216 HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 



cient idea of the wild, though sometimes sublime, ravings 

 in which the framers of the Hindoo pantheon indulge. 

 Vishnu made his first appearance on earth as a fish, so 

 small as to be conveniently placed in a vase of water. This 

 wonderful animal, however, successively expanded his di- 

 mensions, till not the vase only, but a cistern, a pool, a 

 lake, became insufficient to contain him. Being at length 

 thrown into the ocean, he appeared, blazing like gold, a 

 million of leagues in extent. The narrative concludes 

 with an account of the fish rising and destroying a giant. 

 Vishnu assumed secondly the figure of a boar, who grew 

 always larger and larger, till with his tusks he raised up 

 the earth from the bottom of the waters into which it had 



sunk. 



The third presentation of this deity was to act a con- 

 spicuous part in that extraordinary process called the 

 Churning of the Ocean. There is no theme on which Hindoo 

 poetry and mythology have thrown out such a crowd of 

 wildly luxuriant images. The scene opens on Mount 

 Meru, " a most exalted mass of glory, reflecting the sunny 

 rays from the splendid surface of its gilded horns. Many 

 celestial medicinal plants adorn its sides, and it stands pierc- 

 ing the heaven with its aspiring summit,— a mighty hill, 

 inaccessible even by the human mind. It is adorned with 

 trees and pleasant streams, and resoundeth with the de- 

 lightful songs of various birds." On its pinnacle the angels 

 and deities began to meditate on the means of procuring 

 the Amreeta juice, the grand draught which confers im- 

 mortality. It was then arranged between Vishnu, here 

 called Narayan, and Brama, that the ocean should be 

 churned like a pot of milk by the united strength of Soors 

 and Asoors, the good and evil powers, till it should throw 

 up the precious liquid. Thereupon Ananta, king of the 

 serpents, raised up Mount Mandar, and placed it upon the 

 back of Koornaraj, king of the tortoises. Another mighty 

 serpent, named Vasoakee, was then fastened to the moun- 

 tain to be employed as a rope ; whereupon angels and de- 

 mons united in grasping the serpent by the head and tail, 

 and whirling it with such violence, that " the roaring of 

 the ocean, while violently agitated, was like the bellowing 

 , of a mighty cloud. Thousands of the various productions 

 of the waters were torn to pieces by the mountain, and 





