42 
The Bengali Poem, Candi. 
A lac-house was the test which Sita passed,— 
To this one point they all come round at last. 
You are my mother’s brother; this alone 
Would prove I have no interest but your own. 
Make a lac-house and let her enter in, 
This test will purge the faintest breath of sin.” 
Then Manik Cand: “I must no more sit mute, 
This test alone will settle the dispute. 
It was this test proved Sita innocent, 
How can we find a better precedent ? ” 
At last the merchant yields, with anguish filled,— 
But where’s the architect such house to build ? 
A solid mass of gold, a gourd (?) in size, 
With solemn state is offered as the prize. 
On a high pole his banner flouts the sky, 
While drums and trumpets bray their hoarse reply. 
Town after town—the rumour fills the land, 
But all shrink hopeless at the strange demand; 
“ A house of lac, like Ram’s! ” the whisper ran ; 
“ The gods’ ordeals who hut gods can plan ? ” 
Meanwhile her secret schemes the goddess laid 
And summoned YiQwakarman* to her aid; 
Called by a thought he came, behind his back 
Stood Hanumat: “ Go, build a house of lac.” 
They go—an old man this, and that a boy— 
To undertake the perilous employ. 
The moon conducts them to the merchant’s room: 
“ To build the house of lac you need we ’re come.” 
They stretch the measuring line and mark the ground, 
And dig a trench seven cubits deep all round. 
Of lac the walls are made, of lac the floors, 
Of lac the beams, the rafters, and the doors, 
* The architect of the gods. 
