[1] Being actually smeared with ashes. The god is of course
Shiwa, and the allusion is to his _Ardhanári_, or half
male, half female form.


There lived of old, on the edge of the desert, a rájá of the race of the
sun. And like that sun reflected at midday in the glassy depths of the
Mánasa lake, he had an image of himself in the form of a son[2], who
exactly resembled him in every particular, except age. And he gave him
the name of Aja, for he said: He is not another, but my very self that
has conquered death, and passed without birth straight over into another
body. Moreover, he will resemble his ancestor, and the god after whom I
have called him Aja[3]. So as this son grew up, his father's delight in
him grew greater also. For he was tall as a _shála_ tree, and very
strong, and yet like another God of Love: for his face was more
beautiful than the face of any woman, with large eyes like lapis-lazuli,
and lips like laughter incarnate: so that his father, as often as he
looked at him, said to himself: Surely the Creator has made a mistake,
and mixed up his male and female ingredients, and made him half and
half. For if only he had had a twin sister, it would have been difficult
to tell with certainty, which was which.

[2] This punning assonance is precisely in the vein of the
original.

[3] This name (pronounce Aj- to rhyme with _trudge_)
meaning both _unborn_ and _a goat_, is a name of the sun
(who was a goat in Assyria), the soul, Brahma, Wishnu,
Shiwa, the God of Love, and others. It was also the name of