Hanuman- The Monkey Leader

Hanuman, on the whole the most useful of the monkey leader of the expedition to Ceylon, was the son of Vayu, by a monkey mother. His birth is thus described- In youthful beauty wondrous fair, A crown of flowers about her hair. In silken robes of richest dye, She roamed the hill that kiss the sky. Once in her tinted garments dressed, She stood upon the mountain crest. The god of wind beside her came, and breathed upon lovely dame, and as he fanned her robe aside, The wondrous beauty that he eyed, In rounded lines of Brest and limb, And neck and shoulders, ravished him, And captured by her peerless charms, He strained her in his amorous arms. Then to the eager god she cried, In trembling accents, terrified, Whose impious love has wronged a spouse so constant to her nuptial vows? He heard, and thus his answer made: Oh, be not troubled, nor afraid, But trust, and thou shalt know ere long. My love has done thee, sweet, no wrong. So strong, and brave, and wise shall be The glorious I give to thee: Might shall be his that nougat can tire, And limbs to spring his sire. One whose words so sweetly flow , The whole Veda must know. And in his well trained memory stored. Thus spoke the god: the conquered dame rejoiced in heart, nor feared the shame.

                                                  At length the son was born. When a child, seeing the sun rising, and thinking it to be the fruit of a tree, he sprang up three hundred leagues to clutch it. Hanuman is regarded as divine, and in some parts of India is largely worshipped. Living monkeys are regarded as his represented : hence many temple swarm with them, and it is regarded a meritorious act to feed them, and a sacrilegious act to injure them.