city, as the case may be, took up the arrangement. ‘Thus several years passed. One day the lot fell upon a poor old woman and her grandson had to be sent up to Holika the next morning. That washer only child then—her son and her daughter-in-law having gone away long ago to the land from the borders of which no traveller returns. Her sorrow knew no bounds. She was soon to lose the last male member of her family. Her extreme sorrow moved the heart of every one, and Providence too seemed to pity her. It so happened that a holy mendicant chanced to pass by that village accidentally that day. He heard moanings in that old woman’s house. He went to her and on making sympathetic enquiries learnt the cause. He wasa holy person and after some contemplation found out the way by which he could save not only that old woman but the whole world from Holika’s havocs. Said he:—"My good old woman! do not fear. Holika will die to-morrow if you only follow my advice. If she hears vile and indecent abuses and obscene expressions, she will fall down and die. It is so decreed. You should therefore collect all the children of the village
