6s ORIGIN AND DECLKVE OF THE 



was, from that time, surnamed Suiast/ia, or the cross- 

 borne. 



* There lived in the adjacent village a most vir- 

 tuous and faithful wife, who was married to a tliief, 

 and a debauchee, M^hose whole body was covered 

 with leprosy : some of his limbs had dropped, and 

 others were deprived of motion. He was very fond 

 of gambling, and his faithful wife used to carry him, 

 wrapped up like a child in swaddling clothes, to a 

 gan;bling house, where he spent a great part of the 

 night, when she carried him back in the same man- 

 ner. It was midnight, and the night very dark, she 

 passed near the cross, and stumbHng against it, she 

 shook it violently, and let her husband fall at the 

 foot of it. The holy man being put to great pain, 

 said to her, at the rising of the sun, thy husband 

 shall die. Such are the powers of a virtuous and 

 faithful wife, that she forbade the sun to rise. A 

 thick darkness covered the face of the world, and 

 lasted 10,000 years, during which the gods and the 

 created beings were in the utmost distress and con- 

 sternation. 



' All the gods, with 'Siva and Brahma, went to 

 Vishnu the preserver, who resides on the northern 

 shores of the IVIiite Sea, that is to say, in the sacred 

 isles in the west. Vishnu was very much embar- 

 rassed, as he did not wish to reverse the decrees of 

 either of two such exalted characters. After some 

 consideration, he said to the gods, " Anasu'ya', the 

 wife of Atri, is most virtuous and faithful; go to 

 her, and prevail upon her to go and speak to the 

 wife of the thief, when they will together come to 

 some arrangement." Anasu'ya' consented, and after 

 having discussed the matter with her, every thing was 



