Lives of Alcyone

Life XL
After a period of nearly a thousand years, Alcyone appeared
again in 5964 B.C. as a girl in a Brahman family at a small place
called Atmapura, near Ujjain, in a kingdom called Malwa. Her father
had a wide reputation as an astrologer, and many people came
even from great distances to consult him. He appeared to have
made a large percentage of successes, and on the whole he seems
to have given good advice; but he was exceedingly imperious and
tyrannical, and it any person once neglected any advice of his he
would never receive him again, no matter how high a fee he might
offer. He amassed much money, but was charitable with it—not a
bad man, but a fanatic and difficult to get on with, because he would
regulate every detail of his life and everybody else’ s by astrology.
On some day his household had no food during the whole
day, because the influence were not favourable for cooking; at other
times they were roused in the middle of the night, because of some
evil stellar aspect, whose dire results could be averted only by
prayers and ceremonies. He cast horoscopes for his children, and
expected them to live up to them, which sometimes proved trying.
He decreed that our heroine was born to a life of tremendous
religious austerities, in order to atone for some supposed crime of
the past, and also (in some way which was not clearly formulated in
his mind) to win thereby the favour of the gods for the country, and
prepare for a vaguely glorious future.