6. The tradition is that a prince of this military class was sporting in a river with his thousand wives, when Renukâ, the wife of Jamadagni, went to bring water. He offended her, and her husband cursed the prince, but was put to death by him. His son Parasrâm was no less a person than the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, who had assumed the human shape merely to destroy these tyrants. He vowed, now that his mother had been insulted, and his father killed, not to leave one on the face of the earth. He destroyed them all twenty-one times, the women with child producing a new race each time. [W. H. S.] The legend is not narrated quite correctly. 7. Râma Chandra, son of Dasaratha. 8. When Râm set out with his army for Ceylon, he is supposed to have worshipped the little tree called 'cheonkul', which stood near his capital of Ajodhya. It is a wretched little thing, between a shrub and a tree; but I have seen a procession of more than seventy thousand persons attend their prince to the worship of it on the festival of the Dasahara, which is held in celebration of this expedition to Ceylon. [W. H. S.] 'As Arjuna and his brothers worshipped the shumee-tree, the _Acacia suma_, and hung up their arms upon it, so the Hindus go forth to worship that tree on the festival of the Dasahara. They address the tree under the name of Aparajita, the invincible goddess, sprinkle it with five ambrosial liquids, the 'panchamrit', a mixture of milk, curds, sugar, clarified butter, and honey, wash it with water, and hang garments upon it. They light lamps and burn incense before the symbol of Aparajita, make 'chandlos' upon the tree, sprinkle it with rose-coloured water, and set offerings of food before it' (Balfour, _Cyclopaedia_, 3rd ed., s.v. 'Dasahara'). The 'cheonkul' is the _chhonkar_ or _chhaunkar (Prosopis spicigera_, Linn.), described by Growse as follows:-- 'Very common throughout the district; occasionally grows to quite a large tree, as in the Dohani Kund at Chaksauli. It is used for religious worship at the festival of the Dasahara, and considered sacred to Siva. The pods (called _sangri_) are much used for fodder. Probably _chhonkar_ and _sangri_, which latter is in some parts of India the name of the tree as well as of the pod, are both dialectical corruptions of the Sanskrit _sankara_, a name of Siva; for the palatal and sibilant are frequently interchangeable' ('List of Indigenous Trees' in _Mathurâ, A. District Memoir_, 3rd ed., Allahabad, 1883, p. 422). Sundry leguminous trees are used in Dasahara ceremonies in the different parts of India, under varying local names. 9. _Credo quia impossibile_.