host so easily that they who witnessed it wondered exceedingly.  And the lord of Saubha, unable to bear that manoeuvre of Pradyumna, instantly sent three shafts at the charioteer of his antagonist!  The charioteer, however, without taking any note of the force of those arrows, continued to go along the right.  Then the lord of Saubha, O hero, again discharged at my son by Rukmini, a shower of various kinds of weapons!  But that slayer of hostile heroes, the son of Rukmini, showing with a smile his lightness of hand, cut all those weapons off as they reached him.  Finding his arrows cut by Pradyumna, the lord of Saubha, having recourse to the dreadful illusion natural to Asuras began to pour a thick shower of arrows.  But cutting into pieces those powerful Daitya weapons shot at him in mid-career by means of his Brahma weapon, Pradyumna discharged winged shafts of other kings.  And these delighting in blood, warding off the shafts of Daitya, pierced his head, bosom and face.  And at those wounds Salwa fell down senseless.  And on the mean-minded Salwa falling down, afflicted with Pradyumna’s arrows, the son of Rukmini aimed another arrow at him, capable of destroying every foe.  And beholding that arrow worshipped by all the Dasarhas, and flaming like fire and fatal as a venomous snake, fixed on the bow-string, the firmament was filled with exclamations of Oh! and Alas!  Then all the celestials with Indra and the lord of treasures (Kubera) at their head sent Narada and the god of wind endued with the speed of the mind.  And these two approaching the son of Rukmini delivered unto him the message of the celestial, saying, O hero, king Salwa is nor to be slain by thee!  Do thou draw back the arrow.  He is unslayable by thee in fight!  There breatheth not a person who cannot be killed by that arrow!  O thou of mighty arms, the Creator hath ordained his death at the hands of Krishna, the son of Devaki!  Let this be not falsified!—­Thereupon with a glad heart, Pradyumna withdrew that best of arrows from his excellent bow and deposited it back in his quiver.  And then, O foremost of kings, the mighty Salwa, afflicted with the arrows of Pradyumna, rose disheartened, and speedily went away.  Then O king, the wicked Salwa, thus afflicted by the Vrishnis, mounted on his car of precious metals, and leaving Dwaraka scudded through the skies!’”

SECTION XX

“Vasudeva said, ’When Salwa had left the city of the Anarttas, I returned to it, O king, on the completion of thy great Rajasuya sacrifice!  On my arrival I found Dwaraka shorn of its splendour, and, O great monarch, there were not sounds of Vedic recitation or sacrificial offering, And the excellent damsels were all destitute of ornaments, and the gardens were devoid of beauty.  And alarmed by the aspect, I asked the son of Hridika saying, ’Why is it that the men and women of the city of the Vrishnis are so woe-begone, O tiger among men?’ O thou