His homeward way to Rávaṇ made.
Loud laughed the lord of Lanká's isle:
“Where hast thou stayed this weary while?
Why is thy plumage marred, and why
Do twisted cords thy pinions tie?
Say, comest thou in evil plight
The victim of the Vánars' spite?”
He ceased: the spy his fear controlled,
And to the king his story told:
“I reached the ocean's distant shore,