The Flower of Forgiveness

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MILLAN

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ER OF FO

one which, contrary to the custom of that most delicate of flowers, had preserved its colour in all its first freshness. Indeed, the scarlet petal

ause; "I have reason to believe it unique

issionensis. What induced you

acknowledge. As for the r

ination, but I presume it was in allusion to sins as scarlet, and hearts white as wool. Ah!

arming companion for a youngster eager to understand something of a new life, for, without exception, he knew more of native thought and feeling than any other man I ever met. He had a sort of intuition about it; yet at the same time he was curiously unsympathetic, and seemed to look upon it merely as a field for research, and nothing more. He used to talk to every man he met on the road, and in this way managed to acquire an extraordinary amoun

ng men and maidens, the weary workers, and the hoary old sinners, all journeying in faith, hope, and charity (or the want of it) to the Cave of Amar-nath in order to get the Great Ledger of Life settled up to date, and so to return scot-free to the world, the flesh, and the devil, in order to begin the old round all over again. I liked to think that crime sufficient to drag half Hindostan to the nethermost pit had been made over to those white gypsum cliffs, and that still, summer after summer, the wind flowers sprang from the crannies, and the forget-me-nots with their message of warning came to carpet the way for those eager feet seeking the impossible. I liked to see all the strange perversities and pieties displayed by the jogis and gosains. It was from one of the latter, a horrid old ruffian (so

ous One,' replied Taylor, wi

hing,' replied Victor Ema

ither and thither like meteors, to gather in radiating stars round the least speck on the surface; sometimes in their haste rising in scaly mounds above the water. The blare of a conch and a clanging of discordant bells made all eyes turn to the platform in front of the temple, where the

de of twice-born trebly-distilled ancestry bringing a conviction of inherited worthiness; pride in hardly-acquired devotion giving birth to a sense of pers

tremor of emotion in it, pierced the stillness for a second

. 'You're in luck,' he whispered, 'I believ

rsher than before: 'Silenc

ible straightening of the old m

t Sacrifice! We adore

ile

with hair lime-bleached and plaited with hemp into a sort of chignon, no more ghastly figure could be conceived. The crowd, however, hailed him with evident respect, while a murmur of 'Gopi! 'tis Gopi the bikshu (religious beggar)' passed from mouth to mouth. This

out sixteen, clad in the black antelope skin which marks a religious disci

ed Taylor, 'what a s

oung Perseus as he stood there, the antelope skin falling from his right shoulder, leaving the sacred cord of t

; for to the spiritual master implicit obedience is due. At the same moment the chief priest of the shrine, alarmed at an incident which might interfere with th

the Shining Ones be profaned?' asked the old Brahman savagely;

s with a confident air the jogi turned to the chief priest. 'These twelve years agone, O! mohunt-ji'[1] thou knowest Gopi--Gopi the bikshu! since for twelve years I have been led hither by the Spirit, seeking sp

ement to make her way to the platform, with the evident intention of pressing to the old man's side; but she was arrested by the young Perseus, who, with firm hands clasping hers,

ouseholder and pious anchorite in due turn, as the faith demands, have failed once in the law without repentance a

conceit o' oursels

onal in it; nothing more selfish than the rapt confidence which glorified the young disciple's whol

e oblation by reason of virtue and learning; I, Sukya, journeying to holy Amar-nath not for my own sake,--for I fear no judgment,--

truck an attitude of indignant appeal. 'When was an outcast vowed to pilgrimage? And by my jogi's vow I swear the boy Amra, disciple of

ylor again, 'this is gett

interested. For all that, I should not care to witness such a sight again. The attention of the crowd, centred a moment before on the jogi, was turned now on the boy, who stood absolutely alone; the gi

d at the words a gleam of hope crept to those hunted eyes. 'Prov

c gestures, while a perfect roar of assent, cries of d

at Hurdwar once; he is a rare hand at them.' He must have understood my resentment at being thus recal

ice-born castes is invested. If the strands were of the pure cotton ordained by ritual to the Brahman, the boy should be held of pure blood; but the admixture

they can fall into their appointed place in the picture, prevents me from remembering anything in detail--anything but a surging sea of saffron and white, a babel of w

chaplets, he was being borne high on men's shoulders to make a round of the various temples; while the keepers of

d was regretting the all too sudden ending of the spectacle, when T

surely as if a physical death had struck him down; that he might indeed have been less forlorn had such been the case, since some one for their own sakes might then have given him six feet of earth. And now, even a cup of water, that last refuge of cold charity, was denied to him for ever, save

the platform. 'This is no place for us now. Quick! we must

h a sob like that of a wounded animal, flung himself in agonised entre

decision in his face. 'Ask not the impossible! Thou art not alone impure; thou

t amid the encircling trees. 'Uncleansable for ever and ever!' Then in wild appeal from earth to heaven

ternly. 'There are no Shining Ones for such as

ation, and the platform lay empty of the passions which had played their parts on it as

r all that, there may be truth in Gopi's story. There is generally the devil to pay if a Brahmani goes wrong, and she may have tried to save the boy's life by getting rid of him. If you want to

n solemn smiles. 'It was a truly divine miracle,' he said blandly. 'Gopi, the bikshu, never makes mistakes, and performs neatly. Did the Presence observe how neatly? Within the cotton m

my ignorance. 'I always th

ill grow wise like the big Presence, who knows nearly as much as we know about some things--but not all! The cow is sacred, so the skin telling of the misfortun

ruths,' replied Taylor; 'that sort of thing does not amuse me; but the

was a bad walker, even to the length of public bazaars. Her people sought her for years, but she escaped them in big towns, and ere they found her she had gained safety for this boy by palming him off on Sukya. 'Twas easy for her, being a Brahmani. Of course they made her speak somewhat ere she

. Taylor raised his eyebrows and watched my recep

ter? One born of such parents is dead to virtue from

ion of sins you believe in so firmly,'

d the Presence knows that as well as I do. No remission at all, even i

the existence of the one is about as credible as the othe

the boy Amra. He will die a

t I was haunted by the boy's look when he heard th

Taylor drily; 'even I should like to do away with a portion of my past. Besides, all re

for two days--coming back, of course, clothed with righteousness. But Taylor becoming interested over fungi in the chestnut woods of Chandanwarra, we paused there to hunt up all sorts of deathly-looking growths due to disease and decay. I was not sorry; for one pilgrim possessed by frantic haste to shift his sins to some scapegoat is very much like another pilgrim with the same desire; besides, I grew tired of Victor Emanuel, who felt

en by the flowers forcing their way through the snow, lay the co

for the churrus (concoction of hemp) they drink, the mortality would be fearful

horrors, proposed taking a path across the hills instead of keeping to the orthodox route. Owing to scarcity of water and fuel, the servants and tents could only go some five miles farther along the ravine, so this suggestion would involve no change of plan. He added that there would also be a greater chance of finding 'that blessed anemone.' I don't think I ever saw so

ld be called, was fearful. Taylor, however, was untiring, and at the slightest hint of hope would strike off up the most break-neck places, leaving me to rejoin him as best I could.

re even as a spectacle. You have only to keep up the snow for a mile and turn to the left. You'll find me somewhere about these

found consolation here. 'What went ye out into the wilderness to see?' As I stood for an instant at the entrance before retracing my steps, I could not but think that here was a wilderness indeed--a wilderness of treacherous snow and icebound rivers, peaked and piled up tumultuously like frozen waves against the darkening sky. The memory of Taylor's warning not to be late made me try what seemed a shorter and easier path than the one by which I had come; b

says. It seems he has been making his way to the Cave ever since that day, without bite or sup, by the hill

mra!' I cried, b

the young disciple. His great, luminous eyes looked out of a face whence e

ved to the idiotic suggestion by that horror of standing

with, he wouldn't touch it; besides, he is past all that sort of thing. No

the sahib will put a stone under my head and cover me with some snow, I will

saying in a half-apologetic way, 'I was wondering if you and I couldn't get him up

t at the suggestion, as I hobbled round to get t

ssional glance, 'what have you done to you

ur, asserting that I had injured a small artery, and without caution might find difficulty in reaching the

boy!' I pleaded. 'It would

sly. 'I'm going to carry him up as soon as I've finishe

up that slope, strong as you

up from his labours. 'Look at him

y the touch of the snow on which Taylor had laid him while engaged in bandaging my foot, had r

that sight enough to haunt a man if he doesn't try?

athy, as of long practice in suffering, over the figure which, e

do?' moaned Amra doubtfully, as he

sion of sins together at Amar-nath,' re

lder as if accustomed to the resting-place. 'A

set my teeth as if I too had part in the supreme effort, and when the straining figure passed out of sight I hid my face and tried not

boy?' I as

ly. 'Come on,--there's a good fellow,--we haven't a mome

n the regiment; so there was an end of anemone hunting. The 101st suffered terribly,

he anemone? I don't unde

I went over to the house about an hour before to see everything done properly, his bearer brought me one of those little flat straw baskets the natives use. It had been left during my absence, he s

sahib was dead, I

k was this.' On opening the basket I found a gourd such as the disciples carry round for alms, and in it, pla

uel, I think you called him--sent the

boy, very fair, dressed in the usual black antelope skin

RV

right of alienating their ancestral holdings, are fast throwing the land, and with it the balance of power, into

waver also. The offender was a barren buffalo doomed temporarily to the plough, in the hopes of inducing he

arth-circle which lay set in the bare blue horizon--a circle centring always on Jaimul and his plough. A brown dot for the buffalo, a white dot for the ox, a brown and white dot for the old peasant with his lanky brown limbs and straight white drapery, his brown face, and long white beard. Brown, and white, and blue, with the promise of harvest someti

ky with no fle

ox! make the

n! straigh

rs' bellies wa

folk are

nt, earth-deadened footsteps was the only so

rey like a par

ox! drive th

my sister

work, but the

est's rip

he same refrain of flattery and abuse, the same antithesis--the peasant and the usurer face to

mere thought of rain seemed lost in the blaze of light. Yet Jaimul, a

slanting from

ox! drive ho

r's belly that

ends poor

, wielding a relentless despotism tempered by profound affection over every one save her aged husband. Pertabi, widow of the eldest son, but saved from degradation in this life and damnation in the next by the tall lad whose grasp had already closed on his grandfather's plough-handle. Taradevi, whose soldier-husband was away guarding some

by the plough--corn-cobs for husking, millet-stalks for the cattle, cotton awaiting deft fingers and the lacquered spinning-wheels which stand, cocked on end, against the wall. Taradevi sits on the white sheet spread beneath the quern, while her eldest daughter, a girl about ten years of age, lends slight aid to the revolving stones whence the coarse flour falls ready for the mid-day meal. Pertabi, down by the grain-bunkers, rakes more wheat from the funnel-like opening into her flat basket, and as she rises

e. "'Tis time for the seed, therefore I will seek

ear, in the usurer's field of accounts. As for the harvests of such sowings? Bah! there never were any. A real crop of solid, hard, red wheat was worth them all, and that came sometimes--might come

stral business the modern selfishness which laughs to scorn all considerations save that for Number One. He and his for

ssly to the pigeons--that might be the usurer's, and so might the plenty which went to build up the long, strong limbs of Taradevi's tribe of young sold

harvest I left thee more wheat than most men in my place would have done; f

So quit idle words, and give the seed as thou hast since time began. What do

iness to give ou

. "Thou canst add that nought to thy figures, O bunniah-ji![4] So bring the paper and have done with words

h enough in them already," sug

over his broad nose. "What then,

re jewels would be needed with next seed grain, since if the auguries were once more propitious, the wome

I, on all these new-fangled papers the sahib-logue ask of us. Look you! how I have to pay for the stamps and fe

le. "Wherefore not! The land is good enough for

r you," echoed the usurer slowly. He

ith noiseless feet, and watched the sun flash on the golden grain as it flew from hi

ains grow

ed of a ta

f man's sou

body t

m, grant

rain of a

y soul in

e as a

out against the circling sky as he wandered through the sprouting wheat waiting for the rain which

the sake of the boy's marriage I would it had been otherwis

s, shook his head doubtfully. "Have a care of Anunt, O baba-ji,"[6] he su

d Jaimul wrathfully. "Anunt can wait for payment as his fathers wai

surer's soul. But Anunt Ram wanted that handful of grain for the pigeons and the youngsters' mess of pottage. He wanted the land, in fact, and so the long row

Kishnu six months after in high displeasure. "Is the man

new rules the sahib-logue make is gone already. That h

liver to melt with fear? A seal--what is a seal

asily, "and I like not new things. Per

aradevi! Ai! Pertabi! there is to be no marriage, hark you! The boy's strength is to go for nought,

held his tenderness in check. They would get over it, he told himself, and a good harvest would do wonders--ay! even the wonders which the purohit was always finding in the skies. Trust a good fee for that! So he hardened his heart, went back to Anunt Ram, and told him that he had decided on

ld Jaimul; "I have done that before, and I w

p. "There is no seed grain for you, baba

th the untiring energy which fills the Indian woman over the mere thought of a wedding,

and seam

e of our m

ever sorro

gates o

unt Ram's brand-new English signature. And Jaimul knew, in a vague, unrestful way, that this harvest differed from other harvests, in that more depended upon it. So he wa

cloud! "Merry drops slanting from west to the east;" merrier by far to Jaimul's ears than all the marriage music was that low rumble from the canopy of purple cloud, and the discordant scream of the peacock telling of the storm to come. Then in the evening, when the setting sun could only send a bar of pale primrose light between the so

the next month or so, Taradevi's young soldiers made mud pie

in the wheat, and old Jaimul laughe

ully, as he smoked his pipe in the village squar

sun had given some of its sunshine t

baba-ji!" he said; "the three years ar

s?" asked Jaimul

aim my own according to the sahib-logu

? Of course I will pay in due time; hath not gre

-ji?--the cash lent on permiss

aimul quickly. "And I knew it could not fail. The

. "We do not put that sort of thing in

have I? But I will pay good grain when i

Ram sn

nd I can take, not what you give me, but what I choo

fields with a great fear at his heart--a fear which

"and the mare thou hast coveted these two years

am smil

acknowledged claim," he said; "le

the h

vest; in considera

orn of their crop ere the summons to attend the

e biassed in his favour. The records of our Indian law-courts teem with such cases--cases where even equity can do nothing against the evidence of pen and paper. No n

d, but still vehemently protesting. "Thou and Jodha thy son shall till the land as ever, seeing thou

prang to the strong old face, bu

fathers' under the king's pleasure since time began. Kings, ay, and queens, for that m

ame over him. He had often heard of similar misfortunes to his fellows, but somehow the possibility of such evil appearing

centuries. His empty hands hung at his sides, and the fingers twitched nervously as if seeking something. On either side the bare stubble, stretching away from the track which led deviously to the sc

hands gripped in upon themselves. So he--that liar riding ahead--was to have the land, was he? Riding the mare too, while he, Jaimul, came behind afoot--yet for all that gaining steadily

by many a dry year of famine to the endurance of stone. Beside it, the shallow whence they had been dug, showing a gleam of water still held in the stiff clay. The mare paused, straining at the bridle for a drink, and Jaimul almost at her heels paused also, involuntarily, mechanically. For a moment they stood thus

red in its contest with youth and strength. There, ready since all time, stood the landmark, and one clod after another snatched from it fell on the upturned face with a dull thud. Fell again and again, crashed and broke to crumbling soil. Good soil! Ay! none better! Wheat might grow in it and give increase fortyfold, sixtyfold, ay, a hundredfold. Again, again, and yet again, with dull insistence till there was a shuddering sigh, and then silence. Jaimul stood up quivering from the task and looked over his fie

id aloud, "thou hast

but he had at least made his protest, and done his deed as good men and true should do when the time came. So he left the horror staring up into the sky and made his way to the threshing-floor, which lay right in the middle of his fields. How white the great heaps of yellow corn showed in the moonlight, and how large! His heart leapt with a fierce joy at the sight. Here was harvest

they would take him, and he would not deny his own handiwork. Why should he? The midnight air of May was hot as a furnace, and as he wiped the sweat from his forehead it mingled with the dust and bloo

murmur again. Ay! and his son after him again, if the woman said true. It had always

e threshing-floor--was that a branch or a fragment of rope? Neither, for it moved deviously hither and thither, raising a hooded head now and again as if seeking something; for all its twists and turns bear

ething that wavered in his steady clasp. Was that the prick of the goad? Sure if it bit so deep upon the sister's hi

n washed the stains of blood and sweat mingled with soil and seed grains from his hands before the wreath of smoke from his funeral

and was gone, the Taradevi's tribe of budding soldiers drifted away to learn the lawlessness born of change. Perhaps the yellow English gold which came into th

