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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39987-8.txt b/39987-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cde400 --- /dev/null +++ b/39987-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9000 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Flower of Forgiveness, by Flora Annie Steel + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Flower of Forgiveness + +Author: Flora Annie Steel + +Release Date: June 13, 2012 [EBook #39987] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (Harvard University) + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=XqMYAAAAYAAJ + (Harvard University) + + + + + + + THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS + + + + + + + THE + + + FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS + + + + + BY + + FLORA ANNIE STEEL + + Author of "Miss Stuart's Legacy," Etc. + + + + + + + New York + MACMILLAN AND CO. + AND LONDON + 1894 + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + + + Copyright, 1894, + By MACMILLAN AND CO. + + + + + + Norwood Press: + J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith + Boston, Mass. U.S.A. + + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + The Flower of Forgiveness. + + Harvest. + + For the Faith. + + The Bhut-Baby. + + Râmchunderji. + + Heera Nund. + + Feroza. + + In the House of a Coppersmith. + + Faizullah. + + The Footstep of Death. + + Habitual Criminals. + + Mussumât Kirpo's Doll. + + "London." + + Lâl. + + A Debt of Honour. + + The Village Legacy. + + + + + THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS. + + +"Surely this is very rare?" I remarked, as looking through a herbarium +of Himalayan plants belonging to a friend of mine, I came upon a small +anemone which, contrary to the custom of that most delicate of flowers, +had preserved its colour in all its first freshness. Indeed, the +scarlet petals, each bearing a distinct, heart-shaped blotch of white +in the centre, could scarcely have glowed more brilliantly in life than +they did in death. + +"Very rare," returned the owner after a pause; "I have reason to +believe it unique--so far as collections go, at any rate." + +"I see you have called it _Remissionensis_. What induced you to give it +such an odd name?" + +He smiled. "Dog Latin, I acknowledge. As for the reason--can you not +guess?" + +"Well," I replied, looking closer at the white and red flowers, "I have +not your vivid imagination, but I presume it was in allusion to sins as +scarlet, and hearts white as wool. Ah! it was found, I see, near the +Cave of Amar-nâth; that accounts for the connection of ideas." + +"No doubt," he said quietly, "that accounts for the connection in a +measure; not entirely. The fact is, a very odd story--the oddest story +I ever came into personally--is connected with that flower. You +remember Taylor, surgeon of the 101st, who died of pyćmia contracted in +some of his cholera experiments? Well, just after I joined we chummed +together in Cashmere, where he was making the herbarium at which you +have been looking. He was a most charming 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 amount of +information utterly undreamed of by most Englishmen. For instance, his +first acquaintance with the existence of this anemone grew out of a +chance conversation with an old ruffian besmeared with filth from head +to foot, and it was his consequent desire to add the rarity to his +collection, joined to my fancy for seeing a real pilgrimage, which +brought us to Islamabad about the end of July, about the time, that is +to say, of the annual festival. + +"The sacred spring where the pilgrimage is inaugurated by a solemn +feeding of the holy fish is some way from the town, so we pitched our +tents under a plane-tree close to the temples, in order to see the +whole show. And a queer show it was. Brummagem umbrellas stuck like +mushrooms over green stretches of grass, and giving shelter to a motley +crew; _jogis_, or wandering mendicants, meditating on the mystic word +Om, and thereafter lighting sacred fires with Swedish _tändstickors_; +Government clerks, bereft of raiment, forgetting reports and averages +in a return to primitive humanity. Taylor never tired of pointing out +these strange contrasts, and over his evening pipe read me many a long +lecture on the putting of new wine into old bottles. For myself, it +interested me immensely. I liked to think of the young 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-nâth 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 ridiculously like _Il Re Galant 'uomo_, that +we nicknamed him Victor Emanuel on the spot), that Taylor had first +heard of the Flower of Forgiveness, as the man styled it. He and the +doctor grew quite hot over the possible remission of sins; but the +subsequent gift of one rupee sterling sent him away asseverating that +none could filch from him the first-fruits of pilgrimage--namely, the +opportunity of meeting a Protector of the Poor so virtuous, so +generous, so full of the hoarded wisdom of ages. I recognised the old +humbug in the crowd as we made our way to a sort of latticed gallery +belonging to the Maharajah's guest-house, which gave on the tank where +the fish are fed. He salaamed profoundly, and, with a grin, expressed +his delight that, after all, the great doctor _sahib_ should be seeking +forgiveness. + +"'I seek the flower only, Pious One,' replied Taylor, with a shrug of +the shoulders. + +"'Perhaps 'tis the same thing,' replied Victor Emanuel with another +salaam. + +"The square tank was edged by humanity in the white and saffron robes +of pilgrimage. Brimming up to the stone step, worn smooth by +generations of sinners, the waters of the spring lapped lazily, stirred +by the myriads of small fish which, in their eagerness for the coming +feast, flashed hither 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 attendant Brahmans stood with +high-heaped baskets of grain awaiting the sacrificial words about to be +spoken by an old man, who, with one foot on the bank, spread his arms +skywards--an old man of insignificant height, but with an indescribable +dignity, on which I remarked to my companion. + +"'It is indescribable,' he assented, 'because it is compounded of +factors not only wide as the poles asunder from you and me, but also +from each other. Pride of twice-born trebly-distilled ancestry bringing +a conviction of inherited worthiness; pride in hardly-acquired devotion +giving birth to a sense of personal frailty. _That_ is the Brahman whom +we lump into a third-class railway carriage with the ruck of humanity, +and then wonder--hush! he is going to begin.' + +"'Thou art Light! Thou art Immortal Life!' The voice, with a tremor of +emotion in it, pierced the stillness for a second before it was +shattered by a hoarse, strident cry--'Silence!' + +"Taylor leaned forward, suddenly interested. 'You're in luck,' he +whispered, 'I believe there is going to be a row of some sort.' + +"Once more the cry rose harsher than before: 'Silence, Sukya! Thou art +impure.' + +"A stir in the crowd, and a visible straightening of the old man's back +were the only results. + +"'Thou art the Holiest Sacrifice! We adore Thee, adorable Sun!' + +"'Silence!' + +"This time the interruption took shape in a _jogi_, who, forcing his +way through the dense ranks, emerged on the platform to stand pointing +with denunciatory finger at the old Brahman. Naked, save for the cable +of grass round his loins and the smearing of white ashes, 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 reception seemed +to rouse the old man's wrath, for after one scornful glance at the +new-comer he was about to continue his invocation to the sun, when the +_jogi_, striding forward, flourished his mendicant's staff so close to +the other's face that he perforce fell back. + +"Before the crowd had grasped the deadly earnest of the scene, a lad of +about sixteen, clad in the black antelope skin which marks a religious +disciple, had leaped, quivering with rage, between the old man and his +assailant. + +"'By George,' muttered Taylor, 'what a splendid young fellow!' + +"He was indeed. Extraordinarily fair, even for the fairest race in +India, he might have served as model for a young Perseus as he stood +there, the antelope skin falling from his right shoulder, leaving the +sacred cord of the Brahman visible on his left, while his smooth, round +limbs showed in all their naked, vigorous young beauty. + +"'Stand off, Amra! who bade thee interfere?' cried the old man sternly. +The bond between them was manifest by the alacrity with which the boy +obeyed the command; 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 the expected almsgiving, hurried +forward. Luckily the crowd kept the silence which characterises +gregarious humanity in the East, so we could follow what was said. + +"'Wilt remove yonder drunken fanatic, or shall the worship of the +Shining Ones be profaned?' asked the old Brahman savagely; and at a +sign from their chief the attendants stepped forward. + +"But the _jogi_ facing the crowd, appealed direct to that fear of +defilement which haunts the Hindu's heart. 'Impure! Impure! Touch him +not! Hear him not! Look not on him!' The vast concourse swayed and +stirred, as 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 speech, and finding silence! But now speech is given by +the same Spirit. That man, Sukya, anchorite of Setanagar, is unclean, +false to his race, to his vows, to the Shining Ones! I, Gopi the +_bikshu_, will prove it.' + +"Once again a murmur rose like the wind presaging a storm, and as the +crowd surged closer to the temple, a young girl in the saffron drapery +of a pilgrim took advantage of the movement 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, whispered something in her ear. She smiled up at him; +and so they stood, hand in hand, eager but confident, as the Brahman's +voice, clear with certainty, dominated the confusion. + +"'Ay! Prove it! Prove that I, Sukya, taught of the great Swami, +twice-born Brahman, faithful disciple, blameless householder and pious +anchorite in due turn, as the faith demands, have failed once in the +law without repentance and atonement! Lo! I swear by the Shining Ones +that I stand before ye to-day, body and soul, holy to the uttermost.' + +"'God gie us a gude conceit o' oursels,' muttered Taylor. + +"The remark jarred on me painfully, for the spiritual exaltation in the +man's face had nothing personal in it; nothing more selfish than the +rapt confidence which glorified the young disciple's whole bearing, as +he gazed on his master with the sort of blind adoration one sees in the +eyes of a dog. + +"'Think! I am Sukya!' went on the high-pitched voice. 'Would Sukya come +between his brethren and the Shining Ones? I, chosen for the oblation +by reason of virtue and learning; I, Sukya, journeying to holy +Amar-nâth not for my own sake,--for I fear no judgment,--but for the +sake of the disciple, yonder boy Amra, betrothed to the daughter of my +daughter, and vowed to the pilgrimage from birth.' + +"A yell of crackling laughter came from the _jogi_ as he leapt to the +bastion of the bathing-place, and so, raised within sight of all, +struck 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 +Sukya, to be an outcast. A Sudra of Sudras! seeing that his mother, +being twice-born, defiled her race with scum from beyond the seas.' + +"'By George!' muttered Taylor again, 'this is getting lively--for the +scum.' + +"'Perhaps the Presence is becoming tired of this vulgar scene,' +suggested an obsequious _chuprassi_, who had been devoted to our +service by order of the Cashmere officials; but the Presences were +deeply 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 +girl, moved by the unreasoning habit of race, having dropped his hand +at the first word and crept to her grandfather's side. I can see that +young face still, awful in its terror, piteous in its entreaty. + +"'Thou liest, Gopi!' cried the Brahman, gasping with passion; and at +the words a gleam of hope crept to those hunted eyes. 'Prove it, I say; +for I appeal to the Shining Ones whom I have served.' + +"'I accept the challenge,' yelled the _jogi_ with frantic gestures, +while a perfect roar of assent, cries of devotion, and prayers for +guidance, rose from the crowd. + +"Taylor looked round at me quickly. 'You are in luck. There is going to +be a miracle. I saw that Gopi at Hurdwâr once; he is a rare hand at +them.' He must have understood my resentment at being thus recalled to +the nineteenth century, for he added half to himself, ''Tis tragedy for +all that,--to the boy.' + +"An appeal for silence enabled us to hear that both parties had agreed +to refer the question of birth to the sacred cord, with which every +male of the three twice-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 of anything pointing to the +despised Sudra would make him _anathema maranatha_, and render his +master impure, and therefore unfit to lead the devotions of others. + +"I cannot attempt to describe the scene which followed; for even now, +the confusion inseparable from finding yourself in surroundings which +require explanation before 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 wild cries, '_Hurri! +Gunga-ji! Dhurm! Dhurm!_' (Hurri![2] Ganges! the Faith! the Faith!) +Then suddenly a roar--'Gopi! a miracle! a miracle! Praise be to the +Shining Ones!' + +"It seemed but a moment ere the enthusiastic crowd had swept the _jogi_ +from his pedestal, and, crowned with jasmin chaplets, he was being +borne high on men's shoulders to make a round of the various temples; +while the keepers of the shrine swelled the tumult judiciously by cries +of 'Oblations! offerings! The Shining Ones are present to-day!' + +"In my excitement at the scene itself I had forgotten its cause, and +was regretting the all too sudden ending of the spectacle, when Taylor +touched me on the arm. 'The tragedy is about to begin! Look!' + +"Following his eyes I saw, indeed, tragedy enough to make me forget +what had gone before; yet I knew well that I did not, could not, fathom +its depth or measure its breadth. Still, in a dim way I realised that +the boy, standing as if turned to stone, had passed in those few +moments from life as 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 from hands whose touch was to +his Brahmanised soul worse than death. For him there was no future. For +the old man who, burdened by the weeping girl, stood opposite him, +there was no past. Nothing but a hell of defilement; of daily, hourly +impurity for twelve long years. The thought was damnation. + +"'Come, Premi! come!' he muttered, turning suddenly to leave the +platform. 'This is no place for us now. Quick! we must cleanse +ourselves from deadly sin--from deadly, deadly sin.' + +"They had reached the steps leading down to the tank when the boy, with +a sob like that of a wounded animal, flung himself in agonised entreaty +at his master's feet. 'Oh, cleanse me, even me also, oh my father!' + +"The old man shrank back instinctively; yet there was no anger, only a +merciless decision in his face. 'Ask not the impossible! Thou art not +alone impure; thou art uncleansable from birth--yea! for ever and ever. +Come, Premi, come, my child.' + +"I shall never forget the cry which echoed over the water, startling +the pigeons from their evening rest amid the encircling trees. +'Uncleansable for ever and ever!' Then in wild appeal from earth to +heaven he threw his arms skyward. 'Oh, Shining Ones! say I am the same +Amra, the twice-born Amra, thy servant!' + +"'Peace! blasphemer!' interrupted the Brahman sternly. 'There are no +Shining Ones for such as thou. Go! lest they strike thee dead in +wrath.' + +"A momentary glimpse of a young face distraught by despair, of an old +one firm in repudiation, and the platform lay empty of the passions +which had played their parts on it as on a stage. Only from the +distance came the discordant triumph of the _jogi's_ procession. + +"I besieged Taylor's superior knowledge by vain questions, to most of +which he shook his head. 'How can I tell?' he said somewhat fretfully. +'The cord was manipulated in some way, of course. For 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 know more, I'll send for Victor +Emanuel. Five rupees will fetch some slight fraction of truth from the +bottom of his well, and that, as a rule, is all we aliens can expect in +these incidents.' + +"So the old ruffian came and sat ostentatiously far from our +contaminating influences in the attitude of a bronze Buddha, his +mustaches curled to his eyebrows, his large lips wreathed in 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 marking the Brahman came the +hempen thread of the Kshatriya, inside again the woollen strand of the +Vaisya; all three twice-born. But last of all, a strip of cowskin +defiling the whole.' + +"'Why cow-skin?' I asked in my ignorance. 'I always thought you held a +cow sacred.' + +"Victor Emanuel beamed approval. 'The little Presence is young, but +intelligent. He will doubtless learn much if he questions the right +people judiciously. He will 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 misfortune of the cow is _anathema_. +Yea, 'twas a divine miracle. The money of the pious will flow to make +the holy fat; at least that is what the doctor _sahib_ is thinking.' + +"'Don't set up for occult power on the strength of guessing palpable +truths,' replied Taylor; 'that sort of thing does not amuse me; but the +little _sahib_ wants to know how much truth there was in Gopi's story.' + +"'Gopi knows,' retorted our friend with a grin. 'The Brahman saith the +boy was gifted to him by a pious woman after the custom of +thanksgiving. Gone five years old, wearing the sacred thread, versed in +simple lore, intelligent, well-formed, as the ritual demands. Gopi +saith the mother, his wife, 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 fulfilled her life, but not +the name of the anchorite she deceived. So Gopi, knowing from the +mother's babbling of this mongrel's blasphemous name, and the vow of +pilgrimage for the expiation of sins, hath come hither, led by the +Spirit, every year. It is a tale of great virtue and edification.' + +"'But the boy! the wretched boy?' I asked eagerly. Taylor raised his +eyebrows and watched my reception of the _jog's_ answer with a +half-pitying smile. + +"'Perhaps he will die; perhaps not. What does it matter? One born of +such parents is dead to virtue from the beginning, and life without +virtue is not life.' + +"'He might try Amar-nâth and the remission of sins you believe in so +firmly,' remarked Taylor, with another look at me. + +"Victor Emanuel spat freely. 'There is no Amar-nâth for such as he, and +the Presence knows that as well as I do. No remission at all, even if +he found the Flower of Forgiveness, as the doctor _sahib_ hopes to do.' + +"'Upon my soul,' retorted Taylor impatiently, 'I believe the existence +of the one is about as credible as the other. I shall have to swallow +both if I chance upon either.' + +"'That may be; but not for the boy Amra. He will die and be damned in +due course.' + +"That seemed to settle the question for others, but I was haunted by +the boy's look when he heard the words, 'Thou art uncleansable for ever +and ever.' + +"'After all 'tis only a concentrated form of the feeling we all have at +times,' remarked Taylor drily; 'even I should like to do away with a +portion of my past. Besides, all religions claim more or less a +monopoly of repentance. They are no worse here than at home.' + +"We journeyed slowly to Amar-nâth, watching the pilgrims pass us by on +the road, but catching them up again each evening after long rambles +over the hills in search of rare plants. It is three days' march, by +rights, to Shisha Nag, or the Leaden Lake, where the pilgrimage begins +in real earnest by the pilgrims, men, women, and children, divesting +themselves of every stitch of raiment, and journeying stark naked +through the snow and ice 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 the cold extremely, +and was in consequence seldom sober, and extremely loquacious. I +thought I had never seen such a dreary place as Shisha Nag, though the +sun shone brilliantly on its cliffs and glaciers. I think it must have +been the irresponsiveness of the lake itself which deadened its +beauties, for the water, surcharged with gypsum, lay in pale green +stretches, refusing a single reflection of the hills which held it so +carefully. + +"The next march was awful; and in more than one place, half hidden by +the flowers forcing their way through the snow, lay the corpses of +pilgrims who had succumbed to the cold and the exposure. + +"'Pneumonia in five out of six cases,' remarked Taylor casually. 'If it +were not for the _churrus_ (concoction of hemp) they drink, the +mortality would be fearful. I wonder what Exeter Hall would say to +getting drunk for purposes of devotion?' + +"At Punjtârni we met the returning pilgrims; among others Victor, very +sick and sorry for himself physically, but of intolerable moral +strength. He told us, between the intervals of petitions for pills and +potions, that the remaining fourteen miles to the Cave were unusually +difficult, and had been singularly fatal that year. On hearing this, +Taylor, knowing my dislike to 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 much drunkenness or +so much devotion as I saw that evening at Punjtârni. It was hard indeed +to tell where the one began and the other ended; for excitement, +danger, and privation lent their aid to drugs, and a sense of relief to +both. The very cliffs and glaciers resounded with enthusiasm, and I saw +Sukya and Premi taking their part with the rest as if nothing had +happened. + +"Taylor and I started alone next morning. We were to make a long round +in search of the Flower of Forgiveness, and come back upon the Cave +towards afternoon. The path, if path it could 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. Yet not a trace did we find of the anemone. Taylor grew +fretful, and when we reached the snow slope leading to the Cave, he +declared it would be sheer waste of time for him to go up. + +"'Get rid of your sins, if you want to, by all means,' he said; 'I've +seen photographs of the place, and it's a wretched imposture 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 cliffs on your return; and +don't be long, for the going before us is difficult.' So I left him +poking into every crack and cranny. + +"I could scarcely make up my mind if I was impressed or disappointed +with the Cave. Its extreme insignificance was, it is true, almost +ludicrous. Save for a patch of red paint and a shockingly bad attempt +at a stone image of Siva's bull, there was nothing to distinguish this +hollow in the rock from a thousand similar ones all over the Himalayas. +But this very insignificance gave mystery to the fact that hundreds of +thousands of the conscience-stricken had 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; but ere long the usual difficulties of short cuts cropped up, and +I had eventually to limp back to the slope with a badly cut ankle, +which bled profusely despite my rough efforts at bandaging. The loss of +blood was sufficient to make me feel quite sick and faint, so that it +startled me to come suddenly on Taylor sooner than I expected. He was +half kneeling, half sitting on the snow; his coat was off, and his face +bent over something propped against his arm. + +"'It's that boy,' he said shortly, as I came up. 