or the sacrifice
And slaying for the meat, but henceforth none
Shall spill the blood of life nor taste of flesh,
Seeing that knowledge grows, and life is one,
And mercy cometh to the merciful."
So ran the edict, and from those days forth
Sweet peace hath spread between all living kind,
Man and the beasts which serve him, and the birds,
Of all those banks of Gunga where our Lord
Taught with his saintly pity and soft speech.

THE FAITHFULNESS OF YUDHISTHIRA

From 'The Great Journey,' in the Mahabharata

Thenceforth alone the long-armed monarch strode,
Not looking back,--nay, not for Bhima's sake,--But
walking with his face set for the mount;
And the hound followed him,--only the hound.

After the deathly sands, the Mount; and lo!
Sakra shone forth, the God, filling the earth
And heavens with thunder of his chariot-wheels.
"Ascend," he said, "with me, Pritha's great son!"
But Yudhisthira answered, sore at heart
For those his kinsfolk, fallen on the way:
"O Thousand-eyed, O Lord of all the gods,
Give that my brothers come with me, who fell!
Not without them is Swarga sweet to me.
She, too, the dear and kind and queenly,--she
Whose perfect virtue Paradise must crown,--Grant
her to come with us! Dost thou grant this?"

The God replied:--"In heaven thou shalt see
Thy kinsman and the Queen--these will attain--And
Krishna. Grieve no longer for thy dead,
Thou chief of men! their mortal covering stripped,
These have their places; but to thee the gods
Allot an unknown grace; Thou shalt go up,
Living and in thy form, to the immortal homes."

But the King answered:--"O thou Wisest One,
Who know'st what was, and is, and is to be,
Still one more grace! This hound hath ate with me,
Followed me, loved me: must I leave him now?"

"Monarch," spake Indra, "thou art now as we,--
Deathless, divine; thou art become a god;
Glory and power and gifts celestial,
And all the joys of heaven are thine for aye;
What hath a beast with these? Leave here thy hound."

Yet Yudhisthira answered:--"O Most High,
O, Thousand-eyed and wisest! can it be
That one exalted should seem pitiless?
Nay, let me lose such glory; for its sake
I cannot leave one living thing I loved."

Then sternly In