place of pilgrimage. The next day, however, when returning by the side of the same forest, he heard coming from the same spot cries of weeping and lamentation. In order to see who the people in that solitary place could be, and what might be the cause of this change in their lot within so short a time, he walked into the forest, and saw a number of women rolling on the ground in agony. Among them was a girl, who gave vent to her grief in greater abandonment than all the rest. The traveller waited for a short time, and when the first paroxysm of grief had passed he approached and asked the meaning of what he saw.
One of the mourners in a nasal tone, the tone peculiar to ghosts, said, "O Mahashoy, hear our misfortune. That girl lying there in mute despondency is our cousin, and we expected her to have been married to a youth who a few hours since has been gored to death by a bull. As a death of this kind makes men ghosts,[1] we thought this handsome youth would be our cousin's husband, and we sent a friend to entice him into our midst. When you passed this way yesterday, we were rejoicing in anticipation of the wedding. We waited and waited till midnight for the bridegroom, but neither he nor our friend turned up. At length the friend whom we had sent returned, and from him we have heard that the intended bridegroom has not become a ghost, but a spirit in heaven. So all our rejoicings have turned into lamentations of intense grief. We asked our messenger the cause of his delay and he said that he had waited long to see if he could not get possession of the dead man's person. The issue depended on a struggle between the messengers of Shiva and Yama. The messengers of the former wanted to take the man to Kailash, while those of the latter desired to thrust him into the society of ghosts. At length Shiva's angels were victorious, and they carried the young man to the peaceful abode of their master, and consequently our messenger had to come away disappointed."
- ↑ Death by accident is supposed to bring suffering in the next world, and to cause the dead to frequent the earth as ghosts.