'I found him just +after you left, lying here--to rest, he says. It seems he has been +making his way to the Cave ever since that day, without bite or sup, by +the hills,--God knows how,--to avoid being turned back by the others. +And now he is dying, and there's an end of it.' + +"'The boy--not Amra!' I cried, bending in my turn. + +"Sure enough, on Taylor's arm, with Taylor's coat over his wasted body, +lay the young disciple. His great, luminous eyes looked out of a face +whence even death could not drive the beauty, and his breath came in +laboured gasps. + +"'Brandy! I have some here,' I suggested in hot haste, moved to the +idiotic suggestion by that horror of standing helpless which besets us +all in presence of the Destroyer. + +"Taylor looked at the boy with a grave smile and shook his head. 'To +begin with, he wouldn't touch it; besides, he is past all that sort of +thing. No one could help him now.' He paused, shifting the weight a +little on his arm. + +"'The Presence will grow tired holding me,' gasped the young voice +feebly. 'If the _sahib_ will put a stone under my head and cover me +with some snow, I will be able to crawl on by and by when I am rested. +For it is close--quite close.' + +"'Very close,' muttered the doctor under his breath. Suddenly he looked +up at me, saying in a half-apologetic way, 'I was wondering if you and +I couldn't get him up there--to Amar-nâth I mean. Life has been hard on +him; he deserves an easy death.' + +"'Of course we can,' I cried in a rush of content at the suggestion, as +I hobbled round to get to the other side, and so help the lad to his +legs. + +"'Hollo,' asked Taylor, with a quick professional glance, 'what have +you done to your ankle? Sit down and let me overhaul it.' + +"In vain I made light of it, in vain I appealed to him. He peremptorily +forbade my stirring for another hour, asserting that I had injured a +small artery, and without caution might find difficulty in reaching the +tents, as it would be impossible for him to help me much on the sort of +ground over which we had to travel. + +"'But the boy, Taylor!--the boy!' I pleaded. 'It would be awful to +leave him here.' + +"'Who said he was to be left?' retorted the doctor crossly. 'I'm going +to carry him up as soon as I've finished bandaging your leg. Don't be +in such a blessed hurry.' + +"'Carry him! You can't do it up that slope, strong as you are, +Taylor--I know you can't.' + +"'Can't?' he echoed, as he stood up from his labours. 'Look at him and +say can't again--if you can.' + +"I looked and saw that the boy, but half conscious, yet restored to the +memory of his object by the touch of the snow on which Taylor had laid +him while engaged in bandaging my foot, had raised himself painfully on +his hands and knees, and was struggling upwards, blindly, doggedly. + +"'Damn it all,' continued the doctor fiercely, 'isn't that sight enough +to haunt a man if he doesn't try? Besides, I may find that precious +flower,--who knows?' + +"As he spoke he stooped with the gentleness, not so much of sympathy, +as of long practice in suffering, over the figure which, exhausted by +its brief effort, already lay prostrate on the snow. + +"'What is--the Presence--going--to do?' moaned Amra doubtfully, as he +felt the strong arms close round him. + +"'You and I are going to find the remission of sins together at +Amar-nâth,' replied the Presence with a bitter laugh. + +"The boy's head fell back on the doctor's shoulder as if accustomed to +the resting-place. 'Amar-nâth!' he murmured. 'Yes! I am Amar-nâth.' + +"So I sat there helpless, and watched them up the slope. Every slip, +every stumble, seemed as if it were my own. I clenched my hands and 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 to +think. It was the longest hour I ever spent before Taylor's voice +holloing from the cliff above roused me to the certainty of success. + +"'And the boy?' I asked eagerly. + +"'Dead by this time, I expect,' replied the doctor shortly. 'Come +on,--there's a good fellow,--we haven't a moment to lose. I must look +again for the flower to-morrow.' + +"But letters awaiting our return to camp recalled him to duty on +account of cholera in the regiment; so there was an end of anemone +hunting. The 101st suffered terribly, and Taylor was in consequence +hotter than ever over experiments. The result you know." + +"Yes, poor fellow! but the anemone? I don't understand how it came +here." + +My friend paused. "That is the odd thing. I was looking after the +funeral and all that, for Taylor and I were great friends--he left me +that herbarium in memory of our time in Cashmere. Well, when 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 said, by a young +Brahman, who assured him that it contained something which the great +doctor _sahib_ had been very anxious to possess, and which was now sent +by some one to whom he had been very kind. + +"'You told him the _sahib_ was dead, I suppose?' I asked. + +"'This slave informed him that the master had gained freedom, but he +replied it was no matter, as all his task was this.' On opening the +basket I found a gourd such as the disciples carry round for alms, and +in it, planted among gypsum debris, was that anemone; or rather that is +a part of it, for I put some in Taylor's coffin." + +"Ah! I presume the _gosain_--Victor Emanuel, I think you called +him--sent the plant; he knew of the doctor's desire?" + +"Perhaps. The bearer said the Brahman was a very handsome boy, very +fair, dressed in the usual black antelope skin of the disciple. It is a +queer story anyhow--is it not?" + + + + + HARVEST. + +[Respectfully dedicated to our law-makers in India, who, by giving to +the soldier-peasants of the Punjab the novel right of alienating their +ancestral holdings, are fast throwing the land, and with it the balance +of power, into the hands of money-grubbers; thus reducing those who +stood by us in our time of trouble to the position of serfs.] + + +"_Ai!_ Daughter of thy grandmother," muttered old Jaimul gently, as one +of his yoke wavered, making the handle waver also. The offender was a +barren buffalo doomed temporarily to the plough, in the hopes of +inducing her to look more favourably on the first duty of the female +sex, so she started beneath the unaccustomed goad. + +"_Ari!_ sister, fret not," muttered Jaimul again, turning from obscure +abuse to palpable flattery, as being more likely to gain his object; +and once more the tilted soil glided between his feet, traced straight +by his steady hand. In that vast expanse of bare brown field left by or +waiting for the plough, each new furrow seemed a fresh diameter of the +earth-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 +sometime if the blue was kind. That was all Jaimul knew or cared. The +empire beyond, hanging on the hope of harvest, lay far from his simple +imaginings; and yet he, the old peasant with his steady hand of patient +control, held the reins of government over how many million square +miles? That is the province of the Blue Book, and Jaimul's blue book +was the sky. + + + "Bitter blue sky with no fleck of a cloud, + Ho! brother ox! make the plough speed. + [_Ai! soorin!_ straight, I say!] + 'Tis the usurers' bellies wax fat and proud + When poor folk are in need." + + +The rude guttural chant following these silent, earth-deadened +footsteps was the only sound breaking the stillness of the wide plain. + + + "Sky dappled grey like a partridge's breast, + Ho! brother ox! drive the plough deep. + [Steady, my sister, steady!] + The peasants work, but the usurers rest + Till harvest's ripe to reap." + + +So on and on interminably, the chant and the furrow, the furrow and the +chant, both bringing the same refrain of flattery and abuse, the same +antithesis--the peasant and the usurer face to face in conflict, and +above them both the fateful sky, changeless or changeful as it chooses. + +The sun climbed up and up till the blue hardened into brass, and the +mere thought of rain seemed lost in the blaze of light. Yet Jaimul, as +he finally unhitched his plough, chanted away in serene confidence-- + + + "Merry drops slanting from west to east, + Ho! brother ox! drive home the wain; + 'Tis the usurer's belly that gets the least + When Râm sends poor folk rain." + + +The home whither he drove the lagging yoke was but a whitish-brown +mound on the bare earth-circle, not far removed from an ant-hill to +alien eyes; for all that, home to the uttermost. Civilisation, +education, culture could produce none better. A home bright with the +welcome of women, the laughter of children. Old Kishnu, mother of them +all, wielding a relentless despotism tempered by profound affection +over every one save her aged husband. Pertâbi, 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. Târadevi, whose soldier-husband was away guarding some +scientific or unscientific frontier, while she reared up, in the +ancestral home, a tribe of sturdy youngsters to follow in his +footsteps. Fighting and ploughing, ploughing and fighting; here was +life epitomised for these long-limbed, grave-eyed peasants whose +tongues never faltered over the shibboleth which showed their claim to +courage.[3] + +The home itself lay bare for the most part to the blue sky; only a few +shallow outhouses, half room, half verandah, giving shelter from +noon-day heat or winter frosts. The rest was courtyard, serving amply +for all the needs of the household. In one corner a pile of golden +chaff, ready for the milch kine which came in to be fed from the mud +mangers ranged against the wall; in another a heap of fuel, and the +tall, beehive-like mud receptacles for grain. On every side stores of +something brought into existence 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. +Târadevi 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. Pertâbi, down by the grain-bunkers, rakes more wheat from the +funnel-like opening into her flat basket, and as she rises flings a +handful to the pigeons sidling on the wall. A fluttering of white +wings, a glint of sunlight on opaline necks, while the children cease +playing to watch their favourites tumble and strut over the feast. Even +old Kishnu looks up from her preparation of curds without a word of +warning against waste; for to be short of grain is beyond her +experience. Wherefore was the usurer brought into the world save to +supply grain in advance when the blue sky sided with capital against +labour for a dry year or two? + +"The land is ready," said old Jaimul over his pipe. "'Tis time for the +seed, therefore I will seek Anunt Râm at sunset and set my seal to the +paper." + +That was how the transaction presented itself to his accustomed eyes. +Seed grain in exchange for yet another seal to be set in the long row +which he and his forbears had planted regularly, year by year, 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 any time if the blue sky +was kind. He knew nothing of Statutes of Limitation or judgments of the +Chief Court, and his inherited wisdom drew a broad line of demarcation +between paper and plain facts. + +Anunt Râm, the usurer, however, was of another school. A comparatively +young man, he had brought into his father's ancestral business the +modern selfishness which laughs to scorn all considerations save that +for Number One. He and his forbears had made much out of Jaimul and his +fellows; but was that any reason against making more, if more was to be +made? + +And more _was_ indubitably to be made if Jaimul and his kind were +reduced to the level of labourers. That handful of grain, for instance, +thrown so recklessly to the pigeons--that might be the usurer's, and so +might the plenty which went to build up the long, strong limbs of +Târadevi's tribe of young soldiers--idle young scamps who thrashed the +usurer's boys as diligently during play-time as they were beaten by +those clever, weedy lads during school-hours. + +"Seed grain," he echoed sulkily to the old peasant's calm demand. "Sure +last harvest I left thee more wheat than most men in my place would +have done; for the account grows, O Jaimul! and the land is mortgaged +to the uttermost." + +"Mayhap! but it must be sown for all that, else _thou_ wilt suffer as +much as I. So quit idle words, and give the seed as thou hast since +time began. What do I know of accounts who can neither read nor write? +'Tis thy business, not mine." + +"'Tis not my business to give ought for nought--" + +"For nought," broke in Jaimul, with the hoarse chuckle of the peasant +availing himself of a time-worn joke. "Thou canst add that nought to +thy figures, O _bunniah-ji!_[4] So bring the paper and have done with +words. If Râm sends rain--and the omens are auspicious--thou canst take +all but food and jewels for the women." + +"Report saith thy house is rich enough in them already," suggested the +usurer after a pause. + +Jaimul's big white eyebrows met over his broad nose. "What then, +_bunniah-ji?_" he asked haughtily. + +Anunt Râm made haste to change the subject, whereat Jaimul, smiling +softly, told the usurer that maybe more jewels would be needed with +next seed grain, since if the auguries were once more propitious, the +women purposed bringing home his grandson's bride ere another year had +sped. The usurer smiled an evil smile. + +"Set thy seal to this also," he said, when the seed grain had been +measured; "the rules demand it. A plague, say I, on all these +new-fangled papers the _sahib-logue_ ask of us. Look you! how I have to +pay for the stamps and fees; and then you old ones say we new ones are +extortionate. We must live, O _zemindar-ji!_[5] even as thou livest." + +"Live!" retorted the old man with another chuckle. "Wherefore not! The +land is good enough for you and for me. There is no fault in the land!" + +"Ay! it is good enough for me and for you," echoed the usurer slowly. +He inverted the pronouns--that was all. + +So Jaimul, as he had done ever since he could remember, walked over the +bare plain with noiseless feet, and watched the sun flash on the golden +grain as it flew from his thin brown fingers. And once again the +guttural chant kept time to his silent steps. + + + "Wheat grains grow to wheat, + And the seed of a tare to tare; + Who knows if man's soul will meet + Man's body to wear. + + Great Râm, grant me life + From the grain of a golden deed; + Sink not my soul in the strife + To wake as a weed." + + +After that his work in the fields was over. Only at sunrise and sunset +his tall, gaunt figure stood out against the circling sky as he +wandered through the sprouting wheat waiting for the rain which never +came. Not for the first time in his long life of waiting, so he took +the want calmly, soberly. + +"It is a bad year," he said, "the next will be better. For the sake of +the boy's marriage I would it had been otherwise; but Anunt Râm must +advance the money. It is his business." + +Whereat Jodha, the youngest son, better versed than his father +in new ways, shook his head doubtfully. "Have a care of Anunt, O +_baba-ji_,"[6] he suggested with diffidence. "Folk say he is sharper +than ever his father was." + +"'Tis a trick sons have, or think they have, nowadays," retorted old +Jaimul wrathfully. "Anunt can wait for payment as his fathers waited. +God knows the interest is enough to stand a dry season or two." + +In truth fifty per cent, and payment in kind at the lowest harvest +rates, with a free hand in regard to the cooking of accounts, should +have satisfied even a usurer's soul. But Anunt Râm 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 of dibbled-in seals dotting the +unending scroll of accounts began to sprout and bear fruit. Drought +gave them life, while it brought death to many a better seed. + +"Not give the money for the boy's wedding!" shrilled old Kishnu six +months after in high displeasure. "Is the man mad? When the fields are +the best in all the country side." + +"True enough, O wife! but he says the value under these new rules the +_sahib-logue_ make is gone already. That he must wait another harvest, +or have a new seal of me." + +"Is that all, O Jaimul Singh! and thou causing my liver to melt with +fear? A seal--what is a seal or two more against the son of thy son's +marriage?" + +"'Tis a new seal," muttered Jaimul uneasily, "and I like not new +things. Perhaps 'twere better to wait the harvest." + +"Wait the harvest and lose the auspicious time the _purohit_[7] hath +found written in the stars? _Ai_, Târadevi! _Ai!_ Pertâbi! there is to +be no marriage, hark you! The boy's strength is to go for nought, and +the bride is to languish alone because the father of his father is +afraid of a usurer! _Hač, Hač!_" + +The women wept the easy tears of their race, mingled with half-real, +half-pretended fears lest the Great Ones might resent such disregard of +their good omens--the old man sitting silent meanwhile, for there is no +tyranny like the tyranny of those we love. Despite all this his native +shrewdness 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 Râm, and told +him that he had decided on postponing the marriage. The usurer's face +fell. To be so near the seal which would make it possible for him to +foreclose the mortgages, and yet to fail! He had counted on this +marriage for years; the blue sky itself had fought for him so far, and +now--what if the coming harvest were a bumper? + +"But I will seal for the seed grain," said old Jaimul; "I have done +that before, and I will do it again--we know that bargain of old." + +Anunt Râm closed his pen-tray with a snap. "There is no seed grain for +you, _baba-ji_, this year either," he replied calmly. + +Ten days afterwards, Kishnu, Pertâbi, and Târadevi were bustling about +the courtyard with the untiring energy which fills the Indian woman +over the mere thought of a wedding, and Jaimul, out in the fields, was +chanting as he scattered the grain into the furrows-- + + + "Wrinkles and seams and sears + On the face of our mother earth; + There are ever sorrows and tears + At the gates of birth." + + +The mere thought of the land lying fallow had been too much for him; so +safe in the usurer's strong-box lay a deed with the old man's seal +sitting cheek by jowl beside Anunt Râm'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 wandered +oftener than ever over the brown expanse of field where a flush of +green showed that Mother Earth had done her part, and was waiting for +Heaven to take up the task. + +The wedding fire-balloons rose from the courtyard, and drifted away to +form constellations in the cloudless sky; the sound of wedding drums +and pipes disturbed the stillness of the starlit nights, and still day +by day the green shoots grew lighter and lighter in colour because the +rain came not. Then suddenly, like a man's hand, a little 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 solid purple and the +solid brown, what joy to pick a dry-shod way along the boundary ridges +and see the promise of harvest doubled by the reflection of each tender +green spikelet in the flooded fields! The night settled down dark, +heavenly dark, with a fine spray of steady rain in the old, +weather-beaten face, as it set itself towards home. + +The blue sky was on the side of labour this time, and, during the next +month or so, Târadevi's young soldiers made mud pies, and crowed more +lustily than ever over the _bunniah's_ boys. + +Then the silvery beard began to show in the wheat, and old Jaimul +laughed aloud in the fulness of his heart. + +"That is an end of the new seal," he said boastfully, as he smoked his +pipe in the village square. "It is a poor man's harvest, and no +mistake." + +But Anunt Râm was silent. The April sun had given some of its sunshine +to the yellowing crops before he spoke. + +"I can wait no longer for my money, O _baba-ji!_" he said; "the three +years are nigh over, and I must defend myself." + +"What three years?" asked Jaimul, in perplexity. + +"The three years during which I can claim my own according to the +_sahib-logue's_ rule. You must pay, or I must sue." + +"Pay before harvest! What are these fool's words? Of course I will pay +in due time; hath not great Râm sent me rain to wash out the old +writing?" + +"But what of the new one, _baba-ji?_--the cash lent on permission to +foreclose the mortgages?" + +"If the harvest failed--if it failed," protested Jaimul quickly. "And I +knew it could not fail. The stars said so, and great Râm would not have +it so." + +"That is old-world talk!" sneered Anunt. "We do not put that sort of +thing in the bond. You sealed it, and I must sue." + +"What good to sue ere harvest? What money have I? But I will pay good +grain when it comes, and the paper can grow as before." + +Anunt Râm sniggered. + +"What good, O _baba-ji?