pour libations on the sacrificial fire, and adore the worship and deities in this way.  Restraining all carnal desires, living abstemiously upon fruits and roots, controlling all his senses, he daily welcomed and entertained all that came to his retreat as guests, offering them herbs and fruits that grew plentifully around.  In this way he passed a very long time in that hermitage of his.[21] One day an ascetic came to that Sudra’s retreat for the purpose of making his acquaintance.  The Sudra welcomed and worshipped the Rishi with due rites, and gratified him highly.  Endued with great energy, and possessed of a righteous soul, that Rishi of rigid vows conversed with his host on many agreeable subjects and informed him of the place whence he had come.  In this way, O chief of the Bharatas, that Rishi, O best of men, came into the asylum of the Sudra times out of a number for the object of seeing him.  On one of these occasions, the Sudra, O king, addressing the Rishi said,—­I desire to perform the rites that are ordained for the Pitris.  Do thou instruct me kindly in this matter.—­Very well,—­the Brahmana said in reply unto him, O monarch.  The Sudra then, purifying himself by a bath, brought water for the Rishi to wash his feet, and he also brought some Kusa grass, and wild herbs and fruits, and a sacred seat, and the seat called Vrishi.  The Vrishi, however, was placed by the Sudra towards the south, with his head turned to the west.  Beholding, this and knowing that it was against the ordinance, the Rishi addressed the Sudra, saying,—­Place the Vrishi with its head turned towards the East, and having purified thyself, do thou sit with thy face turned towards the north—­The Sudra did everything as the Rishi directed.  Possessed of great intelligence, and observant of righteousness, the Sudra received every direction, about the Sraddha, as laid down in the ordinance, from that Rishi endued with penances regarding the manner of spreading the Kusa grass, and placing the Arghyas, and as regards the rites to be observed in the matter of the libations to be poured and the food to be offered.  After the rites in honour of the Pitris had been accomplished, the Rishi, was dismissed by the Sudra, whereupon he returned to his own abode.[22] After a long time, the whole of which he passed in the practice of such penances and vows, the Sudra ascetic met with his death in those woods.  In consequence of the merit he acquired by those practices, the Sudra in the next life, took birth in the family of a great king, and in course of time became possessed of great splendour.  The regenerate Rishi also, when the time came, paid his debt in Nature.  In his next life, O chief of Bharata’s race, he took birth in the family of a priest.  It was in this way that those two, viz., that Sudra who had passed a life of penances and that regenerate Rishi who had in kindness given the former some instructions in the matter of the rites performed in honour of the Pitris, became reborn,