controlling his outer senses entered into meditation, sitting in the shade
of that very mango tree where he was. And there fell upon the lap of the
seated Muni a mango that was juicy and untouched by the beak of a parrot
or any other bird. That best of Munis, taking up the fruit and mentally
pronouncing certain mantras over it, gave it unto the king as the means of
his obtaining an incomparable offspring. And the great Muni, possessed
also of extraordinary wisdom, addressing the monarch, said,--"Return, O
king, thy wish is fulfilled. Desist, O king, from going (into the
woods)".--Hearing these words of the Muni and worshipping his feet, the
monarch possessed of great wisdom, returned to his own abode. And
recollecting his former promise (unto them) the king gave, O bull of the
Bharata race, unto his two wives that one fruit. His beautiful queens,
dividing that single fruit into two parts, ate it up. In consequence of
the certainty of the realisation of the Muni's words and his truthfulness,
both of them conceived, as an effect of their having eaten that fruit. And
the king beholding them in that state became filled with great joy. Then,
O wise monarch, some time after, when the time came, each of the queens
brought forth a fragmentary body. And each fragment had one eye, one arm,
one leg, half a stomach, half a face, and half an anus. Beholding the
fragmentary bodies, both the mothers trembled much. The helpless sisters
then anxiously consulted each other, and sorrowfully abandoned those
fragments endued with life. The two midwives (that waited upon the queens)
then carefully wrapping up the still-born (?) fragments went out of the
inner apartments (of the palace) by the back door and throwing away the
bodies, returned in haste. A little while after, O tiger among men, a
Rakshasa woman of the name of Jara living upon flesh and blood, took up
the fragments that lay on a crossing. And impelled by force of fate, the
female cannibal united the fragments for facility of carrying them away.
And, O bull among men, as soon as the fragments were united they formed a
sturdy child of one body (endued with life). Then, O king, the female