When Birbanta saw this he rose up and shouted “Here comes my enemy:  I will fight my best and we will see who will conquer” and when he saw Birluri armed only with a quarter-staff he felt sure that he would not be overcome by such a weapon:  so he grasped his sword and took his shield on his arm and went out to the fight The fray was fast and furious:  Birbanta hacked and hacked with his sword but Birluri caught all the blows on his quarterstaff and took no injury.  At last the end of the staff was hacked off leaving a sharp point:  then Birluri transfixed Birbanta with the pointed end and Birbanta faltered:  again he thrust him through and Birbanta acknowledged himself defeated, saying “My life is yours:  let me drink some water at your hands before you kill me.”  So Birluri agreed to a truce and they stopped fighting.  Then Birluri cut down a palm tree and dipped it into Birbanta’s tank and holding out the end to Birbanta told him to suck it.  Birbanta refused to take it and asked him to give him water in his hands:  but Birluri remembered his mother’s warning and refused.  Then Birbanta in despair threw away his sword and shield and Birluri snatched up the sword and smote off his head:  and this is the song of victory which Birluri sang.—­

    “Birbanta stopped the ghat for the golden oxen—­
    The dust is raised up to heaven! 
    Birbanta sat by the ghat of the oxen—­
    The lightning is flashing in the sky! 
    He has made an embankment:  he has made a tank: 
    But the water he collected in it, has become his enemy!”

Then Birluri was taken to the Raja and married to one of the Raja’s daughters and given one half of the Raja’s kingdom.

After a time Birluri told his wife that they must go back to his home to look after the large herds of cattle which he had left behind him.  But his wife laughed at him and would not believe that he owned so much property:  then Birluri said that if she would not go with him he would call the cattle to come to him:  so he called them all by name and the great herd came running to the Raja’s palace and filled the whole barn yard and as there was no room for them to stay there, they went away into the jungle and became wild cattle.

XCV.  The Killing of the Rakhas.

Once upon a time a certain country was ravaged by a Rakhas to such an extent that there were only the Raja and a few ryots left.  When things came to this pass, the Raja saw that something must be done:  for he could not be left alone in the land.  Ryots need a Raja and a Raja needs ryots:  if he had no ryots where was he to get money for his support:  and he repeated the verse of the poet Kalidas: 

“When the jungle is destroyed, the deer are in trouble without jungle: 
When the Raja is destroyed, the ryots are in trouble without their
Raja: 
When the good wife of the house is destroyed, good fortune flees away.”