y through
the thick mire with labour; the chief who leads the rear, filled with
wonder, exclaims, "Here is Ocean."

Rama now sends Angada, the son of Bali, to persuade Ravana to relinquish
Sita peaceably. Angada has some feeling of aversion to Rama, who killed
his father, but thinks he shall best fulfil his father's wishes by
promoting the war between Ravana and Rama; he therefore goes to Ravana
and defies him in very haughty terms.

Ravana says:--

"Indra, the king of the gods, weaves garlands for me; the thousand-rayed
or the Sun keeps watch at my gate; above my head Chandra or the Moon
uprears the umbrella of dominion; the wind's and the ocean's monarchs
are my slaves; and for my board the fiery godhead toils. Knowest thou
not this, and canst thou stoop to praise the son of Raghu, whose frail
mortal body is but a meal to any of my households?"

Angada laughs and observes:--"Is this thy wisdom, Ravana? Infirm of
judgement dost thou deem of Rama thus--a mortal man? Then Ganga merely
flows a watery stream; the elephants that bear the skies, and Indra's
steed, are brutal forms; the charms of Rembha are the fleeting beauties
of earth's weak daughters, and the golden age, a term of years. Love is
a petty archer; the mighty Hanuman, in thy proud discernment, is an
ape."

Angada, having in vain endeavoured to persuade Ravana to restore Sita,
leaves him to expect the immediate advance of the Monkey host.

Virupaksha and Mahodara, two of Ravana's ministers utter a string of
moral and political sentences.

Ravana is not to be persuaded, but goes to Sita to try the effect of his
personal solicitations--first endeavouring to deceive her by two
fictitious heads, made to assume the likenesses of Rama and Lakshmana.
Sita's lamentations are stopped by a heavenly monitor, who tells her
that the heads are the work of magic and they instantly disappear.
Ravana then vaunts his prowess in war and love, and approaches Sita to
embrace her. She exclaims "Forbear, forbear! proud fiend, the jetty arms
of my loved lord, or thy relentless sword, alone shall touch my neck."

Thus repulsed, Ravana withdraws, and presently reappears as Rama, with
his own ten heads in his hands. Sita, thinking him to be what he
appears, is about to embrace him, when the secret virtue of her
character as a faithful wife detects the imposition, and reveals the
truth to her. Ravana, baffled and mortified, is compelled to relinquish
his design. Sita's apprehen