va the wife of Angiras. I have come here
according to the advice of the wives of the other Rishis, who have sent
me here after due deliberation.'

Agni replied, 'How didst thou know that I was tortured with love and how
could the others, the beloved wives of the seven Rishis, of whom thou
hast spoken, know this?'

Swaha replied, 'Thou art always a favourite with us, but we are afraid of
thee. Now having read thy mind by well-known signs, they have sent to thy
presence. I have come here to gratify my desire. Be thou quick, O Agni,
to encompass the object of thy desire, my sisters-in-law are awaiting me.
I must return soon.'

Markandeya continued, 'Then Agni, filled with great joy and delight,
married Swaha in the guise of Siva, and that lady joyfully cohabiting
with him, held the semen virile in her hands. And then she thought within
herself that those who would observe her in that disguise in the forest,
would cast an unmerited slur upon the conduct of those Brahmana ladies in
connection with Agni. Therefore, to prevent this, she should assume the
disguise of a bird, and in that state she should more easily get out of
the forest.

Markandeya continued, 'Then assuming the disguise of a winged creature,
she went out of the forest and reached the White Mountain begirt with
clumps of heath and other plants and trees, and guarded by strange
seven-headed serpents with poison in their very looks, and abounding with
Rakshasas, male and female Pisachas, terrible spirits, and various kinds
of birds and animals. That excellent lady quickly ascending a peak of
those mountains, threw that semen into a golden lake. And then assuming
successively the forms of the wives of the high-souled seven Rishis, she
continued to dally with Agni. But on account of the great ascetic merit
of Arundhati and her devotion to her husband (Vasishtha), she was unable
to assume her form. And, O chief of Kuru's race, the lady Swaha on the
first lunar day threw six times into that lake the semen of Agni. And
thrown there, it produced a male child endowed with great power. And from
the fact of its being regarded by the Rishis as cast off, the child born
therefrom came to be called by the name of Skanda. And the child had six
faces, twelve ears, as many eyes, hands, and feet, one neck, and one
stomach. And it first assumed a form on the second lunar day, and it grew
to the size of a little child on the third. And the limbs of Guha were
developed on the fo