"Soma having concluded, the Prachetasas took Marisha, as he had enjoined them, righteously to wife, their indignation against the trees, and upon her they begot the eminent patriarch Daksha, who had (in a former life) been born as the son of Brahma. This great sage, for the furtherance of creation and the increase of mankind, created progeny. Obeying the command of Brahma, he made movable and immovable things, the bipeds and quadrupeds, and subsequently by his will gave birth to females, ten of whom he bestowed on Dharma, thirteen on Kasyapa, and twenty-seven, who regulate the course of time, on Soma (the moon). Of these the gods, the Titans, the snake gods, cattle and birds, the singers and dancers of the courts of heaven, the spirits of evil and other beings, were born. From that period forward living creatures were engendered in an ordinary manner; before the time of Daksha, they were variously propagated by the will, by sight, by touch, and by the influence of religious austerities by devout sages and holy saints."

Daksha's first attempts at populating the world were unsuccessful. A thousand sons were born to him by Asikni, but these were induced by Narada not to propagate offspring. A thousand other sons by the same wife were

born, who also were advised by Narada not to be troubled with children. The Prajapati, incensed, cursed Narada, and proceeded to create sixty daughters by Asikni, whom he gave to various husbands, by whom they had children. At length, when a time of peace and prosperity prevailed on the earth, and the gods had their proper places assigned to them, to Daksha was given the position as chief of the Prajapatis--progenitors of mankind.

In the account of Siva it was noticed that as a punishment for the insults Daksha had offered to his illustrious son-in-law, the great god changed his head for that of a goat; a perpetual sign of his ignorance and stupidity.

9. VASISHTHA.

Vasishtha, together with Pulastya, is said to have narrated the "Vishnu Purana," and he, too, is believed to have been the writer of many of the Vedic hymns. It was he who allayed the anger of Parasara when that sage was about to extirpate the Rakshas race, because one of their kings had slain his father. He is said to have been the Vyasa, or arranger of the Vedas, in the Dvapara Age; this work of arranging having a different agent in each age.

Vasishtha served as the family priest of several kings. One of these, named Saudasa, when out hunting, seeing a couple of tigers, shot one of them with an arrow. It happened that these tigers were really Rakshasas, for, as the one shot by Saudasa was dying, it assumed a fiendish shape; the other, threatening vengeance, disappeared. Not long after this, as the king was engaged in a sacrifice, Vasishtha being out of the room, the Rakshas who escaped, assuming the form of Vasishtha,