52 Possessed of all the auspicious personal marks that indicate
capacity of universal sovereignty. See Book I. p. 2, and Note 3.

553 Kabandha. See Book III. Canto LXXIII.

554 Fire for sacred purposes is produced by the attrition of two pieces
of wood. In marriage and other solemn covenants fire is regarded as
the holy witness in whose presence the agreement is made. Spenser in
a description of a marriage, has borrowed from the Roman rite what
he calls the housling, or "matrimonial rite."

"His owne two hands the holy knots did knit
That none but death forever can divide.
His owne two hands, for such a turn most fit,
The housling fire did kindle and provide."

Faery Queen, Book I. XII. 37.

555 Indra.

556 Bali the king _de facto_.

557 With the Indians, as with the ancient Greeks, the throbbing of the
right eye in a man is an auspicious sign, the throbbing of the left
eye is the opposite. In a woman the significations of signs are
reversed.

558 The Vedas stolen by the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.

"The text has [Sanskrit text] which signifies literally 'the lost
vedic tradition.' It seems that allusion is here made to the Vedas
submerged in the depth of the sea, but promptly recovered by Vishnu
in one of his incarnations, as the brahmanic legend relates, with
which the orthodoxy of the Brahmans intended perhaps to allude to
the prompt restoration and uninterrupted continuity of the ancient
vedic tradition."

GORRESIO.

559 Like the wife of a Naga or Serpent-God carried off by an eagle. The
enmity between the King of birds and the serpent is of very frequent
occurrence. It seems to be a modification of the strife between the
Vedic Indra and the Ahi, the serpent or drought-fiend; between
Apollon and the Python, Adam and the Serpent.

560 He means that he has never ventured to raise his eyes to her arms
and face, though he has ever been her devoted servant.

561 The wood in which Skanda or Kartikeva was brought up:

"The Warrior-God
Whose infant steps amid the thickets strayed
Where the reeds wave over the holy sod."

See also Book I, Canto XXIX.

562 "Sugriva's story paints in vivid colours the manners, customs and
ideas of the wild mountain tribes which inhabited Kishkindhya or the