Vaisampayana said, "Then tying up in his cloth dice made of gold and set
with lapis lazuli, and holding them below his arm-pit, king
Yudhishthira,--that illustrious lord of men--that high-souled perpetuator
of the Kuru race, regarded by kings, irrepressible in might, and like
unto a snake of virulent poison,--that bull among men, endued with
strength and beauty and prowess, and possessed of greatness, and
resembling in form a celestial though now like unto the sun enveloped in
dense clouds, or fire covered with ashes, first made his appearance when
the famous king Virata was seated in his court. And beholding with his
followers that son of Pandu in his court, looking like the moon hid in
clouds and possessed of a face beautiful as the full moon, king Virata
addressed his counsellors and the twice-born ones and the charioteers and
the Vaisyas and others, saying, "Enquire ye who it is, so like a king
that looketh on my court for the first time. He cannot be a Brahmana.
Methinks he is a man of men, and a lord of earth. He hath neither slaves,
nor cars, nor elephants with him, yet he shineth like the very Indra. The
marks on his person indicate him to be one whose coronal locks have
undergone the sacred investiture. Even this is my belief. He approacheth
me without any hesitation, even as an elephant in rut approacheth an
assemblage of lotuses!'

"And as the king was indulging in these thoughts, that bull among men,
Yudhishthira, came before Virata and addressed him, saying, 'O great
king, know me for a Brahmana who, having lost his all hath come to thee
for the means of subsistence. I desire, O sinless one, to live here
beside thee acting under thy commands,[11] O lord. The king then,
well-pleased, replied unto him saying, 'Thou art welcome. Do thou then
accept the appointment thou seekest!' And having appointed the lion among
kings in the post he had prayed for, king Virata addressed him with a
glad heart, saying, 'O child, I ask thee from affection, from the