{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry378.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry378.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry378.htm","text":"Again the V\u00e1nar chief replied,\n With her wise answer satisfied:\n 'Well hast thou said: thou canst not brave\n The rushing wind, the roaring wave.\n Thy woman's heart would sink with fear\n Before the ocean shore were near.\n And for thy dread lest limb of thine\n Should for a while be touched by mine,\n The modest fear is worthy one\n Whose cherished lord is Raghu's son.\n Yet when I sought to bear thee hence\n I spoke the words of innocence,\n Impelled to set the captive free\n By friendship for thy lord and thee.\n But if with me thou wilt not try\n The passage of the windy sky,\n \n \n Give me a gem that I may show,\n Some token which thy lord may know.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Again the Maithil lady spoke,\n While tears and sobs her utterance broke:\n 'The surest of all signs is this,\n To tell the tale of vanished bliss.\n Thus in my name to R\u00e1ma speak:\n 'Remember Chitrak\u00fata's peak.\n And the green margin of the rill \u00a01b\n That flows beside that pleasant hill,\n Where thou and I together strayed\n Delighting in the tangled shade.\n There on the grass I sat with thee\n And laid my head upon thy knee.\n There came a greedy crow and pecked\n The meat I waitd to protect\n And, heedless of the clods I threw,\n About my head in circles flew,\n Until by darling hunger pressed\n He boldly pecked me on the breast.\n I ran to thee in rage and grief\n And prayed for vengeance on the thief.\n Then R\u00e1ma \u00a02b from his slumber rose\n And smiled with pity at my woes.\n Upon my bleeding breast he saw\n The scratches made by beak and claw.\n He laid an arrow on his bow.\n And launched it at the shameless crow.\n That shaft, with magic power endued,\n The bird, where'er he flew, pursued,\n Till back to Raghu's son he fled\n And bent at R\u00e1ma's feet his head.\u00a03b\n Couldst thou for me with anger stirred\n Launch that dire shaft upon a bird,\n And yet canst pardon him who stole\n The darling of thy heart and soul?\n Rise up, O bravest of the brave.\n And come in all thy might to save.\n Come with the thunders of thy bow,\n And smite to earth the Rakshas foe.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 She ceased; and from her glorious hair\n She took a gem that sparkled there\n A token which her husband's eyes\n With eager love would recognize.\n His head the V\u00e1nar envoy bent\n In low obeisance reverent.\n And on his finger bound the gem\n She loosened from her diadem.\n \n \n416:1 Hanum\u00e1n when he entered the city had in order to escape observation condensed himself to the size of a cat.\n416:1b The brook Mand\u00e1kin\u00ed, not far from Chitrak\u00fata where R\u00e1ma sojourned for a time.\n416:2b The poet here changes from the second person to the third.\n416:3b The whole long story is repeated with some slight variations and additions from Book II. Canto XCVI. I give here only the outline.","title":"BOOK V: Canto XXXVIII.: Sit\u00e1's Gem.","type":"page"}