THE

day and night as he sat wait

*

roof-trees on earth. Two shadowy figures out in the open, and through the pa

rm S

zoo

e bent closer over

ahiba, Dhu

--dhurm

wl of jackals gathering before their tim

*

heat of July oozing through the shot-cracked walls; the horrors of starvation, and siege,

rm S

zoo

-broad, soft, guttural, in

aba, Dhu

r--dhu

wandering bullet against the wall of the crumbl

*

th coolies busy around him with bales and belaying pins than he would have been among the dockers at Limehouse. Tall, gaunt, his long white beard parted over the chin and bound backwards over his ears, his broad mustache spreading straight under his massive nose, his level eyebrows l

itant. Pensioner to boot for an anna or so a day to a Government which he had also served d

partly because fidelity to the master is sucked in with the mother's milk of the Sikh race: very little, it is to be feared, from conscious virtue. Twenty years ago he had carried Sonny baba through the jungles by night on his unhurt arm, and hidden as best he could in the tiger-grass by day, because of his promise. And now, as he sat waiting for Sonny baba

or the captan-sahib, whom he had left lying dead at the back of the native lines on that May night, forbade his destroying them; respect for his own religious profession forbade his disseminating the pictures, irrespective of the letterpress, as playthings among the village children. So he tied them up in a bundle with his pension papers, and kept them in the breast pocket of the old tunic under the bloodstains and the solitary medal which was beginning to fray through its parti-coloured ribbon--an odd item in that costume of a Sikh devotee which he had assumed when the final loss of his arm forced him into peace and a pension. As a rule, however, the tunic was hidden under the orthodox blue and white garments matching the turban, just as the huge steel bracelets on his arms matched the steel quoit on his head; but on this day loyalty to the dead had spoken in favour of the old uniform. It may seem a strange choice, this of devoteeship, but to the o

hat confused, since the Miss-sahib's letters had not always been adequately translated by the village schoolmaster. Only this was sure: Sonny baba was three and twenty, and he was coming out to Hindustan once more as an officer in the great army. In fact, he was a captan already, which was big promotion for his few years. So Dhurm Singh--who to say sooth, was becoming somewhat tired

ity afforded by baggage parade to record in his valuable diary the pained surprise at the want of touch between the rulers and the ruled, which is, alas! his first impression of India. In all probability it will be his last also, since it is conceivable that

ctoring. And then, how he could talk round the camp fires! What tales he could tell!--bearing in mind, of course, the advancement of God and the Gurus. He fell asleep finally in the sunshine, blissfully content. The tide ebbed in the backwaters, the guardship lay white and trim in the open, the tram

*

des, this is the man who carried me to safety in hi

the lips quivered. Perhaps the commonplace exclamation of the British boy mentioned before would have come more naturally to them, but Staff-captain Sonny baba of

x-duffadar it was irregular, but as a possible bodyguard it was strictly de rigueur. Perhaps, however, times had changed in this as in other ways during those twenty years. The very uniform worn by the score or so of men drawn up on the deck was

my traps" is "understanded of the common people" at once, so the word "General" brought a relieved comprehension to the old S

hich, while it welcomes the object, has a kind of circumambient b

atory wave of his hand to the solitary medal, "but it was poor service to what we offer you now. Come

t palpably fo

r, took it at atten

duty," he replied with modest bre

or even greater unction with a compl

duty, from those who are sinners. Is it not so, comrades?

y responsible for the position in which he found himself. The old swash-buckler's eyes grew moist as he looked at him, thinking that he was the very image, for su

mistakes; these are

at at four o'clock in the afternoon he took part in a procession round the town of Bombay--mortal man of his mould being manifestly unable to resist the temptation of marching in step behind a big drum, with the colours of a whole army on his shoulders; especially when unlimited opportunity for scowling defiance at hostile crowds is thrown into the bargain. By eight o'clock, however, matters had assumed a different complexi

aba with grieved diffidence, "that w

the gravity of Dr. Taylor's

dear boy. You see you don't know the people or the country, or anything about them. I do. Besides, the Tommies--the regular soldiers I mean--always make a point of getting drunk if they c

been cabin companions, and despite an absolute antagonism of thou

ed? It is such a terrible beginning to our campaig

ne else's ear? and that, I believe, is what the old man is accused o

ying now?" put in

ylor p

upon your head, now and for all eternity," he answe

ly moist, but he shook his head d

rupted Dr. Taylor curtly, "because as I've only just tim

te, detained the doctor for a

nny baba again. "What

an Englishman, and it needs a lot of grit and go in a man to get over the initial drawback. Well, good-bye, and if you will take my advice, come up north, see the people, learn their language, and app

more than ot

-bye again, and take my advice and come north. The old swash-buckler

I

unt for the comma-shaped bacillus, which, as is told elsewhere, ended in

ording to the superscription of the letter, it was a "Civil Surgeon"; according to a few almost

being able to supply either of the

nny baba?

t was the Baba-sahib[11]--for unto this semi-religious title the old man had compounded his memories and his respect; who else was it likely to be, seeing that he, Dhurm Singh, had taken service with the

e him look like an animated mushroom, was by this time walki

"The Huzoor knows the great gift of God in the bad places of mind and body. But the Baba-sahib wil

ra; cholera of the type which merges into a dreary convalescence of malarial fever, during which Dr. Taylor saw a good deal, necessarily and unnecessarily, of his old cabin companion; thus renewin

, my dear boy, can you tell me why that unfortunate viscera, the liver, has got into such disrepute? You may tell a patient every other organ in the body is in a disgraceful state of disrepair, but if you hint at bile it's no use trying to be a popular physician. Stick to the heart! that's my advice to a youngster entering the lists. Both for the healer and the healed it is ennobling. Now you, for instance! you will put it all down to your ardent affection for your fellow-man; b

Army," said Sonny baba af

ch, like any other unfavourable symptom, had to be attended to at once. In the verandah, however, he commented on the news to Dhurm Singh, who with his t

ower. I set aside the steel bracelets and the quoits. I refrained myself to humility and carried a tambourine, but to no purpose. It did not suit. So now, pr

for even when the lad grew strong enough to resume the arguments which had begun in the cabin, the doctor never tried to force his confidence. And Sonny baba was reserved on some points. But the enthusiasm, and the fervour, and the fai

the other not being far from a certain kingdom, and the saying was not resented, though, no doubt, the hearer laughed softly over the comma-shaped bacillus as he watched Sonny baba and the old swash-buckler set off together to the

uckler," thought the docto

en he did so he looked weather-beaten and yet spruce--the natural result on a

ts, I see! Find 'em a bit stiff, I expect, after kurtas and dh

ight say it wouldn't adopt me. You see, to enter into details, I couldn't exactly give up--a--a night shirt, or that sort of thing, you know--now could I? And what with being a very sound sleeper, and s

did Dhurm

rds that the people don't understand it. One old fellow asked me why it was that though a native convert always had to wear trousers like the sahib-logue, the 'missen' people preferred to preach without them? Of course it was an exaggeration both ways, but the more

"Medical missions, et cetera; so it has

ted Sonny at a white heat; "but if you think it right to live

ofttimes the doctor had to retreat from his own position and seek another, because Sonny baba had already

would exalt by his presence. He was young, doubtless, as yet, but he made strides. Two years ago he had found him in a very poor "naukeri" (service), in which he paid all the rupees and no one gave him anything; a topsy-turvy arrangement: not that his sahib needed the paisas. He was rich as a nawab. Then he thought of being a padre sahib; now it was doctoré dep

ir insides with tobacco. Then he would stroll off into the shadow and bring out the black lump of dreams. Yet if Sonny baba came

also, Sonny baba speaking of Dhurm Singh and his ways, used to quote in rather a patronising manner a certain text regarding those who might expect to be beaten with few

and twenty. It was time, he felt, to begin work in earnest; for the enthusiasm and the faith and the fervour were

as the old man is, I really think Dhurm Singh is a drawback. I hoped when we left the Army--but inde

ut then," he paused, thinking, perhaps, that when all was said an

k I was about to loot a whole village. I must own that I invariably get what I want--that, too, without the least unpleasantness; but it is not edifying. Not the sort of thing that ought to go on. Then his h

urmured the do

on the proceeds of an infamous monopoly of a drug

of the total population,"

grown in China," put i

raid to tell him he was naked. It appears to me that in this opium business the good gentleman hasn't a rag of reason for complaint, but that you are all a

he room excitedly. "It is perfectly in

er two and twenty I've spent in India. Out of cantonments, where they've learnt the trick from us, I only remember having met two drunken men in all those years, and though I see more of the natives than most people, I can only call to mind three who might be said to have suffered seriou

tra pension when I go itinerating, and send him

"Don't you wish you m

is a hindranc

l round. He was put in charge of you, and mark my words, Dhurm Sing

exed qu

ork or yours w

I

rm S

zoo

n, hesitated; even while he was conscious that to a well-balanced mind capable of weighing advantage and disadvantage fairly, there ought to be no difficulty in telling any one that you had no further need for his services. The recollection of certain thin-lipped, dignified,

hen country, which was so backward in educatio

an Sonny once more

zoo

new principle. I--I am going to start in another part of the country where I shall not require--

smiled approvingly. "It is a good word, Huzoo

y, no doubt, perhaps in a measure a giving in to prejudice--the elders certainly set store by position; for instance, they were always more ready to listen to him if the old swash-buckler had had an opportunity of giving the family history, embellishments and all.

y atom of the doctor's original sin, "I shall be careful, I shall not dock it too much at once;

ish I were five and twenty again, if only that I might be as cock-sure of being right about everything as you are.

way vigorously with pestle and mortar at unsavoury medicaments, rolling pills under his flexible brow

no weapon but the sword of the Spirit'? Besides, when I feel like fighting I can put an edge to the knives or pound harder with the pestle. God knows they may both do more damage than a sabre. Then the rolling of pills

xpressed, by a modest appeal to his own looks, joined to an assertion--which,

nd this time, noticing the change in Sonny baba and remembering the raw lad who had been his cabin comp

ge after village, that even he realises how widely the archangel Azrael has spread his wings over the people. The doctor, however, judging simply by the weather, sent Sonny into the jungles well supplied with that carmine-tinted quinine which carries the fact of its being Government property in its colour: a useless attempt to prevent the sale of charity in a land where the regulation five grain powder is as much a part of the currency as a two anna bit. Well supplied, yet

re lies the difference between you and me--pardon me if I say between the Christian and the U

perambulating dispensary, was keeping up his character of devotee by repeating verses from

primal truth--the Tru

s and the Truth w

told, save by doing

and Sonny baba moved

he drove the mule forth to the wilderness before him with much futile waving of

n offspring of a mixed race doomed to childless extinction, wilt stray from the beaten path! Wouldst st

tood the refraining of his tongue from abuse was to be towards those born of Adam; an

nded them himself dhurm nal, keeping no grain of the beloved dream-giver from the sacrilegious mixture, and tell

t tack, really had his opportunity of a fair hearing. The letters he wrote home to his aunt who, fond woman, had faithfully followed, as woman can do, every step in the career of her darling with unswerving confidence, filled that excel

before. A sort of feverish desire to utilise every opportunity, to lose no occasion for preaching th

es after they entered the tract of forest-land near the foot of the hills, the indefatigable old poacher would produce a stew of black partridge; and once Sonny, coming home to the tiny tent late at night, found his henchman k

te for dinner, and half an hour afterwards he

ingh wistfully; "look at me! nothing touches me, and, lo!

would the old sinner be but for the quinine contained therein? This was nothing but a ch

l he felt goose skin going in thrills down his back, and five minute

as checked by the frown on the master's f

an accursed being. From the very beginning had it not been so? And then he retailed garrulously many and many an incident of the past three years, forgotten by his retainer, in which something had occurred to mar the smooth working of good luck. Something as o

." The last words came softly, half to himself, and an important, self-satisfied smile broadened the open face as he made his choice among the bottles. "Lo! there it is," he continued, laying two

ed to bring the pills dhurm nal, the ague began to abate. At the end of a week Sonny baba was eating "rose chicken" once more with appetite. That evening, as the

no man of

im what h

are the se

s the worl

ts are of m

at he was getting better, nay, that he was better, raised him

ou doing, D

se of the dust-like one have given out also. Lo! I fill the bot

you sure you have

of the blessed medicine for the master, and

blessed medicine

, since the ma

ad, certainly had a marvellous effect. I shall write and tell Taylor about it; he was inclined to sneer at th

enefit, as he lay comfortably watching the s

k him as a sharp attack of malarious fever does shake a native past his p

been over rapid in diminishing the dose. Now that the old man was actually ill, it seemed unkind to deny him

two men carrying a string bed on their heads, and one ma

y life. But he--he would stick to the opium, and then I'm afraid that at first I hardly noticed--you see he went round as usual, bragging he was better. So I didn't think--the work was so absorbing, and I myself felt so fit. Otherwise, I might have gone to a healthier part, though, of course, the impre

Mull, the syringe and a disc of morphia--sharp. But, after all, w

that question by and by, Dr. Taylor. In the mean time, let me warn you, tha

"Ten grains--bosh! But, as you say, those questions c

opium--I gave it to him myself--I was afraid--" he paused abruptly, a

- It doesn't matter now, at

r the medicine chest. His hands trembled as he brought it back; and Dr. Taylor, his face unseen, yet with its keenness shown in every movement of the capable h

rm S

e was no

ll them it was dhurm nal

*

sn't the ipec. after all. Most reprehensible practice, and, upon my soul, it would serve him right if he did die. Now--don't

ion, the young man gave a wan

d w

a medicine chest, do you? Boota Mull, if you don't hurry up with that turpentine and

he had been cured of his fever "by faith." And as for Dhurm Singh? What the doctor said was true; he could not

ingh, So

r! dhu

h golden lace and golden curls, as a child's head nestled up against a solitary arm, and a chil

-he will learn. Even a Sikh is made, not born. He must wait till the years bring the

itious swallowing of a pill b

f the Kh

bats in

es in c

ves th

of the

nd is se

ars though o

men create

of the

ves in

ts with t

s--the--

oken only by the even breathin

the scene from within, only looked i

BHUT

rwards, rising and falling, the rhythm seemed to become part of me, until the colourless reports were a monotonous lullaby, and each wave of sound and motion bore me farther from earth, nearer to the land of dreams. Ah! if the right people always inherited, and my old uncle received ticket-of-leave from the gout, I might afford

, in the humanity-laden atmosphere of the court-house, where even the mosquitoes were glutted, and the lizards, hanging head downwards on the wall, looked as if they had congestion of the brain. Stealing water! Poor wretches, who could blame them with their crops withering in the June sun and the sluice-doors w

