"My fortune is still to come, whatever it may be." They all got round
her and tried to persuade her that there was no use in her staying by
the corpse, but she would not mind what they said. At last they were
quite tired out and went home, leaving her in the burning-ground. When
they had gone she took her husband's corpse on to her lap. Then she
prayed to the god Shiva and said:


"My parents disown me. O why was I born
Both as orphan and widow to live all forlorn?"


As she prayed, she put the pulse which her mother had put into her
lap grain by grain in the dead man's mouth. Then she sat there crying
until midnight. Now it happened that on that very night Shiva and
Parwati were in their chariot driving through the air over that very
place. Parwati said suddenly to her husband, "I hear a woman crying,
let us go and see what it is." The god Shiva drove his chariot down to
earth. He and Parwati got out and saw the Brahman's youngest daughter
crying. They asked her what the reason was, and she told them. Then
Parwati pitied her and said, "Your aunt has acquired great merit by
her piety and devotions. You go to her and get her to give you all
her merit and so you will bring your husband back to life." The god
Shiva and Parwati then mounted on their chariot and disappeared. Next
morning the little widow left her husband's body, went to her aunt's
house and begged her to give her all the merit which she had acquired,
and told her the cause of the request. The aunt was very good and
gave her all her own merit. The little widow then went back to the
burning-ground and with its aid brought her husband back to life. But
this time he was no longer a beggar-man black with leprosy and with