SHREE SHOOKDEO said,--O great king! when Shree Krishnù was eight years of age, he one day said to Jusodha, "Mother! I will go and take the cows to feed; do you prevail on my father to send me with the cowherds." Hearing this, Jusodha spoke to Nund Jee on the subject. He having fixed upon a lucky division of time, equal to forty-eight minutes, sent for the cowherds' children; and on the eighth of the light part of the month Kartik, having caused Krishnù to perform poojah to a cowshed, he said in a supplicating mariner to the cowherds, "Brothers! from to-day, take Ram Krishnù with you, when you take the cows to pasture: but stay near him, and do not leave him alone in the jungle." Having thus said, and given them food, and marked Krishnù and Bulram on the forehead with coagulated milk, he dismissed them in company with all the rest. They were delighted, and went to the jungle with the cowherds' children and the cows. There, on beholding the beauty of the jungle, Shree Krishnù began to say to Buldeo, "Buldeo! this is a very pleasant, agreeable place; see, how the trees are bending under the weight of their branches, and beasts and birds of various kinds, sporting in every direction!"
