Ramavijaya. 65

state of mind, and did not know what to do, when his
minister, Vidya, advised him to write a letter to his un-
cles, Ahiravana and Mahiravana, in Fatal. Whereupon
the demon-king wrote to them, called them to see him at his
palace and informed them of his misfortune and distress,
when they encouraged him and said, " You need not be
alarmed. We shall carry off Rama and Lakshuman to Fatal
today at midnight and sacrifice them to our goddess."
The ministers of Vibhishan overheard what had passed
between Ravana and the demons and communicated it to
their master. Whereupon Yibhishan told Maruti. Nala,
Nila, Sugriva and other monkeys to guard Rama, and Lak-
shuman during the night. All the monkeys, therefore,
made a fortification of their tails and, placing in it the
princes on a cot, guarded them. At midnight Ahira-
vana and Mahiravana came there and were greatly surpris-
ed at the curious fortification. But there being no way-
to get in, they excavated the earth ; and through that
excavation they carried off the princes with the cot to Ma-
hikavati in Fatal, where they put them in trance and con-
fined them in a house, They had posted twenty kotis ol
demons under the command of Makardwaja to watch the
mouth of the excavation which was near the sea in Fatal.
At the dawn of the day all the monkeys at Suvela
W0nt to visit Rama, when they found, to their great sur-
prise, that the cot disappeared with Rama and Lakshu-
man, They saw the excavation and the footprints of the
demons, froni which they concluded that the demons had
carried off the princes through that hollow. All the mon-
keys were greatly alarmed, and did not know what to do,
but, ia the mean time, Vibhishan came and told them not,
to make a noise about it, because if Ravana knew of their t
position, he would attack them and kill them all in no
time. The monkeys with Yibhishan met together and
.asked Maruti whether he could go through the excavation