Meanwhile the chowkidar [watchman] remains watching the same." Startled into wakefulness, I looked sharply to see if the reader had not been nodding in his turn; bu

ting. "Sarishtadar!" [clerk of the Cour

but the devil is somewhat free translation, sir. In Dictionary bhut (the word used, sir,) eq

e asleep or awake. Finally the sarishtadar dipped his pen in the ink, fluttered the superfluous moisture on the carpet, and suggested deferentially that the chowkidar was wait

nal or civil, suitable to occasion. Would you kindly jog memory, sir, by suggesting if it is under judicial or administrative heads? Or perhaps," he added, as a bright after-though

ught of fresh air, a remembrance of Nature in her sunniest, most lovable moods? He invariably suggested such things to me at any rate, and as he paused in astonishment at my indecorous occupation, I thought once more that it was a pleasure simply to lo

in so doing became instantly aware that he surpassed me in other things besides good looks. He could scarcely be said to become grave, for to lose brightness would have been to lose the essence of the man, but his expression grew to a still more vivid reflex of

of his line; while I, smitten by admiration into immediate regret at my own in

y's at the door, and sure I'm got up for riding annyhow;" and as he spoke he stretc

r best forward?" I asked, feeling a cert

tured into the dock, for whin I caught a glimpse of your face at the jail this morning I said to meself, 'Terence, me bhoy, tha

he truth, I was feeling a bit slack; but if you'll wait five minutes while I slip over to the bungalow and change my

rting up in great excitement, "you shall ride my pony; I call him Blue Pill, for he's better than wan anny day; and while you're dressing I'll

ngle white hair on her--was trying to buck Terence over into the saffron-coloured horizon, as she went along in a series of wild bounds. He

can't hold 'em responsible for annything; but if it wasn't for hyst

g the fiend, the accounts of its appearance were wildly conflicting. The doctor, indeed, refused to listen to them, on the ground that it was sheer waste of time, and rode along affably discussing the crops with an aged patriarch. His manner changed, however, when we were requested to dismount, and he led the way into the enclosure where, guarded by the police chowkidar, the devil-baby lay awaiting Government orders. The courtyard was hung round with coloured thread, old iron, and other devices against witchcraft, and a group of low-caste men and wome

nusally well developed, and grew in tight clustering curls over its head like a coachman's wig. The faint eyebrows and eyelashes were also white, and the result, if not devilish, was extremely start

to emphasise his words. "Bring her at once, or I'll go inside and fetch her myself. The child has been left to starve," he added rapid

other was dead, had died virtuously of shame at bringing such disgrace to her people. I had every reason to beli

"are there no other women among you all with the milk of kindness in their breasts that will give it a drink for the sake of the time when they took suck themselves? Look at it! What are you all

indignant appeal. There was a scuttling from behind as some of the head-men tried to force a sweeper-woman to the front, but ere they succeeded she had promptly gone into hysterics, and so roused a murmur of disapprobation and dismay among the rest. Her sh

eathless at the same moment with large lotahs full of nourishment for the devil, or any one else

evil on his lap, feeding it methodically with the corner of his pocket-handkerchief moistened in the milk held by three trembling lambadars. Beside him the Presence, w

Hark to that, now! The ungrateful divvle's wanting to cry just because it's got something to digest, as if that wasn't the firrst duty of a human stomach. Great Moses! don't ye

words found myself, as before, with two courses open to me; either to leave the bhut-baby where it was, or give it in charge of the head-men--the one a swift, the other a more tardy certainty of death from that mysterious disease called "by th

take this baby to the headquarters' hospital. I'm master there, annyhow, and I

ome in frantic haste, because Terence was engaged to sing "Killaloe" that evening in barracks. Some o

he fact is," he said ruefully, "it gave fits to the patients. I tried shaving its head, but it grew so fast and the white eyelashes of i

was spreading far and wide. Besides, he had the secret, possessed by some Englishmen unconsciously, of inspiring the natives with absolutely unbounded devotion, and many of his patients would literally have laid down their lives for him; among others his bearer, a high-caste Brahman. The man, who had originally come to him for blindness of long standing,

he letter, never by word or deed showing his aversion to the child; affecting indeed not to see it with those mild, short-sighted eyes of his. Yet, as it grew older, he must often have been brought into contact with the child, for it would crawl after the doctor like a dog. Despite the peculiarity of its silvery curls and pale blue eyes, it was really pretty, and by the time it was two years old had picked up such a variety of comical tricks and odd ways, that Boots, as we called it, became quite an institution with the doctor's friends. We used to send for it to the verandah and laugh at the silent agility with which it tumbled for sweetmeats, and the equally silent quickness of its mimicry; for to all intents and purposes the child was dumb. Beyond a very rare repetition of the feeble wail I had first heard from it in the doctor's arms at Hairan-wallah, it made no articula

lt; the child made for the speaker like a wild beast, stopped suddenly, then crept away with silent tears brimming up into its eyes. I think we all felt a bit ashamed, especially when Terence, coming in from a patient, found Boots curled up asleep in a damp corner by the tattie, and, with a mild rebuke that, "'Twas enough to give the poor little crayture fayver an' ague," lifted the child in his arms, and proceeded to carry it across the garden to its harridan. But he had hardly raised it before Shivdeo, gliding in like a ghost from heaven knows where, came forward and took the child from him

re Terence stood between the bhut-baby and the shadow of death, and had it been the heir of princes, the resources of modern science could not have been more diligently ransacked f

I'm glad to hear the little fellow's better, by the way), and Blue Pill waiting for you day after day till afte

. Don't fret yourself about me, annyhow; I'm well enough. Maybe 'tis having done dhry-nurse to him at first that makes me feel Boots on me mind; bu

isis. It was as if a calamity had befallen the whole Station. Men when they met each other asked first of all how he was; and women sent jellies and soups enough for a regiment to the bungalow where the young doctor, who had soothed so many of their troubles, lay bravely fighting out his own. Quite a crowd of natives gathered round the gate by early dawn, waiting for news of the past night; and, so far as I knew, Shivdeo never left the verandah during all those weary days. I could see him from my post by the bed, sitting like a bronze statue against a

lingered in Shivdeo's mind. He came to me when the doctor left to ask if he had understood rightly that the great hour of hope or dread drew nigh. I told him we should know by dawn, and that till then all must be quiet as the grave. His face startled me by its intensity, as standing at the foot of the bed he fixed his eyes on the unconscious face of his master and salaamed to it with all the reverence he would have given to a god. But he spoke calmly to me, saying that as I would doubtless be loth to leave the room he would order the servants to bring me something to eat there. He presently appeared, bearing the tray himself, giving as a reason for this unusual servi

andah, and Shivdeo stood by his master's bed holding his finger to his lips. "Hush!"

ieve he's through," he said, when he had cautiously examined the sleeping man; "fever gone, pulse stronger. I scarcely dared to hope for it even with his splendid constitution. Hull

hivdeo quietly. "I noticed it yesterday just after the Presence cut

id to him after the doctor had gone; "just at t

e are wanted, Huzoor. You slept and the Light-giver g

had been pounded in a mortar. I had the most frig

ok. "If I were the Presence I would forget them. There is enoug

, for, though I chased the fleeting memory more

al. As the Presence was aware, he said, it had been thought advisable when perfect quiet was necessary to the Light-bringer to send the child away from the compound, because of the difficulty experienced in keeping it out of the house. So it had gone with its nurse to the cantonment-sweeper's hut, where it had caught fresh cold and died. By the advice of the native d

vdeo, when the inquiry was over. "And you will say tha

but he will be sorry, the

rishna, like the Lord of Light,

ound him, a mere wreck and shadow of his former self, propped up against his old pillar in the verandah. He shook his head over my suggestions of remedies. "I have taken many," he replied quietly, "for the native doctor is my caste-brother. The hand of Shiva is not to be turned aside, and am I not his sworn servant? What ails me? Nay, who can say what ails the heart wh

omething new and strange," he answered, "yet old and true. See! I sit here in the old place, and the Presence shall sit there as he u

placed half-way between the bed and the window, it seemed to me as if I

ontinued the weak voice, "and he dreamed a

. "Great God," I cried, starting up and seizing him roughly by the shoulder, "you killed poor little Boots! You

e are not always wrong. Huzoor! you have seen its eyes glisten, as its body clung to his beauty; you know he sickened after it had lain night and day in his arms; you know how it crept and crawled to get at him while he lay helpless. Now listen! One day he was better, brighter in all things, and bid you refresh yourself in the air. I sat here, and like you I fell asleep; and when I woke the thing was at him, close to his heart, its arms round his neck, its devilish lips at his throat, crooning away like an accursed cat! And he was in the death-sleep that lasted till the dawn came that you and I remember so well. Then I knew it must be, and that my oath was as a reed in the flood. Yet would I not be hasty. I took counsel with holy men, men of mighty wisdom,

ds that somehow conjured up the still more horrible sight before

horror, he looked at me compassionately. "The Presence does not understand aright. Let him remember the strange doctor's face when he came in

s si

eaty, as with an effort painful to see he dragged himself to my feet and clung t

efiling hand; so I called the old man who all this time had sat like a carven image in the next archway. He came, and wiped the dews of death from his son's face without a word; and

ly lost. As I did so, I heard Shivdeo's voice for the last time. The old man was holding a little brass cup of water

l, O my fathe

, my son; dri

kindest letter, saying that the great happiness which had come into his life made him all the more grateful to me, seeing that but for my care he would have gone down to the grave without knowing

; but it was nearly dawn before I found it impossible to withstand the memory of

but surely if he knows anything, he mu

UNDE

ar of the Lord Vish

yet to come, seeing that time's up. Half-past eight; so not anot

iterature, had chosen Sanskrit as a means of paying certain just debts. To which end the head-master of the district school came to me for two hours every morning,

he thousand if I succeeded, smiled blandly. "The tenth avatar w

soul I don't see why there should not be twenty-four thousand. 'Tis the same old story all through; devi

d was accustomed to educate the rising generation on a mixture of the Rig-Veda and

randah with my cigar, came straight upon Ramch

arment consisted of a large yellow turban twined high into a sort of mitre, with just a tip of burnished silver fringe sprouting from the top; and, as he sat cross-legged against the verandah pillar, a hand resting on each knee, his figure awoke a fleeting memory wh

eta," said the boy gravely. "If the Presen

g to idle away ten minutes comfortably

sing. Give me t

e indeed was it, that one gourd over-filled the boy's lap, while the other acted as a prop to the high twined tur

ce bestowed?" suggested Ramchund

ly to find the same little bronze image busy in making a perfectly purgatorial noise; so I resigned myself once more. Palm-trees waving, odorous thickets starred with jasmin, forms, half-mortal, half-divine, stealing through the shado

e. The vina was theirs, and my turban, and my wife's veil; the rest was too big altogether, so I gave it away for some bread. When the belly is full of greed th

way to the sweet-meat sellers in order to appease his hunger; for sweet-stuff is cheap in the East, especial

y the by," I interrupted, "can you tell me what that boy is singing? I can't make out a word, and yet--But it was no use bringing fancy to bear on Narayan Das, so we wen

ly, after listening a while. "It is Ramayana, the immortal poem your hono

ed; then he shook his head gravely. "We did not s

elor of Arts; so the pundit at once began a cross-examination that would have done credit to a Queen's counsel.

ed, been swept away perhaps. Since then he, Ramchunderji, had wandered over the world filling his stomach and that of his wife Seeta with songs. Their stomachs were not always full; oh, no! Of late (perhaps because the vina was so

ulgar fractions and rule of three, with himself, Seeta, and the world as the denominators, so I asked him if his heart were still so devoid of greed that another four-anna bit would be welcome. His face showed a pained surprise. The Presence, he said, must be aware that four ann

beasts in the enchanted forest; how she was reft from him by Ravana, the hydra-headed many-handed monster; and of how finally she was restored to his arms by the help of Hanuman the man-monkey, the child of the wild winds. But though the pundit used to waste many words in pointin

le couple turned up again. Ramchunderji's face looked more pinched and careworn than ever, and as he he

to the instrument," he said despondently; "but when I play, folk listen

ing it before beguiling the time with music, I laid it on the fl

Before the flood Seeta and I had no thought of money; but now--" He began fingering the strings softly, and as they thrilled,

he hands, the

ive, before w

heads to think

enty hands to

ney! mone

he heart's lov

t--say! art tho

anna bit. It buzzed, and hummed, and jigged infernally

ruin Orpheus. As you don't care for my money, I'll give you another instrument in

thing with two strings and a gourd covered with snake-skin. To my su

her would I live by this than by mine enemy." And as he spoke he struck the snake-skin with his supple fingers till it resounded again. "Yea! thus will I find bread," he went on, "but th

dred; but in good sooth the vina was worth five, and I told him so, adding, as I loo

Ramchunderji drearily. "That is why folk will not

t take more, saying he had every intention of returning to claim the

their capture. The first time I saw some six or seven hundred deadly serpents ranged in a row with all their heads one way, and all their unwinking eyes apparently fixed on me, I felt queer, and the fact of their being dead did not somehow enter into the equation. But habi

ite cotton gloves. "That is owing to the floods, and the season, since this is the sixth of Bhadron (August) the month of snakes. Yet

underji and the bundle he called Seeta. On his bare right arm h

is in your heart again," sai

the days before the flood," replied the boy. "E

for Seeta, and common, ill-educated people still retained the superstitious custom of binding one on the wrist of each male during the month of Bhadron. There was so much deplorable ignorance amongst the uneducated classes, and did the Presence look with favou

ents ceased, and one by one the habitués of the tank steps dropped off to pursue other professions. The fringe broke into i

r was a Female Boarding School and Orphanage for the children of high-caste Hindus, which had been built and endowed by a number of rich contractors and usurers, not one of whom would have sent their daughters to it for all their hoarded wealth. Persistent pennies had attracted a creditable, if intermittent, supply of day-scholars to its stucco walls; but despite an appropriate inscription in three languages over the gate, the orphanage remained empty. Money can do much, but it cannot produce homeless orphans of good family in a society where the patriarchal system lingers in all its crass disregard of the main chance. So at the first hint of Seeta I was besieged on all sides

t the point, but I felt bad, exceedingly, when I saw him turn face down as if the end of all things was upon him. I knew he must be

an Das came to me with a look on his face suggestive that neither the Rig-Veda nor The Spectator was entirely satisfactory. The boy, he said, was not a bad boy, though he seemed absolutely unable to learn; but his influence on Standard I. was strictly non-regulation, nor did any section of the Educational Code apply to the case. If I would come down at recess time, I could see and judge for myself what ought to be done. When I reached the play-ground the bigger boys were at krikutts (cricket) or gymnastic

solid children of the fields, and the slender, sharp little imps of the bazaars, rose up and put something into the singer's lap. A few grains of corn, a scrap of sweet s

slate-pencils, their ink-pots, even their First-Lesson books. Then, if nobody sees and stops, there is vacancy when such things are applied for. Thus

ith a growing respect for Ramchunde

e if his superior officer intends a joke, and fell back as usual on

least disturbed. "I do not ask, or beg," he replied; "they give of their hearts and their abundance, as in ol

discovered selling these things to the bigger boys at a reduced price, he was caned by the head-master. That night he disappeared from the boarding-house and was no more seen. His name was removed from the rolls, his

decorated with posies of decayed rosebuds and jasmin in green-glass tumblers; and on the other Seeta and the matron. The former, to enhance her value as a genuine half-caste waif, was still a mere bundle, and I fancied she looked smaller than ever; perhaps because the veil was not so large. Then the accounts were passed, and the matron's report read. Nothing, she said, could be more

al authority, reminded me reproachfully that monkeys were sacred to the god Hanuman, who, if I remembered, had fina

ssioner's speech, though he prosed on for the next ten minutes complacently about the pleasure he felt, and the authorities felt, and the whole civilised world felt, at seeing "Money, the great curse and blessing of humanity, employed as it should be employed in sna

at the fair held beside the tank where humanity in thousands was washing away the old year, and putting on the new in the sh

canal. Will not the Protector of the Poor step in and see? Ho, ho! 'twould make a suitor laugh even if the digri (decree) were against him." But I recognised the pattern this time, and I had made up my mind not t

re empty. Inquiries were made on all sides, but when it came out, casually, that a boy, a girl, and a monkey, had taken a third-class ticket to Benares I said nothing. I

ons of India to a lady who was longing all the time to find out from a gent

ares, especially, I remember seeing a monkey; he, his master, and a girl, did quite

aptain Smith, is it hal

waving palms, the odorous thickets, and the shadowy, immortal forms have got mixed up somehow with that infernal h

