from them, and having
duly accepted them in gift in consequence of those priestly services
which they rendered, those high-souled and great Rishis came towards the
east. Trita, O king, with a cheerful heart was walking before them. Ekata
and Dwita were in his rear, bringing up the animals. Beholding that large
herd of animals, they began to reflect as to how they two could
appropriate that property without giving a share unto Trita. Hear, O
king, what those two sinful wretches, Ekata and Dwita, said while
conversing with each other! They said, 'Trita is skilled in assisting at
sacrifices. Trita is devoted to the Vedas. Trita is capable of earning
many other kine. Let us two, therefore, go away, taking the kine with us!
Let Trita go whithersoever he chooses, without being in our company!' As
they proceeded, night came upon them on the way. They then saw a wolf
before them. Not far from that spot was a deep hole on the bank of the
Sarasvati. Trita, who was in advance of his brothers, seeing the wolf,
ran in fright and fell into that hole. That hole was fathomless and
terrible and capable of inspiring all creatures with fear. Then Trita, O
king, that best of ascetics, from within that hole, began to utter wails
of woe. His two brothers heard his cries. Understanding that he had
fallen into a pit, his brothers Ekata and Dwita, moved by fear of the
wolf as also by temptation, went on, deserting their brother. Thus
deserted by his two brothers, who were moved by the temptation of
appropriating those animals, the great ascetic Trita, O king, while
within that lonely well covered with dust and herbs and creepers, thought
himself plunged, O chief of the Bharatas, into hell itself like a sinful
wretch. He feared to die inasmuch as he had not earned the merit of
drinking Soma juice. Possessed of great wisdom, he began to reflect with
the aid of his intelligence as to how he could succeed in drinking Soma
even there. While thinking on that subject, the great ascetic, standing
in that pit, beheld a creeper hanging down into it in course of its
growth. Although the pit was dry, the sage imagined the existence of
water and of sacrificial fires there. Constituting himself the Hotri (in
imagination), the great ascetic imagined the creeper he saw to be the
Soma plant. He then mentally uttered the Richs, the Yayushes and the
Samans (that were necessary for the performance of a sacrifice). The
pebbles (lying at the bottom of the well) Trita