best to recover it from the well. But all the efforts the princes made to recover it proved futile. And they began to eye one another bashfully, and not knowing how to recover it, their anxiety was great. Just at this time they beheld a Brahmana near enough unto them, of darkish hue, decrepit and lean, sanctified by the performance of the Agni-hotra, and who had finished his daily rites of worship. And beholding that illustrious Brahman, the princes who had despaired of success surrounded him immediately. Drona (for that Brahmana was no other) seeing the princes unsuccessful, and conscious of his own skill, smiled a little, and addressing them said, 'Shame on your Kshatriya might, and shame also on your skill in arms! Ye have been born in the race of Bharata! How is it that ye can not recover the ball (from the bottom of this well)? If ye promise me a dinner to-day, I will, with these blades of grass, bring up not only the ball ye have lost but this ring also that I now throw down.' Thus saying, Drona—that oppressor of all foes—taking off his ring threw it down into that dry well. Then Yudhish-thira, the son of Kunti, addressing Drona, said, 'O Brahmana, (thou askest for a trifle!) Do thou with Kripa's permission, obtain of us that which would last thee for life? Thus addressed, Drona with smiles replied unto the Bharata princes, saying, 'This handful of long grass I would invest, by my mantras, with the virtue of weapons. Behold, these blades possess virtues that, other weapons have not! I will, with one of these blades, pierce the ball, and then pierce that blade with another, and that another with a third, and thus shall I, by a chain, bring up the ball.'"
Vaisampayana continued, "Then Drona did exactly what he had said. And the princes were all amazed and their eyes expanded with delight. And regarding what they had witnessed to be very extraordinary, they said, 'O learned Brahmana, do thou bring up the ring also without loss of time.'
"Then the illustrious Drona, taking a bow with an arrow, pierced the ting with that arrow and brought up the ring at once. And taking the ring thus brought up from the well, still pierced with his arrow, he coolly gave it to-the astonished