RA

es, with fat bundles of stalk bound spirally with date-fibre; altogether more like ninepins than bouquets, for the time of flowers

his thick throat, and the crescent-shaped ear-rings in his spreading ears, I guessed him to be of the Arain caste. He was, in fact, Heera Nund, gardener to my new landlord; therefore, for the present, my servant. Had I inquired into the matter, I should probably have found that his forbears had cultivated the surrounding land for centuries; certainly long years bef

e native place. In fact, he had found it necessary to steep his own knowledge in oblivion in order that content should grow side by side with country vegetables. Yet he had not forgotten the golden age, when, under the ?gis of some judge with a mysterious name, he, too, Heera Nund the Arain, had raised celery and beetroot, French beans and artichokes, asparagus and parsley. He reeled off the English names with a glibness and inaccuracy in which, somehow, there lurked a pathetic dignity. Then suddenly, from behind a favouring pillar, he sprung upon me the usual native offering, consist

ce and gesture, or the simple self-importance overlayi

with his adze-like shovel. A brake of sugarcane, red-brown and gold, showed where the garden proper merged into the peasants' land beyond; for the well, whence the water came that flowed round Heera Nund's hidden feet as he stood in the runnel, irrigated quite a large stretch of the fields around my

Nund drew his wet feet from the stream, and composin

und on the other side of the well, a long strip portioned out into squa

ur will observe that the cab

jackets. "But where are the tickets? I sent word specially that you were to

," he answered with a superior smile; "but ther

outs' wrapper, which he was crumpling into a ball with deft hands and sharp teeth. How I came to know it was this particular wrappe

ly Walcheren), that is droomade (Drumhead), yonder is dookoyark (Duke of York), and that, that, and that--He would have gone on interminably, had I not changed the subject by asking what was growing beneath a dilapidated hand-light, which stoo

the malin (fe

hat on earth

ed elsewhere) is no longer in its legitimate hiding-place? Something of that mingled triumph and fear lest some accident may have befallen skill in the interim showed itself in Heera Nund's countenance as he removed the light with

zoor--little Dhr

squatted down and began mechanically to fan the

remarked after a pause. "It is only

ok his

as glad even to get a malin. Dhropudi grows as fast as a boy, almost as fast

that I took it for granted that the mother had died months before, at the child's birth. I never saw a face change more rapidly than his; the

y sometimes, and my house does not like crying. You see, when people are young t

"Not that Dhropudi keeps me awake often," he added, in hasty apology to that infant's repu

ways stop her with the w

ocked at the

t is the wind in the trees--sometimes it is the birds, or the squirrels, or the flowers. When it is tired of these there is a

was of the race of Adam. At first, however, he took precautions against mistakes, and many a time I have seen the sleeping child stuck round with pea-sticks, or decorated with fluttering feathers on a string, to scare away the birds. Sometimes she was blanching with the celery, and once I nearly trod on her as she lay among the toppings in a thick plantation of blossoming beans. But she never came to harm; the only misadventure being when her father would lay her to sleep in some dry w

ing a hunted look at times, especially when he came out from the mud-walled enclosure at the further end of the garden, where his "house" lived. He went there but seldom, spending his days in tending Dhropudi and his plants with an almost extravagant devotion. His state of mind when that young lady used

unk in the ground, where she would stay contentedly for hours,

lants grow. See my sootullians! They will blossom soon, and then all the sahibs will com

rable Huzoor's roots!" he would say, casting a wire-worm on the verandah steps, and dancing on it vindictively. "It was in the Huzoor's carnations, but by the blessing of God and Heera Nund's vigilance it is dea

nstrances next morning were met by my bearer, with swift denial. "It is Heera. He, poor man, has to beat

od ag

beating; but he is a fool, because she is Dhropudi's mother. Yes, he is a fool; he beats her when he

n among the ripening plants. I found myself watching Dhropudi and her father with an almost morbid interest, and hoping that, if my idle suspicion was right, kindly fate might h

h the garden that evening at sundown I saw the most comically pathetic sight my eyes ever beheld. Heera Nund, clothed, but not in his right mind, was dancing a can-can among his sootullians, while Dhropudi shrieked with delight and beat frantically on her

ers on the back of his head. He resumed work cheerfully, with many apologies for having been ill, and once more he and Dhropudi--who had been handed over meantime, under police supervision, to he

f his head; the last thing in the world one would have thought likely to produce an outburst of that Christian virtue. But it did, and an allusion to the all too visible scars invariably crowned the frequent recital of the benefits he had received at my hands. Another was the difficulty he had in distinguishing Dhropudi from the other fruits of his labor. On two sep

e of the life within than I did, but at any rate no unseemly cries disturbed the scented night air and the Huzoor's slumbers. Perhaps the police supervision had impressed the lover with the dangers of lurking house-trespass by night; perhaps the dark-browed, heavy-jowled young woman

t wind on my face before he and I closed with each other. The strange hurry and eagerness of it all comes back to some of us like a nightmare, years after

cupied by Dhropudi, the other supporting a huge basket of vegetables. He looked uncertain which to present; finally, seeing the carriage drive on, he deliberately let the basket fall, and running to my side, thrust the child's chubby hands forward. They held just such nin

w station. When my servants arrived with my baggage from the old one, I naturally fell to asking questions. "And

are

while she slept one day when Heera had to leave her with her mother; and that night he killed his wife as sh

ink that H

is grief; but it did not. She was very kind to him,--

one tell a

what, H

sootullians, and the blisters on the back o

were very rich; besides, Heera was not mad at all. He did it on purp

g but that can-can among the sootullians, wi

RO

reen, forced by the light into unison with the brick building behind. The girl sat with her back against the wall, her knees drawn up to her chin, and her little, bare, brown feet moulding themselves in the warm, sun-steeped dust of the courtyard. In the hands clasped round her green trousers she held an unopened lette

illah! I'm glad my man doesn't live in a c

Kareem? The Meer

w canst tell? 'Tis father-in-law reads thy letters. Inaiyut

eema! Hast

a scarce-wed girl. Why should not Inaiyut be a man? A husband

egum's small brown face hardened into scorn. "Inaiyut hath experience an

son's portion amongst us Moguls. Do I sneer at thy Mee

ng himself. He is lear

o are women. Yea! 'tis true." She looked like some gay butterfly as she flashed out into the sunlight

a dirty white sheet shambled forward. "Can I not close an eye but thou must bring iniquity to respectab

lking--unsteady on its legs. So wast thou as a bride; so are all women." She seized the withered o

e young, dimpling face. "Kareema! Why will'

thes! Feroza hath old green trousers and her man is learning

s," interrupted

se. "Feroz is no fool to be jealous of a mem. Holy Pro

th they are as houris in silk and s

horrified denial. "Silence! shameless one! I

ey had no clothes

ms have many clothes; God knows how many, or how they bear them when even the skin He gives is too hot. They are sad-coloured, these mems, with green

ou sayest it to please Feroza. Inaiyut hold

revolved between earth and heaven as the letter

a frown puckering her forehead. "He

. "Plague on new-fangled ways!" she grumbled half to herself. "Have no fear, heart's li

aben! 'Tis a wife's duty to wait he

tely. "For all that, heart's life, 'tis well to be sure. Certainty soothes the liver more than hope. So thou s

u tell us before?" cried

r-in-law to make them dance to her tune," grumbled the nurse evasively. "Hai, Kareema

eema with a giggle. "And I will see the mems too, or I

men's court which, with that of the women's apartments, opened into this shadowy entrance. By putting their eyes close to the fret-work t

pith hat tied round with a blue veil, a gingham dress, a bag of books, white stockings, and tan s

s of laughter so distinctly audible through the

they are so good." And before they guessed what she would be at, th

girlish voice. "I, Feroza Begum of the house of Me

the English lady raised her veil, and Feroza Begum, Moguli, caught her first glimpse of a pair of mild blue eyes.

t Feroz! To stand out in the world yelling like a hawker. Ai, Ai! Give me your quiet on

er sister-in-law seemed to have changed places for the time, and she was

ealousy came like seven devils

s Fatma--God forgive her for evening her chances with that saintly woman's! The thought led to such earnest study of the Koran that old Mytab's wrath was mollified into a hope of permanent penitence. A

dden thy lips. And thou mightest use that powder the mems have to make their skins fair. Inai

very next London post-mark

n-law, the Moulvie, had duly intoned her husband's lett

orn-rimmed spectacles at her reluctant fing

ghter-in-law," he replied. "Bring

e and love of her heart into a few well-turned sentences? Ah! if she could only learn to read for herself. Th

id the old man courteously;

off his spectacles, as if this new departure of qu

ked scornfully, when her eloquence abated. "Wah illah! Wha

bined prevented her declaring the real standard of her aims, so she rep

e who, at best, must enter Paradise at a man's coat-tails. Driven into a corner, she felt the hopelessness of the strug

Delhi; why not here? As for the Moulvie's determination that no singing should be heard in his house, that was a righteous wish, and she would tell the mems not to sing their hymns. Indeed, such a question seemed all too trivial for com

broad as it is. Inaiyut offered once to teach me, but when I asked him if learn

bed Feroza; "no one does. The M

kle, no matter what we learn. Ah, Feroz! let's enjoy youth whilst we have it. S

lled orange gardens which lay on the outskirts of the quarter. The idea, which had at first filled her with dismay, had next grown tempting, and then become irresistible with Kareema's artful suggestion that it would give occasion for a personal interview with the mission-ladies who had

le women do thus, and my sister will be there with her boys. Wah! were it not for my handsome

h her fellow-workers in the verandah resting after their labours, a boyish f

ating the severance from home ties is apt to raise

on writes that he spoke so sweetly about his ignorant child-wife. As she says, there is something so--so--so comforting, you know, in th

-sentimental. Perhaps a broken sixpence, stored side by side with a decayed vegetable in her desk, formed

child's face as she popped from her prison. I am making up the incident for our magazine; it will be

amiliar, inseparable from philanthropy in India. "The

nt pleasure, ran round the company. The description

ted over the high garden wall, and every now and again a burst of laughter

you want,

repetition of the question roused her to the memory that here lay her one chance. She gave a despairing glance into the gloom in search of those pale blue eyes; t

he soft answer. "You must go to the

commanded attention. "You have taken my husband and left me; and I will not be left! You gave him scholarships and prizes, tempting him away;

rting arm she would have fallen. "I don't understand," sai

o be taught Euclidus, and Justinian, and the--the other things.

ia Smith, "didn't I tell you it

dise was ajar, the orange garden was closed, the gate locked, the key gone. She peered through the bars, hoping it was a practical joke to alarm

in! for pity s

fled like a hare to the only refuge she knew. The mems must protect her; for were they not the cause of her ven

welded into the even flow of prayer. God and his Holy Prophet! They were praying that she might become apostate from the faith of her fathers! Tales of girls s

eless! scandalous!" scolded some one

lly to the familiar figure. "Take me home, oh, please

tep was not a bowing in the house of Rimmon; nay, worse, a neglect of grace, for she loved her pupil dearly. Not one, but two pair of eyes glistened over the surprise in preparation for the absent husband. Wherefore a surprise no one knew, but surprise it was to be. Feroza said the idea originated in her teacher's sentimental brain; if so, it took root quickly in the girl's passionate heart. Thus, beyond the fact of her learning to read and write, the Meer knew nothing of the change wisdom was working

work too hard, dear," she sighed. "Ah! if it were the

f noble resolutions of self-sacrifice to find--oh dear, dear, Miss! I am so happy, so dreadfully happy!" As she buried her face in the gingham dress her voice sank to a murmur of pure content. But some

really an enlightened m

scared face. "Dear Miss! why

are you sure, dear, that

think I could; but he spoke of many

ept

naiyut said he would teach it, but he

hi

st. Oh, Miss! is it a wicked game? Is

s. "I don't know," she moaned, "that is the worst! I thought it was

rmed yourself with cinnamon tea and greasy fritters in the other zenanas

d-and-butter from within, and Feroza's small brown face beamed over Julia Smith's surpri

town, and from the housetops, in the courtyards, in the very streets, men paused to lay aside their trivial selves and worship an ideal. Not one of the crowd giving place to the mission-lady but had in some way or an

been more useful than learning to be cleaner than God made you. 'Twas easy to sneer at henna-dyed hands; but was that worse than using

have big looking-glasses. It is hateful only seeing a little bit of one's self at a

it," replied her s

she said shrilly. "Have a care! Is the world changed because it read

ok, as the old lady moved away in wrath. "Ah me! if I had but my handsome

houlder. "I am so sorry for thee, dear! but we wi

erer than ever, and sh

ns were strong enough to supply him with opinions also, and even if she did not come up to his ideal at first, she felt that the sweet satisfaction of a return to home and kindred would count for, and not against her. So she sat idly, delaying to read, and dreaming over the past, much as she had dreamt over the future nearly two years before. Only she sat

y from the far corner where she

ood at bay, one hand at her throat, the other crushing her husband's letter. "What is this? Wha

ere no longer stained with henna. They were as her own, as nature made them, as the Meer sahib said he liked them! She seized both wrists fiercely, turning the accus

what infamy to talk of duty. He is to marry,--and I who hav

lah akhbar wa Mohammed rasul![19] Hast forgotten the faith, Feroza Begum, Moguli? Th

nd Kareema gave a whimper as the grip bit i

he would touch you. I will tell him all. He will know--Ah God! my head!

the girl to some matting; "but he said 'twould make no more to her than

on't want to marry the Meer; he was ever a n

ss widow had to leave this house, and never s

at explanation or comfort, however, and made her way alone, a solitary resolute figure, to her windowless room, where, when she shut t

nd the Miss has not made a Christian of her, with all those soapings and washin

ce swollen with easy tears. "If he is really the noodle Feroza

red tongues. Besides, choice is over. Had the child lived, perhaps; bu

en place to shadow b

tab to raise no objection. Ere she left the sheltering walls she stood a moment before her sister-in-law, all the character, and grief, and p

take no denial, and so, for the first time in her life, Feroza entered an English lady's bedroom. Simple, almost poor as this one was in its appointments, the sight sent a throb of fear to the girl's heart. What! Was not Kareema's be

ere. Why had she been lured from the old life in some ways and not in all? Was their boaste

erchief drenched in eau-de-Cologne, and sobb

heir heads over her passionate appeals. They could do nothing, they said,--nothing at all,--unless s

ad shed tears. On that last night the latter came to where her cousin lay still, but sleepless. "Why wilt be so foolish, Feroza?" she said petulantly. "Nothing is settled. If he is a noodle, I will none of him, I tell thee. If not, thou art too much of one thys

ridicule. "Of course the Meer dresses Europe-fashion," she replied s

an adaptive nature in the space of thirty-six calendar months spent in diligent polishing of the surface of things. He learnt, for instance, that people looking at his handsome, intelligent face, said it made them sad to think of his being married as a boy to a girl he did not love. Thence the idea that he was a martyr took root and flourished, and he acquiesced proudly in his own sacrifice on the altar of progress. For him the love of the poets was not, and even in his desire for Feroza's education he told himself

za, on the other hand, had adopted the dress of the advanced Indian lady, which, with surprisingly little change, manages to destroy all the grace of the original costume. The lack of braided

ars. "There is time," she pleaded. "Co

the old affection, but Feroza s

iggle was almost a whimper. "You mean i

a figure revealed by the net bodice worn over a scantier one of flowered muslin; bare feet tucked away in shells of shoes; l

he familiar wall until the sight of a tall man at the door dressed as a Moh

rang out. "To think, Feroza! thou shouldes

Meer?" faltered Feroza.

