fishes capable of swallowing the whale (timi) and full of makaras; containing also creatures of various forms computed by thousands; frightful from the presence of horrible monsters, inaccessible, deep, and terrible; the mind of all kinds of gems; the home of Varna (the water-god), the wonderful habitation of the Nagas; the lord of rivers; the abode of the sub-terranean fire; the residence of the Asuras and of many dreadful creatures; the reservoir of waters; not subject to decay; romantic, and wonderful; the great mine of the amrita of the celestials; immeasurable and inconceivable; containing waters that are holy; filled to the brim by many thousands of great rivers; dacing as it were in waves; such the ocean, full of liquid waves, vast as the expanse of the sky, deep, of body lighted with the flames of sub-terranean fire, and roaring, which the sisters quickly passed over."
And so ends the twenty-second Section in the Astika of the Adi Parva.
Section XXIII.
(Astika Parva continued.)
Sauti said, "Having crossed the ocean, Kadru of swift speed, accompanied by Vinata, soon alighted at the vicinage of the horse. They then both beheld that foremost of steeds, of great fleetness, with body white as the rays of the moon but (tail) having black hairs. And observing many black hairs in the tail, Kadru put Vinata who was deeply dejected into slavery. And thus Vinata having lost the wager entered into a state of slavery and became exceeding sorry.
"And in the meantime, bursting the egg without (the help of his) mother, Gadura also, of great splendour, when his time came, was born enkindling all the points of the universe,—that mighty being endued with strength, that bird capable of assuming at will any form, of going at will everywhere, and of calling to his aid at will any measure of energy. Effulgent like a heap of fire, he blazed terribly. Of lustre equal to that of the fire at the end of the Yuga, his eyes were bright like the lightning flash. And soon after birth that bird grew in size and increasing his body ascended the skies. Fierce and fiercely
