2o6 CRADLE TALES OF HINDUISM
the shooting of an arrow at a given target from a certain great bow. Only those who were by birth eligible for the hand of the princess were allowed to compete, and the victor was to be proclaimed the chosen husband of Draupadi. Amongst the candidates were many of India's greatest names. Duryodhana himself was there, eager to win the bride of that day. And the penetrating eye of Krishna, from His place beside Draupadi's father, detected in the lists five brothers, dressed as Brahmins, whose bearing was more knightly, and their build more heroic, than those of any others. "What should you say," He whispered to the bride's father, "if yon should prove to be the far- famed Pandavas, and their Brahmin dress only a disguise ? " In good sooth, it was even so, and one of these brothers it was — Arjuna, the third of them — who shot his arrow into the centre of the target, and succeeded in winning the royal bride. But when the five brothers had taken her to the potter's house, Krishna and His brother Bolarama followed them, secretly, in the evening, and ascer- tained that they were, as He had thought, the Pandava heroes. Then He gave them His bless- ing, saying, "May your prosperity increase, even as fire hidden in a cave spreads outwards." And from this time the fortunes of the Pandavas began once more to grow.
In sooth, it was not strange that Krishna should,
