3. It happened at one time, that I was coming down from the vault of heaven, upon an invitation from your grandfather Aja on some particular occasion. 4. As I then came to wander on the surface of the earth, in order to reach at the realm of your grandsire; I happened to meet before me a vast desert, with the burning sunshine over it. 5. It was a dreary waste without its boundary on any side, filled with burning sands and obscured by grey and flying dust over it; and marked by a few scattered hamlets here and there. 6. The extended waste appeared as the boundless and spotless immensity of Brahma, by its unrestricted vacuity, howling winds, burning heat and light, its seeming water in the sand, and untrodden ground resting in peace. 7. It seemed as delusive as the appearance of avidyá or illusion itself; by the deceptive waters of mirage upon the sand, by its dulness and empty space and the mist overhanging on all sides of it. 8. As I was wandering along this hollow and sandy wilderness, I saw a wayfarer sauntering before me and muttering to himself in the travail of his wearisome journey. 9. The Traveller said:—O the powerful sun! That afflicts me with his blazing beams, as much as the company of evil-minded men is for our annoyance. 10. The sunbeams seem to pour down fire on earth, and melt down the pith and marrow of my body and bones; as they have been drying up the leaves and igniting the forest trees (for a conflagration). 11. Therefore it behoves me to repair to yonder hamlet, to allay the weariness of my journey, and recover my strength and spirits for travelling onward. (So it is said:—the shady bower invites the dry, and drives out the cooled). 12. So saying, he was about to proceed towards the village, which was an habitation of the low caste Kirátas. (The kerrhoids of Ptolemy, and the present Kerántes of the Himalayas). When I interrupted him by saying:— 13. Vasishtha said:—I hail thee, O thou passenger of the sandy desert, and may all be well with thee, that art my fellow traveller on the way, and art so good looking and passionless:— 14. O traveller of the lower earth! who have long lived in the habitations of men, and have not found your rest, how is it now that you expect to have it, in this solitary abode of this mean people? 15. You can have no rest at the abode of the vile people in yonder village, which is mostly peopled by the Pamara villains; thirst is not appeased, but increased by a beverage of briny water. (So it is said:—The unquenchable appetite of the greedy, is never quenched by nourishment, but it nourishes it the more, as the fuel and butter serve to kindle and feed the fire). 16. These huts and hamlets shelter the cowardly cow-herds (Pallava Gopas) under them, and them that are afraid to walk in the paths of men, as the timid deer are averse to rove beyond their own track. (So these solitary swains are as the savage beasts of the forests).