[paragraph continues] Brahmans now reason with him, and try to show him that it is the chief duty of a son to honour his father; but their sophistry is unsuccessful. They remind him that they had promised to use incantations to accomplish his death. This menace he meets with these words: 'What living creature slays or is slain? What living creature preserves or is preserved? Each is his own destroyer or preserver as he follows evil or good.' Enraged by this reply, they now produce a magical female figure, enwreathed in a flame of fire, whose tread parched the earth, and who struck Prahlada upon the breast. Her blow fell harmless upon him; but turning towards the Brahmans, she slew them all, and disappeared. In answer to the prince's prayer, they were, however, restored to life, and, having blessed Prahlada, departed and told the king all that had happened.

"Having sent for his son, Hiranyakasipu inquired again, by what magical art he was able thus to protect himself. Prahlada said that it was not by magic at all, but simply by the indwelling of Vishnu that he was able to ward off evil; and further that the same power was within the reach of all who would trust him. The king, enraged at this avowal, commanded his attendants to cast his son from the summit of the palace where he was sitting, and which was many yojans in height, upon the tops of the mountains, where his body would be dashed to pieces against the rocks. Accordingly the daityas hurled the boy down, but as he fell cherishing Hari in his heart, Earth, the nurse of all creatures, received him gently in her lap, thus entirely devoted to Kesava, the protector of the world."

Hiranyakasipu, seeing that this fall had not injured his son in any way, asks Samvara, the mightiest of enchanters, to try his hand; but though he puts forth