beforehand.  Bereaved of spouses and dear ones and filled with sorrow for (the death of) children, men leave this spot every day with agonised hearts for returning home.  Leaving on this spot both friends and foes numbering by thousands, kinsmen afflicted with grief go back to their homes.  Cast off this lifeless body with no longer any animal heat in it and which is as stiff as a piece of wood!  Why then do you not go away, leaving the body of this child which has become like a piece of wood and whose life has entered a new body?  This affection (which ye are displaying) is unmeaning and this hugging of the child is fruitless.  He does not see with his eyes or hear with his ears.  Leaving him here, go ye away without delay.  Thus addressed by me in words which are apparently cruel but which in reality are fraught with reason and have a direct bearing with the high religion of emancipation, go ye back to your respective homes.’  Addressed thus by the vulture endued with wisdom and knowledge and capable of imparting intelligence and awakening the understanding, those men prepared themselves to turn their backs upon the crematorium.  Grief, indeed, increaseth to twice its measure at sight of its object and at the remembrance of the acts of that object (in life).  Having heard these words of the vulture, the men resolved to leave the spot.  Just at that time the jackal, coming thither with quick steps, cast his eyes on the child lying in the sleep of death.’

“The jackal said, ’Why, indeed, do you leave, at the vulture’s bidding, this child of golden complexion, adorned with ornaments, and capable of giving the obsequial cake to his ancestors?  If you abandon him, your affection will not come to an end, nor these piteous lamentations.  On the other hand, your grief will certainly be greater.  It is heard that a Sudra named Samvuka having been slain and righteousness having been upheld by Rama of true prowess, a (dead) Brahmana child was restored to life.[451] Similarly, the son of the royal sage Sweta died (prematurely).  But the monarch, devoted to virtue, succeeded in reviving his dead child.  After the same manner, in your case also, some sage or deity may be willing to grant your desire and show compassion to you that are crying so piteously.’  Thus addressed by the jackal, the men, afflicted with grief and full of affection for the child, retraced their steps, and placing the child’s head on their laps one after another, began to indulge in copious lamentations.  Summoned by their cries, the vulture, coming to that spot, spoke unto them as follows.’

“The vulture said, ’Why are you bathing this child with your tears?  Why are you pressing him in this fashion with the touch of your palms?  At the command of the grim king of justice the child has been sent to that sleep which knows no waking.  Those that are endued with the merit of penances, those that are possessed of wealth, those that have great intelligence, in fact, all succumb to death.