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38 puzzled; "don't you mind the insult, the terrible sacrilege, of offering royal worship without calling for the presence of the Great God?"

"Oh!" said Siva wearily, "if only people would leave me out of everything, perhaps I could get rid of this burden of making and destroying worlds, and lose myself in one eternal meditation!"

Evidently it was impossible to get any fun out of a gossip here. Mahadeva was too grateful to His father-in-law for leaving Him in peace.

So Narada turned to tell the news to Sati. All her woman's curiosity was roused at once. A thousand questions had to be answered. She wanted to know about the preparations, and the guests, and exactly how the sacrifice and banquet were to be arranged. Finally saying, "But I must go too!" she turned to find her Husband, and Narada, feeling sure that events were afoot, hastened away.

Alone, in Kailash, Sati stood before Siva, "I want to go and see the feast!" she said.

"But," said He, "you are not asked!"

"No daughter could need an invitation to her father's house!" pleaded Sati.

"Yes," said Siva, "but you, My beloved, must not go. I fear for you the dreadful insults of those who hate Me."

Then, before the eeyseyes [sic] of the Great God, the