THR “ FOLKLORE OF INDIAN PLANTS.” 57 
wives of the gods forming the trinity were highly devoted to their 
respective husbands, it must be stated that Anusaya far surpassed 
any known woman of her time in her devotion. Her entire submis- 
sion to the will of her lord was well known. If ever, therefore, there 
was an object of universal envy in this respect, it was the wife of 
the humble saint Atri. He was powerful in his sanctity, and peace- 
ful at home, not possessing much and yet wanting little. Rich in 
the love of his wife, he was the happiest among the living. Any 
god or goddess not quite at peace with his or her partner might have 
usefully learnt a lesson from their singularly pure and perfect lives. 
The gods of the Hindoo mythology, like all other mythic gods, 
were not perfect gods, They had their own domestic vexations. 
With a view, therefore, to have some “fun ” the heavenly peripa- 
tetic chatterer Ndérad appears on the scene. Who is Nérad? As 
I say, he is a peripatetic chatterer,—a messenger travelling between 
the heavenly and mundane spheres, a walking newspaper, « living 
encyclopedia, and a mellifluous singer like Orpheus of the Greeks. 
He is an energetic bachelor, carrying the Vind (or a kind of 
modified guitar) in one hand, and the chiplya in another (two chips of 
wood with brass jingles held between the middle finger and thumb 
and struck against each other, keeping time as the Vind is being 
played upon); singing and dancing, full of liveliness and full of glee. 
He isa man the very quintessence of wit and humour and of vast 
resources, ready to create misunderstandings between friends and 
compunions, and foment quarrels between foes, and as equally ready 
with means, repairing wrongs resulting therefrom,—in plain words, a 
consummate peace-breaker and mischief-maker, the very imp of 
meddlesomeness, the minion of mockery, and with all this, a saint 
born and brought up—and what is more strange, an ever-welcome 
visitor of the immortal gods and mortal men, at whatever hour of 
night or day he paid his visit! He had the power of mysteriously 
disappearing from the lower to the higher world, and had no vehicle 
to carry him from place to place. He vanished in the airy regions, but 
when he was not disposed to be incognito the sweet strains of his ever 
charming music announced his arrival. True to his calling he-paid a 
visit to each of the wi ves of the three gods I have mentioned—Brahma, 
Vishnu, and Shiva. He said to them that there wasa woman in an 
humbler sphere of life who beat them all in her devotion to her lord 
and in her hospitality. It was not meet, said he, that it should be so. 
It was a disgrace to them that they of heaven were surpassed, What 
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