“Vidura continued, ’Kirmira said unto Yudhishthira, ’By good luck it is that fate hath accomplished today my long-accomplished desire!  With weapons upraised have I been continually ranging the entire earth with the object of slaying Bhima.  But Bhima I had found not.  By good luck it is that slayer of my brother, whom I had been seeking so long, hath come before me!  It was he who in the disguise of a Brahmana slew my dear brother Vaka in the Vetrakiya forest by virtue of his science.  He hath truly no strength of arms!  It is also this one of wicked soul who formerly slew my dear friend Hidimva, living in this forest and ravished his sister!  And that fool hath now come into this deep forest of mine, when the night is half spent, even at the time when we wander about!  Today I will wreak my long-cherished vengeance upon him, and I will today gratify (the manes of) Vaka with his blood in plenty!  By slaying this enemy of the Rakshasas, I shall today be freed from the debt I owe to my friend and my brother, and thereby attain supreme happiness!  If Bhimasena was let free formerly by Vaka, today, I will devour him in thy sight, O Yudhishthira!  And even as Agastya ate up and digested the mighty Asura (Vatapi) I will eat up and digest this Bhima!’

“Vidura continued, ’Thus addressed by the Rakshasa, the virtuous Yudhishthira, steadfast in his pledges, said, ’It can never be so,—­and in anger rebuked the Rakshasa.’  The mighty-armed Bhima then tore up in haste a tree of the length of ten Vyasas and stripped it of its leaves.  And in the space of a moment the ever-victorious Arjuna stringed his bow Gandiva possessing the force of the thunderbolt.  And, O Bharata, making Jishnu desist, Bhima approached that Rakshasa still roaring like the clouds and said unto him, ‘Stay!  Stay!’ And thus addressing the cannibal, and tightening the cloth around his waist, and rubbing his palms, and biting his nether lip with his teeth, and armed with the tree, the powerful Bhima rushed towards the foe.  And like unto Maghavat hurling his thunderbolt, Bhima made that tree, resembling the mace of Yama himself descend with force on the head of the cannibal.  The Rakshasa, however, was seen to remain unmoved at that blow, and wavered not in the conflict.  On the other hand, he hurled his lighted brand, flaming like lightning, at Bhima.  But that foremost of warriors turned it off with his left foot in such a way that it went back towards the Rakshasa.  Then the fierce Kirmira on his part, all on a sudden uprooting a tree darted to the encounter like unto the mace bearing Yama himself.  And that fight, so destructive of the trees, looked like the encounter in days of yore between the brothers Vali and Sugriva for the possession of the same woman.  And the trees struck at the heads of the combatants, were broken into shivers, like lotus-stalks thrown on the temples of infuriate elephants.  And in that great forest, innumerable trees, crushed like unto reeds, lay scattered