with motion of his tusks and fore-part of his trunk and tail and feet, he agitates the water of the lake abounding with fishes.  And the tortoise also of great strength, with upraised head, cometh forward for an encounter.  And the elephant is six yojanas in height and twice that measure in circumference.  And the height of the tortoise also is three yojanas and his circumference ten.  Eat thou up both of them that are madly engaged in the encounter and bent upon slaying each other, and then accomplish the task that thou desirest.  Eating that fierce elephant which looketh like a huge mountain and resembleth a mass of dark clouds, bring thou amrita.’

“Sauti continued, ’Having said so unto Garuda, he (Kasyapa) blessed him, saying, ’Blest be thou when thou art in combat with the gods.  Let water pitchers filled to the brim, Brahmanas, kine, and other auspicious objects, bless thee, thou oviparous one.  And, O thou of great strength, when thou art engaged with the gods in combat, let the Riks, the Yajus, the Samas, the sacred sacrificial butter, all the mysteries (Upanishads), constitute thy strength.’

“Garuda, thus addressed by his father, wended to the side of that lake.  He saw that expanse of clear water with birds of various kinds all around.  And remembering the words of his father, that ranger of the skies possessed of great swiftness of motion, seized the elephant and the tortoise, one in each claw.  And that bird then soared high into the air.  And he came upon a sacred place called Alamva and saw many divine trees.  And struck by the wind raised by his wings, those trees began to shake with fear.  And those divine trees having golden boughs feared that they would break.  And the ranger of the skies seeing that those trees capable of granting every wish were quaking with fear, went to other trees of incomparable appearance.  And those gigantic trees were adorned with fruits of gold and silver and branches of precious gems.  And they were washed with the water of the sea.  And there was a large banian among them, which had grown into gigantic proportions, that spoke unto that lord of bird coursing towards it with the fleetness of the mind, ’Sit thou on this large branch of mine extending a hundred yojanas and eat the elephant and the tortoise.’  When that best of birds, of great swiftness and of body resembling a mountain, quickly alighted upon a bough of that banian tree, the resort of thousands of winged creatures-that bough also full of leaves shook and broke down.’”

So ends the twenty-ninth section in the Astika Parva of the Adi Parva.

SECTION XXX

(Astika Parva continued)