59. What more shall I relate Ráma about this war, which baffles the attempt of the serpent Vásuki even, to give a full description of it with his hundred tongues and mouths.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Cessation of the War.
Vasishtha continued:—Now as the war was waging fiercely, with mingled shouts on both sides, the sun shrouded his burnished armour under the mist of darkness, and was about to set.
2. The waters of the limpid streams glided with the showers of stones flung by the forces, and falling on the fading clusters of lotuses growing in them.
3. Flashes of fire glittered in the sky, by the clashing of the shafts and darts below; and waves of arrows were seen, now approaching nigh and now receding at a distance.
4. Severed heads like loose lotuses, floated and whirled in the whirlpools of blood below, and the sea of heaven was filled with flying weapons, moving as marine animals above.
5. The rustling of the breeze and the whistling of the overshadowing clouds of weapons, frightened the aerial Siddhas and sylvan apes, with the fear of an approaching rain.
6. The day declined after it had run its course of the eight watches (Yámárdhas), and assumed the graceful countenance of a hero, returning in glory, after he has fought his battle.
7. The army like the day, declined in splendour, being battered in its cavalry, and shattered in its force of elephants.
8. Then the commanders of the armies, in concert with the ministers of war, sent envoys to the hostile parties for a truce to the fighting.