Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/23

 The Legends of Krishna. 13

man, who by the force of his austerities was able to over- come the gods themselves, in his wrath cursed him that he should become a snake, and remain in that loathly shape till the advent of the gracious Krishna.^

Again, while Krishna is bathing, he is attacked by Kaliya, " the black one," the dragon of the River Jumna, the per- sonified spirit of the waters, which in so many tales, that of Narcissus for instance, drags down the beautiful hero into the gloomy depths. Krishna crushed the head of the monster, and would have slain him had not the dragon's wives come out of the water and implored him to take pity on their spouse. Krishna forgave him, adding that he should ever bear upon his brow the impress of the divine feet and be thus safe from his enemies,^ one of the many myths invented to explain the marks on the bodies of beasts and birds — the blood on Robin Redbreast, the mottled plumage of the Indian black partridge, the stripes upon the back of the little house squirrel.^

Like Herakles and so many heroes of the folktales, Krishna overcomes other monsters and demons. Thus, when the demon Bachhasura, in the form of a mighty crane, gobbled up the herd-boys, Krishna allowed him- self to be devoured with them ; but he proved so hot a mouthful that the demon was only too glad to drop him. Then the divine youth seized the brute by his long bill, and rent him in twain.* So with the demon Dhenuka, who found the boys plucking fruit from his palm-trees, and, taking the form of an ass, kicked Balarama on the breast. But Balarama hurled him so high that he fell on the top of one of the tallest trees and caused the fruit to fall in abun- dance.^ The monster, as in the case of Jack and the

' Growse, loc. ciL, 6i.

^ Ibid., 57 seqq. ; Wilson-Hall, loc. cit., iv., 286 seqq.

^ Crooke, Popular Religion aitd Folklore of Northern India, ii., 242, 251.


 * Growse, loc. cit., 57.


 * Ibid., 55 ; Wilson-Hall, loc. cit., iv., 297 seqq.