And Jīmūta-vāhana stood and listened, melted with pity, eager to know who he might be, and she. And the old woman, overwhelmed with the burden of her grief, began to look again and again at the youth, and to lament her misfortune in the following words: “Alas, my son! thou that wast obtained by me at the cost of a hundred bitter pangs! Alas, virtuous youth! Alas, only scion of our family, where shall I behold thee again? Bereft of thee, thy father will be plunged into the darkness of sorrow, and will not for long endure to live. That body of thine, which would suffer even from the torch of the sun’s rays,--how can it endure the agony of being devoured by the griffin? How comes it that Fate and the king of the snakes were able to discover thee, the only son of ill-starred me, though the world of the snakes is wide?” Thereupon the youth said: “Mother, I am afflicted enough as it is. Why do you afflict me more? Return to your home, I beg you. This is my last reverence to you. The griffin will soon be here.” When the old woman heard those words, she cast her sorrowful eyes all around the horizon, and cried aloud: “Alas, I am undone! Who will deliver my son from death?” Then Jīmūta-vāhana with joy and delight went up to the old woman and said: “Mother, I will deliver your son!” When the old woman heard those words, she was frightened and terrified, for she thought that the griffin had come. And straightway she cried out: “Eat me, O griffin! eat me!” Then said the youth her son: “Mother, be not afraid, for this is no griffin!” Then said Jīmūta-vāhana: “Mother, I am the prince of the fairies, disguised in the garb of a man. I am come to deliver your son from death. I will give my own body and blood to the hungry griffin. Therefore return to your home, and take your son with you.” But the old woman said: “By no means! for in a still higher sense you yourself are my very own son, since you have shown such a measure of compassion to me and my son at this time.” Then said Jīmūta-vāhana: “I have formed a resolution, and you must not defeat my purpose.”