ked them woe:--
To come like Indra strong and brave,
A guardian God to help and save.
And Rama's falchion left its trace
Deep cut on Surpanakha's face:--
A hideous giantess who came
Burning for him with lawless flame.
Their sister's cries the giants heard,
And vengeance in each bosom stirred;
The monster of the triple head,
And Dushan to the contest sped.
But they and myriad fiends beside
Beneath the might of Rama died.

When Ravan, dreaded warrior, knew
The slaughter of his giant crew--
Ravan, the King, whose name of fear
Earth, hell, and heaven all shook to hear--
He bade the fiend Maricha aid
The vengeful plot his fury laid.
In vain the wise Maricha tried
To turn him from his course aside:--
Not Ravan's self, he said, might hope
With Rama and his strength to cope.
Impelled by fate and blind with rage
He came to Rama's hermitage.
There, by Maricha's magic art,
He wiled the princely youths apart,
The vulture slew, and bore away
The wife of Rama as his prey.
The son of Raghu came and found
Jatayu slain upon the ground.
He rushed within his leafy cot;
He sought his wife, but found her not.
Then, then the hero's senses failed;
In mad despair he wept and wailed.
Upon the pile that bird he laid,
And still in quest of Sita strayed.
A hideous giant then he saw,
Kabandha named, a shape of awe.

The monstrous fiend he smote and slew,
And in the flame the body threw;
When straight from out the funeral flame
In lovely form Kabandha came,
And bade him seek in his distress
A wise and holy hermitess.
By counsel of this saintly dame
To Pampa's pleasant flood he came,
And there the steadfast friendship won
Of Hanuman the Wind-God's son.
Counselled by him he told his grief
To great Sugriva, Vanar chief,
Who, knowing all the tale, before
The sacred flame alliance swore.
Sugriva to his new-found friend
Told his own story to the end:--
His hate of Bali for the wrong
And insult he had borne so long.
And Rama lent a willing ear
And promised to allay his fear.
Sugriva warned him of the might
Of Bali, matchless in the fight,
And, credence for his tale to gain,
Showed the huge fiend by Bali slain.
The prostrate corse of mountain size
Seemed nothing in the hero's e