with care.  By reciting it in the midst of Brahmanas, one is cleansed of every sin, and ascends to heaven.  This description of tirthas is auspicious and heaven-giving and sacred; ever blessed as it is, it destroys one’s enemies; foremost of all accounts, it sharpens the intellect.  By reading this narrative the sonless obtains sons, the destitute obtains riches, a person of the royal order conquereth the whole earth, the Vaisya cometh by wealth, the Sudra obtaineth all his desires, and the Brahmana crosseth the ocean (of the world).  Purifying himself, he that listens daily to the merits of the different tirthas, recollects the incidents of many previous births and rejoices in heaven.  Of the tirthas that have been recited here, some are easily accessible, while others are difficult of access.  But he that is inspired with the desire of beholding all tirthas, should visit them even in imagination.  Desirous of obtaining merit, the Vasus, and the Sadhyas, the Adityas, the Maruts, the Aswins, and the Rishis equal unto celestials, all bathed in these tirthas.  Do thou also, O thou of the Kuru race, observing the ordinance as explained by me, visit, with subdued senses, these tirthas, increasing thy merit, O thou of excellent vows.  Men of piety and learning are able to visit these tirthas, by reason of their purified senses, their belief in Godhead, and their acquaintance with the Vedas.  He that doth not observe vows, he that hath not his soul under control, he that is impure, he that is a thief, and he that is of crooked mind, doth not, O Kauravya, bathe in tirthas.  Thou art ever observant of virtue, and art of pure character.  By thy virtue, O virtuous one, thou hast always gratified thy father and thy grand-father, and great-grand-fathers, and the gods with Brahma at their head, and the Rishis also, O thou versed in virtue!  Thou who resemblest Vasava, thou wilt, O Bhishma, attain to the region of the Vasus, and also eternal fame on earth!’

“Narada continued, ’Having cheerfully spoken thus, the illustrious Rishi Pulastya, well-pleased, bidding Bhishma farewell, disappeared there and then.  And Bhishma also, O tiger among men, well understanding the true import of the Shastras, wandered over the world at the command of Pulastya.  Thus, O thou blessed one, did Bhishma end at Prayaga his highly meritorious journey to the tirthas capable of destroying all sins.  The man that ranges the earth in accordance with these injunctions, obtains the highest fruit of a hundred horse-sacrifices and earns salvation hereafter.  Thou wilt, O son of Pritha, obtain merit consisting of the eight attributes, even like that which Bhishma, the foremost of the Kurus, had obtained of yore.  And as thou wilt lead these ascetics to those tirthas, thy merit will be much greater.  Those tirthas are infested by Rakshasas, and no one, save thyself, O son of Kuru race, can go there.  Rising early he that reciteth this narrative by the celestial Rishis on the subject of the tirthas,