8. He only knows how to walk about in the gardens of this city and amidst the arbours and pleasant groves. 9. He only knows how to play with his brother princes, in the flowery parks set apart for his play within the precincts of the palace. 10. Nowadays, Oh Bráhman! he has become by a sad reverse of my fortune, as lean and pale as the withering lotus under the dews. 11. He has no taste for his food, nor can he walk from one room to another, but remains ever silent and slow brooding over his inward grief and melancholy. 12. In my great anxiety about him, O chief of sages, I have been, with my family and dependants, deprived of the gist of our bodies, and become as empty clouds of autumn. 13. Can my boy, so young as he is, and thus subjected to distemper, be fit to fight at all, and again with those marauders who rove about at nights. 14. Oh thou high-minded sage! it is one’s affection for his son that affords him far greater pleasure than his possession of a kingdom, or his connection with beauteous females, or even his relish for the juice of nectar. 15. It is from paternal affection that good people (engage to) perform the hardest duties and austerities of religion, and any thing which is painfull in the three worlds. 16. Men are even prepared under certain circumstances to sacrifice their own lives, riches and wives; but they can never sacrifice their children: this is the nature with all living beings. 17. The Rákshasas are very cruel in their actions and fight deceitful warfares: so that Ráma should fight them, is an idea which is very painful to me. 18. I that have a desire to live, cannot dare to live for a moment in separation from Ráma; therefore thou shouldst not take him away (from me). 19. I have O Kausika! passed nine thousand rains in my lifetime, ere these four boys were born to me after much austerity. 20. The lotus-eyed Ráma is the eldest of these without whom the three others can hardly bear to live. 21. This Ráma is going to be conveyed by thee against the Rákshasas; but when I am deprived of that son, know me certainly for dead. 22. Of my four sons he is the one in whom rests my greatest love. Therefore do not take away Ráma—my eldest and most virtuous son from me. 23. If thy intention Oh sage, is to destroy the force of night wanderers, take me there accompanied by the four kinds (elephants, horse, chariots and foot soldiers) of mine army. 24. Describe to me clearly what these Rákshasas are, how strong they are, whose sons they be and what their size and figure. 25. Tell me the way in which the Rákshasas are to be destroyed by Ráma or my boys or by myself, when they are known to be treacherous in warfare. 26. Tell me all these, Oh great sage! that I can calculate the possibility of our making a stand against the fiercely disposed Rákshasas in the open field, when they are certainly so very powerful.