came to the king and said, "Now that the sacrifice is ended, give me something to eat.; let it be cooked, and I will presently return." The Rakshas next transformed himself into the cook, and, having prepared a dish of human flesh, brought it to the king. When the real Muni entered, the king offered him the dish; but he discovered, by the force of meditation, that it was human flesh that was presented to him. Indignant at the insult, cursing the king, he said, "Your appetite shall be excited by similar food to that now offered me." The king was astonished at this outburst of anger, and Vasishtha, seeing this, by further meditation, discovered the whole trick; but as he could not entirely recall the effects of his curse, he modified it so that it was to work for twelve years only. [**] It was this same king who was cursed by Vasishtha's son Sakti to become a Rakshas, and who, in that state, devoured the sage that cursed him.

Vasishtha also cursed a king named Nimi. As the king was about to commence a sacrifice that was to continue for a thousand years, he asked Vasishtha to officiate as priest; but the Muni being engaged in a similar work for Indra, he could not do so for the next five hundred years. The king proceeded with his sacrifice, engaging Gautama as priest. As soon as his engagement was over with Indra, the sage, coming to conduct Nimi's sacrifice, found another priest had been appointed. He was so angry that, cursing the king, he declared that he should cease to exist in a bodily form. On learning what was done, the king in return pronounced a similar curse upon the sage. Both took effect; but as Vasishtha's spirit became united to the spirits of Mitra and Varuna, when these deities were smitten with the beauty of the nymph Urvasi, the

spirit of the sage fell from them, and he became again incorporated through her. [**] A verse in the Rig-Veda ascribes Vasishtha's birth to Mitra and Varuna, in harmony with the legend just quoted: "Thou, O Vasishtha, art a son of Mitra and Varuna, born a Brahman from the soul of Urvasi. All the gods placed in the vessel thee--the drop which had fallen through divine contemplation."