Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 13.djvu/64

beautiful deity has come." Then the great deity went out and looked, and said: "This is the Ugly-Male-Deity-of-the-Reed-Plains,"^[1] and at once calling him in, made him sleep in the snake-house. Hereupon his wife, Her Augustness the Forward-Princess, gave her husband a snake-scarf,^[2] saying: "When the snakes are about to bite thee, drive them away by waving this scarf thrice." So, on his doing as she had instructed, the snakes became quiet, so that he came forth after calm slumbers. Again on the night of the next day the Impetuous-Male deity put him into the centipede and wasp-house; but as she again gave him a centipede and wasp-scarf, and instructed him as before, he came forth calmly. Again the Impetuous-Male deity shot a whizzing barb into the middle of a large moor, and sent him to fetch the arrow, and, when he had entered the moor, at once set fire to the moor all round. Thereupon, while he stood knowing no place of exit, a mouse came and said: "The inside is hollow-hollow; the outside is narrow-narrow." Owing to its speaking thus, he trod on the place, whereupon he fell in and hid himself, during which time the fire burned past. Then the mouse brought out in its mouth and presented to him the whizzing barb. The feathers of the arrow were brought in their mouths by all the mouse's children. Hereupon his wife the Forward-Princess came bearing mourning-implements, and crying. Her father the great deity, thinking that the deity Great-Name-Possessor was already dead and done for, went out and stood on the moor, whereupon the deity Great-Name-Possessor brought the arrow and presented it to him, upon which the great deity, taking him into the house and calling him into an eight-foot spaced large room, made him take the lice off his head. So, on looking at the head, he saw that there were many centipedes there. Thereupon, as his wife gave to her

and explains by reference to the bold, forward conduct of the young goddess.

1. One of the alternative names of this deity, who is mostly mentioned by one of his other designations.
2. I.e., "a scarf by waving which he might keep off the snakes." Similarly the "centipede and wasp-scarf" mentioned a little further on must be understood to mean "a scarf to ward off centipedes and wasps with."