never
show sufficient regard for even such husbands as accomplish all their
wishes, as always do what is agreeable to them and as protect them from
want and danger. Women never regard so highly even articles of enjoyment
in abundance or ornaments or other possessions of an agreeable kind as
they do the companionship of persons of the opposite sex. The destroyer,
the deity of wind, death, the nether legions, the equine mouth that roves
through the ocean, vomiting ceaseless flames of fire, the sharpness of
the razor, virulent poison, the snake, and Fire--all these exist in a
state of union in women. That eternal Brahman whence the five great
elements have sprung into existence, whence the Creator Brahma hath
ordained the universe, and whence, indeed, men have sprung, verily from
the same eternal source have women sprung into existence. At that time,
again, O Narada, when women were created, these faults that I have
enumerated were planted in them!'"'"

SECTION XXXIX

"'Yudhishthira said, "All men, O king, in this world, are seen to attach
themselves to women, overcome by the illusion that is created by the
divine Being. Similarly, women too are seen to attach themselves to men.
All this is seen taking place everywhere in the world. On this subject a
doubt exists in my mind. Why, O delighter of the Kurus, do men (when
women are stained with so many faults) still attach themselves to women?
Who, again, are those men with whom women are highly pleased and who are
they with whom they are displeased? It behoveth thee, O chief of men, to
explain to me how men are capable of protecting women? While men take
pleasure in women and sport with them, women, it seems, are engaged in
deceiving men. Then, again, if a man once falls into their hands, it is
difficult for him to escape from them. Like kine ever seeking pastures
new women seek new men one after another. That illusion which the Asura
Samvara possessed, that illusion which the Asura Namuchi possessed, that
illusion which Vali or Kumbbinasi had, the sum total thereof is possessed
by women. If man laughs, women laugh. If man weeps, they weep. If the
opportunity requires, they receive the man that is disagreeable to them
with agreeable words. That science of policy which the preceptor of the
Asuras knew, that science of policy which the preceptor of the
celestials, Vrihaspati, knew, cannot be regarded to be deeper or more
distinguished for subtility than what woman's intel