_ Why, the land will be mine, and I can take, +not what you give me, but what I choose. For the labourer his hire, and +the rest for me." + +"Thou art mad!" cried Jaimul, but he went back to his fields with a +great fear at his heart--a fear which sent him again to the usurer's +ere many days were over. + +"Here are my house's jewels," he said briefly, "and the mare thou hast +coveted these two years. Take them, and write off my debt till +harvest." + +Anunt Râm smiled again. + +"It shall be part payment of the acknowledged claim," he said; "let the +Courts decide on the rest." + +"After the harvest?" + +"Ay, after the harvest; in consideration of the jewels." + +Anunt Râm kept his word, and the fields were shorn of their crop ere +the summons to attend the District Court was brought to the old +peasant. + +"By the Great Spirit who judges all it is a lie!" That was all he could +say as the long, carefully-woven tissue of fraud and cunning blinded +even the eyes of a justice 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 need to detail the +strands which formed the net. The long array of seals had borne fruit +at last, fiftyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold--a goodly harvest for the +usurer. + +"Look not so glum, friend," smiled Anunt Râm, as they pushed old Jaimul +from the Court at last, dazed, but still vehemently protesting. "Thou +and Jodha thy son shall till the land as ever, seeing thou art skilled +in such work, but there shall be no idlers; and the land, mark you, is +_mine_, not thine." + +A sudden gleam of furious hate sprang to the strong old face, but died +away as quickly as it came. + +"Thou liest," said Jaimul; "I will appeal. The land is mine. It hath +been mine and my fathers' under the king's pleasure since time began. +Kings, ay, and queens, for that matter, are not fools, to give good +land to the _bunniah's_ belly. Can a _bunniah_ plough?" + +Yet as he sat all day about the court-house steps awaiting some legal +detail or other, doubt even of his own incredulity came over him. He +had often heard of similar misfortunes to his fellows, but somehow the +possibility of such evil appearing in his own life had never entered +his brain. And what would Kishnu say--after all these years, these long +years of content? + +The moon gathering light as the sun set shone full on the road, as the +old man, with downcast head, made his way across the level plain to the +mud hovel which had been a true home to him and his for 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 scarce discernible hamlets +here and there. Not a soul in sight, but every now and again a glimmer +of light showing where some one was watching the heaps of new threshed +grain upon the threshing-floors. + +And then a straighter thread of path leading right upon his own fields +and the village beyond. What was that? A man riding before him. The +blood leapt through the old veins, and the old 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 with long, swinging stride on the figure +ahead. A white figure on a white horse like death; or was the avenger +behind beneath the lank folds of drapery which fluttered round the +walker? + +The land! No! He should never have the land. How could he? The very +idea was absurd. Jaimul, thinking thus, held his head erect and his +hands relaxed their grip. He was close on the rider now; and just +before him, clear in the moonlight, rose the boundary mark of his +fields--a loose pile of sunbaked clods, hardened 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, a silent white group in the moonlight; then the figure +on the horse slipped to the ground and moved a step forward. Only one +step, but that was within the boundary. Then, above the even wheeze of +the thirsty beast, rose a low chuckle as the usurer stooped for a +handful of soil and let it glide through his fingers. + +"It is good ground! Ay, ay--none better." They were his last words. In +fierce passion of love, hate, jealousy, and protection, old Jaimul +closed on his enemy, and found something to grip with his steady old +hands. Not the plough-handle this time, but a throat, a warm, living +throat where you could feel the blood swelling in the veins beneath +your fingers. Down almost without a struggle, the old face above the +young one, the lank knee upon the broad body. And now, quick! for +something to slay withal, ere age tired 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 +fields. They were at least free from that _thing_ at his feet; for what +part in this world's harvest could belong to the ghastly figure with +its face beaten to a jelly, which lay staring up into the over-arching +sky? So far, at any rate, the business was settled for ever, and in so +short a time that the mare had scarcely slaked her thirst, and still +stood with head down, the water dripping from her muzzle. The _thing_ +would never ride her again either. Half-involuntarily he stepped to her +side and loosened the girth. + +"_Ari!_ sister," he said aloud, "thou hast had enough. Go home." + +The docile beast obeyed his well-known voice, and as her echoing amble +died away Jaimul looked at his blood-stained hands and then at the +formless face at his feet. There was no home for him, and yet he was +not sorry, or ashamed, or frightened--only dazed at the hurry of his +own act. Such things had to be done sometimes when folk were unjust. +They would hang him for it, of course, 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 +indeed! Some one lay asleep upon the biggest pile; and his stern old +face relaxed into a smile as, stooping over the careless sentinel, he +found it was his grandson. The boy would watch better as he grew older, +thought Jaimul, as he drew his cotton plaid gently over the smooth +round limbs outlined among the yielding grain, lest the envious moon +might covet their promise of beauty. + +"Son of my son! Son of my son!" he murmured over and over again, as he +sat down to watch out the night beside his corn for the last time. Yes, +for the last time. At dawn the deed would be discovered; 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 blood upon his hands. He +looked at them with a curious smile before he lay back among the corn. +Many a night he had watched the slow stars wheeling to meet the morn, +but never by a fairer harvest than this. + +The boy at his side stirred in his sleep. "Son of my son! Son of my +son!" came the low murmur again. Ay! and his son after him again, if +the woman said true. It had always been so. Father and son, father and +son, father--and son--for ever--and ever--and ever. + +So, lulled by the familiar thought, the old man fell asleep beside the +boy, and the whole bare expanse of earth and sky seemed empty save for +them. No! there was something else surely. Down on the hard white +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 bearing +steadily towards the sleepers; past the boy, making him shift uneasily +as the cold coil touched his arms; swifter now as it drew nearer the +scent, till it found what it sought upon the old man's hands.[8] + +"_Ari_, sister! straight, I say, straight!" murmured the old ploughman +in his sleep, as his grip strengthened over something that wavered in +his steady clasp. Was that the prick of the goad? Sure if it bit so +deep upon the sister's hide no wonder she started. He must keep his +grip for men's throats when sleep was over--when this great sleep was +over. + +The slow stars wheeled, and when the morn brought Justice, it found old +Jaimul dead among his corn and left him there. But the women washed the +stains of blood and sweat mingled with soil and seed grains from his +hands before the wreath of smoke from his funeral pyre rose up to make +a white cloud no bigger than a man's hand upon the bitter blue sky--a +cloud that brought gladness to no heart. + +The usurer's boys, it is true, forced the utmost from the land, and +sent all save bare sustenance across the seas; but the home guided by +Jaimul's unswerving hand was gone, the Târadevi's tribe of budding +soldiers drifted away to learn the lawlessness born of change. Perhaps +the yellow English gold which came into the country in return for the +red Indian wheat more than paid for these trivial losses. Perhaps it +did not. That is a question which the next Mutiny must settle. + + + + + FOR THE FAITH. + + I. + +An old man dreaming of a past day and night as he sat waiting, and +these were his dreams. + + + * * * * * + + +Darkness, save for the light of the stars in the sky and the flare of +blazing roof-trees on earth. Two shadowy figures out in the open, and +through the parched silence of the May night a man's voice feeble, yet +strenuous in appeal. + +"Dhurm Singh?" + +"_Huzoor!_" + +The kneeling figure bent closer over the other, waiting. + +"The _mem sahiba_, Dhurm Singh." + +"_Huzoor--dhurm nâl_."[9] + +Then silence, broken only by the long howl of jackals gathering before +their time round that scene of mutiny and murder. + + + * * * * * + + +Darkness once more. The darkness of daylight shut out by prisoning +walls. The sweltering heat of July oozing through the shot-cracked +walls; the horrors of starvation, and siege, and sickness round two dim +figures. And once again a strenuous voice--this time a woman's. + +"Dhurm Singh!" + +"_Huzoor_." + +The answer came as before--broad, soft, guttural, in the accent of the +north-- + +"Sonny _baba_, Dhurm Singh!" + +"_Huzoor--dhurm nâl_." + +Then silence, broken only by the _whist-ch-t_ of a wandering bullet +against the wall of the crumbling fort, where one more victim had found +peace. + + + * * * * * + + +Both the May night and the July day were in old Dhurm Singh's thoughts +as he sat on his heels looking out from the Apollo Bunder at Bombay +across the Black Water, waiting, after long years, for Sonny _baba's_ +ship to loom over the level horizon. A stranger figure among the +slight, smooth 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 like a white streak between the open brown forehead and +the open brown eyes. A faded red tunic, empty of the left arm, a +solitary medal on the breast, and above the unseen coils of white +hair--long as a woman's--the high wound turban bearing the sacred steel +quoit of the Sikh devotee. + +Such was Dhurm Singh, _Akâli_; in other words, Lion of the Faith and +member of the Church Militant. Pensioner to boot for an anna or so a +day to a Government which he had also served _dhurm nâl_ as he had +served his dead captain, his dead mistress, and, last of all, Sonny +_baba!_ + +Twenty years ago. Yes! twenty years since he had answered those +strenuous appeals by his favourite word-play on his own name. He had +used it for many another promise during those long years; as a rule, +truthfully. For Dhurm Singh, as a rule, did things _dhurm nâl_--partly +because a slow, invincible tenacity of purpose made all chopping and +changing distasteful, 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_ to come sailing over the edge +of his world again, the broad simple face expanded into smiles at the +memory. He passed by all the stress and strains of that unforgotten +flight in favour of a little yellow head nestling back in alarm against +the bloodstains on the old tunic, when the white _mems_ in the big +cantonment of refuge had held out their arms to the child. + +Sonny _baba_ had known his friends in those days; ay! and he had +remembered them all these years: he and the _mem's_ sister, who had +taken charge of the boy in the foreign land across the Black Waters +whence the masters came--a gracious Miss who wrote regularly once a +year to ex-_duffadar_ Dhurm Singh, giving him the last news of Sonny +_baba_ and as regularly urging her correspondent to safeguard himself +against certain damnation by becoming an infidel. For this, briefly, +crudely, was the recipient's view of the matter as he sat staring at +the little picture texts and tracts in the Punjâbi character which +invariably accompanied the letters. They puzzled him, those picture +cards in the sacred characters which were printed so beautifully in the +far off land by people who knew nothing of him or his people, and who +yet wrote better than any _mohunt_.[10] Puzzled him in more ways than +one, since duty and desire divided as to the method of their disposal. +Respect for the _captân-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 old swash-buckler it was infinitely more amusing, even in these +degenerate days when _Akâli-dom_ had lost half its power, to go +swaggering about from fair to festival, from festival to fair, +representing the Church Militant, than to lounge about the village +watching the agricultural members of the family cultivate the ancestral +lands. They did it admirably without his help, as they had done it +always; so Dhurm Singh, at a loose end now legitimate strife was over, +took to cultivating his hair with baths of buttermilk instead, adopted +the quoit and the bracelets, and used the most pious of Sikh oaths as +he watched the wrestlers wrestle, or played singlestick for the honour +of God and the old regiment. And there were other advantages in the +profession. A man might take a more than reasonable amount of opium +occasionally without laying himself open to a heavier accusation than +that of religious enthusiasm; since opium is part of the _Akâli's_ +stock in trade. + +As he sat among the tarred ropes with his back against a consignment of +beer and rum for the British soldier, he broke off quite a large corner +of the big black lump he kept in the same pocket with the tracts, and +swallowed it whole. Sonny _baba's_ ship was not due, they told him, for +some hours to come, so there would be time for quiet dreams both of +past and future. The latter somewhat 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 _captân_ already, which was big promotion for +his few years. So Dhurm Singh--who to say sooth, was becoming somewhat +tired of the Church Militant now that younger men began to beat him at +singlestick--had returned to the old allegiance and made his way down +country, like many another old servant, to meet his master's son and +take service with him. You see them often, these old, anxious-looking +retainers, waiting on the Apollo Bunder, or coming aboard in the steam +launches with wistful, expectant faces. + +And some beardless youth, fresh from Eton or Harrow, says with a laugh, +"By George! are you old Munnoo or Bunnoo? Here! look after my traps, +will you?" And the traps are duly looked after, while the Philosophical +Radical on the rampage is taking the opportunity 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 both rulers and ruled may be glad to get rid of +him on the approach of the hot weather. Mosquitoes are troublesome, and +cholera is disconcerting, but they are bearable beside the man who +invariably knows the answers to his own questions before he asks them. + +Dhurm Singh's dreams, however, if confused, were pleasant; full of +strong meats and drinks, and men in buckram. He could not, of course, +serve the Sirkâr again with the chance of _batta_ and _loot_, but he +could serve the _chota sahib_ and wear a badge. After all, a +badge-wearer had his opportunities of hectoring. 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 +horses clattered up and down, the Royal Yacht Club pennant flew out +against the blue sky, a match was being played on the links hard by, +and the very coolies, as they hauled and heaved, used a polyglot of +sailors' slang. Only the palm-trees on the point over the bay gave an +Oriental touch to the scene. + + + * * * * * + + +"Dhurm Singh! my dear, dear old friend! Look, comrades, this is the man +who carried me to safety in his arms even as the Good Shepherd carries +His lambs." + +The speech had that unreal sound which is the curse of the +premeditated, except in the mouth of a born actor, which Sonny _baba_ +was not. And yet the young curves of 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 the +Salvation Army was on parade, and bound to keep up his character. +Nevertheless there was no lack of warmth in the grip he got of the old +man's reluctant hand. + +"_Huzoor_," faltered Dhurm Singh, taken aback at this condescension, +and letting the sword he was about to present fall back on its belt +with a clatter. The fact being that the said sword had been an occasion +of much mental distress; as an actual ex-_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 strange; and what did that squad of _mem sahibs_ mean? Their +dress did not seem so strange to the old _Akâli_, since in those palmy +days before the Mutiny the fashions were not so far removed from the +costume of a Salvation lass; but the tambourines! + +"Come and speak to the General," said Sonny _baba_ somewhat hurriedly. +He spoke in English; but just as the formula, "Look after my traps" is +"understanded of the common people" at once, so the word "General" +brought a relieved comprehension to the old Sikh's face. There were +blessed frogs on this one's coat also, which, like the word +Mesopotamia, were charged with consolation. + +The General looked at him with that curious philanthropic smile which, +while it welcomes the object, has a kind of circumambient beam of +mutual congratulation for all spectators of the benevolence. + +"You have seen service, my good old friend," he exclaimed in fluent +Urdu, as he pointed with a declamatory wave of his hand to the solitary +medal, "but it was poor service to what we offer you now. Come to us, +be our first-fruit, and help to carry the colours of the Great Army in +the van of the fight." + +A speech meant palpably for the gallery. + +Dhurm Singh, however, took it at attention, and saluted-- + +"Pension-_wallah_, _Huzoor_, unfit for duty," he replied with modest +brevity, indicating his empty sleeve. + +The General caught at the occasion for even greater unction with a +complacency which could not be concealed. + +"The Great Army is recruited from those who are unfit for duty, from +those who are sinners. Is it not so, comrades? Are we not all maimed, +halt, blind, yet entering into life?" + +"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" cried the company, bursting into the refrain +of a hymn, in which Sonny _baba_ joined with an angelic voice. The +voice, in fact, was largely 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 sure, of his dead father, +who had been the pride of the regiment. Nevertheless the effervescence +of song left the old man still deprecating and fumbling in his tunic. + +"The General-_sahib_ mistakes; these are my _pinson_ papers." + +That proved a climax. When, just as you are setting foot on a country +which you have sworn to conquer, an old warrior comes aboard and +produces a bundle of Scripture texts and Salvation hymns out of his +innermost breast pocket, naturally nothing is left but to _enthuse_. +What followed Dhurm Singh only dimly understood, but he stuck manfully +to his intention of following Sonny _baba_ to the death if needs be. +The result being that 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 complexion; so had Dhurm Singh, as he sat in the lock-up, +vastly contented with his black eye and an ugly cut on the nose, which +he explained gleefully to Sonny _baba_ put him in mind of old times. +The latter, through the medium of a fellow-passenger who knew Punjâbi, +was meanwhile trying to make the old sinner understand that he had got +the whole army into trouble, and that personally he must stand his +trial for a breach of the peace. + +"And tell him, please," said Sonny _baba_ with grieved diffidence, +"that we all think he must have been drunk." + +An odd smile struggled with the gravity of Dr. Taylor's interpretation +of the reply. + +"He says, of course he was drunk, as you all were. In fact, he bought a +bottle of rum instead of taking his opium, so that the effects might be +uniform--I'm telling you the sober truth, my 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 can when they go down or come up to the sea in +ships. Perhaps it's the connection between reeling to and fro, you +know. I beg your pardon; no offence--but really, what with the +tambourines--" + +Dr. Taylor paused with his bright eyes on the boy's face. They had been +cabin companions, and despite an absolute antagonism of thought, chums. +It is so sometimes, and as a rule such friendships last. + +"Did you tell him the General was greatly displeased? It is such a +terrible beginning to our campaign; so unscriptural," mourned Sonny +_baba_ evasively. + +"I don't know about that; wasn't there some one who smote off some one +else's ear? and that, I believe, is what the old man is accused of +doing. I beg your pardon again, but the coincidence is remarkable." + +"And what is he saying now?" put in the other hurriedly. + +Dr. Taylor paused. + +"He is calling down the blessing of the one true God upon your head, +now and for all eternity," he answered slowly, and there was a sort of +hush in his voice. + +Sonny _baba's_ eyes grew suspiciously moist, but he shook his head +dutifully. "How--how sad," he began. + +"Very sad that you can't understand what he says," interrupted Dr. +Taylor curtly, "because as I've only just time to catch my train I must +be off. Salaam, _Akâli sahib!_" + +Dhurm Singh, standing to salute, detained the doctor for a minute with +eager questioning. + +"What is it?" asked Sonny _baba_ again. "What is it he wants to know?" + +Dr. Taylor gave a short laugh. "He wants to know who the General's papa +and mamma were, because he isn't a gentleman. You needn't stare so, my +dear fellow. That is the first thing they find out about 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 appreciate their lives +before you try to change them. And look here! don't go taking an +_Akâli_ about in a religious procession with drums and banners. It +isn't safe, especially if you are going to Bengal." + +"Why Bengal more than other places?" + +"Accustomed to lick them, that's all--hereditary instinct. Well, +good-bye again, and take my advice and come north. The old +swash-buckler might be of some use to you there. He'll be in the way +down country." + + + II. + +Some eighteen months afterwards, the doctor, being busy over that great +hunt for the comma-shaped _bacillus_, which, as is told elsewhere, +ended in a full stop for the seeker, saw a man come into his verandah +with a note. + +"The old swash-buckler, by all that's sinful," he said to himself. +"Now, what can he want?" According to the superscription of the letter, +it was a "Civil Surgeon"; according to a few almost illegible words +inside, help for a suspected case of cholera in the European room of +the _serai_. + +Dr. Taylor, with grave doubts as to being able to supply either of +these desires, went into the verandah. + +"Is it Sonny _baba?_" he asked. + +Dhurm Singh's delight was boundless; since a _sahib_ to whom you have +once spoken is not as other _sahibs_; just as a _sahib_ whom you have +once served becomes a demi-god--transfigured, immortal. Undoubtedly it +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 master's +son? Undoubtedly also he was ill, though, in the poor opinion of the +dustlike one, it was not cholera--at least it need not have been if the +_Baba-sahib_ had only taken the remedy proposed to him. + +"Opium? hey!" asked Taylor, who in a huge pith hat which made him look +like an animated mushroom, was by this time walking over to the +_serai_, which was but a few hundred yards off. + +The old _Akâli_ grinned from ear to ear, the massive curves of his lips +stretching like india-rubber. "The _Huzoor_ knows the great gift of God +in the bad places of mind and body. But the _Baba-sahib_ will not have +it so. He understands not many things through being so young. But he +learns, he learns!" + +There was a cheerful content in the apology, suggestive of the +possibility that Dhurm Singh had something to do with the teaching. If +so, he had been an unsafe guide in one point; for it was cholera; +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 renewing a +friendship which, like the majority of those struck up on board ship, +would have been forgotten but for an accident--the accident of his +doing civil duty for a colleague during ten days' leave. + +"Civil Surgeon, indeed!" he would say, as he sat on the edge of the bed +amusing Sonny _baba_ when the latter began to pull round. "Deuce take +me if I could be that to save my life! One of my patients the other day +said I was the most uncivil person calling himself a gentleman she ever +came across, just because I told her she couldn't expect her liver to +act if she lived the life of a Strasburg goose. 