THE BIRTH OF RAMA.

"The scene changes to earth, where Dasaratha, King of Ayodhya, after a life spent in deeds of virtue, finds his years drawing to a close without any heir to defend his old age or succeed to his crown. A holy rishi, or saint, reveals to him that he shall obtain his desires, on performing the Aswamedha, or sacrifice of a horse, which occupies such a pre-eminent place in the Hindu religious rites. The sacrifice is accordingly performed, and with the promised result. Dasaratha's three wives become the mothers of four sens, all participating in the divine nature of Vishnu; but Rama, the eldest, is Vishnu himself."-Westminister Review. October 1848. p. 41.

With costly sacrifice, with praise, and prayer,
Ayodhya's King had claimed from Heaven an heir;
When from the shrine, where burnt the holy flame,
Scaring the priests, a glorious angel came,

With arms that trembled as they scarce could hold
A flood of nectar in a vase of gold:

Sparkling upon her breast, for love of them

Came from the skies, and her own radiant hand
Their slumbering eyelids with a lotus fanned.
Then from their homes on high-their holy hair
Damp from the lucid stream that wanders there-
Came, in a glorious dream, the star-throned Seven,'
Whispering softly of the Lord of Heaven.

Proud waxed the Monarch, as each happy queen
Told the bright visions that her eyes had seen:
No king, he deemed, with him in bliss could vie;
No, nor the Father of the earth and sky.

As many a river lends its silver breast

Where the calm image of the moon may rest,

So in the bosom of each lady lay

That God divided, who is one for aye.

Soon, like the luminous herb, which, ere 'tis night,
Wins from the setting sun a ray of light,'

1 The seven great saints who are the stars of the constellation of Ursa Major. "The seven great saints who star the northern sky." Birth of the War-God.

2 The setting sun, say the Indian poets, deposits a portion of his light with certain plants which emit luminous rays in his absence,

"

'Like gems, in darkness, issuing rays

They've treasured from the sun that's set."-Lalla Rookh.

A weight too vast for even him to bear,
For Vishnu's self, the first of Gods, was there.
With reverent awe the Lord of Kosal's land'
Received the nectar from the angel's hand,

As erst Lord Indra from the milky wave
Took the sweet drink that troubled Ocean gave.*

Soon as the queens had shared that mystic bowl,
Hope, sure and stedfast, filled each lady's soul.
They saw, in dreams, a glorious host who kept
Their watch around them, as they sweetly slept.
They mounted skyward on the Feathered King,
Who spread a glory with each golden wing,
And as he shot through plains of ether drew
The cloudy rack to follow where he flew.

Now Lakshmi,' with her consort's mystic gem

3

1 Kosala was the name of the kingdom of which Ayodhya was the capital.

2 The Amrit, or nectar of the Indian Gods, buried at the Deluge and recovered at the Churning of the Ocean. The story is told in the Mahábhárata and translated in Specimens of old Indian Poetry.

3 The sacred bird of Vishnu, Garuda by name.

4 Lakshmi, Goddess of Beauty and Fortune, was the wife of Vishnu. The mystic gem is called Kaustubha:

"the best

Of gems, that burns with living light

Upon Lord Vishnu's breast."

Sparkling upon her breast, for love of them

Came from the skies, and her own radiant hand
Their slumbering eyelids with a lotus fanned.
Then from their homes on high-their holy hair
Damp from the lucid stream that wanders there-
Came, in a glorious dream, the star-throned Seven,'
Whispering softly of the Lord of Heaven.

Proud waxed the Monarch, as each happy queen
Told the bright visions that her eyes had seen:
No king, he deemed, with him in bliss could vie;

No, nor the Father of the earth and sky.

As many a river lends its silver breast

Where the calm image of the moon may rest,

So in the bosom of each lady lay

That God divided, who is one for aye.

Soon, like the luminous herb, which, ere 'tis night,

Wins from the setting sun a ray of light,'

The seven great saints who are the stars of the constellation of Ursa Major. "The seven great saints who star the northern sky." Birth of the War-God.

2 The setting sun, say the Indian poets, deposits a portion of his light with certain plants which emit luminous rays in his absence,

"Like gems, in darkness, issuing rays

They've treasured from the sun that's set."-Lalla Rookh.