Page:Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan.djvu/51

Rh The manual labour, and the want
 * Of comforts that her rank became,

Valkala robes, meals poor and scant,
 * All undermine the fragile frame?

To see the bride, the hermit's wives
 * And daughters gathered to the huts,

Women of pure and saintly lives!
 * And there beneath the betel-nuts

Tall trees like pillars, they admire
 * Her beauty, and congratulate

The parents, that their hearts' desire
 * Had thus accorded been by Fate,

And Satyavan their son had found
 * In exile lone, a fitting mate:

And gossips add,—good signs abound;
 * Prosperity shall on her wait.

Good signs in features, limbs, and eyes,
 * That old experience can discern,

Good signs on earth and in the skies,
 * That it could read at every turn.

And now with rice and gold, all bless
 * The bride and bridegroom,—and they go

Happy in others' happiness,
 * Each to her home, beneath the glow