The following legend from the Mahabharata [*++] gives the account of his liberating his mother from servitude, and of his appointment as the Vahan of Vishnu. His mother, having lost her wager with her sister respecting the colour of the sea-produced horse, was reduced to servitude to the serpents, who, being anxious to become immortal, promised to liberate her on condition that her son Garuda should bring them Chandra (the Moon), whose bright spots are filled with amrita. Before starting on this expedition he went to his mother for

food, who advised him to go to the seashore and gather whatever he could find, but entreated him to be most careful not to eat a Brahman; adding, "Should you at any time feel a burning sensation in your stomach, be sure you have eaten a Brahman."

After receiving this warning, he set off on his journey. Passing through a country inhabited by fishermen, he at one inspiration drew in houses, trees, cattle, men, and other animals. But among the inhabitants swallowed, one was a Brahman, who caused such an intolerable burning in his stomach that Garuda, unable to bear it, called in the greatest haste for him to come out. The Brahman refused unless his wife, a fisherman's daughter, might accompany him. To this Garuda consented.

Pursuing his journey, Garuda met his father Kasyapa (he shines as the Pole Star), who directed him to appease his hunger at a certain lake where an elephant and tortoise were fighting. The tortoise was eighty miles long, and the elephant one hundred and sixty. Garuda with one claw seized the elephant, with the other the tortoise, and perched with them on a tree eight hundred miles high. But the tree was unable to bear the ponderous weight, and, unhappily, thousands of pigmy Brahmans were then worshipping on one of its branches. Trembling lest he should destroy any of them, he took the bough in his beak, continuing to hold the elephant and tortoise in his claws, and flew to a mountain in an uninhabited country, where he finished his repast on the tortoise and elephant.

Garuda having surmounted astonishing dangers, at last seized the Moon and concealed it under his wing. On his return, however, being attacked by Indra and the gods, he overcame all, excepting Vishnu. Even Vishnu was so severely put to it in the contest, that he

came to terms with Garuda, made him immortal, and promised him a higher seat than his own; while on his part Garuda became the Vahan or carrier of Vishnu. Since then, Vishnu rides upon Garuda, while the latter, in the shape of a flag, sits at the top of Vishnu's car.

In the Ramayana Garuda is represented as doing great service to Rama and his followers, and his powers and peculiarities are repeatedly referred to. Thus, in the description of Hanuman it is said, that

"Like a thunderbolt in frame was he,
And swift as Garud's self could flee." [**]