esents gratified him highly. That best of Rishis
truthful in speech and firmly attached to truth, then told the king,--O
king of kings, I have been pleased with thee. O thou of excellent vows,
solicit thou a boon. King Vrihadratha then, with his wives, bending low
unto that Rishi, spoke these words choked with tears in consequence of
his despair of obtaining a child.--'O holy one forsaking my kingdom I am
about to go into the woods to practise ascetic penances. I am very
unfortunate for I have no son. What shall I do, therefore, with my
kingdom or with a boon?'

Krishna continued,--"Hearing these words (of the king), the Muni
controlling his outer senses entered into meditation, sitting in the
shade of that very mango tree where he was. And there fell upon the lap
of the seated Muni a mango that was juicy and untouched by the beak of a
parrot or any other bird. That best of Munis, taking up the fruit and
mentally pronouncing certain mantras over it, gave it unto the king as
the means of his obtaining an incomparable offspring. And the great Muni,
possessed also of extraordinary wisdom, addressing the monarch,
said,--"Return, O king, thy wish is fulfilled. Desist, O king, from going
(into the woods)".--Hearing these words of the Muni and worshipping his
feet, the monarch possessed of great wisdom, returned to his own abode.
And recollecting his former promise (unto them) the king gave, O bull of
the Bharata race, unto his two wives that one fruit. His beautiful
queens, dividing that single fruit into two parts, ate it up. In
consequence of the certainty of the realisation of the Muni's words and
his truthfulness, both of them conceived, as an effect of their having
eaten that fruit. And the king beholding them in that state became filled
with great joy. Then, O wise monarch, some time after, when the time
came, each of the queens brought forth a fragmentary body. And each
fragment had one eye, one arm, one leg, half a stomach, half a face, and
half an anus. Beholding the fragmentary bodies, both the mothers trembled
much. The helpless sisters then anxiously consulted each other, and
sorrowfully abandoned those fragments endued with life. The two midwives
(that waited upon the queens) then carefully wrapping up the still-born
(?) fragments went out of the inner apartments (of the palace) by the
back door and throwing away the bodies, returned in haste. A little while
after, O tiger among men, a Rakshasa woman of the name o