Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/425

Rh crime by feeding cows and Brahmins, and by other works of merit, but in vain. His glory was obscured as when Rahu the serpent lays hold of the moon and eclipses its brightness. He knew not what to do, but resolved to seek a sight of the god; whereupon a celestial voice was heard, saying, “O, king, fear not! when you are pursuing the Soren king, (a hostile monarch,) you shall come to a place where I am worshipped on the river Cavery; there you shall lose your disease.” The king, rejoicing at the oracle, repelled an invasion of the Soren, and, pursuing him, reached the indicated spot. On entering the porch of the temple, he discovered that the disease had left him. He went in, and while paying homage to the deity of the place, heard a voice, saying, “O, king! the disease which seized you waits in the porch of the eastern gate, (by which he had entered;) do not return by that way, but go out by a western gate, and return to Madura." The king, with the aid of his people, made a western gate and porch, and so, escaping the disease, left the temple to return to his palace.

The reader will notice that both the crime and the atonement were entirely aside from any change in the moral state of the actor in