beautifully. The windows looked very graceful, and the artificial fountains were splendid. At places, were tanks of pellucid water in which bloomed forests of lotuses. The banks were decked with various flowers whose fragrance filled the atmosphere. The Kauravas and the Pandavas sat down and began to enjoy the things provided for them. They became engaged in play and began to exchange morsels of food with one another. In the meantime the evil Duryo-dhana had mixed kalkuta (a kind of powerful poison) with a quantity of food, with the object of making away with Bhima. That wicked youth (who had nectar in his tongue, and poison in his heart) rose at length, and in a friendly way fed Bhima largely with that poisoned food, and thinking himself lucky in having, compassed his end was exceedingly glad at heart. Then the sons of Dhrita-rashtra and Pandu together became cheerfully engaged in sporting in the water. On their sports having been finished, they dressed themselves in white habiliments, and decked themselves with various ornaments. Fatigued with the play, they felt inclined in the evening to rest in the pleasure house belonging to the garden. Having made the other youths exercise in the waters, the powerful second Pandava was excessively fatigued. So that on rising from the water, he lay down on the ground. He was weary and under the influence of the poison. And the cool air served to spread the poison over all his frame, so that he lost his senses at once. Seeing this, Duryodhana bound him with chords of shrubs, and threw him into the water. The insensible son of Pandu sank down till he reached the Naga kingdom. The Nagas, furnished with fangs containing virulent venom, bit him by thousands. The vegetable poison, mingled in the blood of the son of the wind-god, was neutralised by the serpent-poison. The serpents had bitten all over his frame, except his chest, the skin of which was so tough that their fangs could not penetrate it.
"On regaining his consciousness, the son of Kunti burs his bands and began to bury the snakes under the ground. A remnant fled for life, and going to their king Vasuki, represented, 'O king of snakes, a man sank under the water,
