, he made up his mind to give her to one of them. But the
girl would not marry any one of them for some time, because she
was afraid of hurting the feelings of the other two. So they stayed
there all three of them day and night, feasting on the beauty of her
face, like the birds that live on moonbeams.

Then all at once Coral fell sick of a burning fever and died. And
when the Brahman youths saw that she was dead, they were
smitten with grief. But they adorned her body, took it to the
cemetery, and burned it.

And one of them built a hut there, slept on a bed made of her
ashes, and got his food by begging. The second took her bones and
went to dip them in the sacred Ganges river. And the third became
a monk and wandered in other countries.

And as he wandered, the monk came to a village called
Thunderbolt, and was entertained in the house of a Brahman. But
when he had been honoured by the master of the house and had
begun to eat dinner there, the little boy began to cry and would not
stop even when they petted him. So his mother took him on her
arm, and angrily threw him into the blazing fire. And being tender,
he was reduced to ashes in a moment.