ritated Nandisvara cursed him and foretold his destruction by
monkeys.

968 Ravan once upheaved and shook Mount Kailasa the favourite dwelling
place of Siva the consort of Uma, and was cursed in consequence by
the offended Goddess.

969 Rambha, who has several times been mentioned in the course of the
poem, was one of the nymphs of heaven, and had been insulted by
Ravan.

970 Punjikasthala was the daughter of Varun. Ravan himself has mentioned
in this book his insult to her, and the curse pronounced in
consequence by Brahma.

971 Pulastya was the son of Brahma and father of Visravas or Paulastya
the father of Ravan and Kumbhakarna.

972 I omit a tedious sermon on the danger of rashness and the advantages
of prudence, sufficient to irritate a less passionate hearer than
Ravan.

973 The Bengal recension assigns a very different speech to Kumbhakarna
and makes him say that Narad the messenger of the Gods had formerly
told him that Vishnu himself incarnate as Dasaratha's son should
come to destroy Ravan.

974 Mahodar, Dwijihva, Sanhrada, and Vitardan.

975 A name of Vishnu.

976 There is so much commonplace repetition in these Sallies of the
Rakshas chieftains that omissions are frequently necessary. The
usual ill omens attend the sally of Kumbhakarna, and the Canto ends
with a description of the terrified Vanars' flight which is briefly
repeated in different words at the beginning of the next Canto.

977 Kartikeya the God of War, and the hero and incarnation Parasurama
are said to have cut a passage through the mountain Krauncha, a part
of the Himalayan range, in the same way as the immense gorge that
splits the Pyrenees under the towers of Marbore was cloven at one
blow of Roland's sword Durandal.

978 Rishabh, Sarabh, Nila, Gavaksha, and Gandhamadan.

979 Angad. The text calls him the son of the son of him who holds the
thunderbolt, _i.e._ the grandson of Indra.

980 Literally, weighing a thousand _bharas_. The _bhara_ is a weight
equal to 2000 _palas_, the _pala_ is equal to four _karsas_, and the
_karsa_ to 11375 French grammes or about 176 grains troy. The spear
seems very light for a warrior of Kumbhakarna's strength and stature
and the work performed with it.

981 The custom of throwing parched or roasted grain, with w