SECTION VIII.
Staying in that mansion, that intelligent monkey, the offspring of the Wind-god, beheld that splendid aerial car, beauteous with excellent jewels, and furnished with windows of burnished gold. And the car, embellished with transcendentally beautiful figures,—belauded by Viçwakarmā himself constituting the acme (of his art),—which, mounting the welkin, looked like a mark of the Sun's orbit,—appeared . resplendent. And there was nothing in that car which was not made skilfully;—nothing that did not look like a precious jewel (sprung spontaneously on its person),—and the style displayed in its various parts surpassed anything that could be found in the cars of the celestials themselves,—and everything in that car was executed in the highest style of excellence—(that car) obtained (by Rāvana) in virtue of prowess sprung from asceticism and contemplation (of the Deity); capable of repairing wherever (the owner) wished to wend; displaying various kinds of constructive skill; composed of materials procured from diverse sources,—such as were worthy of a celestial car; fleet-coursing in consonance with the wish of its master; incapable of being approached;259 equal to the wind in celerity; the source of happiness unto ious, high-souled, and pious ones—possessors of (word missing) fineless'260 and high rapture; coursing through the firmament in a variety of ways,—the congeries of all wonderful things,—adorned with ranges of chambers; captivating to the mind; stainless as the autumnal Moon; furnished with splendid summits, like the crest of a mountain; which was borne by rangers of the night, given to mighty meals, ranging the sky, with faces graced with ear-rings; and by thousands of ghosts possessed of terrible speed, having expansive, winkless and rolling eyes. That heroic first of monkeys saw that excellent car, beauteous with vernal blossoms,—fairer than the month of spring and furnished with flowers.