Lives of Alcyone

Life XLV
Faithful once more to Hindustan, our hero took birth in the
year 2180 B.C. at small town called Mopa, in the kingdom of
Wardha, in what is now the Nagpur district. His name was
Bhrojagohallamarshi, and his father, Albireo, was a Brahman of the
highest type—a thoroughly good man, earnest, steady, persevering
and charitable. His mother, Leo, was a worthy helpmate to such a
husband, so Alcyone may be considered distinctly fortunate in his
parents. His education was carefully supervised, and was of a
somewhat more modern type than in the earlier incarnations.
Enormous numbers of verses were still learnt by heart; indeed
Alcyone acquired at quite an early age the title of Dwivedi, and later
on that of Trivedi, for learning by heart two and three Vedas
respectively—a stupendous task. But he also learnt grammar,
geography, astrology, arithmetic and medicine—the last of rather
remarkable character. He was considered a most promising boy,
and later in life was respected as an unusually learned man. He
spoke at least four languages—the older Sanskrit; some dialect
derived from it, which was then probably aboriginal languages.
When he came of age he married a beautiful girl, Algol, and
chose as his profession that of a schoolmaster, in which he was
eminently successful. He was always kind and gentle with his boys,
and was idolised by them; they would do anything for him, and take
any trouble to please him, and he on his part spared no pains to
make them understand whatever he taught them. He greatly