Page:Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan.djvu/102

66 Perfect dominion on his soul. At morn, Fuel, and flowers, and fruit, and holy grass, He gathered for oblations; and he passed In stern devotions all his other hours; Of the world heedless, and its myriad cares, And heedless too of wealth, and love, and fame.


 * Once on a time, while living thus, he went

To bathe where through the wood the river flows: And his ablutions done, he sat him down Upon the shelving bank to muse and pray. Thither impelled by thirst a graceful hind, Big with its young, came fearlessly to drink. Sudden, while yet she drank, the lion's roar, Feared by all creatures, like a thunder-clap Burst in that solitude from a thicket nigh. Startled, the hind leapt up, and from her womb Her offspring tumbled in the rushing stream. Whelmed by the hissing waves and carried far By the strong current swoln by recent rain, The tiny thing still straggled for its life, While its poor mother, in her fright and pain, Fell down upon the bank, and breathed her last. Up rose the hermit-monarch at the sight Full of keen anguish; with his pilgrim staff