Note 18 — Chapter VI · SOME RURAL FESTIVALS AND CEREMONIES.
Reading edition
Then the snake carried off the spirit of the king to Yamarâja. When the papers of the king’s life were produced before Yamarâja his age was denoted by a cipher, but the kindly snake put a seven before it, and thus raised his age to seventy years. Then Yamarâja said: “I find that this person has still seventy years to live. Take him back at once.” So the snake brought back the soul of the king, and he revived and lived for seventy years more, and established this feast in honour of the event. Much the same idea appears in one of Grimm’s German tales.18