Righteousness

will only survive for a quarter of the Kali-yuga, and Vedik rites will gradually be neglected as goodne decays. Dire calamities, disease, and famines, will then i prevail, though many will still seek to acquire merits, and will reap the reward, This prediction seems to belong to an age when com- — merce was spreading, and the usual evils due to hasting to become ~ rich accompanied it. Kali is personified, by Hindus, as the spirit of bad luck—the black ace in dicing, the cause of all mischief and — quarrels. He po e ed the body of Nala as the spirit of gambling — till expelled, when he took refuge in the Vibhitaka berries, which none touch lest Kali should attack them—see the story of Nala and Damayanti in the Maha-bharata. After Nala’s death Kali remained — so imprisoned during the age of Krishna, but ventured out in that — of King Pari-kshit, a grandson of the Pandus who, however, nearly destroyed him, mother earth having discovered his presence in the spread of injustice, cruelty, and vice. 386