IRST PRINTED IN THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, VOL. XLV.

The descent of the Ganges is the sequel of another fiction still more
monstrous, but perhaps one of the most singular of the cosmogonical
notions of the ancient Indians. Sagara, the king of Ayodhya (Oude),
was without offspring--in almost all eastern countries the most
grievous calamity incident to man, more especially to those of noble
or royal race. By the most surpassing penances he obtains an oracle
from the wise Brighu, predicting that one of his wives will bring
forth a single son, the other _sixty thousand_! Accordingly the fair
Cesina gives birth to Asamanja; his other wife to a gourd, which, like
the egg of Leda, is instinct with life. From the seeds of this gourd,
preserved with great care, and fed with ghee, come forth in due time
the sixty thousand boys. The son of Cesina was a youth of the most
malicious and cruel disposition; his pastime was to throw little
infants into the river, and solace himself with their cries. He is
sent into exile by his just and humane father, where he has a son,
Ansuman, as gentle and popular as Asamanja was malignant and odious.
King Sagara prepares to offer the Aswameda, the famous sacrifice of
the horse. The holy and untouched steed is led forth, as in the 'Curse
of Kehama,' among the admiring multitude, by the youthful Ansuman,
when on a sudden a monstrous serpent arises from the earth, and drags
it into the abyss. Sagara, in wrath, commands his sixty thousand sons
to undertake the recovery of the steed from the malignant demon who
has thus interrupted the sacrifice. Having searched long in vain, they
begin to dig into the bowels of the earth, until,--

'Cloven with shovel and with hoe, pierced by axes and by spades,
Shrieked the earth in frantic woe; rose from out the yawning shades
Yells of anguish, hideous roars from the expiring brood of hell--
Serpents, giants, and Asoors, in the deep abyss that dwell.
Sixty thousand leagues in length, all unweary, full of wrath,
Through the centre, in their strength, clove they down their hellward path.'

The gods, expecting the whole frame of the world, thus undermined, to
perish in total ruin, assemble around Brahma to implore his
interposition. He informs them that Vishnu, in the form of Kapila, has
been the robber of the horse, and that in due time the god will avenge
himself. From Patala, the hell of Indian mythology, the Sagaridae
recommence their impious