a finally consented to take her with him,
and, bidding farewell to father and mother, left the city,
accompanied by his wife and favorite brother (Lakshman) and escorted
by his mourning subjects.

His father, broken-hearted at parting with his favorite son, took to
his bed, which he was never to leave again confiding to Rama's mother
that he was being sorely punished for a sin of his youth. It seems
that, while out hunting one night, hearing a gurgle by a stream, and
fancying some wild beast was there drinking, he let fly a shaft, which
only too surely reached its goal. Startled by a human cry, the rajah
rushed down to the river, only to discover that he had mortally
wounded a youth who had come down to draw water for his blind parents.

"Then in the dusk I heard the sound of gurgling water;
Quickly I took my bow, and, aiming toward the sound, shot off the dart.
A cry of mortal agony came from the spot,--a human voice
Was heard, and a poor hermit's son fell pierced and bleeding in
the stream."

Before dying this lad implored his slayer to hasten back to the
hermitage with water, as the old people were longing for a drink. On
hearing footsteps, the blind parents peevishly reproached their son
for tarrying, and, when the unfortunate murderer tried to explain what
had occurred, cursed him vehemently, declaring he would some day
experience the loss of a son. It was, therefore, in fulfilment of this
curse that the old rajah died thirteen days after Rama's departure.

Meantime the banished prince, riding in one of his father's chariots,
had reached the junction of the Jumna and Ganges, where he spent the
first night of his exile beneath a banyan on the banks of the sacred
stream. There he built a raft, by means of which he crossed to the
other side, and from there sadly watched his faithful subjects wending
homeward. Then he plunged into the forest, arranging that Sita should
always tread its narrow paths between him and his brother, to make
sure no harm befall her.

The Indian poet now favors us with a wonderful description of the
tropical forest, with its huge trees, brilliant flowers, strange birds
and monkeys, all of which gives the reader a vivid impression of the
color, beauty, perfume, and luxuriance of the tropics.

On rocky heights beside the way
And lofty trees with blossoms gay;
And streamlets running fair and fast,
The royal youths and Sita passed.

The exiles, wandering thus in