inhabitants of the sylvan asylums.  Before this, moved by deep grief, my father and mother had rebuked me many times and often, saying,—­Thou comest having tarried long!  I am thinking of the pass they have today come to on my account, for, surely, great grief will be theirs when they miss me.  One night before this, the old couple, who love me dearly, wept from deep sorrow and said into me, ’Deprived of thee, O son, we cannot live for even a moment.  As long as thou livest, so long, surely, we also will live.  Thou art the crutch of these blind ones; on thee doth perpetuity of our race depend.  On thee also depend our funeral cake, our fame and our descendants!  My mother is old, and my father also is so.  I am surely their crutch.  If they see me not in the night, what, oh, will be their plight!  I hate that slumber of mine for the sake of which my unoffending mother and my father have both been in trouble, and I myself also, am placed in such rending distress!  Without my father and mother, I cannot bear to live.  It is certain that by this time my blind father, his mind disconsolate with grief, is asking everyone of the inhabitants of the hermitage about me!  I do not, O fair girl, grieve so much for myself as I do for my sire, and for my weak mother ever obedient to her lord!  Surely, they will be afflicted with extreme anguish on account of me.  I hold my life so long as they live.  And I know that they should be maintained by me and that I should do only what is agreeable to them!’

“Markandeya continued, ’Having said this, that virtuous youth who loved and revered his parents, afflicted with grief held up his arms and began to lament in accents of woe.  And seeing her lord overwhelmed with sorrow the virtuous Savitri wiped away the tears from his eyes and said, ’If I have observed austerities, and have given away in charity, and have performed sacrifice, may this night be for the good of my father-in-law, mother-in-law and husband!  I do not remember having told a single falsehood, even in jest.  Let my father-in-law and mother-in-law hold their lives by virtue of the truth!’ Satyavan said, ’I long for the sight of my father and mother!  Therefore, O Savitri, proceed without delay.  O beautiful damsel, I swear by my own self that if I find any evil to have befallen my father and mother, I will not live.  If thou hast any regard for virtue, if thou wishest me to live, if it is thy duty to do what is agreeable to me, proceed thou to the hermitage!’ The beautiful Savitri then rose and tying up her hair, raised her husband in her arms.  And Satyavan having risen, rubbed his limbs with his hands.  And as he surveyed all around, his eyes fell upon his wallet.  Then Savitri said unto him, ’Tomorrow thou mayst gather fruits.  And I shall carry thy axe for thy ease.’  Then hanging up the wallet upon the bough of a tree, and taking up the axe, she re-approached her husband.  And that lady of beautiful thighs, placing her husband’s left arm upon her left