{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62536/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62536","id":"gutenberg_62536","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62536","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Novels","Gems -- Folklore","Turquoise"],"text":"UTTARA\n\n  THE\n  Legend of the Turquoise\n\n  ILLUSTRATIONS AND TEXT BY\n  CARLO DE FORNARO\n\n\n  PUBLISHED BY MARCUS & CO.\n  JEWELERS\n  544 FIFTH AVENUE\n  NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\n  Copyright, 1902, by\n  CARLO DE FORNARO\n\n\n\n\n  _To\n  Mrs. M. B. Train_\n\n\n[Illustration: SURYA]\n\n\n\n\n  When the Immortals created the two eyes of heaven, they placed fair\n  splendor in Him.\n\n                                                              --Rig Veda\n\n\nGreat commotion reigned among the Immortals, as a most unprecedented\nevent had convulsed and shaken the inhabitants of the city of Swarga in\nthe heaven of Indra.\n\nThree of the most powerful and most beautiful of all the gods, Indra,\nSurya and Soma, had fallen foolishly, hopelessly in love with a mortal\nwoman. She was the daughter of a Brahmin priest, a twice-born man, and\nso fair was she that the King of Benares described her as a morsel fit\nfor the gods.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe court poet had sung her beauty in a song which ran thus:\n\n\u201cThou canst behold her beauty but once and nevermore, for like the\nsplendor of Surya it blinds thee for thy daring.\n\n\u201cThus I, from the profound depth of my blindness will describe to thee\nin words as poor as my fancy is rich, what I saw.\n\n\u201cHer countenance is pale and sad as the white lotus in full bloom when\nit is kissed by the rays of the love-lorn moon.\n\n\u201cHer hair is black as the thoughts of Yama, and it is so delicate and\nsensitive that it reflects all her moods, her most intimate thoughts,\nand thou canst observe her hair if thou darest not glance at her face.\nHer eyes are as deep as the Bottomless Well, and when she gazes at thee\nfor a while thou feelest that she could absorb thee as thou dost the\nperfume of a flower. But if thou couldst only read in her eyes thou\nwouldst find there the source of all the Blessings.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cWhen her eyelids close and open slowly they seem to yawn indifference\nor contempt, and the eyebrows are arches which keep the eyes from\nirradiating the Universe.\n\n\u201cHer mouth is sometimes paler than the palest coral, at other times\ndarker than a bloody wound, and it is more flexible than the thoughts\nof a courtier.\n\n\u201cWhen her lips smile at thee thou art certain that thou hast found a\nnew heaven, for she uncovers another Milky Way; but when they scorn or\nshow anger then hadst thou better never show thy face again, for sorrow\nwill eat thy soul as leprosy corrodes a body.\n\n\u201cHer hands are so minute and graceful that at the sight of them the\nbengalies weep and pine away in envy.\n\n\u201cHer feet are so dainty and soft that the flowers and grass which she\ntreads imagine that the butterfly has just kissed them gently.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\u201cAll her movements are so beautiful that they seem to be singing\nto an incessant melody of rhythm, and they are so numerous in their\nperfection that shouldst thou cast a statue for each gesture of hers\nthou wouldst have to go to other planets for new marble or precious\nmetal and still thou wouldst not achieve thy task.\n\n\u201cThis I saw and I was blinded for my daring, but nevertheless had I as\nmany lives as there are stars in heaven, and were each life as long as\na world-cycle, still would I gladly become blind at the beginning of\neach cycle could I cast one solitary glance at her immortal beauty.\u201d\n\nThus spake the Poet, and verily only the gods had dared fall in love\nwith Uttara. Surya, the God of the Sun, appeared in the morning in a\nblaze of golden flames, and at noon his rays became so ardent that\nUttara had to run under cover to protect herself against his passion.\n\nMore than once was Indra obliged to send to his faithful cloud-gods,\nthe Maruts, to cover the inextinguishable radiance of the impetuous\nSurya.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIn the evening, as if ashamed of his behavior, his face became redder\nand redder, and only then could Uttara look modestly into his eye.\n\nSoma courted her more gently but with more subtlety and his pure and\ntormented features full of sighs would make Uttara sometimes grow\npensive and absorbed. When she chastely lowered her eyes he reflected\nand scintillated on the silent lagoons or on the sea all his unappeased\nand trembling desires. But when Soma became too insinuating the jealous\nIndra called forth the Maruts and the Apas, thus forcing Soma to peep\nfrom behind the riding Maruts agitated and disturbed.\n\nIndra had the preponderance over his rivals because of his presence\nin day time and at night time. In the morning he appeared cold and\npale with jealousy, only at evenings was he supreme, absorbing all\nthe splendor cast by the departing Surya. At night he reflected all\nhis darker moods as he felt that Soma even if a smaller was a more\ndangerous rival than the blustering Surya; only when Soma was absent\ndid Indra dot his dark blue dress with countless scintillating gems and\nover his shoulder threw his gauzy scarf, the Milky Way.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nUttara, like a true woman, did not show partiality toward any of her\nadmirers, nor accede to their courtship and the three Immortals were as\nmuch at sea as if they had been common, every-day mortals.\n\nIndrani, Indra\u2019s wife was the last to be informed of his unfaithfulness\nand she decided to see for herself what the woman who dared to compete\nwith her in her husband\u2019s affection, looked like.\n\nShe saw Uttara and did not wonder at Indra\u2019s infatuation, but resolved\nto end this royal game of hide and seek. Ere Uttara had had time to\nbreathe again she had been transformed into water in the sacrificial\ncup which her father was to use the following day in performing the\nsacred rites.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe despair of the three love-lorn deities was indescribable and each\none of them tried his utmost to save Uttara from destruction.\n\nSurya, violent and intense, tried with all the ardour of his torrid\nrays to vaporize her and carry her up to the heavens. But all his\nefforts were fruitless. Soma, heart-stricken and unnerved, could only\nsing to her a forlorn and disconsolate complaint, but he also sang in\nvain.\n\nIndra attempted several stratagems with all the power of his daring\npassion and finally begged Uttara to confess whom she loved, as this\nconfession only could save her from extinction. And Uttara spoke to him\ntrembling with emotion, \u201cO Indra, I love thee only; for thou alone art\nmy love, my god! I do not wish to be saved and become mortal again, but\nif thou lovest me deeply, absorb me, take my body, my soul, all, for I\nam thine forever!\u201d\n\nAnd Indra reflected his beauty into hers, embraced her fondly,\ndesperately, with all his might, and so powerful and intimate was the\ndesire that the sacrificial water absorbed Indra\u2019s image. When later\nUttara\u2019s father lifted the bowl to perform the rite he found in place\nof the sacrificial liquid a blue stone of the color of the sky in\nspringtime, vivid and flawless, the Turquoise.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE:\n\n\n  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.","title":"Uttara, the Legend of the Turquoise","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":1208}