Note 478 — Chapter I
Reading edition
It is well known that a drowning person clings fast to anyone who tries to save him, and endangers the lives of both himself and his saviour.478 It is also believed by some people that the messengers of Varuna (the lord of all waters) seize those persons who bathe in a river earlier than the usual hour in the morning; and the act of saving a drowning person thus deprives Varuna of his victim, and brings down the wrath of that deity.479