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118
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MAY, 1895.
When his parents returned from making their offerings to Makaļi Abbe at Mala, they heard people speaking together: -"Who it is we do not know; but a man has been thrown into a well, which has been covered with a flat stone, on which a pipal tree has been planted."
"No one would go to such a place, except my son to play with the Asuras," said Gindi Giļi Rama Deyar to the people and went to the well.
"If my son was born to only one father and mother, the stone above will break in pieces ; the soil put on it will be scattered; the tree planted on it will bend and fall to the ground, and then my son will come and take milk from my right breast," said Deyar.
Her son grew inside up to the stone above. Then the stone broke in pieces; the soil was scattered away; the tree fell to the ground, and from out the well he opened his mouth to Buckle his mother's breast.
“My mother, I put my mouth to your breast, as you are my mother. You must see me.. With single mind and wisdom you have fed me up to this time, and treated me well. Therefore, you must see me at my full height," said he, and stood, stretching from the earth to the
sky.
His mother fell senseless to the ground. Then he resumed his proper figure as a man and roused his mother: - "Mother, mother! I am your sou, Brahma; and another son Parimale Ballal is to be born to you. He will be the very king of justice. If any body should abuse him he will leave him crying. He will be a peaceful and charitable man. He will never give a harsh answer to any one," said the boy to his mother.
In the Seventh Ocean the duck's second egg fell. There was an eclipse at a certain new moon, and while the poor Brahmaņas were going to bathe in the Ocean, Acha Machamma the wife of a Brahmana, said :-"I am a barren woman. What is the use of bathing in the Ocean, or of not bathing P"
But she went nevertheless and bathed, and while she was bathing, the second egg came floating on the water like a lime. Acha Machamama took it up and brought it to her house, and put it in a heap of rice. One Tuesday at midnight a female child cried aloud.
“What is the matter P A child is crying P" said her husband.
Then he went inside and saw that there was a child like an inhabitant of the Mabáléka Padinabha, her husband, put four leaves of a kasanam tree in the four corners of his house.
The neighbours said :-"This woman was not pregnant; what is this wonder P She had no sign of pregnancy !
She reared the child, and had her educated. On the eighth day the child looked like a child of a month, and in a month like one of a year and half. In this way this girl grew up. Among the Brahmaņas, one said he wanted to be married to her, and another said she must be married to him. In these disputes eleven years passed over the girl. She attained puberty Then her eyes were bound up with a cloth and she was left in a forest by her parents.
They were very sorrowful and said :-"We bred the child and educated her up to this day. Now she is mature, and neither marriage nor any other ceremony can be performed."
Thus they were very gorrowful and left her in the forest. In the meantime the dust of a rahu tree fell on her body from above.
“Who is it that draws toddy from the rahu tree P If you untie the cloth from my eyes you are my brother and I am your sister," said the girl.
"How can I untie the cloth from your eyes? You are a Brahmaņa woman; but I am a Billavar by caste :" said sayina Baidya of Asalajya Bail. "I shall go to my master and inform him of this matter at the temple of Blur Abbe, and then untie the cloth over your eyes."
