the news. He enters playing the _Vina_ and singing hymns in honour
of the great god. Nareda's communication to Siva and Bhavani is very
brief.

Siva asks, "Now, Nareda, whence come you?" Nareda replies, "Your godship
is omniscient, you know all that has happened, but have asked me through
a wish to hear it from my lips. We were all invited to Daksha's
sacrifice. Dadhichi, finding that you were not invited, took Daksha to
task pretty sharply, and walked off, upon which I come to pay you my
respects." Having said this and prostrated himself on the ground, the
sage, with his lute hanging upon his neck, departed.

Sati now asks leave to go and see her father.

Siva replies, "It is quite contrary to etiquette, to go without an
invitation." She answers, "I need not stand on ceremony with my father."

Siva observes, "How! would you impose upon me with falsehoods? Daksha is
not your father, nor is his wife your mother, you are the father of all
things, the mother of the universe. Those versed in the _Vedas_ declare
you male and female too."

In the end, she is allowed to follow her own inclinations.

She comes to her father, and vainly endeavours to impress him with
respect for her husband. She quits him to throw herself into the
sacrificial fire.

Nareda then appears and tells Daksha to prepare for the consequences of
his folly. Virabhadra, Siva's attendant, then enters and plays some
antics. Shaking the earth with his tread, and filling space with his
extended arms, he rolls his eyes in wrath. Some of the gods he casts on
the ground and tramples on them; he knocks out the teeth of some with
his fists, plucks out the beards of some, and cuts off the ears, arms,
and noses of others; he smites some, and he tosses others into the
sacrificial fire. He decapitates the cause of his master's indignation,
the haughty Daksha.

MRIGANKALEKHA.

Mrigankalekha is the daughter of the king of Kamarupa or Assam: she is
beheld by Karpuratilaka, the king of Kalinga, whilst hunting, and the
parties are mutually enamoured.

The obstacle to their union is the love of Sankhapala, a demon, to
oppose whose supernatural powers, Ratnachura, the minister of the king
of Kalinga, who alone is aware of the circumstance, invites to the
palace a benevolent magician, Siddhayogini, and Mrigankalekha is also
lodged in the palace as the friend of the queen Vilasavati.

Notwithstanding these precautions, she is carried off by Sankhapala to