In like manner it is said of two heroes:

"Sugriva, offspring of the Sun,
And Bali, Indra's mighty one,
They, both endowed with Garud's might,
And skilled in all the arts of fight,
Wandered in arms the forest through,
And lions and snakes and tigers slew." [*+]

When Ansuman found the ashes of the sixty thousand sons of Sagar, [*++] who, owing to Kapila's curse, had been destroyed, and was in distress because he could obtain no water with which to offer oblations for the dead, he sees their uncle--

"King Garud, best beyond compare,
Of birds who wing the fields of air.
Then thus unto the weeping man
The son of Vinata began:
'Grieve not, O hero, for their fall,
Who died a death approved of all.'" [* section]

Garuda then tells Ansuman that if he can succeed in inducing Ganga to descend from heaven, and with her

streams to touch these ashes, the dead shall return to life, and finally ascend to Indra's heaven.

In the description of the city of Ayodha, when Rama had gone into the forest, is a reference to Garuda's antipathy to snakes:--

"The city wore
No look of beauty as before--
Like a dull river or a lake
By Garud robbed of every snake." [**]

In the following lines is an account of Garuda's resting on a tree when he was carrying off the elephant and the tortoise as narrated above. Ravana impelled by the accounts of Sita's beauty, goes to see her, and on his journey

"He saw a fig-tree like a cloud,
With mighty branches earthward bowed.
It stretched a hundred leagues, and made
For hermit bands a welcome shade.
Thither the feathered king of yore
An elephant and tortoise bore,
And lighted on a bough to eat
The captives of his taloned feet.
The bough, unable to sustain
The crushing weight and sudden strain,
Loaded with sprays and leaves of spring,
Gave way beneath the feathered king.
* * * *
The feathered monarch raised the weight
Of the huge bough, and bore away
The loosened load and captured prey.
* * * *
His soul conceived the high emprise
To snatch the amrit from the skies.
He rent the nets of iron first,
Then through the jewel chamber burst,
And bore the drink of heaven away
That watched in Indra's palace lay." [*+]

In the great conflict with Ravana, as Rama and his brother were wounded and well-nigh dead, owing to a flight of serpents sent by Indrajit, Garuda appeared to restore them, and thus enabled them to carry on the war. His approach and work are thus described:--