Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/400

368 BOOK birth of the child) are reported to Kamsa by the warders, and his jealousy and fear are still more vehemently excited. But the fatal hour draws nigh, and in a cave, like Zeus and Mithras, Krishna, as the incarnation of Vishnu, is born with four arms and all the attributes of that god. " On the day of his birth the quarters of the horizon were irradiate with joy, as if more light were diffused over the whole earth. The virtuous experienced new delight ; the strong winds were hushed, and the rivers glided tranquilly when Janarddana was about to be born. The seas with their melodious murmurings made the music, while the spirits and the nymphs of heaven danced and sang." ^ For a moment he takes away from the eyes of his earthly parents the veil which prevents them from seeing things as they are, and they behold the deity in all his majesty. But the mists are again suffered to fall upon them, and they see only the helpless babe in his cradle. Then the voice of an angel sounds in the fathers ears, bidding him take the child and go into Gokala, the land of cows, to the house of Nanda, where he should find a new-born maiden. This child he must bring back, leaving Krishna in her place. This he is at once enabled to do, for the fetters fall from his hands and the prison doors open of their own accord; and guided by a dragon or snake, who here plays the part of the dragons or snakes in the myths of lamos or Medeia, he reaches the house of Nanda. Nanda himself is in profound sleep, and his wife prostrate from pain when Krishna is left under their roof. As the husband of Devaki re-enters the prison, the doors close again and the chains fasten themselves on

by the sjinboiism of these myths. "As Swadha: thou art wisdom, ambrosia, Aditi," say the gods to iJevaki the light, and heaven. Thou hast de- mother of the unborn Krishna, " thou scended upon earth for the preserva- art the parent of the gods; as Diti, tion of the world." — Vishnu Purana, thou art the mother of the Daityas, H. H.Wilson, p. 501. The same idea their foes. . . . The whole earth, deco- animates much of the devotion ad -rated with oceans, rivers, continents, dressed to the Virgin Mar}% as in the cities, ages, hamlets, and towns ; all Litany of Loretto and in many among the fires, waters, and winds ; the stars, the authorised hymns of the Breviarj'. asterisms, and planets ; the sky crowded ' Vishiiti Ptiraua, H. H. Wilson, with the variegated chariots of the gods, 503. Milton was led into the same strain and ether that provides space for all of thought as he wrote his Christmas substance ; the several spheres of earth, Hymn : — sky, and heaven, of saints, sages, ascetics, and of Brahma ; the whole egg " Peaceful was the night of Brahma with all its population of Wherein the Prince of Light gods, demons, spirits,snake-gods, fiends, His reign of peace upon the earth ghosts and imps, men and brutes, and began : whatever creatures have life, comprised The winds with wonder whist, in him who is their eternal lord and Smoothly the waters kissed, the object of all apprehension ; whose Whispering new joys to the mild real form, nature, names, and dimen- Ocean, sions are not within human appre- Who now hath quite forgot to rave, hension, — are now with that Vishnu M'hile birds of calm sit brooding on in thee. Thou art Swdha; thou art the charmed wave."