CONQUEST OB THE SNAKE KALIYA 183
and following the lads, by means of the foot-prints of Krishna, they came all together to the shores of the Lake Kaliya.
Still Krishna was under water, and His friends and comrades were about to abandon all hope. Finding things at this pass, Yasoda was eager at least to follow Him, and was about to throw herself headlong into the fatal lake. But Bolarama, who had not been in the least discouraged, implored her to wait, while he asked Krishna to give them some sign. He was sure that his Brother would defeat the serpent, and at any rate, when they should know that it was hopeless, it w^ould be time enough to take desperate measures. She consented, and he, climbing the kodumbha tree, and standing on its out-stretching branch, even as Krishna had done, put his horn to his lips and sounded a call which would mean to Krishna, " For the sake of your mother make some sign that you still live ! " Krishna, standing easily in the coils of the serpent, and allowing him to exhaust himself in blind and useless anger, heard the call of the horn, and, as a token that He still lived, threw His flute out of the lake to the shore.
Alas, the signal had an effect the very opposite of that intended I All were quite sure that Krishna would never, while He yet lived, part from His flute. Despair, therefore, reigned supreme. But Bolarama again blew upon his horn. '^ Show us
