Soma having concluded, the Prachetasas took Márishá, as he had enjoined them, righteously to wife, relinquishing 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 Brahmá 5. This great sage, for the furtherance of creation, and the increase of mankind, created progeny. Obeying the command of Brahmá, he made movable and immovable things, bipeds and quadrupeds; and subsequently, by his will, gave birth to females, ten of whom he bestowed on Dharma, thirteen on Kaśyapa, and twenty-seven, who regulate the course of time, on the moon 6. 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 forwards living creatures

were engendered by sexual intercourse: before the time of Daksha they were variously propagated, by the will, by sight, by touch, and by the influence of religious austerities practised by devout sages and holy saints.

MAITREYA.--Daksha, as I have formerly heard, was born from the right thumb of Brahmá: tell me, great Muni, how he was regenerate as the son of the Prachetasas. Considerable perplexity also arises in my mind, how he, who, as the son of Márishá, was the grandson of Soma, could be also his father-in-law.

PARÁŚARA.--Birth and death are constant in all creatures: Rishis and sages, possessing divine vision, are not perplexed by this. Daksha and the other eminent Munis are present in every age, and in the interval of destruction cease to be 7: of this the wise man entertains no doubt. Amongst them of old there was neither senior nor junior; rigorous penance and acquired power were the sole causes of any difference of degree amongst these more than human beings.

MAITREYA.--Narrate to me, venerable Brahman, at length, the birth of the gods, Titans, Gandharbas, serpents, and goblins.