rejoiced, satisfied, thriving, and in the habit of having merriment and manifold festivals, the desire of taking away the vigour from the inhabitants of that region arose within them.
4. But, though they did their usual work with the greatest effort, they were still not able to take away the vigour of the inhabitants of that country.
5. The power of that king was so excessive that his very intention of shielding proved the highest protection. For this reason those Yakshas were powerless to take away the vigour of his subjects.
And as they were not able to debilitate any one, living in that kingdom, however much they exerted themselves, they deliberated among themselves and said: 'How may this be, sirs?
6. 'They do not possess such superiorities of learning, penance, or magic as to enable them to obstruct our power, and yet all of us are reduced to impotency, so as to bear our appellation (of Ogohâras) in vain.'
And they assumed the shape of men of the Brâhman class, and going about, they saw a certain cowherd of those who live in the forest-region, who was sitting upon a grass-plot at the foot of a shady tree. He had shoes on his feet, and on his head he wore a garland, made of flowers and opening buds of forest-trees. His stick and his hatchet he had laid on the earth on his right. He was alone and occupied with twisting a rope, diverting himself meanwhile with singing and humming. Him they approached and imitating human voice[1], they said to him: 'Well, friend, thou who art charged with guarding the cows, how is it that staying thus alone in this lonely forest where no man is to be seen, thou are not afraid?' And he, looking at them, spoke: 'Of what should I be afraid?' The Yakshas said: 'Hast thou never before heard that such goblins as Yakshas, Râkshasas, or Pisâkas are cruel by nature?
- ↑ In the original the Yakshas utter some inarticulate sounds before succeeding in speaking Sanskrit.
