away a Gouri cow, with calf similar to her, yielding milk, free from every vice, and covered with a piece of cloth, one attains to the region of the Vasus.  By giving away a cow of the complexion of a white blanket, with a calf and a vessel of white brass, and covered with a piece of cloth, one attains to the region of the Sadhyas.  By giving away a bull with a high hump and adorned with every jewel, the giver, O king, attains to the region of the Maruts.  By giving away a bull of blue complexion, that is full-grown in respect of years and adorned with every ornament, the giver attains to the regions of the Gandharvas and the Apsaras.  By giving away a cow with the flesh of her throat hanging down, and adorned with every ornament, the giver, freed from every grief, attains to those regions that belong to Prajapati himself.  That man, O king, habitually makes gifts of kine, proceed, piercing through the clouds, on a car of solar effulgence to Heaven and shines there in splendour.  That man who habitually makes gifts of kine comes to be regarded as the foremost of his species.  When thus proceeding to Heaven, he is received by a thousand celestial damsels of beautiful hips and adorned with handsome robes and ornaments.  These girls wait upon him there and minister to his delight.  He sleeps there in peace and is awakened by the musical laughter of those gazelle-eyed damsels, the sweet notes of their Vinas, the soft strains of their Vallakis, and the melodious tinkle of their Nupuras.[377] The men who makes gifts of kine resides in Heaven and is honoured there for as many years as there are hairs on the bodies of the kine he gives away.  Falling off from Heaven (upon the exhaustion of his merit), such a man takes birth in the order of humanity and, in fact, in a superior family among men.’”

SECTION LXXX

“Vasishtha said, ’Kine are yielders of ghee and milk.  They are the sources of ghee and they have sprung from ghee.  They are rivers of ghee, and eddies of ghee.  Let kine ever be in my house!  Ghee is always my heart.  Ghee is even established in my navel.  Ghee is in every limb of mine.  Ghee resides in my mind.  Kine are always at my front.  Kine are always at my rear.  Kine are on every side of my person.  I live in the midst of kine!—­Having purified oneself by touching water, one should, morning and evening, recite these Mantras every day.  By this, one is sure to be cleansed of all the sins one may commit in course of the day.  They who make gifts of a thousand kine, departing from this world, proceed to the regions of the Gandharvas and the Apsaras where there are many palatial mansions made of gold and where the celestial Ganga, called the current of Vasu, runs.  Givers of a thousand kine repair thither where run many rivers having milk for their water, cheese for their mire, and curds for their floating moss.  That man who makes gifts of hundreds of thousands of kine agreeably to the ritual laid down