aiyut. See! yonder he comes again usher

age; for the bondage of custom was upon him already. Kareema, catching his look, came forward with ready tact. "We welcome my lord," she said in the rounded tone of ceremony, "as one who, having travelled far, returns to those who hav

swered the Meer heartily. "H

say where h

wiftly, "Feroza looks ill. 'Tis your blame

n his wife's face. It was not becoming. "Was it so hard to learn?" he asked

r the morning meal. Even when the Meer refused tea and toast in favour of chupatties and koftas[21] it was Kareema who supplied surprise. Feroza was all ey

t thinkest thou, my son? But I fear not, for thou hast the

sely to memory that no room remained for the seven years' absence. A rush of glad

s, as the sonorous echoes died away to silence. "I am c

aid Feroza, rising abruptly, "I

eaded Kareema, rising in her turn. "She hath worked so hard," she

n. Then something in his wife's face roused the new man in him, making him s

ema says of me," r

her shoulders. "And she counted herself as something bet

found time for five minutes' speech with her; but, almost to her relief, he was far too content, far too excited by his own pleasure to be able to distinguish any other feeling in her mind. Yet a momentary hesitation on his part as he was leaving m

wered, "nothing at

hings which she had taught herself for his sake to despise, would come home to her--to his wife. The little room she had travestied into a pitiful caricature of foreign fashions seemed to mock her foolish hopes, so she crept away to the latti

n a door creaked and she started, wondering if Ahmed Ali could be home already. Silence brought her a dim suspicion that, but for this wisdom of hers,

came the familiar giggle; "and

se, and Kareema paused ere re-entering the women's door.

voice; "he is a properer man than I deemed. Say

ll me Carina, since it meant dearest in some heathen tongue. They begi

ust have given--to get something cold and still to quench the raging fire in her veins! Suddenly, without a waver, she walked to the well and leant over its low parapet. Her hands sought the

mfortable, and only woke in the da

cried. "Wher

to his drowsy brain.

her! Then she hath gone to the Missen to be baptise

for early tea, stared as the young man burst in on it with imperious demands for his wife. The

ib! what a mistake we have all made. It was too late to write, and then I got ill

rriedly, "but I can't stay now. She must be found. I will not hav

rseful anxiety, found the wicket-gate ajar. She entered silently upon

She lay alone under the cloudless sky, for her friends, shrinking from the defilement of death, stood apart: Kareema sobbing on Mytab's breast, with Ahmed Ali, dazed yet indignant, holding her hand; the Moulvie, repeating a prayer; the servants still breathless from their ghastly toil.

e was hidden eve

SE OF A CO

w of the narrow street in front. Pulsating musically, yet with an undercurrent of jarring vibration like a north-country burr on a woman's tongu

tam-bur

vitality, inseparable from the conviction that the life is not worth living, written on every feature, blurring its beauty. For Durga-dei had been beautiful a year ago when sunsetting had sent the master coppersmith to tell her so, and praise the order of a well-kept house. Now the shadow creeping inch by inch along the sunlit dust, and up the sunlit mud wall, brought her no emotion save the mechanical hope that the lentils would be properly cooked by supper time, and the vague wonder why her sister-in-law's shrill voice had not recommenced the conjugation of the imperative mood from the inner court. Parbutti had been sleeping longer than usual; she who but a year agone would no more have dared to sleep! And as for command? Was not a dewarani--the

I to sit in the dust like a lone widow b

me face when, after a few minutes of listening to the high-pitched voice, the shrouded figure showed again through the doorway leading to the inner court. Not an ungraceful f

o; only a

tent on finding some flaw, some finger-hold in the blank brick wall--yes! even now, but for Parbutti's indecent jealousy, the old customs might bring a tardy comfort, and give her, the widow, back something of her lost power and position. The Mosaic maxim, "Let him take the woman and raise up children to his brother," was so familiar to Durga-dei that its fulfilment in this case seemed to her quite commonplace. Married to Gopal by kurao, she would not, of course, regain her status as the wife, but she might find solace as the house mother, if there were children. The passion of hearth and home was strong in her, as it is in most good Hindu women; and it is not too much to say that the disregard of time-honoured custom towards herself counted for far less in her resentment than the disregard of a time-honoured custom which was clearly for the good of the

first excuse for knocking off work, though a good two hours of daylight remained for the industrious--for the old style masters, such as her dead husband had been. But this one did not even trouble to see the shop properly closed, the implemen

pcord across the bronze body to which the afternoon sunshine sent gleams of gold as it shone on the sweat-dewed muscles. A fine young fellow certainly, with the thin, deft hands and feet which are the outcome of generations on generations of manual dexterity displayed in one and only one direction. So far, a type of past ages when Nasmyth hammers and Archimedean drills were unknown. Yet they were not unknown to Gopal the coppersmith. He had not been idle at the Municipal School, where the primers discourse glibly of all the wonders of the world, all the marvels born from that curious potentiality--the human brain. So the forty and odd ounces of grey matter in Gopal's own skull were leavened with ideas foreign to those which had been transmitted to him through ages of slow here

shoulder. No more than that. And even that Parbutti did not notice, as she bustled out, full of wifely service and housewifely blame, to set the finishing touches to the meal and carry it off to the hungry master, leaving a shapeless bundle of widowhood waiting indifferently for such dog's share of food as might be left when other appetites were satisfied. Then a great silence seemed to take possession of and fill the outer court, just as the clangour had filled it, and st

! Durg

at laziness--exclaiming all the louder because Gopal, also on his way to the world beyond those four wa

ay wrangling if thou wilt. I hate it all. Holy Lukshmi! it

reabouts of an hour by having to be fished up and set afloat once more on the Sea of Time--like the soul of a man according to the theory of metempsychosis. This flight of steps was a favourite resort of the idle, for, lying as it did just within the city gate, it was a coign of vantage whence things new and old might be seen clearly side by side. Gopal liked it, because he himself was compounded of ancient characters and modern ideas. He sat gossiping over an ill-printed newspaper, watching the worshippers go up to do pooja in the temple, commenting on the last police news, and the chance of so and so being run in for a breach of the bye-laws; while through the high arched gateway, showing in shadow against the darkening sky, the herds of cattle came trooping dustily, undriven save by custom and the homing instinct. A packed throng, streaming through the gate in unison, then separating into flocks, and so, by endless unswerving subdivision through highways and byeways, into units, arriving each at last in the familiar stall. One of them, a big, pearl-grey, soft-eyed creature, walked in comp

lip of sky above her. The noise of the city without seemed lost in the stillness of the courty

n the other something

! Durg

voice through

I

uch a still night! The moon over-riding the high walls shone straight down upon a man and a woman standing beside the row of fireplaces w

there is no escape Parbutti will yield--that is woman's way. Thou knowest that I love thee; were it no

first I yielded to thy plan for peace? Then it seemed naught to keep it secret awhile--no harm--no blame; but no

k eyes sought his with a passionate gloom

y him also. So let the question be awhile. When due time comes Parbutti shall be told that the old custom hath prevailed, and

f accent provoked a sharp,

ly 'tis best for thee--if as th

But see, the moon climbs high; Parbutti will be returning, and she must not suspect yet awhi

ringing sudden stimulus to his passion, he slid his arm under the widow's shroud and drew her towards him with a patronising laugh. "Lo! thou art a fool, Durga! Afraid because thou hast found a weak spot in thy heart for lazy Gopal, when thou sh

is. So neither saw a muffled form at the entrance behind them--a form which showed itself for

l, wouldst thou te

word of the passionate whisper w

I have settled it, she can do naught--save quarrel. That is why I say wait till the last. There will be no time th

footfall behind the screen, as if some one were stealing away from it

and I bade thee keep the fire

hings when she had accepted the inevitable. So through the still summer night she lay awake piecing together a plan of revenge against the woman who, on the other side of the mud wall, lay awake piecing together her plan for peace. Revenge! That was the first consideration; if it could be combined with comparative comfort. Peace! Yes! peace; if it could be had without that gnawing sense of shame w

lled the courtyards where those two women went about their daily tasks. When evening came it brought Gopal an

ding feast, wife," h

"Thy people say so, and mine also. Even last night Mai Radha spoke to me of her daughter. And perhaps 'twere b

not for Durga. What a fool he had been to be so precipitate! A sudden regard for the wife who was prepared to sacrifice so much to him mingled not unnaturally with a corresponding resentment against the woman whose love was certain to stand in the way of his pleasure. Yet he was too mu

st old and foolish thyself. Thou canst choose a virgin bride, and thou shalt choose one, else will I not yield thee. For thine own sake, husband, I will not. Mai Radha's daughter is worthy of thee. Lo! I have

was the worst of it! Had he braved Parbutti's shrill wrath at first when the passion was there, it might have seemed worth while to suffer discomfort; now it was hard to hark back dutywards. What a fool he had been! halting as it were between the new and the old. He had glozed over the secrecy by appealing to the customs of his forefathers, and now he hated t

in her voice, demanded that he should admit the truth. "And if thou sayest a word--I

as if turn

er's child? Thou durst not, lest the

n embarra

; but I mean no harm to thee. None shall say a

I

anest them well; they

e Parbutti's to wear, or to give, as she chose. But what did that matter? what did anything matter if only Gopal could be kept content--if only Gopal could be kept to his promise? Two months of patience, two months of growing anxiety had told against Durga-dei's good looks according to native standards, though to Western eyes the face had gained more than it had lost. There was no indifference in it now. That had given place to an eagerness almost pain

arind pulp boiling away in the copper vessel over the fire, until her critical eye told her that its office was over, and that the ornaments boiling in it would need no silversmith's aid to enhance their lustre. With a certain pride, also, in her own carefulness, she let the pulp stay on the fire till it had regained its original consistency, and then set it aside in the storeroom against future use. Parbutti would not have thought of such economy. Parbutti, in a reckless modern fashion, would have thrown the pulp away, and

owledge that there was some goo

t busy over the ornaments--something infinitely pathetic in the pride with which, after the

ssion for pleasure had been aroused, he would allow nothing now to stand in the way of this projected marriage, and so--and so there was no harm in

hem?" The quick anxiety of the widow's

meant to tell thee ere this, but Gopal would not have it, and 'tis true that widows are ill

. Now she flung out her arms in sudden passion, letting t

. Thou knowest it! Yea, thou hast known it, and this is thy reven

her rival's as in a vic

pal, base walker of the bazaars, betrayer of thy dead lord! On Gopa

the slow chiming of five o'clock. Instinctively the women fell away from each other, feeling that the crisis had come. An

op

e sight of them, co

no compromise, no shilly-shallying. Durga had claimed him as the father of her child. Was it true? for in that case there was no need to bring a br

n nature, claimed the truth also. Between the two Gop

rbutti's shrill voice; "the widow or

r the other, and a sudden fierce d

eyes upon the ground; "I have

ed into the silence of the outer court without a word, and crouched down in her favourite attitude beside the smouldering fires. She felt sick and faint with horror, shame, incredulity. In all her known world of custom and conduct she seemed

l, no open turning into the streets, if she would promise to make no fuss. Perhaps, once the marriage were accomplished he might even be induced to acknowledge the child. And at this thought something

s new woman were to

were about to thrust it out in a gesture of dismay; then it sank back listlessly. The impulse had come and gone--the housewifely impulse of warning to the younger woman that tamarind pulp which had been kept for days in a copper vessel was not likely to be a wholesome ingredient in a man's supper. After all, what did it matter to her? Surely Parbutti should know such things without being told them; if not, what right had she to be house-mother, ousting those who did? A curiously petty spite against her simmered up in Durga-dei's mind, and like the bubbles on boiling water served for a time to b

in his throat and keep the sickness from him? God send it be not the great sickness; but 'tis in the city they say." The

ind water an thou likest. '

Parbutti's! A sort of sensual delight in the idea surged through her, making her add--as if to, give an edge to the swor

ld be beyond the reach of them all--that it would benefit no one; save that in good sooth the child would be fatherless instead of--and then, sudd

rind water--'tis b

reckon the measure of guilt without it, judge harshly, even while we judge equitably. Durga-dei did not think out the question at all. Chance gave her quick opportunity, and she took it. Yet as the night wore on, bringing a succession of gossiping neighbours, she became restless, asking herself if the native doctor, summone

nd three haggard faces within it. Found the same thought in each heart: was it to be death,

ng themselves on the tops of the walls; the loose slippers of the visitors, as they shuffled over the empty courtyards, had whispering, gossiping tongues of their own, which seemed to echo the ominous cackle of the wearers as they left those three faces to their task of waiting. One turned passi

daily clamour of the shop began. Maybe the master would not die, maybe he wo

ened; "they will stop, likely, when they hear the death wail, and 'tis a

ourtyard and those three faces. But one of them waited no longer, though it still gazed passively into the pale sky from the ground where i

h wail rose loud and c

. This empty dwelling-place be

ding in a faint vibrati

"there is death in the coppersmith's house. I heard he

ZUL

iginal sin. It is therefore immaterial what Faizullah and Haiyat Bibi did or said during the actual chastisement, for they behaved themselves as any oth

lence. Finally he let her drop, decisively but gently, in one of the dark corners of the low windowless room, and laid aside the bamboo in another. From a third crept an older woman, silent, but

Or rather, thou shalt pay for the pleasure. Ay! every time, surely as the farmer pays the usurer for having a good crop. And if there be more than peeping, then I will kill thee. Think not to escape as a mere noseless one; some may care to keep a maimed wife, secure th

whimpered the woman vindictively. "Yea, I would die g

Faizullah, standing at the open door, through which the yellow sunshine streamed in a broad bar of light, looked across the mud roof of the lower story, past the sandy stretche

f faithful wife. God knows I am ready for my father's house again; 'tis only thy beauty, Skin of my Soul! Core of my Heart! that

here and get thee swung, for the sahib-logues worship a woman away over the black water and do her

ace, though thy people have dug the grave of their courage with the plough, and tethered their

rticulate; for it is one thing to beat the wife of your bosom in order to correct a trifling indiscretion, another to deny her and her attendant the righ

s the shrill clamour, floating over the high encirclin

ne; "yet are they smaller than Haiyat's e

! that is what our men say nowadays. In my time, if a man of his race had laid a finger on a woman of ours, there would have been flames over the border, and bl

showed herself to be a servant in one of the richer houses. "We shall get her back some day, despite her father-

of the group. "The daughter of thy house would have brought

ved tongue that tasteth not the truth. Had thy people se

jewels do

at Bibi's were to come back with her in search of a new bridegroom among her own relations, or to remain with her in her late husband's family, had greatly exercised the minds of this little village, which lay, as it were, safely tucked away between the sheets of sand in the bed of the Indus and the soft pillow-like curves of the rising ground. It was given to be excited over trifles, this far-away, peaceful-looking cluster of mud huts; for beneath the newly acquired placidity of the peasant which its inhabitants presented on the surface, the lawlessness of the border bravo remained ready for any emergency. On the whole, however, it afforded a beautiful example of the civilising effects of agriculture, and as such figured in many reports having as their object the glorification of British rule. Consequently it was watched with jealous eyes by the district and police officials, who

for revenge, instead of seeking it for themselves, the actual murder itself dropped into comparative insignificance. Indeed, the details of the crime were meagre in the extreme, though the evidence of previous jealousy on the husband's part, even to the point of grievous hurt, was copious. Nor did the family of the murdered woman's late husband hesitate to accuse her blood-relations of a deliberate attempt to seduce her from the path of virtue, in order to bring about a poisoning of the bold Faizullah, and a subsequent transference of her affection, and her jewels, to a more suitable husband. Inquiry, indeed, opened up such a vista of conflicting rascality, that the district-officer was fain to draw a decent veil over it by accepting the result, namely, that on a certain specified night, between certain specified hours, Faizullah Khan, not content with having beaten his wife to the verge of death during the day, had stealthily completed his devilish work, dragged the corpse of his victim a mile or two from the village, stripped it of ornament, and left it to be devoured by jackals and hyenas. In support of which statements, gruesome remains, found, it was said, some days after the woman's disappearanc

ways more satisfactory to have a real, whole body; but when there is neither corpse nor criminal it is useless depending on facts at all."

