Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/49

Rh and Jaratkaru and all the snake people were overjoyed. They said with one voice to Astika, "Ask of us a boon and it shall be granted to you." Astika answered, "O King Vasuki and snake people, grant me this boon, namely that all men who read this tale shall be safe from your poisonous bites." And with one voice the king and the snake people cried in answer, "We grant you the boon, O Astika. And if in days to come any man shall say aloud the name of Astika and shall by your name call on any snake not to bite him, he shall be safe from the peril of our poison. And if any snake, disregarding our promise, shall bite any man he shall have his head cut into a hundred pieces." With these words King Vasuki and the snake people departed to their homes under the earth. And the rishi Astika went to live happily with his mother Jaratkaru the sister of King Vasuki.

But it will be asked what befell Aruna the other son of Queen Vinata. He became charioteer of the Sun and it happened in this way. After the Sun had seen Rahu drink the ambrosia, and had told Vishnu, Rahu was for ever attempting to devour him and at last the Sun-god grew angry that he alone among the Immortals should suffer and he resolved to destroy the world and the heaven above it and the sea beneath. He went in his chariot to the western mountains and resting it on the loftiest peak began to spread his rays over all the earth. The pools and lakes dried up, the rivers ceased to flow, the sea boiled and bubbled with the heat and the fishes died within its teeming depths. At last the sages of India went to the throne of Brahmadeva and begged him