By this extraordinary feat he had also obtained nine extra heads with a full complement of eyes, ears, and noses, hands and arms.

Mindful of his promise, Brahma was at a loss to grant this request until he remembered he had never guaranteed Ravana should not be attacked by man or monkey.

He, therefore, decided to beg Vishnu to enter the body of a man and conquer this terrible foe, while the lesser gods helped him in the guise of monkeys.
"One only way I find To slay this fiend of evil mind.
He prayed me once his life to guard From demon, god, and heavenly bard, And spirits of the earth and air, And I, consenting, heard his prayer.
But the proud giant in his scorn Recked not of man of woman born; None else may take his life away And only man the fiend can slay." At Brahma's request, Vishnu not only consented to become man, but elected to enter the body of the rajah's oldest son--one of the four children obtained in answer to prayer.

Meantime he charged his fellow gods diligently to beget helpers for him, so they proceeded to produce innumerable monkeys.

The poem next informs us that Rama, son of the Rajah's favorite wife, being a god,--an incarnation of Vishnu,--came into the world with jewelled crown and brandishing four arms, but that, at his parents' request, he concealed these divine attributes, assumed a purely human form, and cried lustily like a babe.