Page:Cradle Tales of Hinduism .djvu/265



There is a strange old Hindu notion, according to which a very young child is said to be like a fish. Then comes a time when all the baby's eagerness is for food, and his little arms and legs and head are like so many small appendages, almost always kicking. This stage of development suggests the tortoise. Next the baby creeps on all-fours. How like a boar ! Then it begins to leap upwards and fall down — half-man, half-lion, After this it becomes a dwarf or little man. At last comes the age of the heroes, Rama and Krishna, who make it possible to be a Buddha, Altogether, Hindus count ten of these degrees, or steps, and call them the ten incarnations of the God Vishnu. Gradually each stage has come to have its own wonder-tale attached to it, and perhaps the story of Prahlad is simply the legend that grew up about the idea of a Man-Lion.

Hiranyakasipu was the king of the Daityas, or demons. Now these demons are the cousins of the Devas or gods, and the two parties are always at war with each other. The gods rule