hick darkness, and covered with hair
and moss forming its grassy vesture. Polluted with the stench of sinners,
and miry with flesh and blood, it abounded with gadflies and stinging
bees and gnats and was endangered by the inroads of grisly bears. Rotting
corpses lay here and there. Overspread with bones and hair, it was
noisome with worms and insects. It was skirted all along with a blazing
fire. It was infested by crows and other birds and vultures, all having
beaks of iron, as also by evil spirits with long mouths pointed like
needles. And it abounded with inaccessible fastnesses like the Vindhya
mountains. Human corpses were scattered over it, smeared with fat and
blood, with arms and thighs cut off, or with entrails torn out and legs
severed.

"'Along that path so disagreeable with the stench of corpses and awful
with other incidents, the righteous-souled king proceeded, filled with
diverse thoughts. He beheld a river full of boiling water and, therefore,
difficult to cross, as also a forest of trees whose leaves were sharp
swords and razors. There were plains full of fine white sand exceedingly
heated, and rocks and stones made of iron. There were many jars of iron
all around, with boiling oil in them. Many a Kuta-salmalika was there,
with sharp thorns and, therefore, exceedingly painful to the touch. The
son of Kunti beheld also the tortures inflicted upon sinful men.

"'Beholding that inauspicious region abounding with every sort of
foulness, Yudhishthira asked the celestial messenger, saying, "How far
shall we proceed along a path like this? It behoveth thee to tell me
where those brothers of mine are. I desire also to know what region is
this of the gods?"

"'Hearing these words of king Yudhishthira the just, the celestial
messenger stopped in his course and replied, saying, "Thus far is your
way. The denizens of Heaven commanded me that having come thus far, I am
to stop. If thou art tired, O king of kings, thou mayst return with me."

"'Yudhishthira, however, was exceedingly disconsolate and stupefied by the
foul odour. Resolved to return, O Bharata, he retraced his steps.
Afflicted by sorrow and grief, the righteous-souled monarch turned back.
Just at that moment he heard piteous lamentations all around, "O son of
Dharma, O royal sage, O thou of sacred origin, O son of Pandu, do thou
stay a moment for favouring us. At thy approach, O invincible one, a
delightful breeze hath begun to blow, bearing the swee