Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/33

Rh But unhappily he neglected the words of his mother and sucked into his mouth a Brahman who had married a woman of the Nishada people. Instantly his stomach began to pain him, as if he had swallowed a fish-hook or a burning charcoal. Garuda remembered Queen Vinata's words and said, "O Brahman, come back through my mouth, for I had no wish to kill you." "No," said the Brahman, "I cannot come back alone. I must take with me my wife, who is a Nishada woman." Garuda agreed; the Brahman and his wife walked out of the great bird's mouth, and at once Garuda's pain abated.

Garuda, who had suffered greatly, rested from his journey, and then returning home sought out his father Kashyapa. Garuda told his father what had befallen him. "O father," he continued, "now that I have eaten the Nishada people and drunk up their rivers, how shall I feed myself on my journey to win the ambrosia?" "Garuda, my son," replied King Kashyapa, "once there lived two brothers named Vivavasu and Supratika. They had great wealth, and when Supratika grew to manhood, he wished to divide it. 'Give me my share,' he said, 'O my brother, of our wealth.' 'No, my brother,' answered Vivavasu. 'The wise never divide wealth. For brothers who do so no longer remain united but live separately and quarrel with one another.' But Supratika still pressed him for his share, until Vivavasu*s anger blazed out. 'You make light of my words, Supratika,' he said; 'therefore become an elephant'. Supratika, feeling himself change into an elephant, grew angry also and cursed his brother, saying, 'Become in your turn a tortoise'. And ever since that day the two brothers, in the shapes of an elephant and a tortoise, live by a great lake and