Then Queen Kaikeyi, full of joy and pride,
Thus to her maid in gladsome tone replied:
'Good is the plan thy ready wits devise,
Sagest of damsels, true and deep and wise!
Without thy constant care, thy faithful aid,
Unknown to me the King his plot had laid.
The crook-back race are hideous to the sight,
Deformed, malicious, born for guile and spite :
Far other thou, with features formed to please,
A lovely lotus bending to the breeze.
Thy hump, dear damsel, too, becomes thee well,
For there the arts of noble warriors dwell;
And when Kausalya's son makes way for mine,
Around that hump a chain of gold shall shine.
Yes, I will deck thee on that happy day

When Rama banisht takes my fear away:

With finest gold these hands thy hump shall deck,
And fling rich pearls around thy graceful neck.
A precious frontlet, wrought with utmost care,

Bound on thy brow, shall make thy face more fair;
And thou shalt move along in bright attire,

Each woman's envy and each man's desire :

Fair as a lovely Goddess shalt thou be,

And challenge the sweet moon to rival thee.'

Her lady's praise with joy the damsel heard, And thus again with wiles her spirit stirred, As the Queen lay upon her sumptuous bed Like sacred fire upon the altar fed :

Mistress, arise, the glorious plot complete :
Let the King find thee in thy dark retreat.
No prudent builder will the bridge delay
Till the wild waters shall have rolled away.'
She ceased. The lady of the glorious eyes
Rose from her couch as Manthara bade her rise;
And sought the mourner's cell, in beauty's pride
Sure of his love who gave and ne'er denied.

There on the ground, obedient to the girl,
She threw her necklace and each peerless pearl,
And all the lustre to her beauty lent

By sparkling chain and golden ornament.

Like a fair nymph upon the ground she fell;
And 'Soon,' she cried, 'thy task will be to tell
That Bharat rules as heir in Rama's stead,
Or that the Monarch's darling queen is dead.'

DASARATHA'S OATH.

"Unfortunately Dasaratha had once given a promise to Bharat's mother that he would grant any two boons she pleased to ask. The promise had been made in years gone by, when he had been dangerously wounded in battle, and carefully attended by this wife, Kaikeyi; and amongst Hindus a promise was irrevocable, and therefore the wretched King felt compelled to yield, although the first boon required was to banish Rama for a period of fourteen years, and the second to declare Bharat the heir apparent." Life in Ancient India.

Slow and majestic, as the Lord of Night,'
When his full glory fears the Dragon's might,
Glides through the calm fields of the autumn sky,
Where clouds with fleecy skirts are floating by,

The moon, with the Hindus, is masculine.

2 Rahu, the ascending node, is in mythology a demon with the tail of a dragon whose head was severed from his body by Vishnu, but being immortal the head and tail retained their separate existence, and being transferred to the stellar sphere became the authors of eclipses; the first especially by en、 deavouring to swallow the sun and moon.

So to Kaikeyi's palace, rich and vast,

King Dasaratha in his glory past.

There stalked flamingoes mixt with swans and cr
And gorgeous peacocks spread their jewelled trains;
There screamed the parrot in his home of wire,
There breathed the music of the flute and lyre.
There many a damsel waited in the shade,

Here sat a dwarf, and there a crook-back maid
Lay in the shadow of the woven bower

Where glowed the Champac' and Asoca flower.
There many a porch, above the waving wood,
On ivory columns wrought with silver, stood.
There trees that aye with fruit and blossom glowed
O'er limpid waters hung their tempting load.
Here seats of silver and of gold were placed,

Here cates and viands lured the dainty taste.

Not e'en the Gods who dwell at ease, I ween,
Could boast a brighter home than that fair queen.

A tree that bears yellow flowers of delicious fragrance:
"The maid of India, blest again to hold

In her full lap the Champac's leaves of gold.”—Lalla Rookh.

2 The Jonesia Asoca one of the loveliest trees of India, and perhaps of the whole world,

With longing eyes the Monarch looked around,

But no Kaikeyi in her bower he found;

Yet 'twas the time at which the royal dame

Was ever there to greet him as he came.

Then, moved by love and vext with anxious thought, News of his darling from her maids he sought.

'My lord,' a trembling damsel thus replied,

'The Queen in anger to the cell has hied.'
Then sick at heart, his senses all astray,
The Monarch hastened where the lady lay
Upon the cold bare ground, in mean attire,
While grief consumed her as a burning fire.
Prostrate and speechless, lovely and forlorn,
Like a sweet creeper by the roots uptorn,
Or a frail nymph of Heaven, or Goddess, hurled
From glorious Swarga' to this nether world.

As bends an elephant to heal the smart

Of his mate wounded by a venomed dart,
Soothes her with tender touch, and tries in vain
To check the flowing blood and stay her pain;

1 Indra's Paradise.