much
respected by the people, though, judging from the accounts transmitted
to us, the wonder is that he was not detested. He married Parvardi,
daughter of a king, whose dominion was in the mountains, with whom he
lived a thousand years; but his two brothers, Bruma and Vixnu, having
disapproved of the match, gathered together the thirty thousand
millions of gods, and went in search of him. Accordingly he was found
and dragged away from his wife, which caused him to wander up and down
the earth in search of forbidden pleasures. One day the earth gave him
a son with seven heads; but as a nurse could not be got to bring up
the child, the seven stars undertook the task. Parvardi, disconsolate
at the loss of her husband, went in search of him, but could not
discover his place of abode. In her lonely state, she begged the gods
would give her a son,--a request that was complied with, for a
man-child dropped out of the sweat of her forehead. In the meantime
Rutrem returned to his house, and, finding the child, became
exceedingly enraged. His anger, however, turned into love on being
informed of the miraculous manner in which he was born. The king of
the mountains made a feast, to which the gods were invited, but
Rutrem, his son-in-law, was not asked. This want of respect provoked
him so much that he went to the banquet, and, laying hold of one of
the gods, tore off a handful of hair from his head. From the hair a
giant of enormous size started up, whose head reached to the
firmament, and struck the sun with so great violence that all its
teeth were knocked out. For this reason, the Indians refused to offer
anything to the sun but what could be eaten without teeth. Not
satisfied with knocking out the teeth of the sun, he bruised the moon
so severely that the marks remain to the present day. He then killed
several of the guests, among whom was his step-son, created from the
sweat of his mother's forehead. Vinayaguien (that was the youth's
name) lost his head, and had it replaced with that of an elephant. In
the disfigured state into which he was turned, his father dispatched
him in search of a wife as beautiful as his mother,--a task that
proved endless, because there could not be found a woman equal in
beauty to his maternal parent.

Rutrem married the River Ganges, which was represented under the form
of a blooming woman. At that time there was a giant named Piamejuran,
who had for several years undergone a severe penance for