[1. That is, God's name will remove hundreds of thousands of sins.

2. Pind; this word also means the body which is supposed to be put together by the offering of these rolls.

3. Pattal, literally, plates of leaves generally of the palâs (Butea frondosa) in which food is placed.

4. Kiriyâ, the ceremonies performed on the thirteenth day after death.

5. Chhamchari, those who walked the earth, the manes of ancestors.

6. Âsa.

7. Red powder is thrown on passers-by in India on occasions of festivity. The practice is particularly resorted to on the occasion of the Holi, a Hindu saturnalia.]

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spectacle. In the evening, when the grain-dealer's entertainment was at an end, he stood up and went to his private apartments without taking any notice of Mardana. The latter went to the Guru, who sat at some distance, informed him of the birth of the child, and gave him an account of the entertainment. The Guru smiled, and said it was not a son who had been born in the grain-dealer's house' but a creditor who had come to settle his account He would remain for the night and depart in the morning. Then the Guru ordered Mardana to play the rebeck, and sang to its strains the following hymn:--

I

In the first watch of night, my merchant friend, the child by God's order entereth the womb.

With body reversed it performeth penance within, O merchant friend, and prayeth to the Lord--

It prayeth to the Lord in deep meditation and love.

It cometh naked into the world, and again it departeth naked.

Such destiny shall attend it as God's pen hath recorded upon its forehead.

Saith Nanak, in the first watch the child on receiving the order entereth the womb.

II

In the second watch of night, O merchant friend, it forgetteth to meditate on God.

It is dandled in the arms, O merchant friend, like Krishan in the house of Yasodha.

The child is dandled in the arm, and its mother saith, 'This is my son.'

Think on this, O thoughtless and stupid man,[1] nothing shall be thine at last.

Thou knowest not Him who created thee; meditate upon Him in thy heart.

Saith Nanak, the child hath forgotten to meditate at the second watch.

[1. Man in the original might be translated mind, but the word includes the heart in the next line.]

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III.

At the third watch of night, O merchant friend, man's thoughts are of woman and the pleasures of youth;

He thinketh not of God's name, O merchant friend, which would release him from his bondage.

Man thinketh not of God's name, but groweth beside himself with worldly love.

Devoted to woman and intoxicated with his youth he wasteth his life in vain.

He hath not traded in virtue or made good acts his friends.