Thus bidden, the rangers of the night sallied forth, armed with excellent slings and javelins, iron clubs and maces, trenchant battle-axes, pikes, scimitars, bludgeons and masses of mountain rocks in their hands.

Just as foolish carnivorous birds swoop down upon a heap of rubies the moment they see it, and have so idea of the pain of broken beaks, so did the stupid man-eating monsters rush forth to the fray.

Armed with bows and arrows and other weapons of various kinds, myriads of demons, mighty and valiant and staunch in battle, climbed up the battlements of the fort.

On the battlements of the palace they looked like dense clouds handing on the peaks of Mount Sumeru. Martial drums and tabors sounded for the fray, and the souls of the warriors were stirred to fighting frenzy by their crash.

So fiercely brayed the countless trumpets and bugles that the hearts of cowards, on hearing them, cracked. Advancing further, the demons saw the throng of monkeys and bear champions, monstrous in size,

- who rushed on, making no account of rugged valleys, but seizing and bursting asunder hills and so clearing a passage for themselves. Myriads of warriors ground their teeth and shouted aloud; they bit their lips with their teeth (in their excess of fury) and snarled threats.

There they called on Ravana and here on Rama to help them. With shouts of victory on both sides the grim battle began. When the demons cast down masses of rock, the monkeys seized them with a bound and hurled them back again.