Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/30

24 man. But its limbs were unformed because its mother had broken open the egg. "My mother," spake the shape, "because you were jealous of Queen Kadru and would not wait until my body had become perfect, I curse you. And my curse is that you shall become the slave of the very queen Kadru of whom you were jealous. But if you wait for five thousand years my brother will come from the other egg and he will rescue you from slavery." With these words the shape rose into the air and disappeared from sight.

Queen Vinata paid heed to the words of her son, whom she called Aruna because his body was red, and carefully kept the second egg. But because her one son had left her, her jealousy of Queen Kadru grew daily. One day Queen Kadru asked Queen Vinata the colour of Uchaisrava, the divine horse which had come out of the ocean when the gods and demons churned it. Queen Vinata answered sharply, "The colour of Uchaisrava is white. If you think otherwise, my sister, let us lay a wager." Queen Kadru was angered at her sister's answer and said, "No, Uchaisrava has a white body but a black tail. If you think otherwise, let our wager be this. She whose words shall prove false shall become the slave of the other." Queen Vinata consented, and the sisters agreed that next morning they would cross the ocean and see whether the tail of Uchaisrava was white or black.

That evening, however, Queen Kadru, fearing that she had been in error, sent for her thousand snake sons and bade them fasten themselves to Uchaisrava's tail, so that it might seem black, whether really black or not. The snakes refused. Queen Kadru in a passion cursed them, saying, "My sons, King Janamejaya, the Bharata,