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SETUBANDHA sea roared and surged up, as if the causeway was being built even before the mountains came on the scene.19
22. The Mahendra mountain trembled, and the surface of the earth cracked because of the commotion caused by the apes. Only the pollen of the flowers in the woods of the Malaya did not rise aloft, being moistened by the ever cloudy skies.
23. The host of apes, with lumps of earth sticking to the tips of their nails 20 flew high into the sky, stirring the mountains, and making somehow a simultaneous flight by chance.
24. As the earth sank when the apes flew up,21 the sea, flowing upstream through the mouths of the rivers, battered the mountains with its waves, loosening and making them capable of being uprooted by the apes.
25. Covered up by the apes, reddish yellow like a blazing fire, and flying in serried ranks, the sky, wherever visible, seemed to be a mass of smoke.22
26. The host of apes, flying high into the air, and reflected in the sea, face downward, seemed to be entering the nether regions with the purpose of uprooting the (submarine) mountains.
27. Obscured by the host of apes, the sky, with the regions invisible, was, even at daybreak, bereft of sunshine and gloomy as at the end of the day.
28. With the sunlight passing through the gaps between their slanting backs, the apes swiftly descended on the mountains as the caves resounded with their cries.
29. As they vehemently swooped down on the mountains they were detached from the earth with the link shattered, and
19. i.e., the scene described seemed to be a prelude to the building of the causeway by dropping mountains on the ocean, as described in Canto VIII.
20. Because they had planted their feet firmly on the earth before leaping into the air.
21. i.e., under the pressure of their feet planted on the earth. 22. i.e., by contrast with the colour of the apes.
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