icials busy, for the long-talked-of punitive expedition was about to thread its way through the peaks and passes, bearing the rod which teaches respect, and perhaps fidelity. On the outermost skirts of British territory t

s seeking the Presence with insiste

, blotting the last sentence. What matter? Reports have various values, an

imself to the salute gravely. "May the life of the Presence be prolonged and may his gracious ears bear with a ques

march against all thieves and m

or of the Poor bear with this dust-like one. Is it true that he who

is t

is big if the long tongue of the Presence

his wife; besides, he stole twelv

at the sequel. "The Presence says it; shall it not be true?" he remarked with deference after a pause. "Nevertheless

Doubtless; yet none have given the man up, though all know

lation of the nostrils convinced the Englishman that there was a

ees do not give up our friends readily. Still Faizullah is no friend of mine, so for twel

ed. "But the reward is two t

purchase. Am I a pig of baniah to fill my stomach with rupees I cannot digest? Nevertheless the task is hard

on is as myself, and my earnings as his earnings--nay, surely the Presence will have the best bliss of Paradise reserved for it specially! And if the munificent Keeper of the Purse of Kings would cause the twelve hundred rupees to be set apart from this day in the hands of some notable banker--not that this slave doubts, but the Presence knows the guile of all women, and that all men are born of women, and therefor

the j

ly the mightiness of the Presence will make him speak. If I bring him dead, can this slav

to the Deputy Commissioner dead or alive, before reprisals had been taken on the village, when, even if he lost his life in the capture, the reward was to be paid to his heirs and assigns. He positively refused to give either name or designation, asserting with the measure of sound common sense which characterised all his utt

mpound. "Huzoor! we have found him! we have found him!" rose a dozen voic

ho

reward is ours, praise be to God and to your honou

ir midst. "The dust-like slave of the Presence hath kept his word. Behol

n her blood-kin will claim all. Let me go in peace with the Core of my Heart; but keep thou the jewels, for I have no need of them.' So in the night, he consenting, I crept away with her in my arms, for she had eaten her full of the bamboo that day, and could not walk. The Presence knows what came next--how they called me murderer and thief, her blood-kin claiming the land, her father-in-law denying that he had the jewels--and I nursing her to health in the mountains! Huzoor! the sahib-logues are like eagles. They look at the Sun of Justice and see not the maggots it breeds in carrion like these men. Yet what cared I, away in the hills, what men called me here, save that my house wept for her jewels, and I knew not how to get them; for the reward was heavy and oaths are cheap in your land. Then came word that the armies of the Lord of the Universe were to march on this slave's village, and I said, 'What is life to me? I will try and speak them fair.' The Presence knows what ca

re is to be gained from consistency. Haiyat's relations professed themselves both astonished and overjoyed at her return to life, and before the inquiry was over had arranged for the discovery of the jew

beside the Deputy Commissioner on the crest of a hill, and pointed to a terraced village on the opposite s

ove it. Yea, of a surety the patience of the Presence is beyond praise! Huzoor! if the reward writ in the police stations had been for me, alive or dead, peace would have been beyond my fate, for the great mind of the Protector of the Poor will perceive that a man hath no power against false oath

s his f

s of the sweet yam pushed from the brown soil, led up to the low houses, backed by peach and almond trees and festooned by withered gourds. On the steps leading to a high-perched dwelling overhanging the lane, stood Faizullah Khan with a sturdy youngster in his

ullah with rather a sheepish grin.

TSTEP O

ches if a man be cont

of a great cathedral with tall straight trunks for columns, and ribbed branches sweeping up into a vaulted roof set with starry glints of sunshine among the green fret-work of the leaves. Many a time as I walked my horse over its chequered pavement of sha

phenomenon, refusing to be verified; for the only man who could have spoken positively on the subject was the old fakeer, and he was stone-blind. His face gave evidence of the cause in the curious puffiness and want of expression which confluent small-pox often leaves behind it. In this case it had played a sorrier jest with the human face divine than usual, by placing a fat bloated mask wearing a perpetual smirk of content on the top of a mere anatomy of a body. The result was odd. For the rest a very ordinary fakeer, cleaner than most by reason of the reed broom a

he name of your own Saint,"--or, as it might be translated, "In the name of your own God." It thrilled me oddly every time I heard it by its contented acquiescence in the fa

deep cutting, through which a low-level bed of water flowed to irrigate a basin of alluvial land to the south; but a track, made passable for carts by tiger-grass laid athwart the yielding sand, skirted the cut to reach a ford higher up. A stiff bit for the straining bullocks, so all save

ho chanced that way, nor of those coming from the city to the river. The latter might be partly set down to the fact that from his position he could not hear their footsteps on the bridge till after

. "If you were at the other side of the cut you would ca

the jaunty content of his mask, he looked--sitting in the centre of his swept cir

ho come from the town have empty wallets. 'Ti

f me, whether I go o

se to me. The sahibs carry no food with

stake, fakeer-ji," I replied, taking out my pouch. "I am of those who smoke pipes

r way. As my lord knows, we dust-like ones eat most things your God has made. B

arned; but you

d the munificent offering of the Presence is

m, all apparently to his utmost satisfaction. I felt instinctively that the state of his mind was the only refuge for the upholders of civi

ely, "I meditate on th

fe-sized penwiper in the foreground. I whistled the refrain of a music-hall song and pretended to light my pipe. "How long have you been

years, my lord, since

ng for

ddenly, and a tremor came to his closed eyelids

senger from the newly-arrived ferry-boat had set foot on

footsteps

of Death comes, you wil

in small-pox--the organs of sight were hopelessly diseased or altogether destroyed; indeed I had been grateful for the concealment of a defect out of which many beggars would have made capital. But these eyes were app

, being the last this slave saw, he deems it bad. But it is time the Great Judge took his exalted presence to yonder snorting demon of a boat, for it is ill-

lied, laughing. "Wel

od of gods elevate your honour to the po

ted on the one side by his nautical pea-coat, on the other by his baggy native trousers. "Ease her! stop her! hard astern! full speed ahead!" All the shibboleths, even to the monotonous "ba-la-mar-do" (by the mark two) of the leadsman forr'ards. Then, suddenly, overboard goes science and with it a score of lascars and passengers, who, knee-deep in the ruddy stream, set their backs lazily against the side, and the steam ferry-boat Pioneer, built at Barrow-in-Furness with all the latest improvements, sidles off her sand-bank in the good old legitimate way sanctioned by centuries of river usage. To return, however, to fakeer-ji. I found him as full of trite piety as a copy-book, and yet, for all that, the fragments of his history, with which he interlarded these common-

een us. "Not come yet, fakeer-ji?" I would ca

ll waiting. It wi

ods were out, and for the best part of the way a level sheet of water gleaming in the moonlight lay close up to the embankment of the avenue, which seemed more than ever like a dim colonnade leading to an unseen Holy of Holies. Not a breath of wind, not a sound save the

that, in my hurry, I had left my tobacco-pouch behind me. Nothing could be done save to send my groom back with the pony and instructions for immediate return with the forgotten luxury. After which I strolled over towards my friend the fakeer, who sat

another penwiper as the fakeer occupied himself. "Mercy," he continued, as I took my seat, shifting the mat so as to be able to lean my back against the tree, "blesses both him who gives, and those who take,

after a space, half-lying, half-sitting in the clean warm sand, my hands clasped at

We who go to bed at set times and sea

one back to his penwiper by this time. But I was talking more to myself than to

essica looked upon! and what a scent there i

it happens so sometimes. Or the birds may have brought it from the city. There was a tree of the k

emed to me as if the voice I heard could not belong to it. A dreamy

epily; "a flower to dream

e, loud, louder, loudest, making me start up, wide awake, as th

om the river, and after adding his

"The tree behind us is hollow and the cut is deep. Besides, to-night the water r

sinking back again to my comfort. "I thought

ht I could see those clear eyes of his shini

t it may be the next

here it was again; loud, loud

and goes often, for the law-courts have it

recognise

s as a face. Sometimes after long years it come

enerally c

takes them. Those from the wilderness do not always return

he still figure beside me. "It makes a devilish

aps if my lord pleases I might tell him a story of footsteps to drive the idle

briefly, as I loo

rincess said Cheytu had the longest tongue too, for I used to sit in the far corner by the pillar beyond her carpet and tell her stories. She used to call for Cheytu all day long. 'Cheytu, smooth the ground for Aimna's feet'--'Cheytu, sweep the dead flowers from Aimna's path'-'Cheytu, fan the flies from Aimna's doll,--for naturally, Huzoor, Chey

leepily, "That was very romantic of you, Cheytu." On the other hand, it fi

her, but not I, Cheytu, who swept it for her steps. That was my task till the day of the thunderstorm. The house seemed dead of the heat. Not a breath of life anywhere, so at sundown they set her to sleep on the topmost roof under the open sky. Her nurse, full of frailty as women a

o us whether they be kings or slaves. It was out on the bare steps, and she sleeping sound as children sleep, that the light came. The l

, for look you, her man had many more wives to amuse him. I used to hear the rustle of her long silk garments, the tinkle of her ornaments, and the cadence of her laughter. Girls ought to laugh, Huzoor, and it was spring time; what we natives call spring, when the rain turns dry sand to grass and the roses race the jasmin for the first blossom. The tree your honour called magnolia grew in the women's court, and some of the branches spread over the marble summerhouse almost hiding it from below. Others again formed a screen against the blank white wall of the next house. The flowers smelt so strong that I wondered how she could bear to sleep amongst them in the summer-house. Even in my place below on the stones of the courtyard they kept me awake. People said I had fever, but it was not that--only the scent of the flowers. I lay awake one dark, starles

tu! Ch

and thinking of that little child's fac

the flowers, ''tis the footstep makes them fall so thick. If it

e understood. Suddenly she

ad upon, Cheytu. Go! you

s earth after I had made it ready for her feet! It was a woman's id

tars from the sky had come to spy on her. What did they do to her? What did they do to her while I lay crushed among the crushed flowers? Who knows? It is often done, my lord, behind the walls. She died; that is all I know, that is all I cared for. When I came back to life she was dead, and the footstep had fled from revenge. It had friends over the border where it could pause in safety till the tale was forgotten.

dest: "In the nam

*

a glimmer of dawn paling the sky, the birds shifting in the

uietly. "The boat has come. It is time your honou

e princess! you were

, my lord? The Presence slept, and doub

Well," said

tobacco in the sleep-compelle

as but half smoked through. Wa

I protested. "I

ssed swiftly, the Huzoor is rested, his servant has returned, the boat has come--all in con

th overtakes me meanwhile,"

other in the face as friends. When the Footstep comes I will go to meet i

is body was jammed against the plank which had stuck across the channel a little way down the stream. He had kept his word and gone to meet the Footstep. A certain unsatisfied curiosity, which had never quite left me since that night in the rains, made me accompany

fingers. "Poor beggar! it must have been floating in the water--there's a tree

s afterwards, the unrecognisable body of a man was found half buried in the silt left in the alluvial basi

dge at last? I have never been able to decide; and the only thing which remains sure is the figure of the old fakeer

AL CRI

printed by a partridge's foot; yonder fine graving is the track of a jerboa rat; and there, side by side for a space, the striated lines of a big beetle and the endless curvings of a snake. A certain wistful admiration comes to the seeing eye with the thought that, here in the wilderness, life is free to go and come as it chooses, untrammelled by the fetters of custom, free from the necessity for doing as your neighbours do, being as your neighbours are. Something of this was in my thoughts one day when, as I rode at a foot's-pace across the sand-sea to my tents, I suddenly came up

walled villages, registered and roll-called by day and by night. Not much freedom there to strike out a line of life for yourself, unless you began before the time when you were

Huzoor! They are

incontinently. "You don't m

r? The Bowriahs eat everything, except cats. Cats a

hinking I might inquire more of him; for the sole reason of my tents being a few miles farther in this sandy wilder

eft him watching for the fat lizard

here he was again in front of me si

on earth did you mana

nto the desert whence I had come. Mungal and Bungal! Twins, of course! Even so the likeness was almost incredible. My memory could find no

Bowriah hone,"

e you doing?

Huzoor! They are

making me say quite naturall

everything, except cats. Cats are heating

ly; Mungal and Bungal. Out of sheer curiosity I sent for them that evening, when I had finished my work of inspecting the adult males and females, listening to their complaints, and generally setting the odd little village on the path of virtue for the next thr

any difference of any kind between the two boys. Even their heads were shaven in the same tuft

nd with a view to this I questioned the Deputy Inspe

ese were Bowriahs also. The boys, however, not being adult, are not as yet on the Register; but th

s--cats, etc.;" however I stopped myself in time,

ly. "Huzoor! not being adult they are not on the Register.

g?" I persisted somewhat testily, as I saw Mungal and Bungal racing al

in youth one learns habits easily. Thus it is better, since the bo

tively not one atom of expression of any ki

e to my eyes; or sometimes, like a couple of Bassett-hound puppies, on all fours, nose down, creeping round some higher undulation to see what lay behind it. We had stalked a ravine deer which another party of Bowriahs had stealthily driven--all unconsciously--into a suitable spot, and I was just crawling on my stomach to the shelter of a low bu

art. It was after the excitement of success was over that I tu

pointed out that j

their beady black eyes, their scorn at the dastardly attempt at cheating them out of their due were identical. Finally, to my intense bewilderment they suddenly, without even a wink that I could see, made a demi-volte towards a new position, and declared in one breath that they both did it, and therefore that they both d

heard trouble in the cook-room tent. It was followed by the violent irruption into mine of the whole posse of s

that the dignity of the table be upheld even in the wilderness. And, lo! as I sat decorating the dish, my mind occupied in desires to please, I saw him--the infamous Bowriah boy--make off with one. Aged as

hoed; "but you said

the thieves." He emphasised his words by dragging Mungal and Bungal forward by the ears, and knocking their heads together; his following meanwhile testifying its assent by undertoned remark

folded in front of them like infant Samuels, stood cheerfully stolid, just as the adult members of their tribe

receive bucksheesh. Here their beady eyes wandered in confident familiarity to the rotund person of the Deputy Inspector, who had rushed to the scene in mufti on hearing of the crime, and I

ou replaced

e-barrelled, unhesita

he Deputy Inspector with a stifled yawn, when I had wasted much time and more

mind to it, so I went to bed that night certain of but one thin

after all too short a time for a character study; but I was to be on tour for six weeks at least, and if I took the

skill in the capture of chickens. The spectacle of a half-plucked fowl defying all the resource

uld say piously. "But there! they were made for su

metal so that they could slip their flexible hands in and out quite easily. Then I became annoyed, and pierced the ears of one boy. Next day the other had his pierced also. So I got the two alone by themselves, and asked them why they objected to the manifest convenience of individuality. It took me some time to worm the idea out of their small brains, but when I did, it touched me. Briefly, no one had ever made a difference between them before, not even the mysterious Creator, and in the village no one had cared. Personally, they never thought if Mungal was really Mungal, or Bungal. It was a joint-stock company doing business under the name of Mungal-Bungal. As they said this they

the khansaman's house disappeared, that I solemnly thrashed both boys myself, after giving them a moral lecture on cruelty to animals. The next morning the bird's cage contained a new and most highly-educated parrot,--which must have been stolen from some one,-- and when I went out into the verandah, I found a whole family of young squirrels, and two bul-buls with their wings cut, dotted about the flower stands. One of the culprits was evidently bent on restitution and amendment. Perhaps both; that was the worst of it. One never could tell; for in speech they both clung to virtue and disclaimed vice. My Commissioner's wife, who lived next door, and was a very philanthropic woman, told me she thought they needed female influence to soften and subdue their wild nature; so they used to be sent over to her twice a week. She found them quite affable, until the khitmutghar accused one of them of sampling the lunch which had been set down on the verandah steps on its way to the cook-room. Then, instead of beating them, she locked the

be free from all kinds of vermin; for, as I live, the boy hath killed a snake in his Honour's

n was carrying off the chickens. Locked up from daylight to daylight! without a possibility of caticide. The fact revived all my old curiosity, all my old determination to differentiate these boys. I shall not easily forget the Deputy

