No. 45. — 1894.] ANCIENT TAMIL poets. 



197 



swift arrows and drove him away. Trumpeting forth like 

 peals of thunder in times of rain, rooting up forest trees and 

 striking the ground with his strong rough trunk, the fierce 

 animal came rushing towards us even as the god* of death. 

 Knowing no other place of safety, filled with fear and 

 forgetting the restraints of our sex, we ran with trembling 

 limbs to him, the chief. Forthwith he shot his feathered 

 arrows and pierced the beautiful brow of the elephant. 

 Blood overspread the animal's forehead in streams such as flow 

 from goats sacrificed in the presence of women possessed of 

 the god of war. The elephant turned and ran, and we, who 

 had stood together, hand locked in band like flowers pressed 

 together in a thickly- woven garland of kadambasrf sank to 

 the ground unable to stand. 



Seeing our pitiful state, thus did the chief address thy 

 daughter : " Noble lady, beauteous-haired, fear not ; I will 

 not leave thee." He lifted her up, and gently stroking her 

 faultless forehead with his hand looked at me and smiled, 

 desiring the favour of my help. Shame and modesty 

 awakening in her mind, much did she strive to slip from 

 his embrace, but he folded her yet stronger in his arms and 

 prevented her. He, — the lord of fruitful country studded with 

 mountains, capturer of maidens' hearts by his victories over 

 enemies ; he, whose city-gates ever stand open to all who 

 seek food enriched with ghee, — awakened at last to the fact 

 that she could be his only by the usual formal marriage. 

 Then he called on the war-god, who dwelleth on lofty moun- 

 tains, to witness that he would soon claim her for his wife. 

 Thus assured we spent that day until sunset in mountain 

 caves, the delight of devas ; — our union being clue to the 

 wild elephant roaming in the forest full of flowers. 



The many-rayed sun in his chariot drawn by seven steeds 

 reached Attagim,% when herds of deer assemble under trees ; 

 when cows, issuing from forests, call their calves and over- 

 spread the meadows ; when the bent-beaked anqlril,^ nestling 

 in the inner folds of the palmirah leaf, summons his mate 

 with notes like those of the horn ; when the snake spits out 

 his gem in order to illumine his path while searching for 

 food ; when shepherds from different quarters sound their 

 sweet flutes ; when dmbal\\ flowers open their petals ; when 

 Brahmans perform their twilight ceremonies ; when in 



* Yama, the Hindu god of death. 



f Kadamba (Nauclea nadamba), a tree with orange-coloured fragrant 

 blossoms. 



J Attagiri (Sans. Astagiri), the mountain behind which the sun is said 

 bo set. 



§ Andril, according to Winslow, is the nightingale of India. 

 || Ambal, Nymphcea alba (Winslow). 



