to touch
no more the region inhabited by mortal men! O saint of a virtuous life, I
am beholding all the regions. And this is the noise of the magnanimous
dwellers of the wood, who are reciting their audible prayers.'

"Lomasa said, 'O Yudhishthira, the place whence this noise comes and
reaches thy ears is at the distance of three hundred thousand yojanas, to
be sure. O lord of men, rest thou quiet and utter no word. O king, this
is the divine forest of the Self-existent One, which hath now come to our
view. There, O king, Viswakarma of a dreaded name performed religious
rites. On the mighty occasion of that sacrifice, the Self-existent One
made a gift of this entire earth with all its hilly and forest tracts, to
Kasyapa, by way of gratuity, for ministering as a priest. And then, O
Kuru's son, as soon as that goddess Earth was giving away, she became sad
at heart, and wrathfully spake the following words to that great lord,
the ruler of the worlds, 'O mighty god, it is unworthy of thee to give me
away to an ordinary mortal. And this act of gift on thy part will come to
nothing; (for) here am I going to descend into the bottom of the nether
world.' Then when the blessed saint Kasyapa beheld the goddess Earth,
despondent and sad, he, O protector of men, performed a propitiatory act
calculated to appease her wrath. And then, O Pandu's son, the Earth was
pleased with his pious deed. And she uprose again from within the waters,
and showed herself in the form of a sacred altar. This, O king, is the
spot which distinctly manifests the form of an altar. O great monarch,
ascend over it, and thou wilt gain valour and strength. And, O king, this
is the very altar which reaches as far as the sea, and rests itself upon
its bosom. May good luck be thine, do thou mount hereupon, and of thyself
cross the sea. And while thou this day mountest upon it, I shall
administer the ceremony for averting all evil from thee; for this altar
here, as soon as it gets a mortal's touch, at once enters into the sea.
Salutation to the god who protects the universe! Salutation to thee that
art beyond the universe! O Lord of gods, vouchsafe thy presence in this
sea. O Pandu's son, thou must recite the following words of truth, and
while so reciting, thou must quickly ascend this altar, 'The god of fire,
and the sun, and the organ of generation, and water, and goddess and the
seed of Vishnu, and the navel of nectar. The god of fire is the organ
that generat