On the twelfth of _Chét_, in the _Kishn Bicheh_, he assumed the _Kurmávátár_, or “that of the tortoise.” They say that the Angels and Deeves (Asurs), taking the serpent _Vásukir_,[40] formed with him a cord, and fastening this to a lofty mountain called _Mandára_,[41] made with it a churn-staff, which they moved about in the mighty ocean, whilst Naráyan remained under the mountain to prevent it from falling; and by this agitation they procured the water of life. In the kingdom of _Kalinga_, they have formed the image of a tortoise, and among the wonderful sights of that region is the following miraculous event: if they cast the bones of a Brahman or a cow into the adjacent reservoir, in the course of a year one half of it becomes stone, and the other half remains unchanged. It is worthy of remark, that some Persian astronomers represent the constellation Cancer by a tortoise, nay call it by that name, instead of _Kharchang_, or “crab.” Ferdúsi, the sage, thus expresses himself: “The lunar lord beheld the ascendancy of the tortoise.” And as they account Cancer the ascendant sign of the world, it is therefore likely that the ancient Hindú philosophers represented this constellation[42] under the figure of the _Kurma_, or “tortoise;” also by the _Matsya_, or “fish,” is meant the constellation _Hút_, or “Pisces.” The third was the _Baráh_, or “boar Avátar,” when a Rakshas, named _Karanyáksha_, having taken away the earth and carried it under the water, Vishnu, on the sixteenth of Chet in the _Shakl Pacheh_,[43] or “bright half of the moon,” assumed the form of a boar, slew the demon with his tusks and brought out the earth. The fourth was the _Narsinha_, or “man-lion Avátar.” There was a Rakshas named _Kiranya Kashípú_, whose son, _Prahláda_, worshipped Vishnu, and as his father persecuted him on that account, Vishnu, therefore, on the fourteenth of _Baisakh_,[44] in the _Shakl Pacha_, or “bright half of the moon,” having assumed the form of the Narsingh, whose head and claws were those of a lion joined to a human body, slew the demon Kiranya Kashipú.