186 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
punishment as he thought they merited. Dipping 
his fingers in the lota (small brass pot) in which he 
carried some holy Ganges water, he sprinkled the 
youths therewith, and uttering a curse, exclaimed, 
“ In the name of Brahma I command thee to quit 
thy forms as young men and become trees.” On 
that very instant the youths became the one a jemla, 
the other an arjia tree. Then the devout Brahmin 
taking some of the Ganges water in his mouth 
spirted it upon the trunks of the trees saying, “ Thus 
be thou firm and unmoved, until, by Brahma’s per- 
mission, thou shall kiss the feet of the holy child 
Krishna.” And during some hundreds of years the 
trees remained unmoved. 
Krishna having been born, had arrived at the age 
of three years, when one day he was clinging to his 
mother’s neck while she was occupied in turning some 
cream into butter; and while her hands were thus 
employed, it happened that a pot of milk, which was 
upon the fire, boiled over, whereupon the mother 
hastily put down Krishna, and ran to take off the 
pot. The young god was mortified at this action, 
which indisputably proved that his mother loved the 
milk better than himself; and thus thinking, in the 
anger of the moment, he kicked over the pot of milk, 
upset the pan of cream, and ran away, his mother 
pursuing him, till she was quite weary. Then the 
sweet boy, having repented of his momentary display 
of temper, ran into his mother’s arms, and begged 
