expedition.  I pierced a deer with an arrow, but the animal with the shaft sticking to his body ran with great speed.  In chasing it I have, without a set purpose, arrived at this forest and find myself in your presence, shorn of splendour, toil-worn, and with hope disappointed.  What can be more pitiable than this, viz., that I have arrived at this asylum, spent with fatigue, shorn of the signs of royalty, and disappointed of my hopes.  I am not at all sorry, ye ascetics, at my being now shorn of the signs of royalty or at my being now at a distance from my capital.  I feel, however, a poignant grief in consequence of my hope having been disappointed.  The prince of mountains, viz., Himavat, and that vast receptacle of waters, viz., the ocean, cannot, for its vastness, measure the extent of the firmament.  Ye ascetics, similarly, I also cannot discern the limit of hope.  Ye that are endued with wealth of penances are omniscient.  There is nothing unknown to you.  You are also highly blessed.  I therefore, solicit you for resolving my doubt.  Hope as cherished by man, and the wide firmament, which of these two appears vaster to you?  I desire to hear in detail what is so unconquerable to hope.  If the topic be one upon which it is not improper for ye to discourse, then tell me all about it without delay.  I do not wish, ye foremost of regenerate ones, to hear anything from You that may be a mystery improper to discourse upon.  If again the discourse be injurious to your penances, I would not wish you to speak.  If the question asked by me be a worthy topic of discourse, I would then wish to hear the cause in detail.  Devoted to penances as ye are, do ye all instruct me on the subject.’”

SECTION CXXVII

“Bhishma said, ’Then that best of Rishis, viz., the regenerate Rishabha, sitting in the midst of all those Rishis, smiled a little and said these words:  ’Formerly, O tiger among kings, while travelling among sacred places, I arrived, O lord, at the beautiful asylum of Nara and Narayana.  There lies the delightful spot called Vadri, and there also is that lake in the firmament (whence the sacred Ganga takes her rise).[381] There the sage Aswasiras, O king, (always) reads the eternal Vedas.  Having performed my ablutions in that lake and offered with due rites oblations of water unto the Pitris and the dogs, I entered the asylum.  Within that retreat the Rishis Nara and Narayana always pass their time in true pleasure.[382] Not far from that spot I repaired to another retreat for taking up my abode.  While seated there I beheld a very tall and emaciated Rishi, clad in rags and skins, approaching towards me.  Possessed of the wealth of penances, he was named Tanu.  Compared, O mighty-armed one, with other men, his height seemed to be eight times greater.  As regards his leanness, O royal sage, I can say that I have never beheld its like.  His body, O king,