for your pleasure and convenience; and to implant my worship in the hearts of those to be born. The rest of the world is as yet uninhabitable. If, hereafter, the number of your children so increase as to render this habitation insufficient to contain them, let them inquire of me in the midst of sacrifice, and I will make them know my will." This said, he disappeared.
Adima then turned towards his young wife, who stood before him, erect and smiling, in her youthful candour. Clasping her in his arms, he gave her the first kiss of love, softly murmuring the name of Heva. Thus had Brahma willed it, to teach his creatures that the union of the man and the woman without love would be but an immorality contrary to nature and to his law. Adima and Heva lived for some time in perfect happiness—no suffering came to disturb their quietness; they had but to stretch forth the hand and pluck from surrounding trees the most delicious fruits—but to stoop and gather rice of the finest quality. But one day a vague disquietude began to creep upon them; jealous of their felicity and of the work of Brahma, the Prince of the Rakchasos, the Spirit of Evil, inspired them with disturbing desires. "Let us wander through the island," said Adima to his companion, "and see if we may not find some place even more beautiful than this." Heva followed her husband; they wandered for days and for months, resting beside clear fountains, under gigantic banyans that protected them from the sun's rays. But, as they advanced, the woman was seized with strange fears, inexplicable terrors. "Adima," said she, "let us go no farther; it seems to me that we are disobeying the Lord. Have we not already quitted the place which he assigned us as a dwelling?" "Fear not," said Adima; "this is not that fearful, uninhabitable country of which he spoke to us." And they journeyed on. Arriving at last at the extremity of the island, they beheld a smooth and narrow arm of the sea, and beyond it a vast and apparently boundless country, connected with their island by a narrow and rocky pathway arising from the bosom of the waters. The two wanderers stood amazed: the country before them was covered with stately trees, birds of a thousand colours flitting amidst their foliage.
