The Mongoose and the Sacrifice

After the great war was won and the dead were mourned, Yudhishthira, now king, performed the Ashvamedha, the horse sacrifice - the grandest and most magnificent of all the rites, by which an emperor proclaims his sovereignty and atones for the blood of war. It was a sacrifice of overwhelming splendor. Mountains of gold and food and gifts were given away; brahmins and the poor were fed and enriched without count; the rite was performed with perfect ceremony before all the assembled kings and sages, and when it was done, everyone declared that no sacrifice so great and so generous had ever been seen upon the earth.

In the midst of all this praise, while the people marveled at the magnificence of the king's charity, a strange creature appeared among them. It was a mongoose - but a mongoose unlike any other, for one half of its body, along one whole side, was pure shining gold, while the other half was ordinary brown fur. The golden mongoose came into the place of sacrifice, and what it did and said silenced the rejoicing of the entire assembly.