satisfaction.' Then the king replied, This request of
thine, O hawk, I consider as a favour unto me, and, therefore, I will
give unto thee even my own flesh, after weighing it in a balance.'

"Lomasa said, 'Saying this, O mighty son of Kunti, the highly virtuous
king cut off a portion of his own flesh, and placed it in a balance,
against the pigeon. But when he found that pigeon exceeded his flesh in
weight, he once more cut off another portion of his flesh, and added it
to the former. When portion after portion had been repeatedly added to
weigh against the pigeon, and no more flesh was left on his body, he
mounted the scale himself, utterly devoid of flesh.

"The hawk then said, 'I am Indra, O virtuous king, and this pigeon is
Agni, the carrier of the sacrificial clarified butter. We had come unto
thy sacrificial ground, desirous of testing thy merit. Since thou hast
cut off thy own flesh from thy body, thy glory shall be resplendent, and
shall surpass that of all others in the world. As long as men, O king,
shall speak of thee, so long shall thy glory endure, and thou shalt
inhabit the holy regions.' Saying this to the king, Indra ascended to
heaven. And the virtuous king Usinara, after having filled heaven and
earth with the merit of his pious deeds, ascended to heaven in a radiant
shape. Behold, O king, the residence of that noble-hearted monarch. Here,
O king, are seen holy sages and gods, together with virtuous and
highsouled Brahmanas."

SECTION CXXXII

"Lomasa said, 'See here, O lord of men, the sacred hermitage of
Swetaketu, son of Uddalaka, whose fame as an expert in the sacred mantras
is so widely spread on earth. This hermitage is graced with cocoanut
trees. Here Swetaketu beheld the goddess Saraswati in her human shape,
and spake unto her, saying, 'May I be endowed with the gift of speech!"
In that yuga, Swetaketu, the son of Uddalaka, and Ashtavakra, the son of
Kahoda, who stood to each other in the relation of uncle and nephew, were
the best of those conversant with the sacred lore. Those two Brahmanas,
of matchless energy, who bore unto each other the relationship of uncle
and nephew, went into the sacrificial ground of king Janaka and there
defeated Vandin in a controversy. Worship, O son of Kunti, with thy
brothers, the sacred hermitage of him who had for his grandson
Ashtavakra, who, even when a mere child, had caused Vandin to be drowned
in a river, after having defeated him in a (literary)