“If the wife be within one day’s journey of the place where her husband died, and she signify her wish to be burned with him, the burning of the corpse shall be delayed till her arrival. “If the husband be out of the country when he dies, let the virtuous wife take his slippers, or anything which belongs to his dress, and binding them, or it, on her breast, after purification, enter a separate fire. A Brunhŭnŭ cannot burn herself on a separate pile; but this is an eminent virtue in another woman. “There are thirty-five million hairs on the human body. The woman who ascends the pile will remain so many years with her husband in Heaven. “Dying with her husband, she purifies three generations--her father and mother’s side and her husband’s side. Such a wife, adoring her husband, enters into celestial felicity with him--greatest and most admired; lauded by the choirs of Heaven, with him she shall enjoy the delights of Heaven while fourteen Indras reign.” THE GOD VISHNU MADE MAN. [Illustration: THE TEN INCARNATIONS OF VISHNU.] According to the great poems, the Mahabarata and the Ramayana, Vishnu passed through ten incarnations. These are frequently represented in sculptures (see illustration). They are I. Mataya, the fish. According to the story, Vishnu became a fish to save Manu (the Noah of the Hindus) from the universal deluge. II. Kurma, the tortoise. Here Vishnu became a tortoise at the bottom of the sea of milk, that his back might serve as a pivot for the mountain Mandara, around which the gods and demons twisted the great serpent Vasŭki. They then stood opposite to each other, and using the snake as a rope, churned the ocean of milk for the production of fourteen precious things. III. Varah, the boar. Vishnu in this form delivered the world, after a struggle of a thousand years, from the demon who had seized the earth and carried it to the lowest depths of the sea. IV. Nara-sinha, the lion. He thus destroyed another demon. V. Vamana, the dwarf. He deprived the demon Bali of the dominion of three worlds. He received from Bali the promise of as much land as he could step over in three paces, and then stepped over heaven and earth. VI. Parasu-rama or Rama with the axe. VII. Rama, the hero, destroying the demon Ravana. VIII. Krishna, the dark destroyer. IX. Buddha, the enlightened one. This form was devised to win back the Hindu Buddhists to Vishnu’s worship. X. Kalki who is yet to appear. He will be revealed in the sky, seated upon a white-winged horse, with a drawn sword like a blazing comet. He is to finally destroy the wicked and to permanently establish righteousness and truth upon the earth. A SANSKRIT STORY-BOOK.