to rise to Astachal or the western mountain where he sets. The
commentators give little assistance: that Mahasaila, &c. are certain
mountains is about all the information they give.

644 One of the celestial elephants of the Gods who protect the four
quarters and intermediate points of the compass.

645 Vayu or the Wind was the father of Hanuman.

646 The path or station of Vishnu is the space between the seven Rishis
or Ursa Major, and Dhruva or the polar star.

647 One of the seven seas which surround the earth in concentric
circles.

648 The title of Mahesvar or Mighty Lord is sometimes given to Indra,
but more generally to Siva whom it here denotes.

649 See Book I, Canto XVI.

650 The numbers are unmanageable in English verse. The poet speaks of
hundreds of _arbudas_; and an _arbuda_ is a hundred millions.

651 Anuhlada or Anuhrada is one of the four sons of the mighty
Hiranyakasipu, an Asur or a Daitya son of Kasyapa and Diti and
killed by Vishnu in his incarnation of the Man-Lion _Narasinha_.
According to the Bhagavata Purana the Daitya or Asur Hiranyakasipu
and Hiranyaksha his brother, both killed by Vishnu, were born again
as Ravan and Kumbhakarna his brother.

652 Puloma, a demon, was the father-in-law of Indra who destroyed him in
order to avert an imprecation. Paulomi is a patronymic denoting
Sachi the daughter of Puloma.

653 "Observe the variety of colours which the poem attributes to all
these inhabitants of the different mountainous regions, some white,
others yellow, &c. Such different colours were perhaps peculiar and
distinctive characteristics of those various races." GORRESSIO.

654 Sushen.

655 Tara.

656 Kesari was the husband of Hanuman's mother, and is here called his
father.

657 "I here unite under one heading two animals of very diverse nature
and race, but which from some gross resemblances, probably helped by
an equivoque in the language, are closely affiliated in the Hindoo
myth {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} a reddish colour of the skin, want of symmetry and
ungainliness of form, strength in hugging with the fore paws or
arms, the faculty of climbing, shortness of tail(?), sensuality,
capacity of instruction in dancing and in music, are all
characteristics which more or less distinguish and meet in be