One after another, the house-holders have to send him this food. The turn,
however, cometh to a particular family at intervals of many long years. If
there are any that seek to avoid it, the Rakshasa slayeth them with their
children and wives and devoureth them all. There is, in this country, a
city called Vetrakiya, where liveth the king of these territories. He is
ignorant of the science of government, and possessed of little
intelligence, he adopts not with care any measure by which these
territories may be rendered safe for all time to come. But we certainly
deserve it all, inasmuch as we live within the dominion of that wretched
and weak monarch in perpetual anxiety. Brahmanas can never be made to
dwell permanently within the dominions of any one, for they are dependent
on nobody, they live rather like birds ranging all countries in perfect
freedom. It hath been said that one must secure a (good) king, then a wife,
and then wealth. It is by the acquisition of these three that one can
rescue his relatives and sons. But as regards the acquisition of these
three, the course of my actions hath been the reverse. Hence, plunged into
a sea of danger, am suffering sorely. That turn, destructive of one's
family, hath now devolved upon me. I shall have to give unto the Rakshasa
as his fee the food of the aforesaid description and one human being to
boot. I have no wealth to buy a man with. I cannot by any means consent to
part with any one of my family, nor do I see any way of escape from (the
clutches of) that Rakshasa.
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