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good time in the morning Rohini finished cooking, served Brahmânanda’s meal, and, herself fasting, closed the door of her sleeping chamber, and lay down—not to sleep, but to think.

Oh! ye students of the Vedas, leave for a while your customary lore and listen to my simple speech. There is a daughter of the gods named Benevolence, and an ogress named Malevolence. These two beings roam about in the human heart, and are constantly at war with each other. As two tigresses fight for a dead cow, or two jackals for the body of a dead man, so do these two for the living man. To-day in that lonely sleeping chamber these two spirits wrangled for Rohini.

Sumati (Benevolence) said: "Is it right to ruin so good a man?"