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65 time, the gods were worsted. And the Asuras thought: "To us alone assuredly belongs this world!" They thereupon said: "Well, then, let us divide this world be- tween ourselves; and having divided it, let us subsist thereon." Accordingly, they set about dividing it from west to east. When they heard this, the gods said: "The Asuras are actually dividing this Earth! Come, let us go where the Asuras are divid- ing it; for what would become of us if we were to get no share of Earth?" Haughtily the Asuras offered to give the Adityas only as much of Earth as Vishnu could lie upon. . . . But the gods used a subter- fuge and placed Vishnu in an "enclosure" that could "walk in three directions." thereby regaining three of the Earth's four re- gions. The outsmarted Asuras then attacked from the south; and the gods asked Agni "how they could vanquish the Asuras forever." Agni suggested a pincer maneuver: while the gods attack from their regions, "I will go round to the northern side, and you will shut them in from here; and whilst shutting them in, we will put them down." Having so vanquished the Asuras, the Satapatha Brahmana records, "the gods were anxious as to how they might replenish the sacrifices"; accordingly, many of the battle segments of the ancient Hindu writings deal with the recapture of the kine and the resupply of the Soma beverage. These wars were fought on land, in the air, and beneath the seas. The Asuras, according to the Mahabharata, made for themselves three metal fortresses in the skies, from which they attacked the three regions of the Earth. Their allies in the war with the gods could become invisible and used invisible weapons; and _ others fought from a city beneath the sea, which they had captured from the gods. One who excelled in these battles was Indra ("Storm"). On land he smote ninety-nine strongholds of the Asuras, killing great num- bers of their armed followers. In the skies he fought from his aerial The Missiles of Zeus and Indra Hearing this, the defeated Adityas went to plead for a share in Earth's resources: Placing Vishnu at their head, they went to the Asuras. car the Asuras, who were hiding in their "cloud fortresses."