Dalimkumar, with them as their guardian and guide. On the auspicious day the eight brothers started on their journey on eight winged horses. The Rakkhashi, finding that Dalimkumar was no longer in her power, opened a casket out of which a snake, thin as a thread and named Shutashankha, made its appearance. She asked it where the life of her stepson was hid, and was shown a few pomegranate stones that contained it. She took the stones and shut them up in a cellar below the great staircase of the palace. She then gave the following instructions to the snake:—
"O Shutashankha, ride on the air with this letter to my sister Pashabutty. I want her to have ready seven girls of transcendent beauty for my seven sons. On your way kill Dalimkumar, and thus remove him from my path."
Having dismissed the snake on its errand, she uttered a Mantra (incantation), by the power of which the winged horses carrying her sons should reach Pashabutty's kingdom.
Shutashankha soon overtook the princes that same evening, and succeeded in stinging Dalimkumar in the eyes so that he instantly fell down from his horse stone-blind. His brothers, who were a few yards in advance, were ignorant of his fate, and so continued to ride on. The snake, however, was well punished by fate. Having reached a certain king's orchard, it managed to get into a fruit and hide itself, coiling within it to pass the night in safety. Early the next morning, before the snake awoke, the gardener gathered the fruit to be eaten by the king's daughter. She ate the fruit, and along with it the snake, with the Rakkhashi's letter inside it.
Dalimkumar's brothers that same morning, not finding him and quite ignorant of his mishap, thought that he had outstripped them; and so they rode on expecting to overtake him. Having travelled a considerable distance, and not finding him, they wanted to make a careful search for him. But they could not lessen the speed of their horses, which having been charmed by the Rakkhashi, ran on till they reached Pashabutty's house. The seven princes were
