Then Vishnu, God of Gods, the Lord Supreme by all the worlds adored, To Brahmá and the suppliants spake:-- "Dismiss your fear: for your dear sake In battle will I smite him dead, The cruel fiend, the Immortal's dread. And lords and ministers and all His kith and kin with him shall fall. Then, in the world of mortal men, Ten thousand years and hundreds ten I as a human King will reign, And guard the earth as my domain." God, saint, and nymph, and minstrel throng With heavenly voices raised their song In hymns of triumph to the God Whose conquering feet on Madhu trod:--- "Champion of Gods, as man appear, This cruel Rávan slay, The thorn that saints and hermits fear, The plague that none can stay. In savage fury uncontrolled His pride forever grows-- He dares the Lord of Gods to hold Among his deadly foes." CANTO XV THE NECTAR When wisest Vishnu thus had given His promise to the Gods of heaven, He pondered in his secret mind A suited place of birth to find. Then he decreed, the lotus-eyed, In four his being to divide, And Daśaratha, gracious King, He chose as sire from whom to spring. That childless prince, of high renown, Who smote in war his foemen down, At that same time with utmost care Prepared the rite that wins an heir. Then Vishnu, fain on earth to dwell, Bade the Almighty Sire farewell, And vanished while a reverent crowd Of Gods and saints in worship bowed. The monarch watched the sacred rite, When a vast form of awful might, Of matchless splendor, strength and size Was manifest before his eyes. From forth the sacrificial flame, Dark, robed in red, the being came. His voice was drumlike, loud and low, His face suffused with rosy glow. Like a huge lion's mane appeared The long locks of his hair and beard. He shone with many a lucky sign, And many an ornament divine; A towering mountain in his height, A tiger in his gait and might.