Then the Parthas, having ranged in every direction and slain deer, boars, and buffaloes, the finest archers on earth, who had gone their separate ways, came together again. In that great forest, full of beasts and predators and ringing with birdsong, Yudhishthira, hearing the cries of the animals, addressed his brothers: 'The beasts and birds, coming from the quarter bright with the sun, speak of cruelty; they proclaim a grievous strain and, as it were, a great battle with enemies. Turn back quickly. We have had enough of hunting. My mind aches and burns; the lord of life within my body, filled with wrath, surges up and clouds my reason. Kamyaka now seems to me like a lake from which Garuda has carried off a serpent; like a kingdom bereft of its king and its Shri; like a vessel from which drunkards have drained every drop.' Then the heroes, on great and splendid chariots yoked to swift horses, borne by Sindhu steeds faster than a gust of wind, set out for the hermitage. As they were returning, a jackal came up on their left side, howling loudly. The king, reflecting on this, said to Bhima and Dhananjaya: 'As this low-born jackal speaks, approaching from the left, it is plain that wicked men, scorning us, have forcibly wronged us, the Kurus.'