ustible materials, along with the clear chant
of Samans and the wailing of the citizens and others who witnessed the
rite. After it was all over, the boys of the Vrishni and Andhaka races,
headed by Vajra, as also the ladies, offered oblations of water to the
high-souled hero.

"'Phalguna, who was careful in observing every duty, having caused this
duty to be performed, proceeded, O chief of Bharata's race, next to the
place where the Vrishnis were slaughtered. The Kuru prince, beholding
them lying slaughtered all around, became exceedingly cheerless. He,
however, did what was required to be done in view of that which had
happened. The last rites were performed, according to the order of
seniority, unto the bodies of those heroes slain by the iron bolts born,
by virtue of the curse denounced by the Brahmanas, of the blades of Eraka
grass. Searching out the bodies then of Rama and Vasudeva, Arjuna caused
them to be burnt by persons skilled in that act. The son of Pandu, having
next performed duly those sraddha rites that are done to the dead,
quickly set out on the seventh day, mounting on his car. The widows of
the Vrishni heroes, wailing aloud, followed the high-souled son of Pandu,
Dhananjaya, on cars drawn by bullocks and mules and camels. All were in
deep affliction. The servants of the Vrishnis, their horsemen, and their
car-warriors too, followed the procession. The citizens and the
inhabitants of the country, at the command of Pritha's son, set out at the
same time and proceeded, surrounding that cavalcade destitute of heroes
and numbering only women and the aged and the children. The warriors who
fought from the backs of elephants proceeded on elephants as huge as
hills. The foot-soldiers also set out, together with the reserves. The
children of the Andhaka and the Vrishni races, all followed Arjuna. The
Brahmanas and Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas, and wealthy Sudras, set out,
keeping before them the 16,000 women that had formed Vasudeva's harem, and
Vajra, the grandson of the intelligent Krishna. The widows of the other
heroes of the Bhoja, the Vrishni, and the Andhaka races, lordless now,
that set out with Arjuna, numbered many millions. That foremost of
car-warriors, that conqueror of hostile towns, the son of Pritha,
escorted this vast procession of Vrishnis, which still abounded with
wealth, and which looked like a veritable ocean.

"'After all the people had set out, the ocean, that home of sharks and
alligator