feet, Vixnu transformed himself into a
hog, and went from place to place digging into the earth, but without
success. For cogent reasons, Vixnu next assumed the form of a man and
lion at the same time. Rutrem, it appears, conceived a strong
friendship for one Iranien, a mighty giant, and granted him the
privilege that no one should kill him either by day or by night.
Instead of the giant proving grateful, he became proud and
overbearing, and even insisted on being worshipped as a god. To punish
the giant, Vixnu suddenly appeared before him in the form of a cloud,
and then, taking the monster shape of a being half-man half-lion,
resolved to take vengeance on the ungrateful wretch. In the evening,
when Iranien was standing at the threshold of his door, Vixnu sprang
at him, tore him to pieces, and drank his blood. But the blood
affected Vixnu so much that he became stupid. Vixnu's fifth
transformation was into a dwarf. At that time a cruel king's subjects
appealed to Vixnu to relieve them of their oppressor, and, to carry
out the people's desire, he, in the form of a dwarf, went to the city
where the tyrant kept court. The dwarf begged from the king a grant of
three feet of ground whereon to build himself a house. The tyrant was
about to comply with the request, when the morning star, which
attended the king in the character of secretary of state, suspected
there was treason in the case. It was common, when requests were
granted, for the king to take water into his mouth and pour some of it
into the hand of the suppliant, and therefore the secretary, by the
assistance of magic, slipped imperceptibly down the prince's throat,
in order to prevent the water being thrown out. The magic had not the
desired effect; for the king, finding something in his throat, forced
a sharp instrument into it, which put out one of the secretary's eyes,
and the water gushed out, ratifying the agreement. Vixnu changed
himself into a monster so large that the whole earth was not
sufficient to afford room for his feet. He then said to the king, "You
have given me three feet of earth, and yet the whole world can
scarcely contain one of my feet: where am I to place the other?" The
tyrant, seeing deserved wrath awaiting him, laid his head down before
Vixnu, who with one kick tossed it into the lowest abyss of hell. The
wretched king, finding himself condemned to such a place of torment,
begged pardon and mercy of Vixnu, but all the favour he received