Only a mockery of sleep! But the vow had been violated, the sacred
purpose unfulfilled! Humiliated, penitent, but resolved, the ascetic
drew from his girdle a keen knife, and with unfaltering hands severed
his eyelids from his eyes, and flung them from him. "O Thou Perfectly
Awakened!" he prayed, "thy disciple hath not been overcome save through
the feebleness of the body; and his vow hath been renewed. Here shall he
linger, without food or drink, until the moment of its fulfilment." And
having assumed the hieratic posture,--seated himself with his lower
limbs folded beneath him, and the palms of his hands upward, the right
upon the left, the left resting upon the sole of his upturned foot,--he
resumed his meditation.

* * * * *

Dawn blushed; day brightened. The sun shortened all the shadows of the
land, and lengthened them again, and sank at last upon his funeral pyre
of crimson-burning cloud. Night came and glittered and passed. But Mara
had tempted in vain. This time the vow had been fulfilled, the holy
purpose accomplished.

And again the sun arose to fill the World with laughter of light;
flowers opened their hearts to him; birds sang their morning hymn of
fire worship; the deep forest trembled with delight; and far upon the
plain, the eaves of many-storied temples and the peaked caps of the
city-towers caught aureate glory. Strong in the holiness of his
accomplished vow, the Indian pilgrim arose in the morning glow. He
started for amazement as he lifted his hands to his eyes. What! was
everything a dream? Impossible! Yet now his eyes felt no pain; neither