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SETUBANDHA covered body of a mighty elephant of the gods, rubbed against a mountain's golden slope, presses it hard.
26. The darkness, even though present everywhere alike, appeared to be sparse at close quarters, diffuse a little farther, and dense at a distance, obstructing the power of vision.
27. Thick darkness settled on the branches of the trees; the tender foliage, enveloped in darkness, assumed a dull colour; and the flowers were hidden in the foliage. The fragrance of the flowers alone revealed the presence of the trees.
28. The darkness fitted in with the hour of the sun's downfall. It mixed up all the directions, and destroyed vision even at close quarters; and even the presence of the earth had to be surmised.
29. The darkness spread. It seemed firm enough to be hewn, and dense enough to be lifted; seemed capable of being grasped, and solid enough to be penetrated by the moon.
30. Pervading the earth, the expanse of darkness seemed to carry all things. It seemed to push from behind, and hold up in front, and press from either side; and appeared to grow heavy as it spread overhead.
31. The lustre of the moonbeams blending with darkness appeared to be white as a cloud of spray suffused with the hue of sapphire. It was faint, being hidden by the mountain of the east, with the regions of the sky partly revealed.
32. The eastern region of the sky, with the darkness assailed by the rays of the moon over a section of the earth, appeared to resemble the ocean consumed by a smokeless fire as at the epoch of destruction.
33. Thereafter the east, white with the young moon, assumed a clear aspect, with the darkness vanishing from sight, and a vast mass of moonbeams surging out of the mountain of the east.
34. The lunar orb, reddish like the inside of a fresh lotus blossom, with streaming rays soft as the filaments, thinned the on-coming darkness, but did not yet destroy it.
35. Reaching the summit of the mountain of the east, the moon, resplendently white, with the darkness wiped away, became
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