THE ‘‘ FOLKLORE OF INDIAN PLANTS.” 59 
husband on each of the pseudo-beggars, and if I may venture to 
express an opinion, it ‘ served them right.” For, behold! on the 
sprinkling of the water they three lost their manly forms and 
became tender babies. They were there in spirit, but their persons 
were no longer those that could take impression from the surround- 
ing world. The lady Anusay’ thereafter at once fulfilled the condi- 
tion of nudity, flung her garments aside, and with a dignity charac- 
teristic of a hostess she put the three babies to her breast, one after 
another, and fed them in their state of perfect innocence, thus fulfil- 
ling their demands without going beyond the bounds of modesty. 
She sang lullabies and sent the babies to sleep. Time passes. 
The husbands don’t return home. What’s become of them? The 
Messenger of Heaven, Nérad, is again on the scene. He knows it 
all, He is at the bottom of it. He informs the three wives, 
anxious about the return of their gallant husbands, that their hus-= 
bands had been metamorphosed into babies, and were now in the arms 
of Anusaya, whom they had sent a trial. The laurel is the meed of 
mighty conquerors. The cradle is now the meed of these preposter- 
ous gods. You can imagine the consternation of the wives. 
Implorings and apologies of a touching kind prevailed after this. 
The time for claiming superiority was gone. ‘The contest was ats 
an end. ‘Lhere was a fall, and the humble pair was victorious. The 
Rishi was willing to forgive and forget. The charmed waters were 
sprinkled over the babies, and. they became men again. To mark 
the circumstance, however, and also to serve a lesson to future gene- 
rations, this united action of the three gods was symbolized in 
making a new deity by the union of three persons into one. This 
was the birth of god Dattatraya, who is to be found at the foot of 
the Umbar or Audumbar tree (Ficus glomerata). He has only one 
body and six hands, but has three different heads, each representing 
a god of the Hindoo trinity. He was conceived in holiness and in 
the discharge of the solemn duty of hospitality, and is therefore a 
noble deity, the prince of peace, and guardian of good deeds. 
Let menowtake up the legend connected with another favourite and 
frequently seen tree, the banyan tree, the Ficus indica, On the full 
moon day of J eshtha this tree is worshipped by all married ladies that 
they may escape the miseries of a widowed life. The story is: that 
it was the worship of this tree that gave back to Savitri her husband 
Satyaw4n, who was stung to death by a cobra during his wanderings 
in the forest. . The legend of Savatri has attracted the attention of 
