and honour.  They were endued with shame.  They were of rigid vows.  They used to perform their ablutions on every sacred day.  They used to smear themselves properly with perfumes and suspicious unguents.  They were also to adorn their persons duly.  They were observant of fasts and penances, were trustful, and utterers of Vedic hymns.  The Sun never rose upon them while they lay asleep.  They never outslept the moon.  They always abstained from curds and pounded barley.  They used every morning to look at clarified butter and other auspicious articles, and with senses withdrawn they used to recite the Vedas and worship Brahmanas with gifts.  Their discourse was always virtuous, and they never accepted gifts.  They always went to sleep at midnight and never slept during the day.  They always used to take pleasure in showing compassion for the distressed, the helpless, the aged, the weak, the sick, and women, and enjoyed all their possessions by sharing these with them.  They always used to assume and comfort the agitated, the cheerless, the anxious, the terrified, the diseased, the weak and emaciated, the robbed, and the afflicted.  They followed the dictates of virtue and never injured one another.  They were ready and well-disposed for action of every kind (that deserved to be accomplished).  They used to serve and wait with reverence upon seniors and aged individuals.  They duly worshipped Pitris, deities, and guests, and ate every day what was left after gratifying these.  They were firmly devoted to truth and penances.  None amongst them ate singly any food that was good, and none had congress with other people’s wives.  As regards compassion, they behaved towards all creatures as towards their own selves.  They never allowed the emission of the vital seed into empty space, into inferior animals, into forbidden wombs, or on sacred days.  They were always distinguished for gifts, for cleverness, for simplicity, for hopeful exertion, for humility, for friendliness, and for forgiveness.  And, O puissant one, truth, charity, penance, purity, compassion, soft speeches and absence of animosity towards friends,—­all these were always in them.  Slumber, procrastination, fretfulness, envy, and want of foresight, discontent, melancholy, cupidity never assailed them.  In consequence of the Danavas having been distinguished for these good qualities, I dwelt with them from the beginning of the creation for many yugas together.  Times were altered, and that alteration brought about an alteration in the character of the Danavas.  I saw that virtue and morality deserted them and they began to own the sway of lust and wrath.  Persons, though themselves inferior in attainments, began to cherish animosities towards seniors in age possessed of superior qualifications, and while the latter, possessed of virtue and merit, used to speak upon proper topics in the midst of assemblies, the former began to ridicule or laugh at them.  When reverend seniors in age came, the younger individuals, seated