Knowing him to be Raghunatha’s envoy, Ocean bade Mainaka relieve him of his fatigue. (Don’t hide yourself, he said; rise higher and offer him rest.)

Hanuman only touched the mountain with his hand and then made obeisance to him, saying, ‘How can I rest before I have done Rama’s business?

When the gods saw the Son of the Wind sweeping along, they wished to try his mighty strength and wisdom. So they sent Surasa, the Mother of Serpents, who came and said,

‘Today the gods have given me a meal!’ Upon hearing these words, the So of the Wind replied, ‘When I have performed Rama’s commission and return and give my Lord the news about Sita,

- then will I enter your mouth: I tell you the truth, mother; only let me go just now.’ But when she would not let him go on any account, Hanuman said, ‘Then why not swallow me?

She opened her jaws full three leagues wide, but Hanuman made his body twice as broad. She stretched her mouth to a breadth of fifty leagues, but Hanuman at once became a hundred leagues in breadth.

However much Surasa expanded her jaws, Hanuman displayed a form twice as large again. But when at last she made her mouth three hundred leagues wide, Hanuman assumed a very minute form