Ye that are
afflicted with grief on account of the death of this child will surely
have good luck today. Anticipating the probability of inconvenience and
pain (if you remain here for the night) and fixing your hearts on your
own comfort, whither would you, like persons of little intelligence, go,
leaving this darling?'
"Bhishma continued, 'Even thus, O king, the kinsmen of the deceased
child, unable to decide upon what they should do, were, for
accomplishment of his own purpose, induced by that sinful jackal who
uttered agreeable falsehoods, that denizens of the crematorium who
wandered every night in quest of food, to stay in that place.'
"The vulture said, 'Dreadful is this spot, this wilderness, that resounds
with the screech of owls and teems with spirits and Yakshas and
Rakshasas. Terrible and awful, its aspect is like that of a mass of blue
clouds. Casting off the dead body, finish the funeral rites. Indeed,
throwing away the body, accomplish those rites before the sun sets and
before the points of the horizon become enveloped in gloom. The hawks are
uttering their harsh cries. Jackals are howling fiercely. Lions are
roaring. The sun is setting. The trees on the crematorium are assuming a
dark hue in consequence of the blue smoke of the funeral pyres. The
carnivorous denizens of this place, afflicted with hunger, are yelling in
rage. All those creatures of horrible forms that live in this frightful
place, all those carnivorous animals of grim features that haunt this
desert, will soon assail you.
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