Soma thy vertebral regions; let Agni protect thy head, and the Vasus thy
whole body. I also, O child (engaged in beneficial ceremonies), shall sit
here for your welfare. Go then, O child, in safety to accomplish thy
purpose.'

"Sauti continued, 'Then Garuda, having heard the words of his mother,
stretched his wings and ascended the skies. And endued with great strength,
he soon fell upon the Nishadas, hungry and like another Yama. And bent
upon slaying the Nishadas, he raised a great quantity of dust that
overspread the firmament, and sucking up water from amid the ocean, shook
the trees growing on the adjacent mountains. And then that lord of birds
obstructed the principal thoroughfares of the town of the Nishadas by his
mouth, increasing its orifice at will. And the Nishadas began to fly in
great haste in the direction of the open mouth of the great serpent-eater.
And as birds in great affliction ascend by thousand into the skies when
the trees in a forest are shaken by the winds, so those Nishadas blinded
by the dust raised by the storm entered the wide-extending cleft of
Garuda's mouth open to receive them. And then the hungry lord of all
rangers of the skies, that oppressor of enemies, endued with great
strength, and moving with greatest celerity to achieve his end, closed his
mouth, killing innumerable Nishadas following the occupation of
fishermen.'"

So ends the twenty-eighth section in the Astika Parva of Adi Parva.


SECTION XXIX

(Astika Parva continued)