the Sun, she floated in mid-space, like the drying: tress-points of
afresh-bathed maiden.

Behold the wonders of intentness in excess on any sing-le
thing- ! So full was Karkati's consciousness of hunger and its
satisfaction, she minded not her own great body falling: off and
leaving" her so small and insignificant. And full of that same
consciousness she roamed, and roamed in her double form>
appearing' now as Ati-vishuchika and now An(ar-vishuchika(1),
ever insatiate of the lives that she destroyed. Doing her fell
work she wandered over the face of the earth, driven away,
now and again, when she attacked the righteous, by acts of
charity and mantras, medicines and tapas. For many years
she wandered thus, hiding' in the dust and hidden from the
light, skulking- in human limbs and org"ans tainted with
unclean living, flourishing- in heaps of filth, in dried-up ditches,
and in rotten straw.

At last she tired of her troubled life, uncertain hiding-
places, and the constant struggle; and the thought arose
within her mind and gathered strength as she dwelt on it :

"Did I do well to change my immense form for this small one ?
The tiniest drop of food now overfills me, and I no longer
know the taste of those large mouthfuls of delicious meats of
bid. I hide about in mud and mire and unclean places.
Shall I remain much longer in this state ? 0 my great legs !
with which I stepped with ease from peak to peak of these
vast mountain ranges ! 0 beautiful black nails ! that tore
down rocks in play ! 0 stomach ! roomy like the mountain-
gwg"e ! 0 large and beauteous face ! the broadening smile of
which stampeded even my fellow Rakshasas with terror ! 0
arms ! the weight of which broke down the mountain-pines !

(1) Literally "excessive VisTmohika^ aad "iatiacaal Vish.uoh.ika'*, a
teferenoe probably to various forms of tha disease. The cholera and the
plague have for long been the two ohief scourged of the "Bast,