Argument:--The sage’s situation at the end of the Deluge, and his description of the reproduction of creation. The Huntsman said:--Tell me sir, how a sage as yourself, could be exposed to that state (of the dream or delusion of the Deluge); and why were you not delivered from your meditation. 2. The sage replied:--At the end of the Kalpa age, all kinds of beings meet with their destruction; namely, there is a termination of the erroneous forms of the worlds, and a cessation of the luminous bodies in the heaven. 3. Sometimes the dissolution takes place gradually at the end of a _kalpa_; and at others it comes on all on a sudden, with a simultaneous turmoil and disorganization on all sides. 4. So when there was an outbreak of waters on every side, and the gods were repairing to Brahmá the first cause of all; for redress from the impending danger, they were all swept away by the overflowing tide. 5. Moreover, O forester! know time to be the most mighty destroyer of all things; and every thing must occur in its time, as it is predestined at the beginning. (Time devours all things). 6. The time of one’s dissolution being nigh, there ensues a detriment in the strength, intellect and prowess of everybody not excepting even the great. (Nothing is of any avail before fate). 7. I have told you also, O fortunate forester! that all that is seen in a dream is mere dreaming; and nothing of it, comes to take place in reality herein. 8. The forester responded:--Sir, if the dream is a mere falsity and error of imagination; then what was the good of your relating all this, that know well what is good and useful for mankind. 9. The sage replied:--There was much use of my relating all this to you, O intelligent huntsman, for improvement of your understanding; and as you have come to know, that the visibles are all as false as the sights in sleep, you shall now know what is real and true. 10. Now as long as the waters of deluge lasted, I remained seated in the heart of the said medium, and saw some other false sights in his dream. 11. I saw the waters of the deluge, to recede to the unknown region from where they had overflown; and the huge waves disappeared altogether, as when the winged mountains fled away for fear of the thunders of Indra. (Who lopped of their pinions of yore. See the legend in stanza--Book I. Kumára sambhava of Kálidása). 12. I was borne aloft by my good fate to some distant shore, where I was seated as firmly as upon the elevated peak of a high and solid mountain. 13. Thence I saw the waters to subside in their basins, and the stars of heaven shining upon them, like the sparkling particles of their splashing billows, or as their foaming and floating froths.