fragments of the meat-offerings were carried off by flights of hungry vultures
and herds of howling jackals.
Suppressing his vital airs, and taking up a posture of meditation, the many-
sighted victor of his foes, Daksha, fixed his eyes everywhere upon his thoughts.
And the god of gods appeared from the altar resplendent as a thousand suns, and
smiling upon him, said, “Daksha, thy sacrifice has been destroyed through
sacred knowledge, I am well pleased with thee.” And he smiled again, and
exclaimed, “What shall I do for thee? Declare, together with the preceptor of the
gods.”
And Daksha, frightened, alarmed, and agitated, his eyes suffused with tears,
raised his hands reverently to his brow, and said, “If, lord, thou art pleased; if I
have found favour in thy sight; if I am to be the object of thy benevolence; if
thou wilt confer upon me a boon, this is the blessing I solicit, that all these
provisions for the solemn sacrifice which have been collected with much trouble
and during a long time, and have now been eaten, drunk, devoured, burnt,
broken, scattered abroad, may not have been prepared in vain.” “So let it be,”
replied Hara, the subduer of Indra. And thereupon Daksha knelt down upon the
earth, and praised gratefully the author of righteousness, the three-eyed god
Mahádeva, repeating the eight thousand names of the deity whose emblem is a
bull.
Public Games. (Bk. v., c. 10.)As Krishna and Rama proceeded along the high road, they saw coming towards
them a young girl, who was crooked, carrying a pot of unguent. Addressing her
sportively, Krishna said, “For whom are you carrying that unguent? Tell me,
lovely maiden, tell me truly.” Spoken to as it were through affection, Kubja[27],
well disposed towards Hari, replied to him also mirthfully, being smitten by his
appearance, “Know you not, beloved, that I am the servant of Kamsa, and
appointed, crooked as I am, to prepare his perfumes? Of unguent ground by any
other he does not approve, and hence I am enriched through his liberal rewards.”
Then said Krishna, “Fair-faced damsel, give us of this unguent,—fragrant and fit
for kings,—as much as we may rub upon our bodies.” “Take it,” answered
Kubja. And she gave them as much of the unguent as was sufficient for their
persons. And they rubbed it on various parts of their faces and bodies, till they
looked like two clouds, one white and one black, decorated by the many-tinted