'Liver!' she cried, +'why, doctor, it's all heart that is the matter with me.' Now, 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; but what the +devil have you done with your muscle, my dear fellow? Oh, I know! you +have been doing the _dâl-bhât_[12] trick, in order to show your +sympathy with the people, and to assimilate your wants to theirs, so +that in some occult way they are to assimilate their religious beliefs +to yours. Lordy, Lordy, what an odd creature man is! But you didn't get +old Dhurm Singh to give up his kid _pullao_, I'll go bail. Now, he +looks fit--more like your Church Militant business than you do." + +"I've--I've given up the Army," said Sonny _baba_ after an embarrassed +pause. + +And Dr. Taylor actually refrained from asking why, or from saying he +was glad to hear it; for there was a puzzled, pained look in his +patient's face, which, 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 turban off and his long white hair coiled +round the high wooden comb like any woman's, was putting an extra fine +polish to his sword to while away the time. + +"_Huzoor!_ it is true. It did not suit us. I told the _Baba-sahib_ so +from the beginning. They were not of his caste. As the Protector may +see, I did all in my power. 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, praise be to the Lord, we have +taken '_pinson_' again, and the Baba is to serve the Big _Lât-padre_ +(bishop) according to _hukm_ (orders), as all the _padre sahibs_ do." + +As he drove home, the doctor decided that he would gladly give a +month's pay to know the history of the past year and a half. The very +imagination of it made him smile. Yet there must have been more than +mere laughter in his thoughts, 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 faith were strong +in him as ever, though the angelic voice now busied itself with Hymns +Ancient and Modern; especially the Ancient. For, face to face with the +Rig-Vedas, the advantages of unquestioned authority had begun to show +themselves. + +There is no need to repeat the arguments on either side; they are +easily imagined, given the characters of the arguers. Nor is it +difficult to imagine the grip of hands when they parted. One of them, +no doubt, said something about 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 wilderness +again. The former to itinerate from village to village, learning the +language and lives of the people he hoped by and by to convert; the +latter, presumably, to complete the education he had begun. They were +an odd couple. + +"Ten to one on the swash-buckler," thought the doctor; "he is a fine +old chap." + +Christmas had come and gone ere Sonny _baba_ reappeared in civilised +society. When he did so he looked weather-beaten and yet spruce--the +natural result on a healthy young Englishman of combined exposure to +sunshine and a good washerman. + +"Hullo!" cried the doctor cheerily, "back again in boiled shirts, I +see! Find 'em a bit stiff, I expect, after _kurtas_ and _dhotees_. The +natives know how to dress comfortably at any rate." + +Sonny _baba_ blushed under his bronze and hesitated. "The fact is," he +said with an effort, "I did not, after all, adopt native costume as I +intended, or perhaps"--here a faint smile obtruded itself--"I might 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 sleeping in +public places--_serai's_ and _dhurmsâlas_--or out in the open--somehow +my day clothes were always being stolen. As soon as ever I got a new +outfit it disappeared, until at last Dhurm Singh said,--" + +"Yes! what did Dhurm Singh say?" + +"That it was very peculiar, and that as the thieves didn't seem to +fancy my English clothes it might be--more economical--" Here a +half-embarrassed laugh finally interrupted the sentence. "I don't +think I was sorry," went on the speaker hastily; "I found out +afterwards 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 +I see of these people, the more necessary it seems to me that we should +be ourselves armed at all points before beginning the attack. And then +their poverty, their patience, the insanitary conditions--the needless +suffering! Surely before we can touch their minds--" + +"I know," broke in the doctor cynically. "Medical missions, _et +cetera_; so it has come to that already, has it, old chap?" + +"I don't know what you mean by its having come to that," retorted Sonny +at a white heat; "but if you think it right to live in the lap of +luxury while these brothers and sisters of ours--" + +So the arguments began again, more fiercely than ever, for the two +fought at closer quarters--so close that ofttimes the doctor had to +retreat from his own position and seek another, because Sonny _baba_ +had already entrenched himself therein; the which is a direful offence, +rousing determined resistance in a real argufier. + +Despite this, Sonny _baba_ rented a room in the doctor's house, and +shared the doctor's dinners and library and hospital after the easy +Indian fashion, while Dhurm Singh swaggered about among the dispensary +badge-wearers, explaining at full length why he did not wear a badge +like the rest of them. His _sahib_ had not yet settled which branch of +the public service he 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_ department, but in his, +Dhurm Singh's opinion, that was not much either. Personally he would +just as soon wear no badge, as one of those with "Charitable +Dispensary" on it. But only God knew where the _Baba-sahib_ might end; +at Simla, as "_burra Lât sahib_," no doubt. Till then it was more +dignified to refrain from ignoble badges of which afterwards one might +be ashamed. + +And while he talked in this fashion he sat in the sunshine combing his +long hair, and piously wondering how folk could defile their insides +with tobacco. Then he would stroll off into the shadow and bring out +the black lump of dreams. Yet if Sonny _baba_ came out into the +verandah calling after the Indian fashion for some one, the broad +northern accent was always ready with its "_Huzoor!_" + +So the months passed in preparations, and the angelic voice might have +been heard to sing "Lead, kindly Light" more often than any other hymn +in the book. About this time, 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 +stripes--a speech which roused the doctor to vigorous retort. He had +observed, he said, that the remark held good about most honest, healthy +men who could play singlestick. + +The fact being, however, that Sonny _baba_ was beginning to get +obstinate, as is only natural when a man passes five and twenty. It was +time, he felt, to begin work in earnest; for the enthusiasm and the +faith and the fervour were as hot as ever in him still. Looking back on +the last three years he hardly understood why he had done so little. + +"There seems so much to learn before one can even begin on the +problem," he sighed, "and then, dear as the old man is, I really think +Dhurm Singh is a drawback. I hoped when we left the Army--but indeed, +Taylor, I think even you will allow that he is hardly the sort of man +for a missionary's servant." + +"Well, I don't know that I should classify him under that head; but +then," he paused, thinking, perhaps, that when all was said and done +the master was no more fit for the place than the servant. + +"I'm glad you agree with me," put in Sonny eagerly, "for I've quite +made up my mind to a change. You have no idea how the old fellow +hectors over getting me a pint of milk or a couple of eggs. You would +think 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 habit +of eating opium. It does not seem to hurt him, I own; but that again is +not what it ought to be. It is bad enough to belong to a race who, +while they go about with words of condemnation on their lips--" + +"Pardon me," murmured the doctor, "I pass--" + +"--on their lips, are at the same time battening on the proceeds of an +infamous monopoly of a drug dealing death and disease to a whole +continent." + +"One-third of one per cent of the total population," murmured the +doctor again. + +"You forget the opium grown in China," put in Sonny with great heat. + +"My dear fellow, isn't there a story somewhere about the Emperor of +China's clothes? If I remember right he forgot to put 'em on, and then +every one was afraid 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 afraid to say so. If we can prevent our +subjects from growing poppy except under supervision, why can't he? It +isn't Jonah's gourd, but a three month crop." + +Sonny _baba_ began to walk up and down the room excitedly. "It is +perfectly inexplicable to me how a man like you--" + +"Excuse me," interrupted the doctor. "I'll explain. I'm forty-four +years of age. Two and twenty years of that I lived in a parish in +Scotland where every decent, respectable body would have thought shame +to himself if he didn't have more whisky than he could carry on market +days. The other 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 seriously from the effects of opium.[13] But it is a +subject which it is quite useless to discuss. It turns on a question of +heredity, like most things. The Indo-Germanic races never have taken +and never will take to narcotics, so naturally they abuse them--and +drink instead. _Chacun ŕ son gout_." + +"And mine is to give poor old Dhurm Singh an extra pension when I go +itinerating, and send him back to end his days in peace in his +village." + +The doctor whistled. "Don't you wish you may get him to do it?" + +"He must if he is a hindrance to the work--" + +"And if your work is a hindrance to him? That's what it comes to all +round. He was put in charge of you, and mark my words, Dhurm Singh will +do it _dhurm nâl_ until he goes to settle the vexed question." + +"What vexed question?" + +"Whether his work or yours was the better." + + + III. + +"Dhurm Singh?" + +"_Huzoor_." + +After five and twenty years the same appeal--the same reply. But on +that May night and July day neither the man nor the woman had any doubt +as to what was to come next; the universe held no possibility save "the +_mem sahib_" or "Sonny _baba_ But the latter, now it came to his turn, +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, +self-respecting conversations overheard at home sprang to memory +obtrusively. "Then, Mary Ann, it had better be this day month." "Yes, +ma'am, this day month, if you please; and if you please, ma'am, +Wednesdays and Saturdays from eleven till one, if convenient, for a +character." + +But things were different somehow in this heathen country, which was so +backward in education, so ignorant of liberty, equality, and--ahem! + +"Dhurm Singh," began Sonny once more rather hurriedly. + +"_Huzoor_." + +"I--I am going to make a complete change of plan, Dhurm Singh. I--I am +going to begin work on a new principle. I--I am going to start in +another part of the country where I shall not require--er--many things +I have hitherto required." He paused, well satisfied at his plunge _in +medias res_. + +Dhurm Singh, standing attention at the door, smiled approvingly. "It is +a good word, _Huzoor_. So said the _Gurus_ also. When do we start?" + +Half an hour afterwards Sonny _baba_ in rather a shamefaced manner, +told the doctor that, after all, he had come to the conclusion it would +be better not to dismiss Dhurm Singh. To begin with, the village +children delighted in his tales, and then--it was a triviality, 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. In addition, +Dhurm Singh had promised to amend his ways generally; to spend his days +in compounding pills and potions instead of hectoring about. Finally, +he had agreed to an allowance of opium, swearing _dhurm nâl_ to take no +more than was served out by the master. + +"Of course," said Sonny _baba_ at this juncture, with a considerate +superiority which raised every atom of the doctor's original sin, "I +shall be careful, I shall not dock it too much at once; but in the +course of a year or two I hope to break him entirely of this most +pernicious habit." + +"Which has never done him or his surroundings the least harm," growled +Taylor savagely. "Upon my soul, I begin to wish I were five and twenty +again, if only that I might be as cock-sure of being right about +everything as you are. As it is, even the _bacillus_--" He wrinkled his +eyes over the microscope once more, and did not finish his sentence. + +After this Dhurm Singh might have been seen any day of the week in the +dispensary verandah grinding away vigorously with pestle and mortar at +unsavoury medicaments, rolling pills under his flexible brown fingers, +or polishing up surgical instruments with all the fervour bestowed of +yore on the old sword. + +"Lo! if the _Baba-sahib_ cares not for being a big _Hâkm_ (magistrate, +ruler), sure the next best thing is to be a big _Hâkeem_ (doctor)," he +would say, smiling simply at his own wit. "And doth not the _Guru_ say, +'Fight with 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 is ever the first step towards dream-getting. Thus +in all ways, I, Dhurm Singh, Sikh, ex-_duffadar_, _pinson-wallah_, and +_Akâli_, am consoled. But there! God is good to the Sikh. Know you that +He never made an ugly one yet?" + +This was a favourite boast of the old man's, backed always, should +doubts be expressed, by a modest appeal to his own looks, joined to an +assertion--which, by the way, was perfectly true--that he was the +meanest looking of ten brothers. + +So, in due season, the doctor once more watched the odd couple pass out +together into the wilderness; and this time, noticing the change in +Sonny _baba_ and remembering the raw lad who had been his cabin +companion, he, so to speak, put his whole pile on Dhurm Singh--unless +the boy killed him with philanthropy. + +The rains, after an unusually heavy fall, had ceased early, the result +being an epidemic of autumnal fever. Now the cholera may kill its +thousands, but year by year, with every now and again a sort of jubilee +over its own strength, malaria kills its tens of thousands quietly, +unostentatiously; so quietly, that it is only when the officer in +charge of a district finds himself during his cold weather camp +deciding the rival claims to hereditary offices day after day in +village 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 at +the same time with cautions not to be over generous except in genuine +cases. Let him stick to the country medicines as prophylactics. Opium +and aconite were to be had for the buying; and if he did wander into +the low jungles close to the hills, and if he could be tolerant and +learn not to despise old wisdom, let him prescribe the former in +preference to the latter--though perhaps that was too much to expect +from a five-and-twenty-year old who was cock-sure he knew best. + +"I know nothing of myself," replied Sonny in all seriousness. "The +Eternal Right decides. There lies the difference between you and +me--pardon me if I say between the Christian and the Unbeliever. You +trust to your finite mind, I to Something which is and was, which +cannot err." + +And Dhurm Singh, gleefully employed in turning a cash transport mule +with its fixings into a perambulating dispensary, was keeping up his +character of devotee by repeating verses from the _Adhee Grunt'h_[14] +in sing-song; his round, mellow voice echoing out through the +sunshine-- + + + "Remember, oh man, the primal truth--the Truth ere the + world began. + The Truth which is and the Truth which must remain. + How can this Truth be told, save by doing the will of the + Lord?" + + +"Listen!" said Taylor, and Sonny _baba_ moved uneasily in his chair. + +When these same preparations were complete, the old man's delight was +huge; and he drove the mule forth to the wilderness before him with +much futile waving of the stick which had replaced the sword. Even over +that abnegation he was cheerful. + +"Lo! I am turned a _dhundi-wallah_[15] in mine old age, as becomes the +pious-minded. _Ari!_ thou misbegotten offspring of a mixed race doomed +to childless extinction, wilt stray from the beaten path! Wouldst steal +the corn of others, when thy master is a _missen sahib_, and thy tender +a devotee? May the uttermost--" + +Then to Sonny's pained reproof he would reply, cheerfully as ever, that +he had understood the refraining of his tongue from abuse was to be +towards those born of Adam; and this was not even a God-created thing, +but a nondescript invented by the _sahib-logue_. + +Cheerful always; even when, as time went on, his daily pills of opium +were mixed with quinine. He sat and compounded them himself _dhurm +nâl_, keeping no grain of the beloved dream-giver from the sacrilegious +mixture, and telling the full tale of the "_fiat pillulć_" into the +master's locked medicine chest, whence they were doled out daily. + +For the first month or more, everything went smoothly. Never before had +Sonny _baba_ had such attentive listeners to the great truths he +expounded as a preliminary to his other work; never before had he felt +that he was really on the right 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 excellent creature +with sheer, unalloyed delight. She told all her circle of friends that +her nephew had fulfilled her dearest wishes in going in for the medical +mission, which was undoubtedly the only way of getting at the poor, +dear natives. + +And Sonny, in less emotional fashion, felt this to be so true that he +worked as he had never worked before. A sort of feverish desire to +utilise every opportunity, to lose no occasion for preaching the great +Gospel of Peace came over him, and he spared himself not at all, after +the manner of his kind. + +So that sometimes returning tired out in evening from some long tramp, +it was a relief to find the old swash-buckler ready with kid _pullao_ +or "_rose chikken_,"[16] and to see the tea-kettle swinging over a fire +of twigs. Sometimes 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 keeping an eye on roast pork, and at +the same time utilising the flame-light in giving a suspicious clean to +the biggest surgical knife--a queer picture seen by the fire, leaping +and dancing up into the shadows of a mango grove. + +But one evening Sonny came home with no appetite for dinner, and half +an hour afterwards he was blue and shivering in the cold fit of ague. + +"If the _Huzoor_ would take some of my pills," said Dhurm Singh +wistfully; "look at me! nothing touches me, and, lo! am I not three +times as near the grave as the _Baba-sahib_?" + +There is no need to describe the scorn which this suggestion met. As +for the pills, where would the old sinner be but for the quinine +contained therein? This was nothing but a chill, an isolated attack. He +would take an extra dose of the specific and be done with it. + +But the third day, suddenly, in the very middle of an eloquent appeal +he felt goose skin going in thrills down his back, and five minutes +after the only sound he could make was the chattering of his teeth. + +"If the _Huzoor_," began Dhurm Singh, but was checked by the frown on +the master's face; for the lad had grit and fire in him. + +Neither of these, however, avail much against a tertian ague, and it +was not long before Sonny _baba_ in the half-querulous, half-hysterical +stage before the hot fit merges into perspiration, confided with tears +to the old swash-buckler that it was no use. He was 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 often as not, it struck the +listener, to be referred to his own share in the business. To the +speaker it was otherwise. He was not fit for the work; he was of no +account, and now when at long last the time had come, when he felt that +his hand was on the plough-- + +"It is time the _Baba-sahib_ took his quinine," remarked Dhurm Singh +sagely, unsympathetically. "If the _Huzoor_ will give the keys of the +chest, this dust-like one will bring the medicine--_dhurm nâl_." 