The torment he is doomed to bear

Was but to them the wonder of a day,
A burden of sad thoughts soon put away.

7.

They knew not that the wretched man was near;
And yet it seemed, to his distempered ear,
As if they wronged him with their merriment.
Resentfully he turned away his eyes,
Yet turned them but to find

Sights that enraged his mind

With envious grief more wild and overpowering. The tank which fed his fields was there, and there The large-leaved lotus on the waters flowering. There, from the intolerable heat

The buffaloes retreat;

Only their nostrils raised to meet the air, Amid the sheltering element they rest. Impatient of the sight, he closed his eyes, And bowed his burning head, and in despair Calling on Indra, "Thunder-God!" he said, "Thou owest to me alone this day thy throne; Be grateful, and in mercy strike me dead."

8.

Despair had roused him to that hopeless prayer; Yet, thinking on the heavenly Powers, his mind Drew comfort; and he rose and gathered flowers, And twined a crown for Marriataly's brow; And, taking then her withered garland down,

Replaced it with the blooming coronal. "Not for myself," the unhappy Father cried, "Not for myself, O Mighty One! I pray, Accursed as I am beyond thy aid!

But, oh! be gracious still to that dear Maid Who crowned thee with these garlands day by day, And danced before thee aye at even-tide In beauty and in pride.

O Marriataly, whereso'er she stray Forlorn and wretched, still be thou her guide!"

9.

A loud and fiendish laugh replied, Scoffing his prayer. Aloft, as from the air, The sound of insult came: he looked, and there The visage of dead Arvalan came forth, Only his face amid the clear-blue sky, With long-drawn lips of insolent mockery, And eyes whose lurid glare

Was like a sulphur fire,

Mingling with darkness ere its flames expire.

10.

Ladurlad knew him well: enraged to see
The cause of all his misery,

He stooped and lifted from the ground

A stake, whose fatal point was black with blood; The same wherewith his hand had dealt the wound, When Arvalan, in hour with evil fraught,

For violation seized the shrieking Maid.

Thus armed, in act again to strike he stood,
And twice with inefficient wrath essayed
To smite the impassive shade.

The lips of scorn their mockery-laugh renewed;
And Arvalan put forth a hand, and caught
The sunbeam, and, condensing there its light,
Upon Ladurlad turned the burning stream.
Vain cruelty! the stake

Fell in white ashes from his hold, but he
Endured no added pain; his agony
Was full, and at the height;

The burning stream of radiance nothing harmed him ;
A fire was in his heart and brain,
And from all other flame
Kehama's Curse had charmed him.

11.

Anon the Spirit waved a second hand: Down rushed the obedient whirlwind from the sky, Scooped up the sand like smoke, and from on high Shed the hot shower upon Ladurlad's head. Where'er he turns, the accursed Hand is there; East, West, and North and South, on every side The Hand accursed waves in air to guide

The dizzying storm; ears, nostrils, eyes, and mouth,
It fills and chokes, and, clogging every pore,
Taught him new torments might be yet in store.
Where shall he turn to fly? Behold his house
In flames! uprooted lies the marriage-bower,
The Goddess buried by the sandy shower.
G

VOL. VIII.

Blindly, with staggering step, he reels about;
And still the accursed Hand pursued,

And still the lips of scorn their mockery-laugh renewed.

12.

What, Arvalan! hast thou so soon forgot The grasp of Pollear? Wilt thou still defy The righteous Powers of heaven? or know'st thou

not

That there are yet superior Powers on high, Son of the Wicked? Lo! in rapid flight, Ereenia hastens from the ethereal height; Bright is the sword celestial in his hand: Like lightning in its path athwart the sky, He comes, and drives with angel-arm the blow. Oft have the Asuras, in the wars of Heaven, Felt that keen sword by arm angelic driven, And fled before it from the fields of light. Thrice through the vulnerable Shade The Glendoveer impels the griding blade; The wicked Shade flies howling from his foe. So let that Spirit foul

Fly, and, for impotence of anger, howl, Writhing with anguish, and his wounds deplore: Worse punishment hath Arvalan deserved, And righteous Fate hath heavier doom in store.

13.

Not now the Glendoveer pursues his flight:
He bade the Ship of Heaven alight,

And gently there he laid

The astonished Father by the happy Maid, The Maid now shedding tears of deep delight.

Beholding all things with incredulous eyes, Still dizzy with the sand-storm, there he lay; While, sailing up the skies, the living Bark Through air and sunshine held its heavenly way.

X.

MOUNT MERU.

1.

SWIFT through the sky the vessel of the Suras Sails up the fields of ether like an Angel. Rich is the freight, O Vessel! that thou bearest, Beauty and Virtue,

Fatherly cares and filial veneration, Hearts which are proved and strengthened by affliction,

Manly resentment, fortitude, and action,

Womanly goodness;

All with which Nature halloweth her daughters, -
Tenderness, truth and purity and meekness,
Piety, patience, faith and resignation,
Love and devotement.

Ship of the Gods, how richly art thou laden!
Proud of the charge, thou voyagest rejoicing: