130 THE LATE REV. P. DEHON ON 



of rice. When she saw this the old woman exclaimed, " My son, I did not believe it, but 

 now I see." 



The paddy began to accumulate in all the corners of the old woman's house, whilst 

 those that were rich before became poor, and from the time that Bhagwan came down to 

 earth, the furnaces of the 12 brothers Asurs and 13 brothers Lodhas began to fall in and 

 they could not repair them. They looked everywhere for a sorcerer to find out the bhut 

 who was the cause of the misfortune ; but no one succeeded. At last they assembled in council 

 and one of them said, " We have called all the sorcerers of the world and all to no purpose ; 

 there is that man full of sores living in the house of that old widow : let us call him, perhaps 

 he will know." Then two or three brothers went and said to him, " Brother, we have 

 come to you on a very important matter. See ! our furnaces are entirely destroyed : it 

 may be you know the cause." Bhagwan answered, " It may be I know something 

 about it." Then he began to pretend to look for the omens and said, " Now that will do : light 

 your furnaces and blow." From that time everything went on all right. Some days after 

 Bhagwan went, looked at their furnaces and asked them, " Well now, is it all right ? " 

 They answered, "Yes, everything is all right, but what sacrifice have we to offer?" 

 Bhagwan told them that only a human sacrifice would do. They looked everywhere for a 

 victim, but no one was willing to sacrifice himself or his children ; they came to Bhagwan 

 in despair and said to him, " What are we to do : we cannot find a victim?" Bhagwan 

 answered, " Never mind, don't fret about it. I am alone in the world, I have no father, no 

 mother, I am full of sores. How long am I going to rot ? I am disgusted with life. Since 

 you can find no one, I will offer up myself for you. Build a great furnace and throw me in, 

 work the bellows for seven days and seven nights, and after that bring first water in new 

 earthen pots, cut branches of the mangoe tree, dip them in water and extinguish the fire." 

 They did so, opened the furnaces, and lo ! Bhagwan who had gone in alone full of sores 

 came out riding on his horse Ansraj Pankraj loaded with silver and gold. They opened 

 their eyes wide and asked him, " Where did you find all this?" He answered : "In the 

 furnace, of course." Then they said, " In that case, we want to go in also." Then Bhagwan 

 said to them : " Of course you may go in also. You see how much gold and silver a poor 

 man like me, full of sores, has brought out ; how much more silver and gold will you not 

 bring out, you who are full of health." Some of them shouted, "We will go, we will 

 go." Bhagwan, however, said this would not do, as, if some went and others remained, 

 there would be a great disturbance when questions of dividing the silver and gold came up. 

 " No," said he, " listen to me : build a very great furnace in which all of you will be able to 

 enter; and all go in." They did so, and Bhagwan called a woman that was pregnant 

 to work the bellows, promising to give her a share of the gold and silver. They went in, 

 and Bhagwan set fire to the furnace and told the woman to work the bellows. Imme- 

 diately they all began to howl and kick, and the woman got frightened and wanted to stop, 

 but Bhagwan said to her, " Go on, go on, they are only fighting and quarrelling about 

 the silver and gold." The woman worked the bellows for one day and one night. Then 

 when Bhagwan opened the furnace, they found only charred bones. Bhagwan then jumped 

 on his horse and was ready to start, when all the Asur women came and caught the horse 

 by the bridle and shouted, " We won't let you go. Now that our husbands are all dead, 



