This is the report and the fame thereof: a region yielding from its soil all manner of herbs, overspread with many a tangle of flowers, ranged over by the elephant, gayal, buffalo, deer, yak, spotted antelope, rhinoceros, elk, lion, tiger, panther, bear, wolf, hyena, otter , kadali antelope, wild cat, long-eared hare, inhabited by numberless herds of different kinds of elephants', and frequented by various kinds of deer , and haunted by horse-faced yakkhas, sprites, goblins and ogres, overspread with a thicket of trees blooming at the top with flowers, stalked and high-standing, and pithless , re-echoing to the cries of hundreds of birds, all mad with joy, ospreys, partridges, elephant-birds, peacocks, pheasants, Indian cuckoos , adorned and covered with hundreds of mineral substances, collyrium, arsenic, yellow orpiment, vermilion, gold and silver--it was in such a delightful forest lived the bird Kunala [417]: very bright was it and covered with gay feathers. This Kunala bird had three thousand five hundred hen-birds in attendance on him. Then two birds seizing a stick in their mouths seated the Kunala bird between them and flew up, fearing lest fatigue in the course of the long distance should cause him to move from his position and he should fall. Five hundred young birds fly below, for they thought, "If this Kunala bird should fall from his perch, we will catch him in our wings." Other five hundred birds fly above him, for fear lest the heat should scorch Kunala. Five hundred birds fly on either side of him, to prevent cold or heat, grass or dust, wind or dew from coming nigh him. Five hundred fly in front of him, lest cowherds or neat-herds, grass-cutters, or stick-gatherers or foresters should strike Kunala with stick or potsherd, with fist or clod, with staff or knife or gravel, or lest Kunala should come into collision with shrub or creeper or tree, with post or rock, or with some powerful bird. Five hundred fly behind, addressing him with gentle, kindly words, in charming, sweet tones, lest Kunala should grow weary, sitting there. Five hundred birds fly hither and thither, bringing a variety of fruits from different kinds of trees, lest Kunala should be distressed with hunger. Then the birds swiftly transport Kunala for his satisfaction from pleasance to pleasance, from garden to garden, from one river's bank to another, from mountain peak to mountain peak, from one mango grove to another, from rose-apple orchard to rose-apple orchard, from one bread-fruit grove to another, from one cocoa-nut plantation to another. So Kunala day by day escorted by these birds thus upbraids them: [418] "Perish, ye vile creatures, yea, perish utterly, ye thievish, knavish creatures, heedless, flighty and ungrateful as ye are, like the wind going wheresoever ye list."