The first time the
serpent-maidens and the wood-nymphs had given her the incense and the
flowers, the rice and the betel-nut, and the leaves of the bel tree,
with which to perform her worship. But they had told her that the
next time she must bring them herself. So when she ran away on the
second Monday in Shravan she brought with her incense and flowers,
rice and betel-nut and bel-tree leaves, and after offering them and
some sesamums to the god she once more prayed, "O God Shiva, please,
please grant my prayer and make my father-in-law and my mother-in-law,
my brothers-in-law and my sisters-in-law like me as much as they now
dislike me." Then she went home and fasted, and giving all her dinner
to her favourite cow she sat by herself and prayed to Shiva. That
evening the king asked her who the god was whom she was honouring,
and where he lived. The ugly little daughter-in-law replied, "Afar
off my god lives, and the roads to him are hard, and the paths to him
are full of thorns. Where snakes abound and where tigers lie in wait,
there is his temple.
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