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Prem Sagar: Chapter XXXVIII

SHREE SHOOKDEO JEE said,--O great king! listen attentively, and I will narrate how Shree Krishnù Chund killed Kesee, and Narud came and eulogized the act; and afterwards how Huri destroyed Byomasoor. At dawn of day, Kesee came to Brindabun in the form of an immense horse of terrifying aspect; and began to paw the ground, and dig up the earth; having blood-shot eyes, and uplifted nostrils, and ears and tail erect; and continued neighing and writhing its shoulders and kicking.

On seeing the animal, the cowherds' children were frightened, and ran off and told Krishnù, who came to the spot: and on beholding it, made preparations for an encounter, and striking the upper parts of his arms, roared like a lion, exclaiming, "If you are a great friend of Kuns, and have come here in the form of a horse, why do you run after others? Come and fight with me, that I may see your strength? How long will you wander about, like a moth circling round a lamp? Your death is at hand." On hearing these words Kesee was enraged, and began to say to himself, "To-day I will make trial of his power, and laying hold of him and chewing him like sugar-cane, will do what Kuns wishes." He then rushed forward with his mouth open, as though he would devour the

He then attempted many plans of extricating the hand, not one of which succeeded. At length, he ceased to breathe, and his belly burst, so that he fell backwards. The blood streamed from his body like a river. At this time the cowherds' children came to see what had happened; and Shree Krishnù Chund advanced into the jungle, and stood under the shade of a kudum tree. In the mean while Narud, the sage, arrived with a lute in his hand. Having made an obeisance, he stood up, and playing on the lute, and singing of the past and future sports and exploits of Shree Krishnù Chund, he said, "O lord of compassion! your sports are unlimited. Who has power to describe your actions? But through your favour I know so much, that you frequently descend and are manifest upon the earth to confer happiness on your worshippers, protect virtuous men, destroy demons and evil spirits and remove the burthens of the world."

On hearing these words Krishnù permitted Narud, the sage, to depart; and he bowed his head and went away. Krishnù took all the cowherds' children and his companions with him; and sitting under a fig tree, he made one a minister, another a counsellor of state, a third the chief of an army, and being himself a Raja, they all began to play a game in imitation of royalty, and afterwards at blind man's buff.

Having recited so much of the history, Shree Shookdeo Jee said,--O lord of the earth! Kuns having heard that Kesee had

Byomasoor with joined hands said in reply, "O great king! to-day I will do all in my power. My body is yours. They, who are fond of life, shrink from sacrificing it for their masters. The good name and virtue of servants and wives consist in giving up their lives for their lords."

Having thus spoken, and taken up the beera of betel in token of undertaking the project, proposed by Kuns, against Krishnù and Buldeo, Byomasoor made an obeisance to Kuns, and set out for Brindabun. On the road he assumed the appearance of a cowherd, and arrived in that disguise at the place where Huri was playing at blind man's buff with the cowherds' children and their companions. When, as he was going along, he said to Krishnù from a distance with his hands joined, "O great king! allow me also to play with you," Huri invited him to come near, and said, "Do not conceal any wish you may have formed, but play with us at any game you prefer?" He was delighted, and replied, "The wolf and rams is a good game." Shree Krishnù Chund smiled and said, "Very good, you be the wolf, and the cowherds' children shall be the rams."

Byomasoor was rejoiced at these words, and became a wolf, and the cowherds' children were rams, and they began to play the game together. The demon took them off one by one, and placed them in the cave of a hill, and shut them up there, by placing a stone across the entrance. When he had thus placed them all there, and Shree Krishnù alone remained, he called out, "I will to-day accomplish Kuns' business for him, and destroy all the family of Judoo."