n vase, and a blazing fire, and amongst the living
implements of the pageant, instead of the bards, gaudy courtesans, and
besides the eight damsels, professors of divinity, Brahmanas, cows and
pure kinds of wild beasts and birds, the chiefs of town and country-people
and the citizens with their train."

Page 109.

_Then with the royal chaplains they_
_Took each his place in long array._

_The twice born chiefs, with zealous heed,_
_Made ready what the rite would need._

"Now about the office of a Purohita (house priest). The gods do not eat
the food offered by a king, who has no house-priest (Purohita). Thence the
king even when (not) intending to bring a sacrifice, should appoint a
Brahman to the office of house-priest." HAUG'S _Autareya Brahmanam. Vol.
II. p. 528_.

Page 110.

_There by the gate the Saras screamed._

The Saras or Indian Crane is a magnificent bird easily domesticated and
speedily constituting himself the watchman of his master's house and
garden. Unfortunately he soon becomes a troublesome and even dangerous
dependent, attacking strangers with his long bill and powerful wings, and
warring especially upon "small infantry" with unrelenting ferocity.

Page 120.

_My mothers or my sire the king._

All the wives of the king his father are regarded and spoken of by Rama as
his mothers.

Page 125.

_Such blessings as the Gods o'erjoyed_
_Poured forth when Vritra was destroyed._

"Mythology regards Vritra as a demon or Asur, the implacable enemy of
Indra, but this is not the primitive idea contained in the name of Vritra.
In the hymns of the Veda Vritra appears to be the thick dark cloud which
Indra the God of the firmament attacks and disperses with his
thunderbolt." GORRESIO.

"In that class of Rig-veda hymns which there is reason to look upon as the
oldest portion of Vedic poetry, the character of Indra is that of a mighty
ruler of the firmament, and his principal feat is that of conquering the
demon _Vritra_, a symbolical personification of the cloud which obstructs
the clearness of the sky, and withholds the fructifying rain from the
earth. In his battles with Vritra he is therefore described as 'opening
the receptacles of the waters,' as 'cleaving the cloud' with his
'far-whirling thunderbolt,' as 'casting the waters down to earth,' and
'restoring the sun to the sky.' He is in consequence 'the upholder of
heaven, earth, and firmament,' and the god 'who