Argument. Comparisons of the Kadamba tree, and its branches, leaves, fruits and flowers and birds. Vasishtha continued:—Thus Dásúra remained in the forest reaching to the region of the clouds, and forming a stage for the halting of the tired horses of the meridian sun at midday. (_i.e._ As high as to reach the sphere of the sun at noon). 2. Its far stretching boughs spread a canopy under the vault of heaven on all sides, and it looked to the skies all around with its full blown blossoming eyes. 3. The gentle winds were shedding the fragrant dust from the tufts of its hanging hairs, which studded with swarms of fluttering bees, and its waving leaves like palms of its hands, were brushing over the face of its fairy welkin. 4. The banks with their long shrubbery, and the crimson filaments of their milk-white blossoms, were smiling like the fair faces of beauties, with their teeth tinged with reddish hue of betel leaves. 5. The creeping plants were dancing with delight, and shedding the dust from the pistils of their flowers, which were clustered in bunches and beaming with the lustre of the full bright moon. 6. The earth with its thickening thickets, and the warbling chakoras as amongst them, appeared as the milky path of heaven studded with stars singing their heavenly strains. 7. Groups of peacocks sitting on the tops of branching trees, appeared with variegated trains, like rainbows amidst the verdant foliage, seeming as bluish clouds in the azure sky. 8. The white _chauri_ deer with half of their bodies hidden under the coverts of the woods, and their fore parts appearing without the thickets, appeared as so many moons with their dark and bright sides in the sky. 9. The warbling of _chataks_, joined with the trill of _cuckoos_, and the whistling of _chakoras_, filled the groves with a continuous harmony. 10. Flocks of white herons sitting on their nestling boughs, seemed as bodies of _siddha_ sylphs, sitting quietly beside their coverts in heaven. 11. Waving creepers with their ruddy leaflets shaking with the breeze, and their blooming blossoms beset by bees, resembled the Apsaras of heaven, flapping their rosy palms and looking at the skies. 12. The clusters of Kumuda or blue lotuses, moving on the sky-blue waters with their yellow filaments, and shedding their golden dust around, appeared as the rainbow and lightings, darting their radiance in the azure sky. 13. The forest with thousands of uplifted branches, seemed as the god Visva-rúpa lifting his thousand arms on high, and dancing with the breeze, with the pendant orbs of the sun and moon, suspended as the earrings to both his ears. 14. The groups of elephants lying underneath the branches, and the clusters of stars shining above them, gave the woodlands an appearance of the sky, with its dark clouds moving below the blazing stars above.