‘Go!’ And momentarily his (Yudhishthira’s) right arm began to twitch, and his chest and left leg shook (of themselves).  And indicating evil his left eye contracted spasmodically.  Thereupon, O Bharata, the intelligent Yudhishthira the just, inferring some great calamity (to be imminent), asked Draupadi, saying, ‘Where is Bhima?’ Thereat Panchali said that Vrikodara had long gone out.  Hearing this, that mighty-armed king set out with Dhaumya, after having said unto Dhananjaya, ’Thou shouldst protect Draupadi.’  And he also directed Nakula and Sahadeva to protect the Brahmanas.  And issuing from the hermitage that lord, Kunti’s son, following the footprints of Bhimasena, began to search for him in that mighty forest.  And on coming to the east, he found mighty leaders of elephant-herds (slain) and saw the earth marked with Bhima’s (foot-prints).  Then seeing thousands of deer and hundreds of lions lying in the forest, the king ascertained his course.  And on the way were scattered trees pulled down by the wind caused by the thighs of that hero endued with the speed of the wind as he rushed after the deer.  And proceeding, guided by those marks, to a spot filled with dry winds and abounding in leafless vegetables, brackish and devoid of water, covered with thorny plants and scattered over with gravel, stumps and shrubs and difficult of access and uneven and dangerous, he saw in a mountain cavern his younger brother motionless, caught in the folds of that foremost of snakes.”

SECTION CLXXIX

Vaisampayana continued, “Yudhishthira, finding his beloved brother coiled by the body of the serpent, said these words:  ’O son of Kunti, how hast thou come by this misfortune!  And who is this best of serpents having a body like unto a mountain mass?’ Bhimasena said, ’O worshipful one, this mighty being hath caught me for food.  He is the royal sage Nahusha living in the form of a serpent.’  Yudhishthira said, ’O longlived one, do thou free my brother of immeasurable prowess; we will give thee some other food which will appease thy hunger.’  The serpent said, ’I have got for diet even this son of a king, come to my mouth of himself.  Do thou go away.  Thou shouldst not stay here. (If thou remainest here) thou too shall be my fare to-morrow.  O mighty-armed one, this is ordained in respect of me, that he that cometh unto my place, becometh my food and thou too art in my quarter.  After a long time have I got thy younger brother as my food; I will not let him off; neither do I like to have any other food.’  Thereat Yudhishthira said, ’O serpent, whether thou art a god, or a demon, or an Uraga, do thou tell me truly, it is Yudhishthira that asketh thee, wherefore, O snake, hast thou taken Bhimasena?  By obtaining which, or by knowing what wilt thou receive satisfaction, O snake, and what food shall I give thee?  And how mayst thou free him.’  The serpent said, ’O sinless one, I was thy ancestor, the