Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/32

26 wager and Queen Kadru tricked me. So I became her slave, and as you were born in slavery, you too are her slave and must do her bidding and that of her thousand sons." Garuda pondered over what his mother had said, and then, going to the snakes, his cousins, said, "O my cousins, I am your slave. But grant me this boon, I pray you. Tell me what great work I may do to win my freedom and that of my mother."

The snakes answered him with one voice saying "O Garuda, bring us the ambrosia which the gods won from the sea when they churned the ocean. They have given it to Indra to keep. Take it from him and bring it here, and we will set you and your mother free."

Garuda went back to his mother and told her what his cousins the snakes had said. "My mother," he continued, "I would start at once to fetch the ambrosia but I fear that without food I shall die of hunger on the way." Queen Vinata answered, "My son Garuda, before you ascend to heaven you will pass over the uttermost ends of the earth. There live the Nishada people. Rest in their country and devour them. Thus you will be able to go to your journey's end and win the ambrosia. But be careful lest by chance you eat a Brahman. For if you swallow one you will be unable to digest him, and your stomach will pain you as if you had swallowed a fish-hook or burning charcoal." With these words Queen Vinata blessed her son; and flapping his mighty wings he rose and soon vanished in the distant sky.

When he came to the ends of the earth he alighted in the country of the Nishadas. And opening his mouth he sucked into it all those who lived there. To quench his thirst he drank up the rivers that watered the land.