creation. They, lost in meditation, neglected his commands, on which he declared that they should be reborn in each Manvantara until the seventh. [**] The writer of the "Vishnu Purana" tries to explain this fact: "These classes of divinities are born again at the end of a thousand ages according to their own pleasure, and their appearance and disappearance are spoken of as a birth and death; but they exist age after age in the same manner as the sun sets and rises again."

By his wife Diti, Kasyapa had two sons, Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksha, whom Vishnu, here said to be the son of her sister Aditi; became incarnate to destroy; these mortal enemies were therefore cousins.

7. ATRI.

Atri was the author of many Vedic hymns, especially those "praising Agni, Indra, the Asvins, and the Viswadevas." He married Anasuya, who bore him Durvasas, the sage who was slighted by Indra. Soma, the moon, is said to proceed from the eyes of his father Atri.

When this sage and his wife were old, they received a visit at their hermitage from Rama, Sita, and Lakshman, who were then wandering from place to place--

"He came to Atri's pure retreat,
Paid reverence to his holy feet,
And from the saint such welcome won
As a fond father gives his son." [*+]

Atri, in introducing his wife to his illustrious guests, thus describes her--

"Ten thousand years this votaress, bent
On sternest rites of penance, spent;

[paragraph continues] She, when the clouds withheld their rain,
And drought ten years consumed the plain,
Caused grateful roots and fruits to grow
And ordered Ganga here to flow;
So from their cares the saints she freed,
Nor let these checks their rites impede.
She wrought in heaven's behalf, and made
Ten nights of one, the gods to aid." [**]

Anasuya then joins with her husband in welcoming the exiles to their hermitage, and, delighted with the princess, tells her to ask a boon. As, however, Sita appeared to want nothing particular, the aged saint said--

"My gift to-day
Thy sweet contentment shall repay:
Accept this precious robe to wear,
Of heavenly fabric, rich and rare;
These gems thy limbs to ornament,
This precious balsam sweet of scent.
O Maithil dame! this gift of mine
Shall make thy limbs with beauty shine,
And, breathing o'er thy frame, dispense
Its pure and lasting influence.
This balsam, on thy fair limbs spread,
New radiance on thy lord shall shed,
As Lakshmi's beauty lends a grace
To Vishnu's own celestial face." [*+]

8. DAKSHA.