are yet destitute of the very means of support, and are afflicted with misery.  Hungry men, approaching a brave and bountiful monarch, are gratified, and live by his side.  What virtue can be superior to this?  A virtuous person, upon acquiring a kingdom, should in this world make all persons his own, attaching some by gift, some by force, and some by sweet words.  A Brahmana should adopt mendicancy; a Kshatriya should protect (subjects); a Vaisya should earn wealth; and a Sudra should serve the other three.  Mendicancy, therefore, is forbidden to thee.  Nor is agriculture suited to thee.  Thou art a Kshatriya and therefore, the protector of all in distress.  Thou art to live by the prowess of thy arms.  O thou of mighty arms, recover thy paternal share of the kingdom which thou hast lost, by conciliation, or by working disunion among thy foes, or by gift of money or violence, or well-directed policy.  What can be a matter of greater grief than that I, deprived of friends, should live upon food supplied by others, after having brought thee forth, thou enhancer of the joys of friends?  Fight, according to the practices of kings.  Do not sink thy ancestors (in infamy).  With thy merit worn out, do not, with thy younger brothers, obtain a sinful end.’”

SECTION CXXXIII

“Kunti said, ’In this connection, O chastiser of foes, is cited an old story of the conversation between Vidula and her son.  It behoveth thee to say unto Yudhishthira anything that can be gathered from this or anything more beneficial than that.

’There was a high-born dame of great foresight, named Vidula.  She was famous, slightly wrathful, of crooked disposition, and devoted to Kshatriya virtues.  Well-educated, she was known to all the kings of the earth.  Of great learning, she had listened to the speeches and instructions of diverse mien.  And the princess Vidula, one day, rebuked her own son, who, after his defeat by the king of the Sindhus, lay prostrate with heart depressed by despair.  And she said, ’Thou art not my son, O enhancer of the joys of foes.  Begotten thou hast not been by myself and thy father!  Whence hast thou come?  Without wrath as thou art, thou canst not be counted as a man.  Thy features betray thee to be a eunuch.  Sinkest thou in despair as long as thou livest?  If thou art desirous of thy own welfare, bear thou the burthen (of thy affairs on thy shoulders), Do not disgrace thy soul.  Do not suffer it to be gratified with a little.  Set thy heart on thy welfare, and be not afraid.  Abandon thy fears.  Rise, O coward.  Do not lie down thus, after thy defeat, delighting all thy foes and grieving the friends, and reft of all sense of honour.  Little streams are filled up with only a quantity of water.  The palms of a mouse are filled with only a small quantity.  A coward is soon gratified, with acquisitions that are small.  Rather perish in plucking the fangs of a snake than die miserable like a dog.  Put