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Some flowers of hope amid the desert bloom:

Life has no perfect good, no endless ill,

No constant brightness, no perpetual gloom;

But circling as a wheel, and never still,

Now down, and now above, all must their fate fulfil.

XC.

Four months remain, and when that age is fled,

Then ends my banishment and all our pain :
When Vishnu rises from his serpent bed'

Where lapt in sleep the Bow-armed God has lain,

Thy lover speeds to home and thee again :
The moon of autumn with serener glow

His silver influence on our nights shall rain,
And our rapt souls with joy shall overflow

More exquisitely sweet for all remembered woe.

"The serpent couch is the great snake Ananta, upon which Vishnu, or, as he is here called, the Holder of the bow Sarnga (the horn-bow), reclines, during four months, from the 11th of Asharha to the 11th of Kartik; or, as it has occurred in 1813 (the year in which the first edition was printed), from the 23rd of June to the 26th of October. The sleep of Vishnu, during the four months of the periodical rains in Hindustan, seems to bear an emblematical relation to that season. It has been compared to the Egyptian Hieroglyphical account of the sleep of Horus, typical of the annual overflow of the Nile, by the late Mr. Paterson, in his ingenious Essay on the Origin of the Hindu Re ligion. Asiatic Researches, vol. viii." H. H. WILSON.

XCI.

Once more I see thee, but no more alone,

Thy senses steept in dews of slumber, lie,

With thy fond arms around thy husband thrown.

Thou startest, weeping, and I ask thee why

Thy soul is troubled when thy lord is nigh.
'Traitor,' thou sayest, as a smile and tear

Plays on thy lip and glistens in thine eye,
Faithless I saw thee in my dream appear,
Whispering tales of love into another's ear.'

XCII.

But, dark-eyed beauty, rest thou ever sure
That, with a constancy that naught shall bend,
Through woe and absence shall my faith endure.
To slanderous tales forbear thine ear to lend :
Store in thy heart the message which I send,

And soothe thee with the trust that love like mine

Will live unchanging on till time shall end;

Burn with a flame that ne'er shall know decline,

But, fed with hope, each day shall yet more brightly shine.'

XCIII.

"Wilt thou, dear Cloud, through regions far away,

This loving message to my darling bear?

Silent art thou, yet not in vain I pray ;

For when the Rain-birds, in the sultry air,

Crave the cool shower of thee, thou dost not care
To speak in answer, but sweet drops descend

And their faint strength and flagging wings repair :

So comes the aid the good delight to lend,

Deeming the granted wish best answer to a friend.

XCIV.

Thus, faithful herald, having cheered her heart

Who mourns in joyless solitude her fate,

From the high forehead of that hill depart
Where the celestial Bull, who bears the weight

Of Siva, rends the rock with joy elate :
Return to me, and let my spirit know

Some comfort, hearing of my darling's state,

Ere my soul sink beneath its weight of woe

Like a frail jasmine-bud scorcht by the summer's glow.

XCV.

So shall my thanks repay thy gentle deed,
And evermore my blessings follow thee:

So by the breezes wafted, shalt thou speed

To pleasant regions where thou fain wouldst be,
There rest delighted or there wander free;

May the sweet rain ne'er fail thee; and thy bride,
The splendid lightning, mayst thou ever see
Close to thyself in dazzling beauty ride,

Flashing upon thy breast or sporting at thy side."

XCVI.

The mourner ceased; the airy envoy heard;
And the fond speech, by love made eloquent,
Kuvera's breast with soft compassion stirred.
His ear in mercy to the tale he bent

That led his yielding spirit to relent,

And made him, ere the term was nigh, restore
The exile languishing in banishment,

And freely bade him, all his trials o'er,

Live with his love again with joy for evermore.

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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,

X

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