Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Seite 660

AN ABDUCTED WIFE
620
by carrying oft* Sita. Kama, learning on his return of
the misfortune which had befallen him in his absence, was
prostrated with grief, and could think of nothing but the
means of rescuing his beloved Sita from the clutches of her
ravisher.
In order to succeed in his design, he began by
making an alliance with Sugriva *, king of the monkeys, to
self
whom
he rendered great service by killing Vali, his brother,
long contested the empire with him and was then
who had
in possession of
it.
Impatient for news of his wife, Rama determined to send
some one to Lankah without further delay, to obtain in-
formation. The undertaking was not easy, as there was
an arm of the sea to cross. But Hanuman, son of the
Wind and commander-in-chief of the army of monkeys,
whom Sugriva had sent to help his ally Rama, was en-
dowed with extraordinary agility, which seemed to render
him the most appropriate person for such an embassy.
He was therefore appointed to the task. He started,
crossed the straits, walking dry-shod over the surface of
the waters, and arrived at Lankah. After a long and
search, Hanuman at last discovered Sita
a solitary spot under a shady tree, plunged in
the deepest grief, and watering the ground with her tears,
while her sobs alternated with curses at her sad fate. At
one time she would load Ravana with maledictions, at
another she would utter the most poignant regrets at the
separation from her beloved Rama, to whom she swore
inviolable fidelity, whatever efforts her treacherous ravisher
might employ to seduce her.
Hanuman hurried back and told Rama all he had seen
and heard. Rama at once conceived the idea of con-
structing a dam across the straits to make a passage for
his army.
The monkey Hanuman, entrusted with this
great undertaking, set to work to uproot mountains and
rocks.
At each journey to the straits he carried as many
stones as he had hairs on his body, and piling them up on
one another, had soon achieved his task of joining the island
unsuccessful
sitting in
of
Lankah to the continent.
Rama, however, thinking
J
Sugriva
literally
mean*
himself hardly strong enough
'
beautiful necked."
Ed.