The name of these heavenly musicians and their loose matrimonial alliances with the Apsaras has come into common use to designate one of the five forms of marriage--that where the mutual consent of man and woman to live together is all that is necessary, without any civil or religious ceremony.

THE RAKSHASAS.

These formidable beings are frequently referred to, and their actions described at some length in Hindu legend. Though Brahmans by birth, strange to say they are described as cannibals. The goddess Parvati gave to the whole tribe the power to arrive at maturity the moment they were born. They are said to be able to assume any form at will; and we read of them appearing as horses, buffaloes, and tigers. Some of them had a hundred heads. Amongst the most noted of them was Ravana, the hereditary foe of Vishnu, who in several incarnations left his heavenly home to slay him. The demon reappeared on the earth after remaining some years in hell; it was therefore necessary for the god in like manner to revisit the earth to get rid of him. Some of Ravana's relatives, such as

[paragraph continues] Kumbhakarna, Vibhishena, Indrajit, and others, were almost equally notorious.

Kumbhakarna, a brother of Ravana, as soon as he was born, stretched forth his arms, and gathered everything he could reach to stay his hunger. Later on in life, on one occasion he seized five hundred Apsaras, and at another time he laid violent hands on the wives of a hundred sages, besides cows and Brahmans innumerable. Brahma threatened to destroy him unless he moderated his demands. Fearing he might come to an untimely end, he commenced a life of austerity, which was to continue ten thousand years. But as this proceeded, the gods feared lest, as a result of such a penance, he should be stronger than ever, and, especially that he might obtain immortality and be able to swallow up everything, gods and men included. In their distress they appealed to Brahma, who caused his wife Sarasvati to enter the demon's mind, and delude him so far as to lead him to ask as a boon that he might sleep for ever. The plan succeeded. But the Rakshasas were not pleased with the result, and asked Brahma, to allow him to awake once in six months for one day only, and then eat as much as he wished. This request was granted. At one meal he is said to have eaten six thousand cows, ten thousand sheep, ten thousand goats, four hundred buffaloes, five thousand deer, and drank four thousand hogsheads of spirits, with other things in proportion, and then was angry with his brother Ravana for not providing him with more! His home in Ceylon is said to have been 20,000 miles long, and his bed occupied the full length; but according to the Ramayana the island itself was only 800 miles in circumference!

What can be represented by these monsters? In