Section X

Sauti said, 'And Ruru, on hearing those words, replied,

'My wife, dear to me as life, was bit by a snake; upon which, I took, O snake, a dreadful vow, viz., that I would kill every snake that I might come across. Therefore shall I smite you and you shalt be deprived of life.'

"And the Dundubha replied,

'O Brahmana, the snakes that bite man are quite different in type. It behoves you not to slay Dundubhas who are serpents only in name. Subject like other serpents to the same calamities but not sharing their good fortune, in woe the same but in joy different, the Dundubhas should not be slain by you under any misconception.'

"Sauti continued, 'And the Rishi Ruru hearing these words of the serpent, and seeing that it was bewildered with fear, albeit a snake of the Dundubha species, killed it not. And Ruru, the possessor of the six attributes, comforting the snake addressed it, saying, 'Tell me fully, O snake, who art you thus metamorphosed?' And the Dundubha replied,

'O Ruru! I was formerly a Rishi by name Sahasrapat. And it is by the curse of a Brahmana that I have been transformed into a snake. '

And Ruru asked,

'O you best of snakes, for what wast you cursed by a Brahmana in wrath? And how long also will your form continue so?'"

And so ends the tenth section of the Pauloma Parva of the Adi Parva.