HURDWAR. 
219 
to become polluted, the conscience-smitten Suryaput 
threw down the goat in a paroxysm of despair and pe- 
nitential remorse, and with loud cries of distress he 
fled to these temples, and cast himself prostrate before 
the altars which his overweening vanity and covetous- 
ness had induced him to forsake. 
“ Thus the three dukhaits, by the repetition of a lie, 
made the wise Brahmin believe that his goat was in 
truth a dog, and in this manner they obtained posses- 
sion of it. So that you see even the wisest of us are 
not at all times infallible.” 
Purwatti having listened to this account of the 
Brahmin Suryaput, became fully convinced that it 
would be for his own good, and the security of his 
welfare, to place in the hands of the Brahmins such 
an instrument as would enable them to enforce an im- 
plicit observance of his vows, lest in a weak moment 
he should become a defaulter to the gods ; and having 
thus done, he returned to his own house, and sought 
consolation in the soft affection of his darling child, 
who soon became, if possible, more and more dear to 
him; albeit, an unreasonable person might have up 
braided her as the indirect cause of his misfortune. 
Tidings of the bania's vow having spread far and 
wide through the country, from temple to temple, 
from Brahmin to Brahmin, from pilgrim to pilgrim, 
all religious devotees who sought shelter beneath the 
sacred banian tree, — and at certain seasons there were 
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