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 pills in +the burning hand before passing his one arm under the burning body, +"but the _Huzoor_ must have faith. Without it medicine is but a bad +taste in the mouth. He who believes shall be saved." + +Perhaps Sonny _baba_ took his advice yet once again, perhaps the +quinine got a fair hold of the enemy at last. Certain it is that from +the time Dhurm Singh commenced to bring the pills _dhurm nâl_, 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 sun was setting +red over the thick brakes of sugar-cane, the old man sat pounding +diligently with pestle and mortar while he intoned away at the _Adhee +Grunt'h_-- + + + "God asks no man of his birth, + He asks him what he has done, + Since all are the seed of God, + Lo! what is the world but clay, + Tho' the pots are of many moulds." + + +And Sonny _baba_ lying out in the shade blissfully conscious that he +was getting better, nay, that he was better, raised himself on one arm +and looked over with moist eyes to the old man. + +"What are you doing, Dhurm Singh?" + +"This slave makes pills. The _Huzoor_ hath eaten so many, and those of +the dust-like one have given out also. Lo! I fill the bottles against +the return of the _Baba-sahib_ to his medicine chest." + +"But, I say! are you sure you have made them right?" + +"The _Huzoor_ may rest satisfied. Five grains of the blessed medicine +for the master, and the other as before. It is _dhurm nâl, Huzoor_." + +"So you call it a blessed medicine now, Dhurm Singh?" + +"Wherefore not, since the master is better?" + +"Well! the addition of that small quantity of ipecacuanha which I +began--let me see--that day when I was so bad, certainly had a +marvellous effect. I shall write and tell Taylor about it; he was +inclined to sneer at the idea just because he didn't suggest it. +Doctors are awfully jealous of each other. That's the worst of them." + +These remarks were made mostly for his own benefit, as he lay +comfortably watching the stars come out one by one as the daylight +died. + +It was that same night that Dhurm Singh had his first go of ague. It +shook him as a sharp attack of malarious fever does shake a native past +his prime, and Sonny _baba_ amid his regrets, could not avoid a certain +elation. + +"So much for opium," he said, and yet in his heart of hearts a fear +gained ground that perhaps he might have been over rapid in diminishing +the dose. Now that the old man was actually ill, it seemed unkind to +deny him comfort; so an addition was made to the number of pills, thus +increasing the amount both of opium and quinine. + +It was more than a month later that a small procession of two men +carrying a string bed on their heads, and one man driving a pack mule, +turned into the dispensary compound. + +"It is the old man," said Sonny _baba_ to the doctor, "and I'm +afraid--" he paused before the break in his own voice. "It was that +_terai_ land. I was as bad as could be, and thought I should have to +give up; but, under Providence, quinine and ipec. pulled me round to do +the best work I have ever done in my 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 impression would +not have been so good. Still--it came upon me quite by surprise three +days ago--and--and I've brought him in by forced marches. You--" The +voice failed again. Indeed, there was no need for more, the doctor +being already on his knees by the bed, making his examination. Suddenly +he looked up. + +"Why the devil did you stop his opium, you young fool? Here, Boota +Mull, the syringe and a disc of morphia--sharp. But, after all, what +does anything matter so long as you save your own soul alive!" + +Sonny _baba_ looking very white, drew himself up into dignity. "We can +discuss that question by and by, Dr. Taylor. In the mean time, let me +warn you, that the man has already had ten grains of opium in the last +twenty-four hours." + +The doctor's quick hands were at the closed eyelids. "Ten grains--bosh! +But, as you say, those questions can be settled by and by--when he is +dead, if you like." + +Sonny _baba's_ face had grown whiter still. "I tell you he has had the +opium--I gave it to him myself--I was afraid--" he paused abruptly, and +the doctor looking up shot a rapid glance of negation towards him. + +"There's a mistake, or else-- It doesn't matter now, at any rate. The +thing is done." + +But Sonny _baba_ did not hear the latter words; he was beside the mule, +fumbling hastily in the travelling dispensary, of which the old man had +been so proud, for 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 hands busy over the morphia, heard an +odd sound--something between a gasp and a cry--behind him. Then some +one came and knelt down at the other side of the bed. + +"Dhurm Singh!" + +But there was no answer. + +"Dhurm Singh, you can tell them it was _dhurm nâl_, and that I killed +you." + + + * * * * * + +"Killed him--fudge! Though, upon my soul, it would serve you right if +you had. So the old sinner changed the pills, and it wasn't the ipec. +after all. Most reprehensible practice, and, upon my soul, it would +serve him right if he did die. Now--don't be a fool, man! I tell you he +shan't die--I won't let him die. Besides, he can't die--it's +impossible--absolutely impossible." + +Despite his despair and dejection, the young man gave a wan smile at +the other's vehemence. + +"And why?" + +"Because of you, naturally. You don't suppose that you're fit to be +trusted alone with a medicine chest, do you? Boota Mull, if you don't +hurry up with that turpentine and the brandy mixture I'll report you. +So it wasn't the ipec. after all! I'm glad of that." + +In after years the young fellow used to deny strenuously that it had +been the opium either. Plainly and palpably he had been cured of his +fever "by faith." And as for Dhurm Singh? What the doctor said was +true; he could not be spared as yet. How could he be spared when even +now from the verandah came a woman's voice, soft, confident-- + +"Dhurm Singh, Sonny _baba_." + +"_Huzoor! dhurm nâl_." + +And any one looking out might have seen a very old man, gorgeous in +scarlet raiment, decked with golden lace and golden curls, as a child's +head nestled up against a solitary arm, and a child's fingers played +with the solitary medal, or tugged unavailingly at the hilt of the old +sword. + +"The _Huzoor_ is too young," would come the broad, arrogant voice, "but +he will learn--he will learn. Even a Sikh is made, not born. He must +wait till the years bring the Sacred Steel. Let the _Huzoor_ rest +awhile peacefully, and old Dhurm will sing to him." + +Then there would be a surreptitious swallowing of a pill before the +drowsy chant began. + + + "He is of the _Khâlsa_[17] + Who combats in the van, + Who gives in charity, + Who loves the Poor. + + He is of the _Khâlsa_ + Whose mind is set on God, + Who never fears though often overcome, + Knowing all men created of one God. + + He is of the _Khâlsa_ + Who lives in arms, + Who combats with the wrong, + Who keeps--the--faith--" + + +So there would be a silence broken only by the even breathing of the +old man and the child. + +For Sonny _baba_ and his wife, watching the scene from within, only +looked into each other's eyes and said nothing. + + + + + THE BHUT-BABY. + + +"According to established precedent it is reported, under section so +and so, that one Buddha Singh of Kidderjana having died, his rightful +heirs inherit." The court-reader's voice hurried the liquid Urdu +syllables into long, sleepy cadences like the drone of a humble-bee +entangled in the swaying punkah overhead. Backwards and forwards, +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 furlough, and stand once +more on that big boulder at the foot of the One-stone pool waiting for +a new ring of light to show on the dark eddy by the far side--a ring +with a swirl and a gleam of silver scales in the centre, a tightening +line under the finger, till the reel went whirr-rr-rr-rr! It was a +lovely dream while it lasted. + +"According to established precedent, the canal-officer reports, under +section so-and-so, that certain rebellious persons in Chori-pani have +opened the sluices of the cut, and taken water that did not belong to +them." The heather-sweet breeze off the One-stone pool ceased to blow, +and I was back, with the punkah, 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 +within reach? Even a juicy apple on a hot day is irresistible, despite +Farmer Smith's big dog watching from below, while you sit on the lower +branch, and Jerry sits on the upper, eating all the ripe fruit just to +pass the time, and thanking Providence meanwhile for making you +Christian children in a cider-country! + +"According to established precedent it is reported, under section +so-and-so, that the devil was born three days ago in village +Hairan-wallah. Orders are requested. 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; +but my alertness merely produced a respectful iteration of the +paragraph, which showed all too clearly my subordinate's explanation of +the sudden display of attention. + +The suspicion of sleep is always irritating. "_Sarishtadar!_" [clerk of +the Court] I began in English, "what, the devil?" + +"Nossir," interrupted the reader suavely in the same language, "pardon +the suggestion, sir, but the devil is somewhat free translation, sir. +In Dictionary _bhut_ (the word used, sir,) equals an _indefinite_ +devil, thus _a_ devil, _a_ fiend, _a_ imp--pardon the indiscretion, +sir! an imp." + +A glow of proud humility at his own quick detection of these trivial +errors filled up the pause which followed, while the punkah went on +swinging, and I sat wondering if I were 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 waiting for orders. A sudden curiosity as to what his +self-complacent brain, surcharged with Western culture, would do with +the situation made me reply curtly, "The usual orders." + +I managed to forbear laughing in the grave face raised to mine in +deprecating apology. "I am unable, sir," he said after a pause, "to +recall, at the present moment, any section, penal 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-thought, "it is political job." Then, I regret to say, I +went off into yells of unseemly mirth, as most Englishmen have to do at +times over the portentous solemnity of the Aryan brother. + +There was a stir in the verandah, a sudden waking to renewed effort on +the part of the punkah coolie, resulting in a general breeziness. Or +was it that Terence O'Reilly, our young Irish doctor, as he came into +the darkened Court, brought with him a thought 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 look at him. His face sympathised promptly +with the unknown joke. "Whwhat the divvle are ye laughing at--me?" he +asked in a rich brogue as he seated himself astride a chair, in which +equestrian position his dandy costume for polo showed to great +advantage. + +Nero fiddling over the flames of Rome is sympathy itself compared to +the indifference with which we often speak the first lines of a coming +tragedy in every-day life. So it was with a jest that I introduced +Terence O'Reilly to the existence of the _bhut_-baby, and 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 his mind. "'Twill be +one of those poor little craytures that come into this worrld God knows +why," he said with an infinite tenderness of voice. "Ten to wan 'tis +better it should die, fifty to wan I can do nothing to help it, but +I'll ride over and see annyhow." + +The _sarishtadar_ laid aside his pen somewhat mournfully, the practical +being out of his line; while I, smitten by admiration into immediate +regret at my own indifference, murmured something about having thought +of going over next morning. + +"There's no time loike the present, my dear fellow," he replied +buoyantly. "The pony's at the door, and sure I'm got up for riding +annyhow;" and as he spoke he stretched out his long legs, and surveyed +their immaculate boots and breeches critically. + +"And what will your team do without their best forward?" I asked, +feeling a certain captiousness at his prompt decision. + +"Get along with your blarney! Sure it's practising, and you can take my +place at that anny day; indeed 'twas to fetch you I ventured into the +dock, for whin I caught a glimpse of your face at the jail this morning +I said to meself, 'Terence, me bhoy, that's a case of polo, or blue +pill, for by the powers his liver's not acting.' So 'twas to hound you +into exercise I came annyhow." + +A feverish desire to amend and excuse my own lukewarmness shot up +through the loophole his words afforded. "To tell the truth, I _was_ +feeling a bit slack; but if you'll wait five minutes while I slip over +to the bungalow and change my clothes, I'll ride with you to +Hairan-wallah. It will be better for me than polo; I might get +over-heated, you know." + +"'Tis over-_eating_, not over-_heating_ that's the matter with you, me +bhoy," he replied coolly; "but I'm proud,--and by the powers!" he +added, starting 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 send me _syce_ round for the Lily of Killarney. I've a +bet on her at the _gymkhana_ next Monday, and we'll try her on the +quiet against the stable." + +Half an hour afterwards I was enjoying plenteous exercise, and it +seemed to me, far behind, as if the Lily--a great black beast without a +single 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 came back to me, however, after a time, as fresh as paint; but the +mare, with head down and heaving flanks, appeared to have had enough of +it. + +"'Tis a pity the faymale sex is so narvous," he said casually. "Ye +can't hold 'em responsible for annything; but if it wasn't for hysteria +they'd be angels entirely. She has the paces of wan, annyhow." + +Fourteen miles of constant canal cuts, that were a perpetual joy to the +doctor and a terror to me, brought us to Hairan-wallah, a large village +standing among irrigated fields. Here cautious inquiries for the devil +led us to a cluster of mud huts beyond the pale, where the low-caste +servants of the community dwelt apart. Before reaching it we were +joined by the head-men and their followers, all anxious to explain and +excuse the calamity which had befallen their reputation; but as the +fear of evil eye had prevented any of them from personally inspecting +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 women were +huddled up dejectedly in one corner. So far the crowd followed us; but +when some of the reputed relations showed us into a dark out-house +at the further end, even curiosity failed to prevent a visible +hanging-back. Blinded by the change from the glare outside, I could at +first see nothing but my companion's tall form bending over a bundle of +rags on a low stool, beside which a half-naked hag sat chanting a +guttural charm; and before I regained clearer sight his voice rang out +in tones of evident relief, "By the powers! 'tis only a black albino." + +The bull was perfect, seeing that it conveyed succinctly a very +accurate description. The _bhut_-baby was a black, a very black albino, +for the abnormal colouring was confined to its hair, which was unusally +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 startling. For the rest, it +was as fine a man-child as ever came to gladden a mother's heart. I +deemed it asleep till I saw the doctor bend closer, and then raise the +eyelid in keen professional scrutiny. + +"Where's the mother?" he cried, turning like lightning on the nearest +male relative, and seizing him by the scruff of the neck in order 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 rapidly in +English, "and it's nigh dead of neglect. You're a magistrate! Make them +bring the devil of a mother here at once, or it will die." + +But they met my commands and remonstrances with frightened obstinacy, +asserting after some hesitation that the mother was dead, had died +virtuously of shame at bringing such disgrace to her people. I had +every reason to believe this statement was a lie, but no means of +proving it to be one, for of course the whole village favoured it. + +Then there came to Terence O'Reilly's face a look that was good to see, +but not to endure. "And if the poor little creature has lost its own +mother," he cried in that strong, round voice of his, "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 frightened of? 'Tis as fine a +babe as a woman could bear. Only the white hair of it, and God knows we +shall all come to that if we are spared. Look at it, I say! Handle it, +and see for yourselves!" + +Suiting the action to the word, he lifted the infant in his arms and +carried it out to the lingering light of day, among the crowd which +fell back in alarm from him and his burden. He did, indeed, look +somewhat of an avenging angel with his face ablaze with 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 shrieks brought Terence back to earth; +and ceasing to hold the child at arm's length, as if offering it for +acceptance, he turned to me once more. "At least your magistracy can +make them bring me milk. If ye can't even do that, then God help the +British rule!" + +Stung by the sarcasm, I exerted myself to such an extent, that three +separate head-men arrived breathless at the same moment with large +_lotahs_ full of nourishment for the devil, or any one else on whom the +Presence was foolish enough to bestow it. So much lay within their +conceptions of duty. + +The scene which followed will linger in my memory until memory itself +ceases to be. Terence in polo-costume seated on a string bed under the +darkening skies with the devil 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, with, thank God, +sufficient vitality left for admiration. And round about a cloud of +awestruck witnesses, wondering at his audacity, doubtful of its effect +on the future. + +"Sure 'tis the firrst toime I ever did dhry-nurse," he remarked after a +long silence, during which I became absorbingly interested in the +little imp's growing desire for life. "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 think it's time you stepped in as ripresentative of the +_Kaiser-i-Hind_, and took things in hand a bit? Ah, it's after having +dill-water ye are now, is it? Whist, whist, whist now!" + +He walked up and down, the crowd swaying from him, as he dandled the +infant with what seemed to me marvellous skill, while I did my best to +argue sense into the dull brains of the villagers. I was quite +unsuccessful, of course, and after many 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 +the cause of not drinking milk properly," which figures so largely in +the records of infant mortality in India; the former for choice, since, +as Terence remarked, "It would save trouble to kill it at the beginning +instead of the end of its life." + +"So the magistracy can do nothing," he said at last; "thin I will. +_Chowkidar!_ take this baby to the headquarters' hospital. I'm master +there, annyhow, and I'll make it anny case I please, and dye its hair, +an' no man shall say me nay!" + +So the _chowkidar_ was ordered to carry the devil to hospital to be +cured of its devilry, and we rode home in frantic haste, because +Terence was engaged to sing "_Killaloe_" that evening in barracks. Some +of the relations ran about a mile after us yelling out blessings for +having removed the curse from them. + +Six weeks after I saw an atrocious hag nursing a white-haired infant in +the doctor's own compound, and questioned him on the subject. "The 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 it betrayed +the cloven hoof. And dye wouldn't stick on; so I've hired a harridan on +two rupees a month to look after it under my own eye." + +There was, no doubt, something of combativeness in this particular +instance of Terence O'Reilly's charity; but the _bhut_-baby was +by no means the only pensioner on his bounty. The row of mud houses +beyond the cook-room was filled with the halt, the maimed, and the +blind--especially the latter, for the fame of his infinite skill and +patience as an eye-doctor 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, had, on recovery, made his +way straight from hospital to the doctor's house, and announced his +intention of serving him till death. "What are hands, and feet, or +brain," he answered calmly to all objections, "if they have not eyes to +guide them? Therefore are they all predestined since all time to be +servants to my Lord the Light-bringer for ever and ever." + +Treated at first as a joke, Shivdeo's determination had outlived +opposition, and at the time of the _bhut_-baby's advent he had achieved +his intention of becoming trusted personal attendant to the "Light of +the World," for without some such allusion to the benefit he had +received at his hands he never spoke of his master. The introduction of +a baby, pariah to begin with and devil to follow, brought about a +temporary disturbance of his office; for he was haughty, with all the +pride of his race, and superstitious beyond belief. But after a week of +dismissal consequent on failing to provide the harridan with proper +milk for the bottle, Shivdeo, almost blind again with fruitless tears, +crept back to the Light-giver's feet and swore a big oath to feed the +low-caste demon himself if thereby he might return to the only life he +could live. He kept his promise of strict neutrality to the 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 articulate sound +whatever; but once or twice when we tired of it and forgot its +presence, I have heard a purring noise like a cat, and looking down, +found that the little creature was curled up with its silver curls +resting on the doctor's foot in perfect content. He spent many hours in +demonstrating its full possession of all five senses, and always +declared it would speak in time; certainly if speech went by +intelligence it would have been the most eloquent of babies. As it was, +its unusual silence undoubtedly added to its uncanny appearance, and +helped to strengthen the still lingering belief in its devilish origin. +As long, however, as Terence O'Reilly's voice gave the orders for its +well-being, not a soul in his compound or elsewhere would have dreamt +of disobedience. Indeed, it often struck me that poor little Boots +lived by virtue of his exuberant vitality, and by nothing else. + +I remember one evening we had been screaming with laughter over the +comical little creature's mimicry of Shivdeo's stately, short-sighted +way of bringing in whisky and soda-water. The applause seemed to get +into the baby's brain, and it took us off one after the other with such +deadly truth that we nearly rolled off our chairs. Then some one +suggested that we should ask it to imitate Terence, who happened to be +absent; and when it failed to respond, a young subaltern, thinking it +had not understood, came out with a fair copy of the doctor's round, +rich brogue. We were all startled at the result; 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 with a rapid insistence that left me wondering. So, +when the man brought me my parting cheroot, I questioned him on his +interference. He looked startled for a moment; then replied gravely +that it was not meet for the Light of the Universe to bear a sweeper's +child in his bosom. "Nor is it meet for a Brahman either," I returned, +feeling sure he had some other reason. The man's eyes flashed before +they dropped submissively: "Nor is it meet for a Brahman to serve; but +the Presence knows that this slave cares not if he wakes as a dog so +that the Lord of Light remains to give sight to the blind." + +Shortly after this Boots sickened for some childish complaint, in the +course of which pneumonia developed, making it hover for a day or two +between this world and the next. Once more 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 for its benefit. Indeed the doctor looked quite +worn out when I met him one morning, going, as he said, to give himself +a freshener by taking the Lily round the steeple-chase course. + +"You're over-working, Terence," said I, noting his fine-drawn clearness +of feature; "up all night after Boots (I'm glad to hear the little +fellow's better, by the way), and Blue Pill waiting for you day after +day till after dark at the hospital gates, to say nothing of +_gymkhanas_. It won't do for long; I'm serious about it, old chap." + +"Are you? Well, it's kind of you to be that," he laughed; "though +mayhap 'twould be more of a change for your friends if you were the +t'other thing. 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; but I think he's well through. And d'ye know! the +little beggar wouldn't touch a thing unless I gave it him. 'Tis a queer +place this worrld, annyhow." + +His voice had a suspicion of a break in it, and his eyes were brighter +than ever; whence I augured that he felt worse than he cared to +confess. Next day he sent a note asking me to inspect the jail for him, +as he was going to try conclusions with his liver; the day after I +found him in bed, but lively. Then the deadly fever which kills so many +fine young fellows in India laid fast hold on him, and for three long +weeks we, who loved him, watched the struggle for life, helpless to do +aught save keep up his strength as best we might against the coming +crisis. 