music and dance, and of very beautiful features, praised him and danced before him.  The foremost of all rivers, Ganga, waited upon that god.  The Earth also, assuming great beauty, held the child (on her lap).  The celestial priest Brihaspati performed the usual rites after birth, in respect of that child.  The Vedas assuming a four-fold form, approached the child with joined hands.  The Science of arms, with its four divisions, and all the weapons as also all kinds of arrows, came to him.  One day, the child, of great energy, saw that god of gods, the lord of Uma, seated with the daughter of Himavat, amid a swarm of ghostly creatures.  Those ghostly creatures, of emaciated bodies, were of wonderful features.  They were ugly and of ugly features, and wore awkward ornaments and marks.  Their faces were like those of tigers and lions and bears and cats and makaras.  Others were of faces like those of scorpions; others of faces like those of elephants and camels and owls.  And some had faces like those of vultures and jackals.  And some there were that had faces like those of cranes and pigeons and Kurus.  And many amongst them had bodies like those of dogs and porcupines and iguanas and goats and sheep and cows.  And some resembled mountains and some oceans, and some stood with uplifted discs and maces for their weapons.  And some looked like masses of antimony and some like white mountains.  The seven Matris also were present there, O monarch, and the Sadhyas, the Viswedevas, the Maruts, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Siddhas, the Danavas, the birds, the self-born and adorable Brahman with his sons, and Vishnu, and Shakra, all went thither for beholding that child of unfading glory.  And many of the foremost of celestials and Gandharvas, headed by Narada and many celestial Rishis and Siddhas headed by Brihaspati, and the fathers of the universe, those foremost ones, they that are regarded as gods of the gods, and the Yamas and the Dharmas, all went there.  Endued with great strength, the child possessed of great ascetic power, proceeded to the presence of that Lord of the gods, (Mahadeva), armed with trident and Pinaka.  Seeing the child coming, the thought entered the mind of Siva, as it did that of Himavat’s daughter and that of Ganga and of Agni, as to whom amongst the four the child would first approach for honouring him or her.  Each of them thought, ‘He will come to me!’ Understanding that this was the expectation cherished by each of those four, he had recourse to his Yoga powers and assumed at the same time four different forms.  Indeed the adorable and puissant lord assumed those four forms in an instant.  The three forms that stood behind were Sakha and Visakha and Naigameya.  The adorable and puissant one, having divided his self into four forms, (proceeded towards the four that sat expecting him).  The form called Skanda of wonderful appearance proceeded to the spot where Rudra was sitting.  Visakha went to the spot where the divine daughter of Himavat was.