parts of the Rig-veda, transposed and
scattered about piece-meal, only 78 verses in the whole being, it is
said, untraceable to the present recension of the Rig-veda.

625 Ashadha is the month corresponding to parts of June and July.

626 Bharat, who was regent during Rama's absence.

627 Or with Gorresio, following the gloss of another commentary: "Has
completed every holy rite and accumulated stores of merit."

628 The river on which Ayodhya was built.

629 I omit a _sloka_ or four lines on gratitude and ingratitude repeated
word for word from the last Canto.

630 The Indian crane; a magnificent bird easily domesticated.

631 The troops who guard the frontiers on the north, south, east and
west.

632 The Chataka, Cuculus, Melanoleucus, is supposed to drink nothing but
the water for the clouds.

633 The time for warlike expeditions began when the rains had ceased.

634 The rainbow.

635 Indra's associates in arms, and musicians of his heaven.

636 Maireya, a spirituous liquor from the blossoms of the Lythrum
fruticosum, with sugar, &c.

637 Their names are as follows: Angad, Mainda, Dwida, Gavaya, Gavaksha,
Gaja, Sarabha, Vidyunmali, Sampati, Suryaksa, Hanuman, Virabahu,
Subahu, Nala, Kumuda, Sushena, Tara, Jambuvatu, Dadhivakra, Nila,
Supatala, and Sunetra.

638 The Kalpadruma or Wishing-tree is one of the trees of Svarga or
Indra's Paradise: it has the power of granting all desires.

639 The meaning is that if a man promises to give a horse and then
breaks his word he commits a sin as great as if he had killed a
hundred horses.

640 The story is told in Book I, Canto LXIII, but the charmer there is
called Menaka.

641 Rohini is the name of the ninth Nakshatra or lunar asterism
personified as a daughter of Daksha, and the favourite wife of the
Moon. Aldebaran is the principal star in the constellation.

642 Valmiki and succeeding poets make the second vowel in this name long
or short at their pleasure.

643 Some of the mountains here mentioned are fabulous and others it is
impossible to identify. Sugriva means to include all the mountains
of India from Kailas the residence of the God Kuvera, regarded as
one of the loftiest peaks of the Himalayas, to Mahendra in the
extreme south, from the mountain in the east where the sun is said