, I gained nothing in th

s chained in the verandah,--a most ferocious beast to all save his friends. They were moonless nights, too, dark as pitch in the central room, wher

he half-drowsy alertness which com

main Bowr

was put out. One oily body slipped from my hold, another fled past me. But my shouts had roused the sleeping servants, and, as the cressets came flickering up like stars from the huts, I heard the well-known cry, "Bowriah logue! Bowriah logue." And then, of course, in the centre of the posse of indignant re

f course; who else

ning hand on mine! That

main Bowr

a tragedy lay

illage without further delay, there to await due registration as adult male members of a predatory tribe, and thus gain the privilege of being within the cognizance of the police. I think my decision gave satisfaction to every one concerned, except myself, for as I watc

ion remai

KIRPO'

gs in a bed,--a perfect garden of girls, from five to fifteen, arrayed in rainbow hues; some of them in their wedding dresses of

fshoot of the Tree of Knowledge--uncertain either of its own roots or of the soil it grew in--by directing its attention to the tables set out with toys which stood under a group of date-palms and oranges. Behind these tables sat in a semicircle more of those eager, kind

ted here and there behind the screen of walls and bushes squats many a critical mother, determined that her particular plant shall receive its fair share of watering, or cease to be part of the harvest necessary for a good report. The Commissioner's wife has half-a-dozen children of her own, and prides herself on understanding them; but these bairns are a race apart. She neither comprehends them, nor the fluent, scholas

spers. Clearly, a Japanese baby-doll with a large bald head is not the correct thing here; but it is so difficult, so almost impossible with hundreds of girls who attend

lls when a girl is married. Sometimes it seems a little hard, for they are so small, you know; still it is best to have a rule; all these tiny trifles help to e

sickly, stupid-looking girl, limping as sh

bargain in brides in Gungo's house, and no mistake. But 'twas ill luck, not ill management; for they tell me K

t over more suitable gifts to the others;

etemps," said the superintendent triumphantly, "and that, dear

rpo was not at school. Why should she be, seeing that she was a paper-pupil and the prize giving was over? If the Miss-sahib wanted to see her, she had better go round to Gungo's house in the heart of the Hindu quarter. So Julia Smith set off again to thread her way through the byeways, till she reached the mud steps and closed door which belonged to Kuniya, the head-man of the comb-makers. This ownership had much to do with the English lady's patience in regard to Kirpo who, to tell truth, had been learning the alphabet for five years. But the girl's father-in-law was a man of influence, and Julia's gentle, proselytising eyes cast g

es, or a new veil at least, else would I never have sent her from the comb-making to waste her time. Lo! Miss-sahib," here the voice changed to a whine, "we are poor fo

full hearing, sat filing away at the combs

e pocket, and was once more picking her way through the drain-like alley

ul of a turgid stream of concentrated filth which at that moment came sweeping along the gutter. Her gen

t, dear?" she asked gentl

e cow-shed, and they will sell the book you left for me.

ness belongs, as a rule, to those who have few things, not many. Once or twice, when Julia Smith found the opportunity, she would ask after the doll's welfare. Then Kirpo would nod her head mysteriously; but this was not often, for, by degrees, Julia's visits to the house and Kirpo's to the schools became less frequent. The former, because Mai Gungo's claims grew intolerable, and the Mission lady had found firm footing in less rapacious houses. The latter, because to Mai Gungo's somewhat grudging relief her daughter-in-law, after nearly four years of married life, see

east might not suffer. Kirpo herself understood the position perfectly, and felt dimly that if she could do her duty she would be quite content to give up the comb-making once and for all. It was niggly, cramping work to sit with your crippled legs tucked under you, filing away at the hard wood all day long, while mother-in-law bustled about, scolding away in her shri

nd books, and laying in yards on yards of sussi-trousering and Manchester veiling against anothe

week. Mai Gungo hath g

irpo h

t that is likely. The h

the gutters to the mud steps and closed door of Kuniya's house.

e baby?" asked J

e Miss hath heard so." There was the oddest mixt

aid her visitor quickly. "Thou must give me back the

hifted uneasily o

nd the straw yonder she will find the doll. It is not hurt. And the Miss can give it to some one el

w surrounded by her gossips, exhibiting the baby to them with great pride, "you

o do with a baby? She is a fool; besides, a mother like that h

ad the fever, and they did not think she would recover. It was never s

lamps flared smokily at her head and her feet, and Mai Gungo, with the fortnight-old baby in her arms, cried "Ram!

aded Julia with tears in her eyes. Mai Gung

lest in her evil ways she ret

but the restless head went on tu

doll! I like

h it from the Mission

NDO

rowing, sowing, watering. Waiting--that integral part of Indian husbandry--had yet to come, but the memory, almost the dread of it, lurked ever in the slow brains of the labourers. In mine also, alien and uninte

ass of brick work surrounding it, this square of placid water reflecting back the lemon-coloured sky, the fringe of dull farash trees, and the gilded spires of the temple rising above them, showed like a small Dutch picture set in a heavy, deep-recessed frame. On the opposite side a

ng day's work in the office tent which rose a few hundred yards away. Suddenly

t think it so fine as

eing accustomed to the thousand and one i

'Ide Par-k in the

hat the deuce do yo

t was just such a face and figure as I saw every day. A typical Jat--in other words, a farmer by race and heritage--tall, high-shouldered, lank, with a bushy-shaped turban adding to his height, and straight folds of heavy, unbleached

ericans say, "in his tracks," keeping his submissive fac

k. Yes, I have been there--in the city of London--

er-decked mashers and powdery belles aroused such a sense

ave been

lly, "I've been to London

ish days: "Pussy cat, pussy cat, what saw you there?" and his reply fi

r (secretary) who

elt convinced that no other words could have

stranger softly, "because I wanted, to get back the land.

ocks were slowly scoring the levels into feeble furrows, whilst the ploughman--just

always so ready of access to the native (as the departmental pastorals pu

ough bullocks he was watching turned too sharply, and his hand closed mechanically on the stick he held between his knees, as if he

s, for mine might fail to transm

or she was of a high, proud family, and when the hemp gets into a man's head he does unclean things. So my father was alone, and the accountant made him do as he liked, bribing him with drugs. That was how it happened, as the Presence will doubtless perceive. So when my father neglected his own land, the accountant's people cultivated it for him and gave him what was due. My mother heard of this, but she said nothing, because we were but little lads, and the land could not run away--it was better that it should be tilled than left to rack and ruin. At last my father died, but they sent no word to Amritsar, because the great Sirkar was coming to count the village, and make a map of it with all the holdings of the proper shape, and all the fields coloured green. If the Protector of the Poor will forgive his dust-like slave, he will remember that fields are not green always, and so likewise the holdings are not always right, no matter how carefully they are put on the map. There was the old mortgage, a man who lied tilling the soil, and no one to come to the Sirkar and say, 'Here is the hundred rupees, give us back the land and write it in our name

did not

sending me back by ship P. and O. And writing! God knows how many letters h

a case in

attar just now; but it will come to the Presence sooner or later. That is why I journey with the Protec

re; then habit gave way to truth, and they frankly declared their belief in some miscarriage of justice. A man, they said, would not go all the way to London for nothing. As I inclined to the same view, I took the trouble to try working the oracle by the back stairs--a method no less successful in India than elsewhere. Replies, more or less hopeful as to some ultimate settlement of the question, came from various friends in high places. Some of these I communicated, in a guarded way, to "London," who as the sowing time passed fell a victim to fever and deferred hope. It was impossible for mortal man to see those dreamy eyes of his watching the crops of other men without feeling an insane desire to

wn the trunk not two yards from me. Attracted, partly by hunger, but more by the sheer light-hearted cussedness which makes the Indian squirrel so charming a companion, the little creature came n

id "London" deferentially, "that is why

ay I am a friend

olk tie the ram rukkhi to our wrists for luck. Well, when Ram, the King of all men, came to Sanderip, he found the great Monkey had carried off Seeta the Queen of women. Then, being in distress, he bid all the birds and beasts and fishes come to help him, for great Ram was the Lord of the whole earth. Now the first to answer his call was the squirrel. In those day

and death. Live on, brave and careless for ever, so that we

ining coat bore the shadow of Ram's tired fingers,

d by individual energy, and during it "London" paid me but occasional visits, and was fairly cheerful. No sooner, however, did the stir of coming cultivation begin again in the high, unirrigated soils, than he followed suit with a growing restlessness. And still no answer came. Just then a small piece of Government land,--that is to say, land in which no cultivator had a vested interest,--fell vacant in a village not far from "London's" ancestral home, and I bethought me of putting him in as tenant if I could. But it is no easy task to find soil to cultivate in India, since farms are not "t

n him as a clutch of eggs has on a broody hen--had earned an unenviable notoriety from the number of mutineers it produced in the '57. Nearly one-half of the land had come under dir

here birth and marriage certificates are unknown quantities, and registers of all kinds are inaccurate, legal proof of a case like "London's" is almost impossible. As he himself invariably said, it was no wonder the Sirkar had been deceived by the foreclosed mortgage, and the lying man who tilled the soil, joined to the newly-

disastrous failure. Not a week after "London," glowing with gratitude, set out for the village in which his new holding was situated, he was brought back to the hospital on a stretcher with a broken arm and several clouts on the head. Indeed, I have always felt it to be the crowning mercy of my career, that no one was actually killed in the free fight which ensued on my protégé's arrival in the mutineers' village; for he had some friends, stalwart as himself, a

deny him his revenge. To begin with, my official reputation could not have stood another agrarian riot; in addition, the mutineering village had appealed against my action "en masse," so the matter had passed beyond my control. "London" was sorrowful, but sympathetic, seeming to enjoy the idea

icipal Committee as a public institute. It was Jubilee year, and various things of the kind were being started. When I saw this particular one last, a stuffed crocodile, two spinning wheels, some tussar silk cocoons, and a specimen card o

ion with a stout Subadar-major who had done the State good service. Finally, sick leave--the end of so many kindly plans and hopes for th

would be the better of seeing 'Ide Park again, and perhaps as It was to be away so long--a whole ye

t his eyes followed the ploughing for yet another harvest,--"and if the Presence is so fort

anity. One might have thought the facts sufficient to excuse a resort to pen, ink, and paper on the part of one really interested in that p

ons far better than any I could give. An unusually thick sprinkling of clerical attire among the crowd testified to the attraction of missionary meetings when combined with London at its best. Indeed, as I had come down Piccadilly the va

ion which fell from the lips of the passers by--the flotsam-jetsam left by the stream of humanity; and as usual my initial curios

owd, gave up their individual form and colour, and were lost in the one unchangeable, indestructible characteristic of humanity--its selfishness. On every face an interest, a smile, a frown, a thought; below these, the one source of all. In

oused me from idle moralisings. A couple of outriders

se from behind closed windows of grey hair and a widow's cap. The murmur swelled to a roar, almost

aff. The gentle, deprecatory smile I had so often seen when he spoke of 'Ide Park was on his face, as if he knew the incongruity of his own appearance in such a scene. His eyes were not on the modest carriage in which the Kaiser-i-Hind was being partially displayed to her faithful subjects. They were fixed on

haps if other people could have seen what I saw, Dewa Ram and h

L

answered, Lal remained, and remains still, an unknown quantity--an abstraction, a name,

the sand-hills in the south. I was in a tamarisk jungle on the banks of the Indus, engaged in the decorous record of all the thefts and restitutions made during the year by that most grasping and generous of rivers. For year after year, armed by the majesty of l

telling that another inch or two of solid earth had yielded. Sometimes standing on a mud bank where the ever watchful villagers had sown a trial crop of coarse vetch; thus, as it were, casting their bread on the water in hopes of finding it again some day. But when? Would it be there at harvest-time? Grey-bearded patriarchs from the village would wag their heads sagel

ently into the stream, or lay still as shadows on the sun-baked sand. Down by the big river, where the swirling water parted right and left, and where the greybeards set their earthen pots a-swimming to decide which of the two streams would prove its strength by bearing away the greater number,--a weighty question, not lightly to be decided, since the land to the west of the big stream belonged to one village, and the land eastward t

crop of pulse and barley grew sturdily, outlining an irregular oval with a pale green carpet glistening with dew. In the centre a shallow

broke by twos and threes through the jungle, and gat

le pantaloon breathlessly. "Let the steed of the Lord of

d the sentiment in varying words. A minute more, and my pony's nose was well down

f the Protector of the Poor have a bellyful? Was it not more honourable than the parro

ainty squirrels were, I knew, still snugly a-bed waiting for the sun to dry the dew; b

here?"

s innocent ignorance, came to th

squirrel, and the pig people--and his honour's pony too--had had thei

is he?" I

or in the next jungle. Some one had seen him at Sukkhur a week agone, but that was no reason why he s

for the polite gravity of my hearers. The idea of Lal's paying revenue was evidently irresistibly comic, and the ven

y the revenue," I rem

the village which gave him the few handfuls of seed-grain to scatter broadcast over the roughly-tilled soil. So much they lent to Lal. The sun and the good God ga

the limbo of things not thoroughly understood, and so, ere long, I forgot all about him. Spring passed ripening the crops; summer came bring

either been less fortunate in his original choice of a field this year, or else the sun and the good God had been less diligent care-takers. A large portion of the land, too, bore marks of an over-recent flood in a thick deposit of fine glistening white sand. A favourite trick of the mischievous Indus, by which she disappoints hope raised by pre

ut for Lal,"

for Lal--that was another matter. L&I did not live by bread alone. The river

s it give

he creeks and jheels on what they can catch or steal; who track the cumbersome beasts to their nightly lair in some narrow inlet, and, after barring escape by a stealthy earthwork, fall on the helpless creature at dawn with spears and arrows. Lal was not of these; he was of another temper. He hunte

emselves, of course, did not touch the unclean animal; and their gifts to Lal were purely disinterested. He was a straight-walking, a labourful man, and that was the only reason why they lent him a field. Even the Presence would acknowledge that crocodile flesh without bread would be uninteresting diet; but as a rule the pig, the parrots, the squirrels left enough for Lal to eat with his jerked meat. The village lent him the sickle, of course, and the flail, and the mill, sometimes even the girdle on which to bake the unleavened bread; but all for love, only for love. Yet if the Presence desired it they could show him the jerked meat, some that Lal had left for the poor. It was dry? Oh, yes! Lal cut the great beasts into strips, and laid them in

