their wishes as to throw a single flower with his left hand towards her image, which so delighted her that she restored his sons to life, and from that time, as men came to know of her power, her worship has become celebrated. [**]

The Mahabharata gives the following particulars regarding her marriage. Jagatakaru, her husband, was an eminent sage, who had practised great austerities, bathed in all the holy tanks, abstained from matrimony, and, as a result of his penance and fasting, had a dry and shrivelled body. In the course of his wanderings, he came to a place where he saw a number of men hanging from a tree with their heads downwards over a deep abyss, with a rat gnawing the rope by which they were suspended, and learned that they were his own ancestors, doomed to endure this misery because, their children being dead, they had no one to release them (i.e. by performing religious ceremonies); and he, who, by having a son might have set them free, was given up to a life of austerity, and refused to marry. When they are told that Jagatakaru is the man through whose abstinence they are suffering, they entreat him to seek a wife and secure their deliverance. He consents to do so on condition that the parents of the girl he marries give her to him willingly. Vasuki hearing of this, offers his sister to the sage, who marries her and has a son named Asika. This son effected the deliverance of his ancestors and also rendered good service to the serpent race in saving them from destruction when Janamejaya was wishful to exterminate them.

3. SASTI.

Sasti is peculiarly the goddess of married women; she is the giver of children, assists at childbirth, and is the guardian of young children. She is represented as a golden-complexioned woman with a child in her arms, riding upon a cat; hence no Hindu woman would under

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SASTI.

any circumstances injure that animal, lest she should offend the goddess and be made to suffer for it. Six times a year festivals in honour of Sasti are held; in addition to which, women who have lost their children by death worship her monthly. When a child is six days old, the father worships her; and when three

weeks old, the mother presents offerings to her. The ordinary representative of Sasti is a stone about the size of a man's head, placed under a Banyan tree, which is decorated with flowers, and offerings of rice, fruit, etc., are made to it. [**]

4. THE SHALGRAMA.