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SETUBANDHA 30. Thereupon his attendants, summoned by a movement of his eyebrows, fearfully approached him on either side as his faces, held high with a weary yawn, turned towards them.
31. Even with his ten mouths he could not utter at once what was thought out in his mind, because it was cumbered with words, choked with joy, at the prospect of fulfilling his long cherished resolve.
32. One of his mouths began the words; another took them over in joy, but let them slip; another uttered them half; while yet another somehow finished them.
33. As he spoke sadly, his mouths shrouded in fumes, and his heart aggrieved, he heaved a sigh that became faint as it passed through his ten throats.
34. He addressed the demons, who responded simultaneously as he gave the orders, and (knelt before him) with both hands
ced on the ground, and the raised half of the body resting on the curved hips.
35. "Show to Sītā Rāma's neckless head created by magic, with the face pale on account of separation from her, and the fierce staring eyes turned sideways to look at the foe.'
36. Thereupon, at that very moment, they produced the very head of Rāma, as if it had just been severed and brought thither, with the forehead furrowed by an angry frown.
37. Hurriedly getting up with eager footsteps, the demons started for the pleasure garden, occupied with Rāvana's command that had somehow been fully explained by him.
38. They reached the pleasance where lotus-buds were springing up in the water stored in cavities in the crystal embankments; and young shoots had issued from the broken stems of the trees smashed by Hanumat.?
39. There they saw Sitā, with her eyes terror-stricken at the sound of their footsteps making her fear that Rāvana might have come; while her hands lay on her bosom, having slipped from the face that had always rested on them.
7. Ref. to the damage caused by Hanumat during his mission to Sita.
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