Lal and his knife. Was it a crocodile, after all; or was it a man, stealthy, swift, and silent? Who could tell, when there was nothing but a shadow, a slip, and then a few air bubbles on the sliding river? Or was that Lal yonder where the vultures ringed a sand-bank far on the western side? Why not? None knew whence he came or whither he we

iving way before the fierce stream, amidst much wringing of hands on the one side, there was joy on the other over long rich stretches ready for the plough and the red tape of measurement. In the press of work even the si

is year, is th

the constant sun,--a hard resonant place set round with gnarled

pressing forward and pointing to one newer

the village burial-ground

or all that the Sirkar will not charge him revenue." The grim joke, and the idea of La

e field of Lal?" I asked, half in e

k after them, as He ha

slip silently into the stream, knife in hand? Does he still come back to his field under the broad harvest moon, to glean his scanty share after the o

T OF

e himself away even to the joyous swing of the handsome little beast beneath him. A big boy undoubtedly; but a boy for all his size, and despite the fact that he was an Assistant Commissioner of the third grade. In

those mysterious Indian cults of which no one, not even the disciples themselves, know anything. Young Jones, or Smith--what matters the name when a character has but to figure before the footlights of a single scene?--noticed these threads and patches with the quick

He lay white and still on the yellow sand, neither in time nor eternity, for a long while. How long matters no more than his name, for this is the story of Smith-Jones, and it is through his eyes

y are leaving, or the one to which they seek return? Who knows--for the vague wonder is stilled by a whispering hush! growing louder and louder as if both worlds were waiting, finger on lip,

nal English boys, had a strong dislike to kisses. He lumped them, with many other things, under the generic term bosh, and confined himself to reserved pecks at the foreheads of his mother, his sisters, his aunts, and an occasional, a very occasional, cousin. Even when they had all stood round in tears wh

as startling

. He tried to find out more by turning his head--an effort which made him realise that he had been within an ace of breaking his neck, and sobered him to acquiescence for a time. Not for long, however, seeing that the boy was a pertinacious boy. So, at the expense of a fearful rick, he discovered a hand and arm belonging to the fan--at least if it was a hand and arm after all, and not merely a withered brown branch. Smith-Jones's blue eyes came to the conclusion that it was at any rate the skeleton of a hand and arm, and what is more a curiously graceful skeleton.

e said at last, weakly surprised at his own difficult

or of the Poor being so very young, there is naturally plenty of t

on-sense into it with his brain still muddled by the jar which had so nearly sent him to still more novel environments, until his hatred of bosh made him sit up suddenly, unsteadily, one hand supporting himself, the othe

older, or younger) of fairy godmothers--as if such banalities could be considered by Smith-Jones, Assistant Commissioner of the third grade! And yet he was not without excuse. Mr. Rider Haggard has described what "She" became when the fire scorched the charm out of a face and form which, but for magic, would have mouldered and been remoulded to fresh beauty centuries and centuries before. The figure in the pack-basket was as shrunken, as shrivelled, as any "She." Extreme old age had driven womanhood away; it had stolen every curve, every contour, every colour; and yet, possibly because the slow furnace of natural life is kinder than its artificial fires, there was nothing unlovely in the wizened face or form. On the contrary, Smith-Jones, despite the memory of that fan

d is in possession of such great youth that he can afford to rest till Dittu returns from pursuing the Presence's horse, which, conceiving that the Protector had no immediate need of its services, hath retired, after the manner of beasts, to

lay back on the pillow which the strange watcher had evidently improvised from the coarse outside veil

said he after a pause, a little fretfully, for he was unuse

. If my Lord had gone a pace farther from the tree, he would not have bee

sh!" he muttered; adding aloud, as if to ch

cooing voice, "he will not care for mine. He is

t my great-grandfather

rtheless, if the Presence's great-grandfather (Heaven cool his grave!) had been in J

kwards and forwards, in that even rhythmical sweep which only those accustomed to the task

e Court in the evening, sitting in the screened room where only the great and the favoured had sight of my mistress. Sometimes the Presence's people came from over the sea; I have seen them. They came i

situation. Among other things he was a student of folk-lore, and the chance of acquiring information from this old woman, something that might even be construed into a sun-myth, was exceedingly

ably toneless, arrested his wonder. "Why should I not sing, Huzoor, seeing I am of a family of bards? We sing both of the old and the new order. My father and my

em now, thought Smith-Jones, feeling surr

my song. My singing is for sleep and dreams, and this song has been waiting to

ones felt at once that he was listening to a past mistress in her art. The art which in old times represented history, literature, and the drama, and made the desire for, or possession of, a really good bard a just cause for battle, murder, or sudden death among rival Courts. He could not, of course, recollect the exact words used, but, in telling me the tale years after, he declared that his memory cl

lar of Just

o sang, yet rose-like was silent of kisses. Heart of my heart? why should I sing of

was so fair and young, he came from far over the seas. Was it j

ires he sought whilst love was seeking for him. Yea, the black sought for love in the b

sun! Hai, co

t this, a l

Hai

els, the one for the sake of the other. For the Rani grew old, and such women are easily flattered. But Singing-Rose smiled as she sang. Though naught but a singing slave, men s

ke! Hai, ven

our own p

! H

ly. "Gold from a snake, but a kiss from the sun," I sang bravely; giving no heed to her frown, for speech was not mine, save by singing; night after night singing on, whilst they whi

, nothing

f the Rose

ught f

n! li

ys of love

iles of lo

." Alone in the garden I read it. I saw not the snake hid in the bushes with unwinking, venomous eyes. "This to my mistress," he laughed, "and to-night, when the clock chimes one, he di

thing but lies

s gold he do

s!

. Listen! the rose has thorns to protect her blossoms; a woman has guiles and smiles to protect her lover. "What

ed and lust

at the b

not the

e is no safety but death. One and eleven when figured on paper show little of change. A stroke, a scratch of a thorn! No need for more tha

aiting 'mid

g out t

e snake

-five--six--seven--eig

tighter when the knife flashed out of the dark. "Let me go," he shrieked in his terror, but the thorns of the rose held fast, the warm blood st

eves when a s

that its po

h in thei

in its rising,--hastening its flight from the east, to its home in the arms of the west. Is not that the course

Rose, the S

the nig

blood-stained heart when the sun shines on other roses. So it sang, waiting always for the kiss which never came. Pillar of Justice, fro

red to him confused and bewildering; nevertheless part of it might be twisted into some semblance of a myth. The sun was frequently mentioned, and the chi

In his more collected mood it struck him as undignified. He blushed a little, rose hastily, and prepared to mount his horse and depart at once. With this intention, proceeding to rummage in his pockets for a rupee, whic

ne-deaf and blind. She sits so all day, never saying a word save her prayers. She is a real pious one. Hai, Hai, what misfortune

oubt about him when Dittu's grin and the iron came out of the sand together with the remark that, if the Presence would sit down and wait a while, he, Dittu, had some string with which a splice of the broken strap could be made in a minute or two. Meanwhile, as the Presence no longer required the pillow, he would e'

g her about for?" ask

fully in holy Ganges. So as I had the dead ancestors of the village to carry (they are in those l

the spectacles were away) grew big with surprise. "You m

and as I was strong I brought the old lady too. She doesn't seem able to die up there amongst us all, and sh

more troubled. He had read in books of old people being brought thus to end their days devoutly in the sac

n she was quite a girl--a long time ago, before the gracious and beneficent rule of the Presences came to put an end to all wrongdoing--she had both her feet cu

r feet c

to come before the Great Company Bahadur threw the mantle of protection over the poor. I know not the story rightly; perhaps even old Gulabi hath forgotten it, seeing it was so long ago. The Rani she served was jealous, and would have killed the Singing-Rose (so they called the old mother) but

ylike figure in the basket. "Did she ever te

s young Gulabi held her tongue on that score. Only if folk pitied her for crawling like a frog she would smile, saying some things were worth more than

y with this euphemism for the strange and barbarous custom he had read about in books. He seeme

the earthern pots) "was the last person who knew her ere she ceased singing. Now she is gone, wherefore should Gulabi wait longer? She hath

n-on-the-Fens by its laxity--Herbert Spencer's Sociology, finally The Whole Duty of Man, which had been presented to him by a maiden aunt. And outside, beyond the thin film of canvas separating him from the calm Indian night, stretched a flood of moonshine; the tent-ropes glittering like silver cords against the dark

woman wrapped in a shroud-like veil and balanced by the ashes of the village. Swaying, bobbing, dancing, mummy and ashes alike, as the pliant bamboo lever on Dittu's shoulder made the jingles chink and the eyes on the worn peacock's plume a

kness, as if a great gulf were fixed between the light westward and the light eastward. Here, in this No Man's Land, Dittu set down his banghy, propped t

cock's eyes. For all that he saw it clearly in his mind. He saw the net of earthern pots, the figure in the shroud,--nay, he saw more! He saw through the grave clothe

ociology, folklore, and the whole duty of man. He forgot the sun-myth and the great fight between darkness and dawn which never

ming wife and a growing family, but never, he assured me, had he forgotten, nor could he ever forget, that kiss! He declared that for one short second the whole world was at his feet, the wilderness a blossoming rose, the perfumes of which lingered-- Here he

LLAGE

uttia being without heirs,"

g her

se somewhat,--at the other side of the table, Huzoor!--beside the yel

who had evidently had a very satisfying meal, and who was even now preserving its contour

eirs of any k

Bhamaniwallah-khurd. There the misfortune of being eaten by a snake ca

n draperies pressed a step forward with outstretched petitioning hands. They had been awaiting this crisis

he head-men of the villa

sely represented. The woman was

ritten? Then bri

h-khurd, or Little Bhamaniwallah. Big Bhamaniwallah lay a full mile to the northward, secured against midsummer floods by the high bank which stretched like a mud wall right across the Punjab plain, from the skirts of the hills to the great meeting of the five waters at Mittankote. But Little Bhamaniwallah lay in the lap of the river, and so Bahadur, and Boota, and Jodha, and all

et, as she patted out the dough cakes and expostulated shrilly at the introduction of a new mouth into t

s what my Lords desire with the Harni brat, but if they ask for her, she must be

nt away empty. Indeed, to tell the sober truth, Nuttia was not to be gainsaid as to her own hunger. "My stomach is bigger than that, grandmother!" she would say confidently, if the alms appeared to her inadequate, and neither cuffs nor neglect altered her conviction. She never cried, and the little fat hand silently demanding more, came back again and aga

nt was a far less estimable member of society than Nuttia without one. To begin with, it afforded opportunity for the display of many mortal sins. Vainglory in her own appearance, deceit in attempting to palm the solitary pri

ity from a society which failed to appreciate her, and took to the wilderness instead. At earliest dawn, after her begging-round was over, she would wander out from the thorn-enclosures to the world--a kaleidoscope world where fields ripened golden crops one year, and the next brought the red-brown river wrinkling and dimpling in swift current; where big brand-new continents rose up before eager eyes, and clothed themselves in green herbs and creeping things innumerable; going no further, however, in the scale of creation, except when the pelicans hunch

provide Nuttia with a veil, in case she should be haled to the Presence; and two yards of Manchester muslin were purchased from the reserve funds of the village, and handed over to the child with many wise saws on the general advisability of decency. Nuttia's del

e usual cloud of witnesses filled with patient amazement at this unnecessary display of energy; yet for all that counting shrewdly on the good temper likely to result from good sport. So much so, that the sudden uprising into bad language of the Huzoor sent

of a devil. So Nuttia was solemnly censed with red pepper and turmeric, until her yells and struggles were deemed sufficient to denote a casting out of the evil spirit. It is not in the slow-brained, calm-hearted peasant of India to

f capture and sudden death, instead of that dim desire of companionship, for all the notice taken by the birds, and the squirrels, and the rats, of her outstretched handful of crumbs. She would sit for long hours, silent as a little bronze image set

as good as two--nay, better, since it stands more firmly. Arms were of course wanting, but the holes ready cut in the oval centre for the insertion of the bed-frame formed admirable sockets for two straight pieces of bamboo. At this stage Nuttia's treasure presented the appearance of a sign-post; but the passion of creation was on the child, and a

r, and friend. Whether the doll fared best with a heart's whole devotion poured out on her wooden head, or whether Nuttia's part in giving was more blessed, need not be considered; the result to both being a steady grin on a broad round face. But there was another result also--Nuttia began to develop a taste for pure virtue. Perhaps it was the necessity of posing before Sirdar Begum as infallible joined to the desire of keeping that young person's conduct up to heroic pitch, which caused the sudden rise in principle. At all events the Legacy's cattle became renowned as steady milkers, and the amount of butte

e right direction and thereafter to keep silence. And every baby in both Bhamaniwallahs knew that hoof-prints were not a legitimate subject for conversation; all save Nuttia, and she--as luck would have it--was a herd-girl! They tried beating this sixth sense into her, but it was no use, and so whenever the silver-fringed turban, white cotton gloves, and clanking sword of the native Inspector of Police were expected in the village, they used to send the Legacy away to the back of beyont,--right away to the Luckimpur

r, gathered them round her with the herdsman's cry, and drove them to the further brink, intending to take them across to a smaller island

water stretching away to the horizon. Something had frightened them--but what? She gave up the puzzle, and with Sirdar Begum bolt u

zzy head, but it pierced Nuttia's thick pate, making her nod drowsily. Her voice recounting the thrilling adventures of brave Bhop

l new soil thrown up nearer the high bank. Ay! and driven many of them to seek new homes beside the new fields, until Bhamaniwallah-khurd had dwindled away to a few houses, a very few, and these on that hot April day deserted for the most part, since all the able-bodied men and women were away at the harvest. Even the herds had driven their cattle northwards, hoping to come in for some of the lively bustle of the fields. So there remained none save Nuttia on the Luckimpura island, and Mussumat Jewun with her new baby and the old hag who nursed her, in the reed huts. All this came to the girl's memory as the long low cry of the

decision and broke away. She collected her few remaining favourites, and with cheerful cries plunged into the tamarisk jungle. Here, shut out from sight, save of the yielding bushes, her thoughts went far afield. What if the old nullah between the reed huts and the rising ground were to fill? W

broke in on the new-born baby's wail as Nuttia's br

grumbled Jewun drowsily. "Dost wish to cast t

her fingers. "Sure some devil possesseth the

ow, crawling on her knees to the door, threw up her hands and shrieked aloud. The water stood ankle-de

vailing cry rang out as the wom

own, and help. I saw them do it at Luckimpura that time they took the catt

of reeds cut ready for re-thatching, and on this frail raft four people--nay five! for first of all with jealous care N

tream swirls past holding them with it, though they breast it bravely. A log, long stranded in some shallow, dances past, shaving the raft by an inch. Then an alligator, swept from its moorings and casting eyes on Nuttia's brown legs, makes the beasts plunge madly. A rope breaks,--the churned water sweeps over the women,--the en

shallows before them. She knows from the narrowness of the ridge they have reached that time i

face grew grey,--she turned on them like a fury. "S

r petticoats for greater freedom. "There was no ro

has faced the flood again, but this time with a light load, for the ba

mine eyes! Core of my he

ehind the big one never turned from its set purp

the floods subsided; and Moti joined the herd next day to chew the cud of her reflections contentedly. But the village Legacy and H

TNO

a religious

2: Name o

for five and twenty, but those who said punj-is were passed. In other words, the patois w

Bunniah-ji signifies, as Shakespe

Zemindar-ji,

of familiarity, is applied i

cher, a sage, answering in some resp

ttracted by the scent of blood, as

e 9: Wi

te 10:

. Baba is constantly use

e and lentil. A catch

te 13:

14: The S

applied always to wandering devotees

16: Roast

: The Sikh

: A Mohamme

and his prophet Mohammed;"

e veil worn by

avened cakes and

e 22: T

Hindu Venus; Durg

cow will not give milk i

e 25: S

rker sahib is a perennial jest with both maste

of honour equivalen

te 28:

The usual p

of courtesy equival

N