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 pillar, whence my slightest sign would rouse him. For I +assumed the office of head-nurse after Terence, full of gratitude for +the kindly offers of help showered upon him, had said with a wistful +gleam of the old mischief, "But I loike your sober face best, old man; +it makes me feel so pious." I sent in for leave that morning and never +left him again. It was the twenty-sixth day, about ten o'clock in the +evening, that the doctor in charge shook his head over my patient +sorrowfully. "He is terribly weak, but while there's life-- We shall +know by dawn." + +The old formula fell on my ears--though I had been waiting for it--with +a sense of sickening failure, and unable to reply, I turned away from +the figure which lay so still and lifeless despite all my care. As I +did so I noticed Shivdeo listening with eyes and ears at the door. For +the last three days the man had been strangely restless, and more than +once I had discovered odd things disposed about the room, and even on +poor Terence's pillow--things used as talismans to keep away the evil +eye, such as I had seen in Hairan-wallah when the _bhut_-baby was born; +and I had smiled--good heavens, how ignorant we are in India!--smiled +at the silly superstition which evidently 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 service his desire to avoid any disturbance. It was just +upon twelve o'clock when, with Shivdeo's help, I gave Terence, who was +quite unconscious, a few drops of stimulant before sitting down with a +sinking heart to my anxious watch. It was early April, and the doors, +set wide open to let in the cool air, showed a stretch of moonlit grass +where shadows from the unseen trees above quivered and shifted as the +night-wind stirred the leaves. In the breathless silence I could hear +even the faint respiration of the sick man, and found myself counting +its rise and fall, until the last thing I remembered was Shivdeo's +immovable figure with the moonlight streaming full in his face. + +When I awoke the rapid Eastern dawn had come. The sparrows were +twittering in the verandah, and Shivdeo stood by his master's bed +holding his finger to his lips. "Hush!" he whispered, as my eyes met +his; "the light has brought life to the Giver of Light." + +It must have been the sound of wheels which woke me, for ere I had time +to reply the doctor entered the room, and after a glance at his patient +shook me silently by the hand. "I believe 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. Hullo! what's that?" It was only a tiny spot of blood on +the forehead just where the trident of Shiva is painted by his +worshippers, but it showed vividly against the pallor of the skin. + +"There is a little spot by the Light-giver's feet also," remarked +Shivdeo quietly. "I noticed it yesterday just after the Presence cut +his hand with the soda-water bottle." And sure enough there was one. + +"I can't think how I came to fall asleep," I said to him after the +doctor had gone; "just at the critical time, too, when I was most +wanted." + +The man smiled. "We do not always guess aright when we are wanted, +_Huzoor_. You slept and the Light-giver got better. It is God's way; He +has refreshed you both." + +"Refreshed!" I retorted crossly. "I feel as if I had been pounded in a +mortar. I had the most frightful dreams, but I can't recall what they +were." + +"It is not well to try," replied Shivdeo, with rather an odd look. "If +I were the Presence I would forget them. There is enough evil to come +without recalling what is past and over for ever." + +Perhaps involuntarily I followed his suggestion, for, though I chased +the fleeting memory more than once through my brain, I never overtook +it. + +Terence O'Reilly made a quick recovery; but in view of the fast +approaching hot weather, the doctors put him on board ship as soon as +it could be done with safety. Hurry was the order of the day, so it was +not until my return from seeing him to Bombay that I found time for +outside affairs. Then it was that Shivdeo informed me of poor little +Boots' death in the interval. 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 doctor who had seen +it, he had kept the death secret at first, from fear of the news +delaying his master's recovery. I made every inquiry, but found nothing +of any kind to give rise to suspicion of foul play. The native doctor +had sent medicine three days running as for bronchitis, and on the +fourth he had seen the child's dead body. It had died, he thought, of +croup. + +"You will write and tell the Light-bringer?" asked Shivdeo, when the +inquiry was over. "And you will say that I did my best, my very best, +for my lord's interest?" + +"Certainly," I replied; "but he will be sorry, the child was so fond of +him." + +"When people are beautiful as Krishna, like the Lord of Light, it is +easy to be fond of them." + +I did not see Shivdeo again for over three months; and the bungalow in +the Civil Lines, which he kept swept and garnished against his master's +return, gradually assumed the soulless, empty appearance peculiar to +the dwelling-places of those who make holiday at the other side of the +world. Then a message came to say that he was ill, and wished to see me +on business. I found 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 when it ceases to beat? Men +cannot live without the light, and it is night for me now. Perhaps that +is it, who knows? Yonder old man is my father come to see me die; yet +ere the last 'Ram-Ram' sounds in mine ears I want the Presence to +understand something, else would I not have vexed his quiet. It will be +hard for the _Huzoor_ to understand, because he is not of our race." + +He paused so long that I asked what he wished me to understand, +thinking that in his weakness he had drifted away from his desire. +"Something 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 used to +do, because old memories return in the old places, making us see and +remember things that are past or forgotten. Is it not so?" + +Truly enough, as I humoured him by occupying the familiar chair, ready +placed half-way between the bed and the window, it seemed to me as if I +were once more watching Terence pass through the valley of the shadow. + +"The Presence once slept in that chair," continued the weak voice, "and +he dreamed a dream. Let him recall it now, if he can." + +How or wherefore I know not, but as he spoke a sudden certainty as to +what he wished me to know rushed in on me. "Great God," I cried, +starting up and seizing him roughly by the shoulder, "you killed poor +little Boots! You brought the child here! You killed it before his very +eyes and mine! I know it! I think--I think I saw it done!" + +He set my hand aside with unexpected force and a strange dignity. "I am +the prisoner of Death, _Huzoor!_ There is no need to hold me; I cannot +escape him. For the rest, if I killed the child, what then? The Lord of +Light lives, and that is enough for me. What is a Sudra or two more or +less to the Brahman? But what if it was a devil sucking his heart's +blood because of his beauty? Shall I not have honour for saving him? +Thus both ways I am absolved; but not from my oath, the false oath +which I swore to my lord for my own sake. When I wander through the +shades waiting for Vishnu's decree, it will lead my blind steps to the +body of a foul thing. So I speak that the Presence may judge and say if +I were not justified, and confess that we people of the old knowledge +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, men +with such tenderness for life that they bid God speed to the flea which +keeps them wakeful; but they all said, 'Yea! one of the two must die.' +Did I stop to ask which? Not I. So I fasted, and prayed, and made clean +my heart, and waited patiently for the moment of fate; for so they bid +me. Even then, _Huzoor_, the holy men would do naught by chance or +without proof. It was a bright moonlight night, and the Presence slept +by reason of our arts and drugs; and so we put the accursed creature we +had brought from the sweeper's hut down at the gate, yonder by the +flowering oleanders, and hiding ourselves among them, watched it. +Straight, straight as a hawk or a bustard, until we found it there in +the old place! Devil of Hell! we made it vomit back the blood, we--" + +My hand was on his mouth, my one thought to stop the horrible words +that somehow conjured up the still more horrible sight before my eyes. +"I know,--there is no need for more,--I cannot bear it." + +And indeed, the vision of poor dumb little Boots in their relentless +hold froze my blood. As my hands fell away from him in sudden, +shrinking horror, he looked at me compassionately. "The Presence does +not understand aright. Let him remember the strange doctor's face when +he came in the dawn, thinking to find hope had fled. One of the two had +to die. If the Presence had thought as I did, as I _knew_, what would +he have done?" + +I was silent. + +His face, which had remained calm enough so far, assumed a look of +agonised entreaty, as with an effort painful to see he dragged himself +to my feet and clung to them. "What would you have done, _Huzoor_, in +my place? What would you have done?" + +Then a fearful fit of coughing seized him, and his lips were tinged +with blood. Water lay close at hand, yet I knew that this murderer +would sooner have died than accept it from my defiling 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 as he did so, Shivdeo, looking at the faint stains +on the cloth, smiled an unearthly smile, and whispered, "I did not suck +my lord's blood, for all that. It comes from my own heart." + +I am not ashamed to say that my brain was in such a whirl that I turned +to escape from a situation where I felt utterly 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 to the parched lips; but it was arrested by +the dying hand, and the dying eyes looked wistfully up into his +father's. + +"Did I do well, O my father?" he asked. + +"You did well, my son; drink in peace." + +When I reached home, the English mail was in. It brought a letter from +Terence. He was in Dublin and engaged to be married; considering that +he was an Irishman, no more need be said. He wrote the 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 how the love of a good woman can +make existence seem a sacred trust. He ended by these words: "And sure, +old man, if it be true that all happiness is bought, some one must have +paid dear for mine!" + +I could not sleep that night--the war of conflicting thoughts waged too +fiercely; but it was nearly dawn before I found it impossible to +withstand the memory of Shivdeo's cry: "If the Presence had thought as +I did, what would he have done?" + +He was dead before I reached the house, but surely if he knows +anything, he must know that I, for one, cast no stone. + + + + + RÂMCHUNDERJI. + + +"But the tenth _avatar_ of the Lord Vishnu is yet to come." + +"Exactly so, pundit-_ji_," I replied, looking at my watch. "It is yet +to come, seeing that time's up. Half-past eight; so not another stroke +of work to-day. No, not for twice a thousand rupees!" + +A thousand rupees being the sum with which the Government of India +rewards what they are pleased to call "high proficiency" in languages, +I, having regard to its literature, 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, and prosed away over the +doings of the Hindoo pantheon until I came to the conclusion that my +Lord Vishnu had been rather extravagant in the matter of incarnations. + +The pundit, however, to whom would be due a hundred rupees of the +thousand if I succeeded, smiled blandly. "The tenth _avatar_ will +doubtless await his Honour's leisure; the tenth, and last." + +"Last!" I echoed with scorn. "How do you know? Some authorities hold +there are twenty-four, and upon my soul I don't see why there should +not be twenty-four thousand. 'Tis the same old story all through; +devils and demigods, _rakshas_ and _rishies_, Noah's ark and Excalibur. +That sort of thing might go on for ever." + +Now, Pundit Narayan Das was a very learned man. He had taken a Calcutta +degree, and was accustomed to educate the rising generation on a +mixture of the _Rig-Veda_ and _The Spectator_. So he smiled again, +saying in English, "'History repeats itself.'" + +Thereupon he left me, and I, going into the verandah with my cigar, +came straight upon Râmchunderji and his wife Seeta. At least I think +so. + +They were the oddest little couple. He, at a stretch, might have +touched a decade of life, she, something more than half such distance +of time. That is, taking them by size: in mind and manners, and in +their grave, careworn faces, they were centuries old. His sole garment +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 which, at the time, I +failed to catch. Afterwards I remembered the effigies in Indra's +celestial court as represented by some Parsee actors I had once seen. +Seeta was simply a bundle, owing to her being huddled and cuddled up in +a veil ample enough for an ample woman. + +"I am Râmchunderji, and this is my wife Seeta," said the boy gravely. +"If the Presence pleases, I will beguile time by singing." + +"What will you sing?" I asked, preparing to idle away ten minutes +comfortably in a lounge-chair which lay convenient. + +"I sing what I sing. Give me the _vina_, woman." + +The veil gave up such a very large instrument that the smallness of the +remaining wife became oppressive. So large indeed was it, that one +gourd over-filled the boy's lap, while the other acted as a prop to the +high twined turban. Even the connecting bamboo, slender though it was, +seemed all too wide for those small fingers on the frets. + +"Is the permission of the Presence bestowed?" suggested Râmchunderji, +with the utmost solemnity. + +Twang, twang, twangle! Heavens, what a _vina_ and what a voice! I +nearly stopped both at the first bar; then patience prevailing, I lay +back and closed my eyes. Twang, twangle! A sudden difference in the +tone made me open them again, only 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 shadows, the flash of +shining swords, the twang of golden bows bent on ten-headed many-handed +monsters. Bah! Pundit Narayan Das, prosing over those epic poems of +his, had made me drowsy. "What have you been singing?" I asked, rousing +myself. + +Râmchunderji spread his hands thumbs outwards, and the three wrinkles +on his high forehead deepened: "God knows! It is what they sang before +the great flood came. 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 the heart hath none left, +and the nine-_lakh_ necklace is worth no more than a mouthful. If the +Presence could see into my heart now, he would find no greed there." + +This delicate allusion to an inward craving produced a four-anna bit +from my pocket, and sent Râmchunderji away to the sweet-meat sellers in +order to appease his hunger; for sweet-stuff is cheap in the East, +especially when it is stale. Seeta and the _vina_, mysteriously +intertwined beneath the veil, followed duteously behind. + +The next day they were back again, and the twang of that infernal +instrument broke in on the pundit's impassioned regrets over the heroic +days of his favourite poems. "By 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 went out to +listen. They were sitting under a trellised arch covered with jasmin +and roses, and a great Gloire de Dijon had sent a shower of blown +petals over Seeta's veil. + +"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," quoted Narayan Das +sententiously, after listening a while. "It is Râmayâna, the immortal +poem your honour reads even now; but debase, illiterate. You say wrong, +boy! it is thus." + +Râmchunderji waited till the pompous periods ceased; then he shook his +head gravely. "We did not sing it so in the days before the great flood +came." + +His words gave me a curious thrill; but there is no more matter-of-fact +being in the world than a Calcutta Bachelor of Arts; so the pundit at +once began a cross-examination that would have done credit to a Queen's +counsel. "What flood? who were 'we'?" These and many other questions +put with brutal bluntness met with a patient reply. + +It had been a very big flood, somewhere, God knows how far, in the +south country. One, two, three years ago? Oh, more than that! but he +could not say how much more. The bard who sang and the woman who +carried the _vina_ had disappeared, been swept away perhaps. Since then +he, Râmchunderji, 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 old) people had not +cared to listen, and since the great flood nothing could be got without +money. Seeta? Oh, yes! she was his wife. They had been married ever so +long; he could not remember the time when they had not been married. + +It was Narayan Das's opportunity for shaking his head. These infant +marriages were subversive of due education. Here was a boy, who should +be in Standard II. doing the compound rules, idling about in ignorance. +It struck me, however, that Râmchunderji must be pretty well on to +vulgar 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 annas +would fill their stomachs (which were not big) for many days. They had +not come for alms, only to make music for the Presence out of +gratitude. Thinking that music out of an ill-tuned _vina_ was hardly +the same thing, I forced another four-anna bit on the boy and sent him +away. + +Nearly a month passed ere I saw him again, though Narayan Das and I +used, as the days grew warmer, to sit out in the trellised arch, within +sight of the road. My knowledge of Sanskrit increased as I read of +Râmchunderji's long exile, shared by Seeta, his wife; of how he killed +the beasts in the enchanted forest; how she was reft from him by +Râvana, the hydra-headed many-handed monster; and of how finally she +was restored to his arms by the help of Hanumân the man-monkey, the +child of the wild winds. But though the pundit used to waste many words +in pointing out the beauties of a poem which held such hold on the +minds of the people that their commonest names were derived from it, I +never seemed to get into the spirit of the time as I had done when I +listened with closed eyes to the boy's debased, illiterate rendering of +the _s'lokas_. + +It was after the school vacation had sent Narayan Das to see his +relatives at Benares that the odd little couple turned up again. +Râmchunderji's face looked more pinched and careworn than ever, and as +he held the _vina_ across his knees, Seeta, losing its contours, seemed +more than ever inadequate to her veil. + +"Perhaps one of the many devils which beset the virtuous has entered +into the instrument," he said despondently; "but when I play, folk +listen not at all. So greed remaineth in the stomach, and the heart is +empty." + +I offered him another four-anna bit, and when he demurred at taking it +before beguiling the time with music, I laid it on the flat skin top of +one of the gourds, hoping thus to ensure silence. + +The wrinkles on his forehead seemed to go right up into his turban, and +his voice took a perplexed tone. "It used not to be so. Before the +flood Seeta and I had no thought of money; but now--" He began +fingering the strings softly, and as they thrilled, the four-anna bit +vibrated and jigged in a murmur of money that fitted strangely to the +sort of rude chant in which he went on. + + + "Money is in the hands, the head, the heart; + Give! give, give, before we give again; + Money hath ten heads to think out evil-doing; + Money hath twenty hands to mete out pain. + Money! money! money! money! + Money steals the heart's love from our life. + Money I have not--say! art thou hungry, wife?" + + +If anything was possessed of a devil it was that four-anna bit. It +buzzed, and hummed, and jigged infernally, as the boy's finger on the +strings struck more firmly. