Dutt, Romesh Chunder: The literature of Bengal: being an attempt to trace the progress of the national mind in its various aspects, as reflected in the nation’s literature from the earliest times to the present day ; with copious extracts from the best writers (Calcutta, 1877)

THE PERIOD OF EUROPEAN INFLUENCE. 181

innocent dwellers of the forest. She adorned herself by the

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margin of the lake with sweet flowers, and her dear lord,

ravished at her new dress, would address her as the* fairy of
the forest! Will poor Sita again meet her lord "and serve
him with her affection ? The narrator can proceed no
further, shs weeps bitter tears, in bitter Ivoe. Sarama*
entreats her not ,to proceed further if those recollec-
tions give »her pain, but who will weep in this world,
Site, enquires, if she will not 1 The river filled with
rains-finds relief in pouring water on bath side^ and
the heart that is full of grief finds relief in im-
parting its grief to others. Sarama cannot choose but
listen. In the forest of Panchabati Sita heard the music
of fairies in the sounds of the forest, and saw, their dance
in the glimmer of the sunbeams on the lake. Sometimes
she would walk with Rama on the river bank, and view
on her spacious bosom new heavens, new stars, new
radiant moons. Sometimes she would climb a neigh-
bouring hill, and there sit at the feet of Rama, even as
a creeper winds round a tree. There she heard from
him various discourses°ou various subjects, even as Uma
hears the Vedas, the Puranas, the Panchatantra, from the
immortal lips of Siva on Mount Kailasa. Will poor Sita
again hear the music of that voice? Even now, in the
solitude where she lives, she thinks she hears that voice,—
(will she niver hear that music again t Thus Sita's
story goes on, she narrates how in that quiet forest Ra-
vana went in the disguise of a beggar and stole her, how
Jaftayu obstructed his passage, and Sita fell in a swo«^v

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