the Prajapati (Lord of creation, Kasyapa) and bestowed on that illustrious one the knowledge of neutralising poisons."
And so ends the twentieth Section in the Astika of the Adi Parva.
Section XXI.
( Astika Parva continued ).
Sauti said, "Then when the night had passed away and the sun had risen in the morning, O thou whose wealth is ascetism, the two sisters, Kadru and Vinata, having laid a wager about slavery, with haste and impatience went to view the horse Uchchaisrava from a near point. On their way they saw Ocean, that receptacle of waters, vast and deep, agitated and in a tremendous roar, full of fishes large enough to swallow the whale, and abounding with huge makaras and creatures of various forms by thousands, and rendered inaccessible by the presence of other terrible, monster-shaped, dark, and fierce aquatic animals; abounding also with tortoises and crocodiles, the mine of all kinds of gems, the home of Varuna (the water-god), the excellent and beautiful residence of the Nagas, the lord of rivers, the abode of the subterranean fire, the friend (or asylum) of the Asuras, the terror of all creatures, the grand reservoir of waters, knowing no deterioration. It is holy, beneficial to the gods, and the great mine of nectar; without limits, inconceivable, sacred, and highly wonderful. Dark, terrible with the voice of aquatic creatures, tremendously roaring, and full of deep whirl-pools. It is an object of terror to all creatures. Moved by the winds blowing from its shores and heaving high with agitation and disturbance, it seems to dance everywhere with uplifted hands represented by its surges. Full of heaving billows caused by the waxing and waning of the moon, the parents of (Vāsudeva's great conch called) Panchajanya, the great mine of gems, its waters were formerly disturbed in consequence of the agitation caused within them by the Lord Govinda (Vishnu) of immeasurable prowess when he assumed the form of a wild-boar for raising the (submerged) Earth. Its
