The bridge was so thronged with the crowd that some of the monkeys flew through the air, while others went across to the other side on the backs of the creatures of the deep.

And the two brothers (Raghunatha and Lakshmana) laughed at the sight of this amusing spectacle. Then the gracious Raghunatha started out and reached the other shore with the army; the throng of monkeys and their captains was beyond all description.

The Lord pitched his camp on the far side of the ocean and commanded all the monkeys to go and feast on the delightful fruit and roots. On hearing this, the bears and monkeys ran this way and that.

All the trees bore fruit for Rama’s sake, whether it was in season or out of season, without any regard to the time of year. The bears and monkeys ate the luscious fruit and shook the trees and hurled hill tops towards the city of Lanka.

If ever they found a straggling demon anywhere, they all hemmed him in and led him a merry dance; they would bite off his ears and nose with their teeth and sing the Lord’s praises before they let him go.

Those who had thus lost their ears and noses went and related everything to Ravana. When he heard that the sea had been bridged, the ten-headed monster cried out in consternation with all ten mouths at once;

‘What! Has he really bridged the waves, the billows, the sea, the ocean, the floods, the deep, the main, the briny deep, the home of springs, the lord of rivers?’