Although the object of their quest, the nectar of immortality, had been produced, the churning was continued apparently in the hope of further treasures. Airavata, a huge elephant, now emerged from the troubled waters, and was at once appropriated by Indra. But after his appearance a baleful poison, the terrible Kalakuta, “blazing like a flame mixed with fumes,” began to overspread the earth and to threaten the destruction of the universe. At this perilous juncture, Mahadeva, at Brahma’s solicitation, “swallowed the poison and held it in his throat,” which acquired and ever after retained a blue colour. Hence Mahadeva is often known by the name Nilakantha, the blue-throated. [Illustration: +THE CHURNING OF THE OCEAN.+ (Reduced from Moor’s “Hindu Pantheon.”)] The Asuras having got possession of Dhanvantari with the vessel of nectar, were preparing to defend their acquisition by force of arms, but Narayana, assuming the bewitching form of lovely _Maya_, easily induced the Daityas, ravished with her charms, to part with their treasure. As soon as the deception practised upon them became apparent, the Daityas and Danavas pursued the gods, who, in the meantime, had been hurriedly taking draughts of this wonderful elixir of immortality. Along with them a Danava, named Rahu, in the disguise of a god, was also slyly partaking of the _Amrita_, but, before the nectar had gone beyond his throat, he was detected by the sun and moon and had his head severed from his body by the discus of Narayana. The severed head of Rahu was, of course, immortal, and ascended into the sky with loud cries. And ever since that eventful day it has pursued the sun and moon with revengeful feelings, swallowing them up periodically, as is evident in the solar and lunar eclipses which have attracted the awed attention of mankind through the ages. To these events succeeded the commencement of a terrible battle between the gods on one side, and the Asuras, Daityas and the Danavas on the other. The gods, being victorious, carried the _Amrita_ to heaven, and, “offering due respect to Mandara, placed him on his own base.” Such, in brief, is the wonderfully grand old myth which could have been conceived by no common mind, which is still believed in, and gives rise to practices and ceremonies still observed by two hundred millions of the Indian people, for whom even now it is the malignant Rahu that periodically threatens the destruction of the greater and lesser lights of the firmament. On these dire occasions the Hindus beat their drums and blow their conchs to terrify away the demon. They throw away their earthen cooking-pots, observe a rigid fast during the period of obstruction, and crowd the bathing-places for a purifying plunge as soon as the light of sun or moon is once again fully restored to the delighted eyes of mankind. APPENDIX III