Hanuman Fights Maiyarap
(Wat Pho in Bangkok)
Reaching the part of the park where the Lord of the Underworld lies stretched out asleep, Hanuman strikes a pose and sings out, "Awake, O unrighteous king. Know that Hanuman the Mighty, Hanuman the Brave is ready to slay you. The Lord of Death stands at your door and demands admittance." Lying on his couch, however, Maiyarap is in such a deep sleep that he does not hear this pretty speech, and Hanuman has to give him a kick to wake him. Immediately Maiyarap springs up with a snarl and lashes out with his sword at the intruder.
The Son of the Wind coolly ducks the blow, snatches the sword out of Maiyarap's hand and snaps it in two. Maiyarap now picks up a club and swings at him with it, but Hanuman smashes it to fragments. Maiyarap tries a spear, but the monkey shivers it to a thousand pieces, and the Lord of the Underworld is reduced to fighting with his bare hands. At the point of Hanuman's blade he is forced back into a corner of the garden, where he suddenly seizes a palm tree and lashes the Son of the Wind three times across the head with it. He might have been using a blade of grass for all the effect it has. In his turn, Hanuman takes up a palm trunkand strikes out at Maiyarap, bringing him to his knees. The Lord of the Underworld is quickly up again, however, and fights back as if unaffected by the blows.
At this point, Pirakuan, who has been watching the fight anxiously, calls out to Hanuman, "If you want to kill my evil brother, you must first crush his soul, which lives in a palm tree as a bumblebee at the top of the Trikot Mountains." At this, Maiyarap cries out from pain and rage, while Hanuman, stretching himself beyond belief, reaches to the top of the Trikot Mountains and catches the bee.
"Funny kind of a soul," says Hanuman tauntingly to Maiyarap, crushing the bee to death before his eyes, ''I'm sure you won't miss it." And then he takes his sword and slits Maiyarap's throat from ear to ear. The battle is over.
Hanuman ascends the throne of the underworld. In a solemn ceremony and enjoying every moment of it, he has Pirakuan's son Waiyawik brought before him. He raises the youth to the throne, enjoining him to rule Badan and the underworld with wisdom and justice. His own son, the fish-tailed Matchanu, he appoints adviser to the crown.
