Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/19

Rh passed his throat. Rahu's body fell to the ground, and, being mortal, soon rotted. But his head, having taken the ambrosia, is immortal and still endures.

But because the sun-god detected him as he drank the divine liquid, and told Vishnu, Rahu's head bears to the sun-god an undying hatred. Sometimes he steals up unperceived close to the bright sun-god and with a single bite swallows him. But because Rahu has no body, the sun-god in due course reappears through his enemy's throat and once again begins to shine upon the earth in all his former splendour.

And then men gather together and say that there has been an eclipse of the sun.

 

Once upon a time there lived in India a great rishi or sage named Veda. According to the custom of those days, he took as his pupil a Brahman boy named Uttanka. Now Veda had, when himself a boy, been the pupil of a very stern anchorite named Dhoumya, and he had suffered much from his master's severity. Remembering his own unhappy youth, Veda treated Uttanka with the greatest kindness. When Uttanka grew to manhood, he remembered gratefully all the care with which Veda had taught him and all the love that his master had shewn him. So Uttanka went to Veda and said:

"O my master, tell me how I can return your kindness in some small measure. For it is the custom that the master should receive from his pupil a fee for