164 CRADLE TALES OF HINDUISM
village ran hither and thither, as if to find or catch the Boy. Then there came a lull, snd down, down, down, into the midst of Gokool, fell the Demon of the Hurricane, with his Baby-Destroyer still holding him by the throat I
Yasoda, indeed, had many curious experiences, ind found much to ponder over. When her little Son was old enough to crawl about on all-fours, He became very diiSicult to keep in order. He would constantly besmear Himself with mud, and even put earth to His lips and eat it. So His gentle foster-mother was compelled to be angry and punish Him. Then the Child cried, but as He opened His mouth, she, watching Him, seemed to be smitten into a trance, for she saw there revealed, as if within Him, all the worlds, in all their manifold gradations of existence. The whole infinite Universe within that one Babe Krishna ! And the mortal, unable to bear the revelation, closed her eyes, trembling, till the kind gods drew over her sight once more the veil of illusion, and she was able to look upon the Divinity before her as if He were nothing but her Son.
The little hands were busy with everything. There was no keeping this rogue out of mischief. So one day, when Yasoda was at work about the house, she tied about the Child a long rope, which was attached, at its other end, to an old and broken axle of a cart-wheel, and tlius protected,
