When Kalingasená heard this story in the palace from the mouth of Somaprabhá, she answered her affectionate friend,--"Those of whom you speak are considered Pisáchas, not the children of kings, and I will tell you a story of the evil importunity of Pisáchas, listen!" [462] Story of the Bráhman and the Pisácha. Long ago there was a Bráhman dwelling on a royal grant, which was called Yajnasthala. He once upon a time, being poor, went to the forest to bring home wood. There, a piece of wood being cleft with the axe, fell, as chance would have it, upon his leg, and piercing it, entered deep into it. And as the blood flowed from him, he fainted, and he was beheld in that condition by a man who recognised him, and taking him up carried him home. There his distracted wife washed off the blood, and consoling him, placed a plaster upon the wound. And then his wound, though tended day by day, not only did not heal, but formed an ulcer. Then the man, afflicted with his ulcerated wound, poverty-stricken, and at the point of death, was thus advised in secret by a Bráhman friend, who came to him; "A friend of mine, named Yajnadatta, was long very poor, but he gained the aid of a Pisácha by a charm, and so, having obtained wealth, lived in happiness. And he told me that charm, so do you gain, my friend, by means of it, the aid of a Pisácha; he will heal your wound." Having said this, he told him the form of words and described to him the ceremony as follows: "Rise up in the last watch of the night, and with dishevelled hair and naked, and without rinsing your mouth, take two handfuls of rice as large as you can grasp with your two hands, and muttering the form of words go to a place where four roads meet, and there place the two handfuls of rice, and return in silence without looking behind you. Do so always until that Pisácha appears, and himself says to you, 'I will put an end to your ailment.' Then receive his aid gladly, and he will remove your complaint." When his friend had said this to him, the Bráhman did as he had been directed. Then the Pisácha, being conciliated, brought heavenly herbs from a lofty peak of the Himálayas and healed his wound. And then he became obstinately persistent, and said to the Bráhman, who was delighted at being healed, "Give me a second wound to cure, but if you will not, I will do you an injury or destroy your body." When the Bráhman heard that, he was terrified, and immediately said to him to get rid of him--"I will give you another wound within seven days." Whereupon the Pisácha left him, but the Bráhman felt hopeless about his life. But eventually he baffled the Pisácha by the help of his daughter, and having got over the disease, he lived in happiness. [463]