2. Gradually the stars faded away at the appearance of aurora in the east, and the face of the sky was dimly pale, before it was washed over with the white of twilight. 3. The beating of the morning and the alarm of trumpets, roused Ráma from his reverie; and he rose with his moonlike face, blooming as the full-blown lotus in its leafy bed. 4. He performed his morning ablution and devotion, and joined with his brothers and a few attendants, in order to repair to the hermitage of the sage Vasishtha. 5. Having arrived there, they found the sage entranced in his meditation in his lonely solitude; and lowly bent down their heads before him from a respectful distance. 6. After making their obeisance, they waited on him in the compound, until the twilight of morning brought the day-light over the face of the sky. 7. The princes and chiefs, the saints, sages and Bráhmans, thronged in that hermitage, in the manner of the celestials meeting at the empyrean of Brahmá. 8. Now the abode of Vasishtha was full of people, and the crowds of the cars, horses and elephants waiting at the outside, made it equal to a royal palace in its grandeur. 9. After a while the sage rose from his deep meditation, and gave suitable receptions to the assembled throng that bowed down before him. 10. Then Vasishtha accompanied with Viswámitra, and followed by a long train of _munis_ and other men, came out of the hermitage, and ascended and sat in a carriage, in the manner of the lotus-born Brahmá sitting on his lotus seat. 11. He arrived at the palace of Dasaratha, which was surrounded by a large army on all sides, and alighted there from his car, as when Brahmá descends from his highest heaven to the city of Indra, beset by the whole host of the celestials. 12. He entered the grand court hall of the king, and was saluted by the courtiers lowly bending down before him; as when the stately gander enters a bed of lotuses, amidst a body of aquatic birds (all staring at him). 13. The king also got up, and descended from his high throne; and then advanced three paces on barefoot to receive the venerable sage. 14. Then there entered a large concourse of chiefs and princes, with bodies of saints and sages and Bráhmans and hori, potri priests. 15. The minister Sumantra and others came next with the learned pandits Saumya and others; and then Ráma and his brothers followed them with the sons of royal ministers. 16. Next came the ministerial officers, the ministerial priests (hotripotris), and the principle citizens, with bodies of the Málava wrestlers and servants of all orders, and townsmen of different professions. 17. All these took their respective seats, and sat in the proper order of their ranks, and kept looking intently on the sage Vasishtha, with their uplifted heads and eyes.