sert. Then Varuna caused the king to be afflicted with dropsy.[68]
When Rohita heard of this he was about to return, but Indra, disguised
as a priest, met him, and said: 'Wander on, for the foot of a wanderer
is like a flower; his spirit grows, and reaps fruit, and all his sins
are forgiven in the fatigue of wandering.'[69] So Rohita, thinking
that a priest had commanded him, wandered; and every year, as he would
return, Indra met him, and told him still to wander. On one of these
occasions Indra inspires him to continue on his journey by telling him
that the _krita_ was now auspicious; using the names of dice
afterwards applied to the four ages.[70] Finally, after six years,
Rohita resolved to purchase a substitute for sacrifice. He meets a
starving seer, and offers to buy one of his sons (to serve as
sacrifice), the price to be one hundred cows. The seer has three sons,
and agrees to the bargain; but "the father said, 'Do not take the
oldest,' and the mother said, 'Do not take the youngest,' so Rohita
took the middle son, Dogstail." Varuna immediately agrees to this
substitution of Dogstail for Rohita, "since a priest is of more value
than a warrior."

The sacrifice is made ready, and Vicv[=a]mitra (the Vedic seer) is the
officiating priest. But no one would bind the boy to the post. 'If
thou wilt give me another hundred cows I will bind him,' says the
father of Dogstail. But then no one would kill the boy. 'If thou wilt
give me another hundred cows I will kill him,' says the father. The
[=A]pri verses[71] are said, and the fire is carried around the boy.
He is about to be slain. Then Dogstail prays to 'the first of gods,'
the Father-god, for protection. But the Father-god tells him to pray
to Agni, 'the nearest of the gods.' Agni sends him to another, and he
to another, till at last, when the boy has prayed to all the gods,
including the All-gods, his fetters drop off; Hariccandra's dropsy
ceases, and all ends well.[72] Only, when the avaricious father
demands his son back, he is refused, and Vicv[=a]mitra adopts the boy,
even dispossessing his own protesting sons. For fifty of the latter
agree to the exaltation of Dogstail; but fifty revolt, and are cursed
by Vicv[=a]mitra, that their sons' sons should become barbarians, the
Andhras, Pundras, Cabaras, Pulindas, and M[=u]tibas, savage races (of
this time), one of which can be located on the southeast coast. The
conclusion, and the matter that follows close on this ta