SRI RAMA. Ill 



in a brass vessel in the middle of her palace. It was for her 

 bath that the slave-girls were constantly fetching water. On 

 learning all this, the monkey took an opportunity of slipping 

 a ring into one of the water- jars and then followed the girls 

 up to the palace. The recognition of the ring by the captive 

 Princess,* and an affectionate meeting between her and her 

 son, of course, followed. In answer to her advice to come to 

 a peaceful understanding with Maharaja Duwana, he replied 

 with Sri Rama's directions to overcome the enemy by sheer 

 bravery without recourse to stratagem, and on learning that 

 Duwana' s favourite trees were a particular cocoa-nut tree 

 (nyior g acting) and a mango tree, he went and destroyed them 

 both, t Maharaja Duwana was furious with the perpetrator 

 of this mischief, but the monkey, by a rapid metamorphosis, 

 faced him in the shape of a buffalo bull and declared his mis- 

 sion from Raja Sri Rama. Spears and krises were of no avail 

 against him, and though seized and bound and cast into a huge 

 fire, he emerged without a hair being singed. Maharaja Du- 

 wana then demanded a truce of seven days, at the expiration 

 of which the monkey again presented himself at the balei and 

 roused Maharaja Duwana from slumber by beating a measure 

 on the royal drums, just as Jack the Giant Killer in the Eng- 

 lish story, announces his presence by blowing on the horn 

 hung at the castle gate. Again was the monkey, in the shape 

 of a buffalo bull, seized and bound by Maharaja Duwana's 

 troops, but this time he himself advised his captors to swathe 

 him with cotton cloth, and pour oil over it, and then to set 

 fire to the mass. This, he said, would be sure to kill him. 

 This was accordingly done by the order of Maharaja Duwana, 

 with the result that the fire spread to the town of Kachapuri, 

 which was reduced to ashes. J Kra Kechil then carried off 

 his mother and returned to the plain of Anta-ber-anta, where 



° In the Ramayana, Hanuman shows Sita a ring given to him 

 by Rama for the purpose. 



f In the Ramayana, Hanuman tears up the whole of an asoka 

 grove in Lanka before returning to Rama. 



X Hanuman's tail is set on fire, in the Indian epic ; he escapes 

 however, and the fire communicates itself to the town of Lanka. 