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Râmchunderji," said I uneasily, "that _vina_ +is enough to ruin Orpheus. As you don't care for my money, I'll give +you another instrument instead. I have one inside which is easier to +play, and more your style in every way." + +So I brought out a _ravanâstron_, such as professional beggars use, a +thing with two strings and a gourd covered with snake-skin. To my +surprise the boy's face lost its impassive melancholy in palpable +anger. + +"The Presence does not understand," he said quite hotly. "We do not +beg; Seeta and I fill ourselves with songs. That thing whines for +money, money, money, like the devil who made it. Rather 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 the _vina_ must find a home first. Therefore I +came to the Presence, hearing that he collected such things. Perhaps he +will keep it in exchange for one rupee. It is worth one rupee, surely." + +His wistful look as he handed me the instrument made me feel inclined +to offer a hundred; but in good sooth the _vina_ was worth five, and I +told him so, adding, as I looked at some curious tracery round the +gourds, that it appeared to be very old indeed. + +"The Presence saith truly; it is very old," echoed Râmchunderji +drearily. "That is why folk will not listen. It is too old; too old to +be worth money." + +Nevertheless he cheered up at the sight of his rupee; for he would not +take more, saying he had every intention of returning to claim the +_vina_ ere long, and that five rupees would be beyond his hopes of +gain. + +A fortnight after I came home from my early morning ride by the police +office, which stood outside the native town, close to a brick-stepped +tank shaded by _peepul_-trees, my object being to check the tally of +poisonous snakes brought in for the reward given by Government for +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 habit +inures one, and I walked along the thin grey fringe of certain death +spread out on the first step of the tank with an air of stolid +business, only stopping before an unusually large specimen to ask the +captor, who sat behind awaiting his pence, where he had come across it. + +"Six hundred and seventy in all, _Huzoor_" remarked the Deputy +Inspector of Police, following me, resplendent in silver trappings and +white cotton gloves. "That is owing to the floods, and the season, +since this is the sixth of _Bhâdron_ (August) the month of snakes. Yet +the outlay is excessive to the Government, and perhaps with justice the +price of small ones, such as these, might be reduced one-half." + +I looked up, and behind a fringe of diminutive vipers sat Râmchunderji +and the bundle he called Seeta. On his bare right arm he wore a much +betasselled floss silk bracelet bound with tinsel. + +"I am glad to see the greed is in your heart again," said I, pointing +to the ornament. + +"The _Râm-rucki_ is not bought, but given, as in the days before the +flood," replied the boy. "Every one wears the _Râm-rucki_ still, every +one!" + +The Deputy Inspector pulled down the cuff of his uniform hastily, but +against the gleam of his white gloves I caught a glimpse of bright +colours. The _Râm-rucki_, he explained evasively, was the bracelet of +luck given to Râmchunderji in old days before his search 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 _Bhâdron_. +There was so much deplorable ignorance amongst the uneducated classes, +and did the Presence look with favour on the proposal for reducing the +rewards? Perhaps it was Râmchunderji's eager, wistful face hinting at +the way promises were kept before the flood, which made me reply that I +considered no one but the Viceroy in Council had power to reduce the +price of snakes. + +Several times after this I found the odd little couple disposed behind +their tally of small vipers; then the season of serpents ceased, and +one by one the _habitués_ of the tank steps dropped off to pursue other +professions. The fringe broke into isolated tassels, and finally the +worn, ruddy steps lay bare of all save the flickering light and shade +of the leaves above. + +November had chilled the welcome cool weather to cold, when a report +came in the usual course that a boy calling himself Râmchunderji, and a +girl said to be his wife, had been found in a jasmin garden outside the +city, half dead of exhaustion and without any ostensible means of +livelihood. They had been taken up as vagrants and sent to hospital, +pending Government orders. Now the Jubilee year was coming to a close, +leaving behind it a legacy of new charities throughout the length and +breadth of India. Of some the foundation stone only had been laid by +direct telegram to the Queen-Empress; others had sprung to life in a +manner suggestive of workmen's tenements. Among the latter 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. A real live, genuine, +Hindu female orphan going a begging! Preposterous! Sacrilegious! The +Chairman of the Orphanage Committee almost wept as he pictured the +emptiness of those white walls, and actually shed tears over the +building estimates which he produced in order to strengthen his claim +to poor little Seeta. Was it fair, he asked, that such a total of +munificent charity should not have a single orphan to show the +Commissioner-_sahib_ when he came on tour? His distress touched me. +Then winter, hard on the poor even in sunlit India, was on us; besides, +Narayan Das tempted me further, with suggestions of a Jubilee +Scholarship at the district school for Râmchunderji himself. + +I broke it very gently to the boy as he lay on a mat in the sun, slowly +absorbing warmth and nourishment. He was too weak to contest 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 whispering +confidences to Mother Earth respecting that happy time before the +flood, and I slunk away as though I had been whipped. + +Now, if in telling this veracious history I seem too intermittent, I +can but offer as an excuse the fact that an official's work in India is +like that of a Jacquard loom. A thread slips forward, shows for a +second, and disappears; a pause, and there it is again. Sometimes not +until the pattern is complete is it possible to realise that the series +of trivial incidents has combined to weave an indelible record on the +warp and woof. So it was early January before the Râmchunderji shuttle +stirred again. Narayan 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 gymnastics, the medium +ones engaged on marbles, but in a sunny corner backed by warm brick +walls sat Râmchunderji surrounded by a circle of Standard I. Small as +he was, he was still so much larger than the average of the class, +that, as he leant his high yellow turban against the wall, with +half-closed eyes, and hands upon his knees, the memory of India's Court +came back to me once more. He was reciting something in a low voice, +and as the children munched popcorn or sucked sweeties their eyes never +left his face. + +"Look!" said Narayan Das in a whisper from our spying-ground behind the +master's window. The song came to an end, a stir circled through the +audience, and one by one the 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 stuff, +and as they did so each said in turn, "Salaam, Râmchunderji!" "No +wonder the boy has grown fat," I whispered, dropping the reed screen +round which I had been peeping. + +Narayan Das shook his head. "If it were only comestibles," he replied +gravely, "I could arrange; but when they are devoid of victuals they +give their 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 it is subversive of discipline, and +parents object to pay. Besides, the _in forma-pauperis_ pupils come on +contingent with great expense to Government." + +I looked through the screen again with a growing respect for +Râmchunderji. "Does he eat them too?" I asked. + +The head-master smiled the sickly smile of one who is not quite sure if +his superior officer intends a joke, and fell back as usual on +quotation, "The ostrich is supposed by some to digest nails, but--" + +I laughed aloud, and being discovered, went out and spoke seriously to +the offender. His calm was not in the least disturbed. "I do not ask, +or beg," he replied; "they give of their hearts and their abundance, as +in old days before the flood. Is it my fault if they possess +slate-pencils, and ink-pots, and First-Lesson books?" + +I must confess that this argument seemed to me unanswerable, but I +advised him, seeing that the flood _had_ come, to return such offerings +in future to the store. He did not take my advice, and, about a week +after, being 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 scholarship forfeited for absence without +leave, and the arrears absorbed in refunds for slate-pencils and +ink-pots. So that was an end of Râmchunderji's schooling, and Standard +I. once more became amenable to the Code. + +Winter was warming to spring, the first bronze vine leaves were +budding, and the young wheat shooting to silvery ears, before the +Commissioner, coming his rounds, was taken in pomp to visit the +Orphanage and its occupants. I remember it so well. The Committee and +the Commissioner, and I, and every one interested in female orphans and +female education, on one side of a red baize table 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 satisfactory than the general behaviour and +moral tone of the inmates, except in one point. And this was the +feeding of the monkeys, which, as every one knew, infested the town. +The result being that the _bunder-lôg_ had become bold even to the +dropping down of stones into the court--quite large stones, such as the +one placed as a stepping-stone over the runnel of water from the well. + +Here I unguardedly suggested an air-gun; whereupon Narayan Das, who +always attended these functions as an educational authority, reminded +me reproachfully that monkeys were sacred to the god Hanumân, who, if I +remembered, had finally rescued Seeta from the ten-headed, many-armed +monster Ravana, the inventor of the _ravanastron_ or beggar's fiddle. + +It was at this juncture that I suddenly became aware that the Jacquard +loom of Fate was weaving a pattern; Râmchunderji! Seeta! the exile! the +killing of the wild beasts! the ten-headed, many-handed monster Râvana! +Yet I could tell you almost every word of the Commissioner'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 snatching the female orphan of +India from unmerited misfortune, and educating her to be an example to +the nineteenth century." Every one was highly delighted, and the +Committee approached me with a view of adding the Commissioner's name +as a second title to the school. + +But I awaited the completion of the pattern. It was on the eleventh of +April, that is to say, on the High Festival of Spring, at the fair held +beside the tank where humanity in thousands was washing away the old +year, and putting on the new in the shape of gay-coloured clothing, +that my attention was attracted by a small, dense crowd whence came +hearty guffaws of laughter. + +"'Tis a performing monkey," said a bearded villager in response to my +question as to what was amusing them so hugely. "The boy makes him do +tricks worthy of Hanumân; yet he saith he taught him yonder down by the +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 to interfere with the shuttle again. As I turned away, another roar +of laughter and a general feeling in pockets and turbans told me that +the final tip had succeeded, and that collection was going on +satisfactorily. + +A few days later the Chairman of the Committee came to me in excited +despair. The real, genuine female Hindu orphan was not to be found, and +the stucco walls were once more 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 was +not going to aid Râvana, or prevent the due course of incarnation, if +it _was_ an incarnation. That great city of men, women, and monkeys +should give the trio fair play. + +Last year, when I was in Simla, I overheard a traveller giving his +impressions of India to a lady who was longing all the time to find out +from a gentleman with a mustache when the polo-match was to begin at +Annandale next day. + +"The performing troupes are certainly above the European average," he +said. "At Benares, especially, I remember seeing a monkey; he, his +master, and a girl, did quite a variety of scenes out of the Râmayâna, +and really, considering who they were, I--" + +"Excuse me,--but--oh! Captain Smith, is it half-past eleven or twelve?" + +The _vina_ still hangs in my collection next the _ravanastron_. +Sometimes I take it down and sound the strings. But the waving palms, +the odorous thickets, and the shadowy, immortal forms have got mixed up +somehow with that infernal humming and bumming of the four-anna bit. So +I get no help in trying to decide the question,--"Who was Râmchunderji?" + + + + + HEERA NUND. + + +He stood in the verandah, salaaming with both hands, in each of which +he held a bouquet--round-topped, compressed, prim little posies, with +fat bundles of stalk bound spirally with date-fibre; altogether more +like ninepins than bouquets, for the time of flowers was not yet, and +only a few ill-conditioned rosebuds, suggestive of worms, and a +dejected _champak_ or two, showed amongst the green. + +The holder was hardly more decorative than the posies. Bandy, hairy +brown legs, with toes set wide open by big brass rings--a sight +bringing discomfort within one's own slippers from sheer sympathy; a +squat body, tightly buttoned into a sleeveless white coat; a face of +mild ugliness overshadowed by an immaculately white turban. From the +coral and gold necklace round 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 before masterful +men from the West had jotted down their trivial boundary pillars to +divide light from darkness, the black man from the white, cantonments +from the rest of God's earth. One of these little white pillars stood +in a corner of my garden, and beyond it lay an illimitable stretch of +bare brown plain, waiting till the young wheat came to clothe its +nakedness. + +I did not inquire, however; few people do in India. Perhaps they are +intimidated by the extreme antiquity of all things, and dread letting +loose the floodgates of garrulous memory. Be that as it may, I was +content to accept the fact that Heera Nund, whether representing +ancestral proprietors or not, had come to congratulate me, a stranger, +on having taken, not only the house, but the garden also. The _sahibs_, +he said, went home so often nowadays that they had ceased to care for +gardens. This one having been in a contractor's hands for years had +become, as it were, a miserable low-degree 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 ćgis 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, +consisting of a flat basket decorated with a few coarse vegetables. A +bunch of rank-smelling turnips, half-a-dozen blue radishes running two +to the pound, various heaps of native greens, a bit off an overblown +cauliflower proclaiming its bazaar origin by the turmeric powder +adhering to it in patches, a leaf-cup of mint ornamented by two glowing +chillies. He laid the whole at my feet with a profound obeisance. "This +dust-like offering," he said gravely, "is all that the good God +(_Khuda_) can give to the _sahib_. Let the Presence (_Huzoor_) wait a +few months and see what Heera Nund can do for him." + +I shall not soon forget the ludicrous solemnity of voice and gesture, +or the simple self-importance overlaying the ugly face with the smile +of a cat licking cream. + +I did not see him again for some days, for accession to a new office +curtails leisure. When, however, I found time for a stroll round my new +domain I discovered Heera Nund hard at work. His coatee hung on a bush; +his bare, brown back glistened in the sunshine as he stooped down to +deepen a watercourse 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 holding. The well-wheel +creaked in recurring discords, every now and again giving out a note or +two as if it were going to begin a tune. The red evening sun shone +through the mango-trees, where the green parrots hung like unripe +fruit. The bullocks circled round and round; the water dripped and +gurgled. + +"How about the seeds I sent you?" I asked, when Heera Nund drew his wet +feet from the stream, and composing himself for the effort, produced an +elaborate salaam. + +He left humility behind him as he stalked over to a narrow strip of +ground on the other side of the well, a long strip portioned out into +squares and circles like a doll's garden, with tiny one-span walks +between. + +"Behold!" he said, "his Honour will observe that the cabbage caste have +life already." + +Truly enough the half-covered seeds showed gussets of white in their +brown jackets. "But where are the tickets? I sent word specially that +you were to be sure and stick the labels on each bed. How am I to know +which is which?" + +"The Presence can see that the sticks are there," he answered with a +superior smile; "but there are others beside the _sahibs_ who love +tickets." + +He pointed to the tree above us, where on a branch sat a peculiarly +bushy-tailed squirrel, as happy as a king over the brussels-sprouts' +wrapper, which he was crumpling into a ball with deft hands and sharp +teeth. How I came to know it was this particular wrapper happened thus: +I threw my cap at the offender, and in his flight he dropped the paper +on my bald head; it was hard, and had points. + +"They are mis-begotten devils," remarked Heera cheerfully; "but they +are building nests, _sahib_, and like to paper the inside. +Notwithstanding, the Presence need fear no confusion; his slave has +many names in his head. This is _arly walkrin_ (Early 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 stood next to a sturdy crop of broadcast radishes. +Only a few panes of glass remained intact, but the vacancies had been +neatly supplied by coarse muslin. The gardener's face, always simple in +expression, became quite homogeneous with pure content. + +"_Huzoor!_ It is the _mâlin_ (female gardener)!" + +"The _mâlin!_ What on earth do you mean?" + +Have you ever watched the face of a general servant when she takes the +covers off the Christmas dinner? Have you ever seen a very young +conjurer lift his father's hat to show you that the handkerchief (which +he has palpably secreted 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 a flourish, thus +disclosing to view a fat and remarkably black baby asleep on a bed of +leaves. It was attired in a pair of silver bangles, and a Maw's +feeding-bottle grew, like some new kind of root-crop, from the ground +beside it. + +"My daughter, _Huzoor_--little Dhropudi the _mâlin_." + +His voice thrilled even my bachelor ears as he squatted down and began +mechanically to fan the swift-gathering flies from the sleeping child. + +"You seem to be very fond of her," I remarked after a pause. "It is +only a girl after all. Have you no son?" + +He shook his head. + +"She is the only one, and I waited for her ten years--ten long years; +so I was glad even to get a mâlin. Dhropudi grows as fast as a boy, +almost as fast as the _Huzoor's_ cabbages. Only the other day she was +no bigger than my hand." + +"Your wife is dead, I suppose?" The question was, perhaps, a little +brutal, but it was so unusual to see a man doing dry nurse to a baby +girl, 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 simplicity left it, and in place thereof came a curious +anxiety such as a child might show with the dawning conviction that it +has lost itself. + +"She is not at all dead, _Huzoor_; on the contrary, she is very young. +Children cry sometimes, and my house does not like crying. You see, +when people are young they require more sleep; when she is old as I am +she will be able to keep awake." + +His tone was argumentative, as if he were reasoning the matter out for +his own edification. "Not that Dhropudi keeps me awake often," he +added, in hasty apology to that infant's reputation; "considering how +young a person she is, her ways are very straight-walking and meek." + +"If she cries you can always stop her with the watering-pot, I +suppose." + +He looked shocked at the suggestion. + +"_Huzoor!_ it is not difficult to stop them; such a very little thing +pleases a baby. Sometimes it is the sunshine--sometimes it 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 always the milk in its +stomach. Dhropudi's goat is yonder; it lives on your Honour's weeds. +You are her father and her mother." + +However much I might repudiate the relationship, I soon became quite +accustomed to finding Dhropudi in the most unexpected places in my +garden. For, soon after my first introduction to her, the claims of an +early crop of lettuces to protection from the squirrels led Heera Nund +to transfer the hand-light from one of his charges to another. +Dhropudi, he said, could grow nicely without it now; the black ants +could not carry her off, and the squirrels had quite begun to recognise +that she 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 water channel, and, forgetting which one +it was, turn the shallow stream that way. Then there would be a +momentary outcry at the cold bath; but the next, she would be pacified +with a flower, and sit in the sun to dry, for to say sooth, no more +good-tempered child ever existed than Dhropudi. In this, at any rate, +she was like her father, though I could trace no resemblance in other +ways. "She is like my house," he would say, when I noticed the fact. +"She is young, and I am old--quite old." + +Indeed, as time passed I saw that Heera Nund was older than I thought +at first. Before the barber came in the morning there was quite a +silver stubble on his bronze cheek, and his bright, restless eyes +were haggard and anxious. Despite his almost comic jauntiness and +self-importance, he struck me as having 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 her new accomplishment of crawling, to the detriment of a bed of +_sootullians_ (Sweet Williams) in which he took special pride, was +quite pathetic. I found him simply howling between regret for the +plants and fear lest I should order punishment to the offender. His +gratitude when I laughed was unbounded. + +After this Dhropudi used to be set in a twelve-inch pot, half sunk in +the ground, where she would stay contentedly for hours, drumming the +sides with a carrot, while Heera weeded and dibbled. + +"She grows," he would say, snatching her up fiercely in his arms; "she +grows as all my plants grow. See my _sootullians!_ They will blossom +soon, and then all the _sahibs_ will come and say, 'See the +_sootullians_ which Heera Nund and Dhropudi have grown for the +_Huzoor_.'" + +Yet with all this blazoning of content the man was curiously +restless--almost like a child in his desire for action and vivid +interest in trivialities. "See the misbegotten creature I have found +eating the honourable _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 dead. Nothing escapes me. Have I not fought +wire-worms since the beginning of all things, I and my fathers? We kill +all creeping, crawling things, except the holy snake that brings fruit +and blossom to the garden." + +One night I was disturbed by unseemly noises, coming apparently from +the servants' quarters; but my remonstrances next morning were met by +my bearer, with swift denial. "It is Heera. He, poor man, has to beat +his wife almost every night now. I wonder the Presence has not heard +her before; she screams very loud." + +I stood aghast. + +"He should let her go, or kill her," continued the bearer placidly. +"She is not worth the trouble of beating; but he is a fool, because she +is Dhropudi's mother. Yes, he is a fool; he beats her when he finds her +lover there. He should beat her well before the man comes. That is the +best way with women." + +It was an old story, it seemed, dating before Dhropudi's appearance on +the scene. It occurred to me that perhaps a deeper tragedy than I had +thought for was ripening in my garden 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 hide the truth away forever in the bottom of that well where +Heera often held the child to smile at her own reflection, far down +where the water showed like a huge round dewdrop. + +So time went on, until the _sootullians_ showed blossom buds, and +Dhropudi cut her first tooth on one and the same day. Perhaps the +excitement of the double event was too much for Heera's nerves; perhaps +what happened was due anyhow; but as I strolled through 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 flower-pot. Even with the knowledge of all +that came after, the remembrance provokes a smile,--the rhythmic +bobbing up and down of the uncouth figure, the cowlike kicks of the +bandy legs, the preternaturally grave face above, the crushed +_sootullians_ below. + +I sent him in charge of two sepoys to the Dispensary, and there he +remained for two months, more or less. When he came back he was very +quiet, very thin, and there were the marks of several blisters 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 her mother--were to be +found spending their days together in amicable companionship; his only +regrets being, apparently, that the _sootullians_ had blossomed and +Dhropudi learnt to walk in his absence. + +But for one or two little eccentricities I might have been tempted to +forget that _can-can_ among the flowers; indeed, I always met his +inquiries as to the _sootullians_ with the remark that they had done as +well as could be expected in the circumstances. The eccentricities, +however, if few, were striking. One was his exaggerated gratitude for +the blisters on the back of 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 separate occasions +she formed part of the daily basket of vegetables which he brought in +to me, and very quaint the little black morsel looked sitting +surrounded by tomatoes and melons. But though he treated the matter as +an elaborate joke when I remarked on it, there was a dazed, uncertain +look in his eyes as if he were not quite sure as to the right end of +the stick. + +Nevertheless peace and contentment reigned apparently in his house. +When I sat out in the dark, hot evenings, a glow of flickering +firelight from within showed the mysterious mud-walled enclosure by the +wall, decorous and conventional. The winking stars looking down into it +knew more 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 who had taken my warning so sullenly had +learnt more craft; perhaps the languor which creeps over all things in +May had sucked the vigour even from passion. Who could say? Those +crumbling mud walls hid it all, and Heera seemed to have begun a new +life with the hot-weather vegetables. + +So matters stood when an old enemy laid hold of me. Ten days after I +found myself racing Death with a determination to reach the sea, and +feel the salt west 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 the exile is over; the doctor's +verdict, the swift packing of a trunk or two, the hope, the fear, the +mad longing at least to see the dear faces once more. + +They packed me and a half hundred pillows into a _palki ghâri_ one +afternoon. The servants stood, white clad, in a row beside the white +pillars, dazzling in the slanting sunlight. I drove through the flower +garden dusty and scorched. At the gate stood Heera Nund, one arm +occupied 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 ninepin +bouquets as he had carried on our first introduction. "Take them, +_sahib!