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THE TYING.
SKANDIIA X. CHAP. 9.
One day Yasdda was churning curdled milk and singing the
deeds of her son. Krishna came up and, desirous of sucking milk,
held the churning rod. Yasoda placed him on her lap and gave him
milk to suck. But the milk that was boiling on the oven overflowed
the pot and she hurriedly left her son. In anger Krishna bit his lips,
broke the milk pot with a stone, took the fresh butter to a retired
corner and there partook of it. Yasoda came back after a while and
found the pot broken. Her son had left the place and she could easily
see that it was all his doing. She found Krishna seated on the husk
stand, freely dividing the contents of the hanging pots among the
monkeys, and she quietly approached him with a stick. Krishna
hurriedly got down and ran away as if in fear. Yasoda ran after him
and caught him at last. Finding him fear-stricken, she threw down
the stick and tried to fasten him to the husking stand. The rope fell
short by the breadth of two fingers (say two inches). She added
another rope. The gap remained the same. She added rope after
rope, as many as she had of her own and of her neighbours, but could
not bridge over the distance. She stood baffled at last, amazed and
ashamed. Finding that his mother was perspiring in the effort and
that her hair had become dishevelled, Krishna allowed himself to be fas-
tened to the stand.
THE ARJUNA TREES.
SKANDHA X. CH'AP. 10.
The Yaksha King Kuvera had two sons Nalakuvara and
Manigriva. They became maddened with power and intoxicated
with drink. Narada passed by them while they were playing with
Gandharva girls stark naked in a river bath and they heeded him not.
Narada thought how best he could reclaim them. " Poverty is the only
remedy for those that lose their heads in wealth. These sons of the
Lokapala Kuvera are deep in ignorance, insolence and intoxication.
Let them become trees. But they shall not lose memory by my
favor. After one hundred Deva years, the touch of Sri Krishna shall
save them." These sons of Kuvera in consequence became a pair of
Arjuna trees in Vrindavana.
While Krishna was fastened to the husking stand, the pair of
Arjuna trees drew his attention. He was bent on making good the
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