The serpent (Ḍuṇḍubha) said: "Long ago I had a friend, a brahmin named Khagama, severe in speech, dear one, and endowed with the power of austerity. Once, playing as a child, I fashioned a snake out of grass [to frighten him]: absorbed in performing the agnihotra, he fainted from fear. When he came to himself, that brahmin rich in austerity, truthful in speech and unwavering in his vow, said to me as though burning me with his wrath: 'Just as powerless as the snake you made to frighten me, so powerless a serpent shall you become through my wrath.' Knowing the power of his austerity, O rich in penance, I stood before him, my heart deeply troubled and bewildered, with joined palms, bowing low, and said: 'Friend, this was done by me only in jest, in play; be pleased to forgive me, O brahmin — let this curse be revoked.'"