174                        ALBERUNTS INDIA.

If he fasts Margasirsha, he will be born in the most
beautiful and fertile country.

If he fasts Pausha, he obtains a high reputation.

If he fasts M^gha, he obtains innumerable wealth.

If he fasts Phalguna, he will be beloved.

He, however, who fasts during all the months of the
year, only twelve times breaking the fast, will reside in
paradise 10,000 years, and will thence return to life as
the member of a noble, high, and respected family.

The book Vishnu-Dharma relates that Maitreyi, the
Page 286. wife of Yajnavalkya, asked her husband what man is
to do in order to save his children from calamities and
bodily defects, upon which he answered : " If a man
begins on the day Duve, in the month Pausha, i.e. the
second day of each of the two halves of the month, and
fasts four consecutive days, washing himself on the
first with water, on the second with sesame oil, on the
third with galangale, and on the fourth with a mixture
of various balms ; if he further on each day gives alms
and recites praises over the names of the angels; if he
continue to do all this during each month till the end
of the year, his children will in the following life be
free from calamities and defects, and he will obtain
what he wishes ; for also Dilipct, Dusliyctntct, and Yctydti
obtained their wishes for having acted thus."