of virtue. As I am a girl. O father, destitute of thee. I shall be helpless and plunged in woe, and shall have to go everywhere. It is therefore that I am resolved to rescue my father's race and share the merit of that act by accomplishing this difficult task. If thou, O best of Brahmanas, goest thither (unto the Rakshasa), leaving me here, then I shall be very much pained. Therefore, O father, be kind to me! O thou best of men, for our sake, for that of virtue and also thy race, save thyself, abandoning me, whom at one time thou shalt be constrained to part with 1 There need be no delay. O father, in doing that which is inevitable. What can be more painful than that, when thou hast ascended to heaven, we shall have to go about begging our food, like dogs, from strangers ! But if thou art rescued with thy relations from these difficulties, I shall then live happily in the region of the celestials! It hath been heard by us that if, after bestowing thy daughter in this way, thou offerest oblations to the gods and the celestials, they will certainly be propitious of thee.
Vaisampayana continued.--"The Brahmana and his wife, bearing these various lamentations of their daughter, became sadder than before and the three began to weep together ! Their son then, of tender years, beholding them and their daughter thus weeping together, lisped these words in a sweet tone, his eyes having dilated with delight,-'Weep not, O father, nor thou, O mother, nor thou, O sister!' And smilingly did the child approach each of them, and at last taking up a blade of grass said in glee.-"With this I will stay Rakshasa who eateth human beings Although all them had been plunged in woe, yet hearing what the child lisped so sweetly, joy appeared on their faces. Then Kunti thinking that to be the proper opportunity, approached the group and said these words. Indeed, her words revived them as nectar teviveth a person that is dead.'
Thus ends the hundred and sixty-first section in the Vaka-badha Parva of the Adi Parva.
SECTION CLXII
(Vaka-badha Parva continued)
"Kunti said, 'I desire to learn from you the cause of this grief, for I will remove it, if possible.'
"The Brahmana replied, 'O thou of ascetic wealth, thy speech is, indeed worthy of thee! But this grief is incapable of being removed by any human being. Not far off this town, there liveth a Rakshasa
