cutioners were, and thence taking human flesh and washing and
cooking it duly and covering it with boiled rice offered it unto that
hungry Brahmana devoted to ascetic penances. But that best of Brahmanas,
seeing with his spiritual sight that the food was unholy and, therefore,
unworthy of being eaten, said these words with eyes red with anger,
'Because that worst of kings offereth me food that is unholy and unworthy
of being taken, therefore that wretch shall have himself a fondness for
such food. And becoming fond of human flesh as cursed by Saktri of old,
the wretch shall wander over the earth, alarming and otherwise troubling
all creatures.' The curse, therefore, on that king, thus repeated a
second time, became very strong, and the king, possessed by a Rakshasa
disposition, soon lost all his senses.

"A little while after, O Bharata, that best of monarchs, deprived of all
his senses by the Rakshasa within him, beholding Saktri who had cursed
him, said, 'Because thou hast pronounced on me this extraordinary curse,
therefore, I shall begin my life of cannibalism by devouring thee.'
Having said this, the king immediately slew Saktri and ate him up, like a
tiger eating the animal it was fond of. Beholding Saktri thus slain and
devoured, Viswamitra repeatedly urged that Rakshasa (who was within the
monarch) against the other sons of Vasishtha. Like a wrathful lion
devouring small animals, that Rakshasa soon devoured the other sons of
the illustrious Vasishtha that were junior to Saktri in age. But
Vasishtha, learning that all his sons had been caused to be slain by
Viswamitra, patiently bore his grief like the great mountain that bears
the earth. That best of Munis, that foremost of intelligent men, was
resolved rather to sacrifice his own life than exterminate (in anger) the
race of Kusikas. The illustrious Rishi threw himself down from the summit
of Meru, but he descended on the stony ground as though on a heap of
cotton. And, O son of Pandu, when the illustrious one found that death
did not result from that fall, he kindled a huge fire in the forest and
entered it with alacrity. But that fire, though burning brightly,
consumed him not. O slayer of foes, that blazing fire seemed to him cool.
Then the great Muni under the influence of grief, beholding the sea, tied
a stony weight to his neck and threw himself into its waters. But the
waves soon cast him ashore. At last when that Brahmana of rigid vows
succeeded not in ki