Afterwards, when Batmasura was coming again to the place where this woman was, the woman having borne a child, that one was in her hand, and again she was with child.

Then Batmasura having come, said, "Let us go," to that woman.

The woman said, "There is [a child] in hand, and again I am with child. Having asked [about it] come back."

After that, Batmasura went home again and asked at the hand of the woman, "She is carrying one in the arms, and is again with child. Shall I summon her to come?"

The woman said, "Summon her and come."

Afterwards as Batmasura was coming again to the place where the woman was, the woman was carrying two in the arms, and was again with child.

Then Batmasura came, and said to the woman, "Let us go."

The woman said, "How shall I go carrying two in the arms, and again with child? Go and ask about it, and come back."

Afterwards Batmasura, having gone home, asked at the hand of his wife, "She is carrying two in the arms, and is again with child." Then the woman told him to summon her and come.

After that Batmasura having come to the place where this woman stayed, when he looked there was neither woman nor children. Thereupon that one went away home.

After that, the God Îswara went away to the house of the God Îswara. Having gone there, when a long time had passed Batmasura died, and having come was [re]-born inside the God Îswara.

Afterwards the God Îswara went near another deity and asked, "What is this? My belly is enlarging!"

That deity said, "Another living being (parana-karayek) has been caused to come inside your body. On account of it, you must split open your body, and throw it away."

The God Îswara could not split open his body. Having said, "I shall die," he came home. Having come there, he ate medicine from another doctor; that also was no good.

Again he went near that very deity. Having gone there, the God Îswara asked at the hand of that deity, "What, now then, shall I do for this?"

Then the deity said, "There is nothing else to do; you must split your body."

Then the God Îswara said, "When I have split my body shall I not be destroyed?"

The deity said, "You will not be destroyed; your life will remain over."

Afterwards, the God Îswara told him to split open his body. Having split the body, when he looked there was a lump of flesh. He seized it and threw it away. After that, the God Îswara having become well, went home.

When a Lord (Buddhist monk) was coming with the begging-bowl, that lump of flesh was on the path. Having gathered it together with his walking-stick it fell into a hole (wala). [46]

Next day, as he was coming with the begging-bowl, that lump of flesh sprang at the body of the Lord. Then the Lord having said, "Ci! Wala, ha!" [47] gathered it together [again] with his walking-stick.

Thence, indeed, was the Bear (walaha).

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

With reference to the last paragraphs, it is strange that a somewhat similar notion regarding the foetal form of newly born bears was long current in Europe. In the thirteenth century Encyclopedia of Bartholomew Anglicus (ed. 1535), cap. cxii, it is stated that "Avicenna saith that the bear bringeth forth a piece of flesh imperfect and evil shapen, and the mother licketh the lump, and shapeth the members with licking…​. For the whelp is a piece of flesh little more than a mouse, having neither eyes nor ears, and having claws some-deal bourgeoning [sprouting], and so this lump she licketh, and shapeth a whelp with licking" (Medieval Lore, Steele, p. 137).

This is taken from Pliny, who wrote of bears: "At the first they seeme to be a lumpe of white flesh without all forme, little bigger than rattons, without eyes, and wanting hair; onely there is some shew and appearance of clawes that put forth. This rude lumpe, with licking they fashion by little and little into some shape" (Nat. Hist., P. Holland’s translation, 1601, p. 215.)