J.J.J.JUJ »V WJLV.I.

men shall call thee Vl-shuchika(1). In subtle form shalt thou
destroy all beings that live on unclean foods, go evil ways, are
foolish and ill-balanced. Thou shalt prevail against them
that dwell in foul places and act in foul ways. Thou shalt
enter into them, even into their heart, and seizing on the
lotuses(2) and the spleen and other organs, thou shalt slay and
devour them. But if thou shouldst, by some mischance, attack
the good and virtuous, then shall this mantra help them to get
rid of thee, and thou shall fly back from them to these
mountains^)." Brahma uttered the strong mantra there ;

Siddhas, floating by, in the air, recorded it; and Brahma
disappeared from view.

CHAPTER IX

The Transformations of Kavl&atz
and further Tapas

Forthwith the mountain-large frame of Karkati
began to shrink.. In a moment it looked like only .a
great black cloud; then, a tree; shortly, like a human
being; next instant it was but a span high ; again, but
as a grain of mustard ; then as a dot of the sapphire-ray
of the sun ; and finally, invisible like space itself. Beautiful
and subtle as the Brahm'(Brahman)-nerve (Sushumna), out
on its way through the Brahm'(Brahman)-randhra(4) to

"discharge," "an excrescence," "a protrusion", a bye-product, an evil
excretion*

(1) An infections disease, generally the cholera; aiso a form of the
plague ; the naming after the "needle" seems to have reference to the
shape- of the disease-microbe. The mention of fogs and mists and olonds »
in the description of Karkati, similarly seem to refer to the seasons
and physical conditions in which epidemics are most violent. Vi, speciaL

(2) G-anglia, glands, plexuses ; Skt. chakras^ ^U'has, Jcandas^admas,

(3) Some varieties of the plague are said to be endemic in the hills.

(4) A passage through, the spinal chord and brain and the top ;o£
the skull, known to the science of Yoga.