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89 THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY.

have been his son again and again. The old man was so
incensed, to see that his daughter-in-law had more affection
for him than his own son, for whom he was dying with
grief, that he desired the constable to carry him back. The
old bramhunee would not believe that her son's affections
were thus alienated from them: the constable, therefore,
carried her also to see him; but she met with the same treat-
ment. They both immediately renounced their grief for a
son who had lost all his filial affection, and resolved to
think no more about him.

Other stories abound in the pooraniis respecting Yumu,
some of which relate to disputes betwixt the messengers of
this god and those of some other god, about the soul of a
departed person, whether it shall be happy or miserable.
I insert two of these stories:—-When the sage Cnimanduvyu
was a child of five years old, he put a straw into the tail of
a locust, and let it fly away. In advanced years, while once
employed in performing religious austerities, he was seized
as a thief by the officers of justice, and, as he gave no an-
swer on his trial, the king took it for granted that he was
guilty, and ordered him to be impaled. After he had been
impaled four years, his body had undergone no change,
and, though he appeared perfectly insensible to human ob-
jects, he was evidently alive. The king, being informed of
this, was filled with astonishment, and declared that he was
certainly some great ascetic, equal to one of the gods. He
then immediately ordered him to be taken downj but in
endeavouring to extract the wood upon which he had been
impaled, it broke within his body. The sage was then
suffered to depart, and, after some time, his religions ab-
straction was interrupted; though his mind had been so
£et upon his god, that neither impaling him for four years,
nor breaking the stake within his body, had disturbed his
 
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