Here lay a queenly dame at rest

In all her glorious garments drest.

There slept another whose small hand
Had loosened every tie and band.

In careless grace another lay

With gems and jewels cast away,
Like a young creeper when the tread
Of the wild elephant has spread
Destruction and confusion round,

And hurled it flowerless to the ground.

Here lay a slumberer still as death,

Save only that her balmy breath

Raised ever and anon the lace

That floated o'er her sleeping face.

There, sunk in sleep, an amorous maid

Her sweet head on a mirror laid,

Like a fair lily bending till

Her petals float upon the rill.

Another black-eyed damsel pressed

Her lute upon her heaving breast,
As through her happy arms were twined

Round him for whom she long had pined.

Another pretty sleeper round

A silver vase her arms had wound,

That seemed so fresh and fair and young

A wreath of flowers that o'er it hung.

In sweet disorder lay a throng
Weary of dance and play and song:
Where heedless girls had sunk to rest,
One pillowed on another's breast,

Her tender cheek scarce seen beneath
Red roses of the falling wreath,

The while her long soft hair concealed

The beauties that her friend revealed.
With limbs at random interlaced

Round arm and leg and throat and waist,
That wreath of women lay asleep

Like blossoms in a careless heap.

KUMBHAKARNA.

"Kumbhakarna, the gigantic brother of the titanic Ravan,-named from the size of his ears which could contain a Kumbha or large water-jar-had such an appetite that he used to consume six months' provisions in a single day. Brahma, to relieve the alarm of the world, which had begun to entertain serious apprehensions of being eaten up, decreed that the giant should sleep six months at a time and wake for only one day during which he might consume his six months' allowance without trespassing unduly on the reproductive capabilities of the earth. When Rama invaded the capital of Ravan, the titans, requiring all their forces, employed the most violent measures-and eventually with success-to wake the sleeping giant."

With troubled spirit and with broken pride

Through Lanka's gate the vanquisht Ravan hied,

Crusht like an elephant who falls beneath

The lion's spring, and feels the murderous teeth;

Or like a serpent 'neath the furious wing

And vengeful talons of the Feathered King.

Such was the giant's fear and wild alarm

At the swift arrows shot by Rama's arm

Shafts, with the flame of lightning round them curled,

Like Brahma's fiery bolts that end the world.

At length, supported on his golden throne,

With failing eye he spoke and humbled tone :
'Alas! ye Giants, all the toil is vain,

Fruitless my penance and an age of pain,
If I, whom Indra's self confest his peer,
Secure from Gods, a mortal victor fear.
My soul remembers-now, alas! too late-
The words of Brahma which foretold my fate :
'Tremble, proud Giant,' thus the warning ran,
'And fear destruction from unheeded man.
Secure from God and fiend and angel, live,
From faun and serpent, by the boon I give.
Against their power and might thy life is charmed,
Against man only is thy soul unarmed.'

Too well I know the fated hour is nigh:

Then let each leader to his station fly.
Guard every alley with a chosen band,

Let giant warders on the rampart stand,

And let the terror of immortal

eyes,

Great Kumbhakarna, from his trance arise.
He in deep slumber, free from care and pain,
Lulled by a charm for many a month has lain.
Let him arise, our bravest, best of all,

And soon the foemen 'neath his arm will fall.'
The giant hosts their monarch's word obeyed,
And left his presence trembling and afraid.
They carried flowery garlands, sweet and fresh,
And, for his banquet, loads of blood and flesh.
They reacht the cavern where the slumberer lay-
A mighty cave that stretcht a league each way :
But scarce the strongest could an entrance gain,
So fierce the tempest as he breathed amain.
They found the giant lying on his bed

With his huge limbs at all their length outspread,
Before his face they piled his favorite cheer,

The flesh of buffaloes and boars and deer.

With garlands, heavenly fair, they fanned his face,

And clouds of incense sweetened all the place.

Then moon-bright conchs they sounded loud and long,

And the cave echoed with the giant's song.