_" he cried. "Take them for luck! and come back soon to the +_mâdli_ and the _mâlin_." As the _ghâri_ turned sharp down the road I +saw him standing amidst the ruins of the basket with Dhropudi in his +arms. + +Six months passed before I set foot on Indian soil again, and then fate +and a restless Government sent me to a new station. When my servants +arrived with my baggage from the old one, I naturally fell to asking +questions. "And how is Heera Nund?" was one. My bearer smiled benignly. +"_Huzoor_, he is well--in the month of July he was hanged." + +"Bearer!" + +"Without doubt; it was in the month of July. He killed his wife with an +axe. Dhropudi was bitten by a snake while she slept one day when Heera +had to leave her with her mother; and that night he killed his wife as +_she_ slept also. It was a mistake to be so revengeful, for every one +knew Dhropudi was not really his daughter." + +"Do you think that Heera knew?" + +"She told him when the child died, in order to stop his grief; but it +did not. She was very kind to him,--after the other one went to prison +for lurking about." + +"And did no one tell about it all?" + +"About what, _Huzoor?_" + +"About the vegetables, and Dhropudi, and the _sootullians_, and the +blisters on the back of his head! Did no one say the man was mad?" + +"There was a new assistant at the Dispensary, _sahib_, and her people +were very rich; besides, Heera was not mad at all. He did it on +purpose. He was a bad man, and the Sirkâr did right to hang him--in +July." + +But as I turned away I could think of nothing but that _can-can_ among +the _sootullians_, with little Dhropudi beating time with a carrot. + + + + + FEROZA. + + +Two hen sparrows quarrelling over a feather, while a girl watched them +listlessly; for the rest, sunshine imprisoned by blank walls, save +where at one end a row of scalloped arches gave on two shallow, shadowy +verandah-rooms, and at the other a low doorway led to the world beyond. +But even this was veiled by a brick screen, 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 letter from which the London post-mark stared up into the +brazen Indian sky. She was waiting to have it read to her--waiting with +a dull, almost sullen patience, for the afternoon was still young. It +was old enough, however, to make a sheeted figure in the shadow sit up +on its string bed and yawn because siesta time was past. + +"Still thinking of thy letter, Feroz? _Bismillah!_ I'm glad my man +doesn't live in a country where the women go about half naked." + +"Who told thee so, Kareem? The Meer _sahib_ said naught." + +A light laugh seemed prisoned in the echoing walls. "_Wah!_ How canst +tell? 'Tis father-in-law reads thy letters. Inaiyut saith so. He saw +them at Delhi dancing like bad ones with--" + +"Peace, Kareema! Hast no decency?" + +"Enough for my years, whilst thou art more like a grandam than a +scarce-wed girl. Why should not Inaiyut be a man? A husband is none the +worse for knowing a pretty woman when he sees one." + +She settled the veil on her sleek black head and laughed again. Feroza +Begum's small brown face hardened into scorn. "Inaiyut hath experience +and practice in the art doubtless, as he hath in cockfighting and +dicing." + +"Now, don't gibe at him for that. Sure 'tis the younger son's portion +amongst us Moguls. Do I sneer at thy Meer amusing himself over the +black water amongst the _mems?_" + +"The Meer is not amusing himself. He is learning to be a barrister." + +Kareema swung her legs to the ground with another giggle. "_Wah!_ Men +are men all the world over, and so are women. Yea! 'tis true." She +looked like some gay butterfly as she flashed out into the sunlight, +and began with outstretched arms and floating veil to imitate the +sidelong graces of a dancing girl. + +"_Hai! Hai!_ Bad one!" cried a quavering voice behind her, as an old +woman clutching for scant covering at a dirty white sheet shambled +forward. "Can I not close an eye but thou must bring iniquity to +respectable houses? 'Tis all thy scapegrace husband; for when I brought +thee hither thou wast meek-spirited and--" + +"Deck me not out with lies, nurse," laughed Kareema. "Sure I was ever +to behaviour as a babe to walking--unsteady on its legs. So wast thou +as a bride; so are all women." She seized the withered old arms as she +spoke, and threw them up in an attitude. "Dance, Mytâben! dance! 'Tis +the best way." + +The forced frown faded hopelessly before the young, dimpling face. +"Kareema! Why will'st not be decent like little Feroz yonder?" + +"Why? Because my man thinks I'm pretty! Because I've fine clothes! +Feroza hath old green trousers and her man is learning to be '_wise_,' +forsooth! amongst the _mems_. So she is jealous--" + +"I'm not jealous," interrupted the other hotly. + +"Peace, peace, little doves!" expostulated the old nurse. "Feroz is no +fool to be jealous of a _mem_. Holy Prophet, Kareem! hadst thou seen +them at Delhi as I have--" + +"Inaiyut hath seen them too. He saith they are as _houris_ in silk and +satins with bare breasts and arms--" + +Mytâben's bony fingers crackled in a shake of horrified denial. +"Silence! shameless one! I tell thee they have no beauty, no +clothes--" + +"There! I said they had no clothes," pouted Kareema. + +The duenna folded her sheet round her with great dignity. "Thy +wit is sharp, Kareema! 'Tis as well; for thou wilt need it to +protect thy nose! The _mems_ 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 spectacles serving as veils. Not +that they need them, for they are virtuous and keep their eyes from men +truck. Not like bad bold hussies who dance--" + +"'Tis not true," cried Kareema shrilly. "Thou sayest it to please +Feroza. Inaiyut holds they are _houris_ for beauty, and he knows." + +In the wrangle which ensued the London postmark revolved between earth +and heaven as the letter turned over and over in Feroza's listless +fingers. + +"I wish I knew," she muttered with a frown puckering her forehead. "He +saith they are so wise, and yet--" + +Mytâben paused in the war of words and laid her wrinkled old fingers on +the girl's head. "Plague on new-fangled ways!" she grumbled half to +herself. "Have no fear, heart's life! they are uncomely. But for all +that, 'tis a shame of the Meer to leave thee pining." + +A hand was on her mouth. "Hush, Mytâben! 'Tis a wife's duty to wait her +lord's pleasure to stay or come." + +There is a dignity in submission, but Kareema laughed again, and even +old Mytâb looked at the girl compassionately. "For all that, heart's +life, 'tis well to be sure. Certainty soothes the liver more than hope. +So thou shalt see a _mem_. For lo! the book-readers have come to this +town, and one passeth the door every eve at sundown." + +"Oh, Mytâb! why didn't you tell us before?" cried both the girls in a +breath. + +"Because 'tis enough as it is, to keep two married girls straight, with +never a mother-in-law to make them dance to her tune," grumbled the +nurse evasively. "_Hai_, Kareema! I will tell thy father-in-law the +Moulvie,[18] and then 'twill be bread and water." + +"Bread and water is not good for brides," retorted Kareema with a +giggle. "And I will see the _mems_ too, or I will cry, and then--" She +nodded her head maliciously. + +That evening at sundown the two girls sat huddled up by the latticed +window of the outer vestibule, while Mytâb watched at the door of the +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 +they could see up and down a narrow alley where a central drain, full +of black sewage, usurped the larger half of the rough brick pavement. + +"Look, Feroza! look!" cried Kareema in a choked voice. A white +umbrella lined with green, a huge pith hat tied round with a blue veil, +a gingham dress, a bag of books, white stockings, and tan shoes,--that +was all. They watched the strange apparition breathlessly till it came +abreast of them. + +Then Kareema's pent-up mirth burst forth in peals of laughter so +distinctly audible through the open lattice that the cause stopped in +surprise. + +Feroza started to her feet. "For shame, Kareem, for shame! He says +they are so good." And before they guessed what she would be at, the +wicket-gate was open, and she was on the bare, indecent doorstep. + +"_Salaam! mem sahib, salaam!_" rang her high-pitched, girlish voice. +"I, Feroza Begum of the house of Meer Ahmed Ali, barrister-at-law, am +glad to see you." + +Before Kareema, by hanging on to Mytâb's scanty attire, lent weight +enough to drag the offender back to seclusion, the English lady raised +her veil, and Feroza Begum, Moguli, caught her first glimpse of a pair +of mild blue eyes. She never forgot the introduction to Miss Julia +Smith, spinster of Clapham. Perhaps she had reason to remember it. + +"I might have believed it of Kareem," whimpered the duenna over a +consolatory pipe, "but Feroz! To stand out in the world yelling like a +hawker. _Ai, Ai!_ Give me your quiet ones for wickedness. _Phut!_ in a +moment, like water from the skin-bag, spoiling everything." + +"'Twas Kareem's laugh burst the _mashk_, nursie," laughed Feroza. She +and her sister-in-law seemed to have changed places for the time, and +she was flitting about gay as a wren, while the former sulked moodily +on her bed. + +Yet as the days passed a new jealousy came like seven devils to possess +poor Feroza utterly. + +What was this wisdom which inspired so many well-turned periods in the +Meer's somewhat prosy letters? Beauty was beyond her, but women even of +her race had been wise; passionate Nurjehan, and even pious Fâtma--God +forgive her for evening her chances with that saintly woman's! The +thought led to such earnest study of the Koran that old Mytâb's wrath +was mollified into a hope of permanent penitence. And all the time the +girl's heart was singing pćans of praise over the ease with which she +remembered the long strings of meaningless words. Buoyed up by hope she +confided her heart's desire to Kareema. + +"Eat more butter and grow fat," replied that little coquette. "Dress in +bright colours and redden thy lips. And thou mightest use that powder +the _mems_ have to make their skins fair. Inaiyut saith he will buy me +some in the bazaar. That is true wisdom; the other is for wrinkles." + +Despite this cold water, the very next London post-mark brought matters +to a crisis. + +"Is that all?" asked Feroza dismally, when her father-in-law, the +Moulvie, had duly intoned her husband's letter. "It looks, oh! it looks +ever so much more on paper." + +The old Mohammedan stared through his big horn-rimmed spectacles at her +reluctant finger feeling its way along the crabbed writing. + +"Quite enough for a good wife, daughter-in-law," he replied. "Bring my +pipe, and thank God he is well." + +As she sat fanning the old man duteously, her mind was full of +suspicion. Could _she_ have compressed the desire and love of her heart +into a few well-turned sentences? Ah! if she could only learn to read +for herself. The thought found utterance in a tentative remark that it +would save the Moulvie trouble if she were a scholar. + +"'Tis not much trouble," said the old man courteously; "the letters are +not long." + +The effect of these words surprised him into taking off his spectacles, +as if this new departure of quiet Feroza's could be better seen by the +naked eye. + +"So thou thinkest to learn all the Meer has learnt?" he asked +scornfully, when her eloquence abated. "_Wah illah!_ What? Euclidus and +Algebra, Political Economy and Justinian?" + +The desire of the girl's heart was not this, but jealousy and shame +combined prevented her declaring the real standard of her aims, so she +replied defiantly, "Why not? I can learn the Koran fast--oh, ever so +fast." + +It was an unfortunate speech, since it brought down on her the +inevitable reply that such knowledge was enough for those who, at best, +must enter Paradise at a man's coat-tails. Driven into a corner, she +felt the hopelessness of the struggle, until, flushed by success, the +Moulvie forgot caution, and declaimed against his son's stupidity in +desiring more. + +Feroza seized on this slip swiftly. If it was as she feared, if her +husband's wishes were kept from her ignorance, she must, she would +learn. If she could not go to school, the _mems_ would come and teach +her at home. They did such work at 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 +comparison with her future happiness. Therefore her disappointment when +Mytâben brought back a peremptory refusal from the mission-ladies to +teach on such condition was very keen. Her piteous, surprised tears +roused Kareema's scornful wonder. + +"I can't think why thou shouldst weep; it thickens the nose, and thine +is over-broad as it is. Inaiyut offered once to teach me, but when I +asked him if learning would make him love me better, he kissed me with +a laugh. So I let it alone." + +"Thou dost not understand," sobbed Feroza; "no one does. The Meer is +wise, and I am different." + +"_Wah!_ Thou art but a woman at best, and life is over for us with the +first wrinkle, no matter what we learn. Ah, Feroz! let's enjoy youth +whilst we have it. See! I have a rare bit of fun for thee if thou wilt +not blab to Mytâben. Promise!" + +Three days afterwards Feroza, escaping from the turmoil of a great +marriage in a relative's house, found herself, much to her own surprise +and bewilderment, forming one of a merry party of young women disguised +in boy's clothes, and bound for an hour or so of high jinks in one of +the walled 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 taken up their abode close by. So she had +allowed her doubts and fears to be allayed; though inwardly she failed +to see the vast difference on which her sister-in-law insisted, between +the iniquity of standing on doorsteps in the full light of day, and +sneaking out at night on the quiet. + +"Verily," said Kareema in a pet, "thou art a real noodle, Feroz! I tell +thee all the good-style women do thus, and my sister will be there with +her boys. _Wah!_ were it not for my handsome Inaiyut, I should die in +this dull old house where folk wish to be better than God made them." + +So it came to pass that while Miss Julia Smith, spinster of Clapham, +sat with her fellow-workers in the verandah resting after their +labours, a boyish figure with a beating heart was creeping towards her +as the goal of every hope. + +The English mail was in; an event which by accentuating the severance +from home ties is apt to raise the enthusiasm of the mission-house +beyond normal. + +"How very, very interesting it is about the young man Ahmed Ali," +remarked Julia, in a voice tuned to superlatives. "Dearest Mrs. +Cranston writes that he spoke so sweetly about his ignorant child-wife. +As she says, there is something so--so--so comforting, you know, in the +thought of work coming to us, as if--well, I can't quite express it, +you know,--but from our own homes,--from dear, dear, old England!" + +There was a large amount of confused good feeling in Julia Smith. A +kindly soul she was, if a little over-sentimental. Perhaps a broken +sixpence, stored side by side with a decayed vegetable in her desk, +formed a creditable explanation of the latter weakness. Such things +account for much in the lives of most women. + +"I suppose," she continued, "we were right to refuse without hymns; but +I shall never forget the sweet child's face as she popped from her +prison. I am making up the incident for our magazine; it will be most +touching. But now that dearest Mrs. Cranston has written, it seems like +the finger of Providence--" + +"A boy wanting a Miss," interrupted the nondescript familiar, +inseparable from philanthropy in India. "The one with an umbrella, a +big hat, and a bag of books." + +A very womanly laugh with an undercurrent of militant pleasure, ran +round the company. The description fitted one and all, and they were +proud of the fact. + +The moon shone bright behind the arches, the scent of orange blossoms +drifted over the high garden wall, and every now and again a burst of +laughter close at hand overbore the more distant noise of wedding drums +and pipes. + +"What do you want, my son?" + +The soft voice with its strange inflections took away the last vestige +of Feroza's courage. She stood dizzy with absolute fear, her tongue +cleaving to her mouth. A 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; then, suddenly, +inheritance broke through her terror. She flung her hands up to heaven, +and her young voice rose in the traditional cry for justice. "_Dohai! +Dohai!_" + +"We do not keep justice here," was the soft answer. "You must go to the +Courts for that. We are but women--" + +"And I too am a woman! Listen!" The words which had lagged a moment +before now crowded to her lips, and as she stepped closer her raised +arm 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; and when I also ask for learning, you say, 'You must sing.' What +is singing when I am sad? Surely God will hear my tears and not your +songs!" + +Her passion swayed her so that but for Julia Smith's supporting arm she +would have fallen. "I don't understand," said the Englishwoman kindly. +"What have we done? Who are you?" + +"I am the wife of Meer Ahmed Ali, barrister-at-law, and I want to be +taught Euclidus, and Justinian, and the--the other things. You shall +not take him away for always. Justice! I say, justice!" + +"My dears! My dears!" cried Julia Smith, "didn't I tell you it was the +finger of Providence--" + +Half-an-hour afterwards little Feroza, flying back to rejoin her +companions, felt as if Paradise had been opened to her by a promise. +But if Paradise 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 her. All was still and silent save for the +creak of the well-wheel and a soft rustle from the burnished leaves +where the moonlight glistened white. + +"Kareem! let me in! for pity sake let me in!" + +Then a wild, uncontrollable fear at finding herself alone in an unknown +world claimed her body and soul, and she fled like a hare to the only +refuge she knew. The _mems_ must protect her; for were they not the +cause of her venturing forth at all? But for them, or their like, would +she not have been well content at home? Yea! well content. + +The verandah was empty, and from within came a monotonous voice. She +peered into the dimly lit room to see a circle of kneeling figures, and +hear her own name 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 seized and baptised against their +will leapt to her memory. She covered her eyes as if to shut out the +horrid sight and fled; whither she neither knew nor cared. + +"_Hai!_ have I found thee at last, graceless! scandalous!" scolded some +one into whose arms she ran at full tilt. + +"Mytâb! oh, dear Mytâb!" she cried, clinging frantically to the +familiar figure. "Take me home, oh, please take me home! I will never +go out again, no, never!" + +That was the determination of ignorance. Eighteen months after wisdom +had altered it and many other things, for during that time Julia Smith +had sung hymns on the doorstep three days a week. Sometimes she had +quite a large audience, and sometimes Feroza herself would listen at +the lattice. On these occasions the thin voice had a ring in it; for, +despite the fact that her pupil was taught all the truths of religion +in prose and monotone, poor Julia used to wonder if this relegating of +hymns to the doorstep 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 in his wife. And meanwhile +time brought other changes to the quiet courtyard. Handsome, dissipated +Inaiyut died of cholera, and over him, and the boy-baby she lost, +Kareema shed tears which did not dim her beauty. Three months after she +was once more making the bare walls ring with her inconsequent +laughter. She jeered at Feroza's diligence with increased scorn. No +man, she said, was worth the losing of looks in books, and if the Meer +really spoke of return, a course of cosmetics would be more advisable. + +Even Julia shook her head over Feroza's thin face. "You work too hard, +dear," she sighed. "Ah! if it were the one thing needful; but I have +failed to teach you that." + +"Dear Miss! don't look sad; think of the difference you have wrought. +Oh, do not cry," she went on passionately, for the mild blue eyes were +filling with tears. "Come, we will talk of his return, full of 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 unkind +person had poisoned Julia's peace with remarks of the mixing of unknown +chemicals. After all, what did she know of this absent husband, save +that dear Mrs. Cranston had met him at a conversazione? + +"I suppose the Meer is really an enlightened man?" she asked dubiously. + +The gingham dress gave up a scared face. "Dear Miss! why, he is a +barrister-at-law!" + +Her teacher coughed. "But are you sure, dear, that he wanted you to +learn?" + +"Not everything; because he did not think I could; but he spoke of many +things. I have learnt all,--except--" + +"Except what?" + +Feroza hesitated. "I was not sure,--Inaiyut said he would teach it, but +he died-- 'Tis only a game called whist." + +"Whist!" + +"Do I not say it right? W-h-i-s-t--_wist_. Oh, Miss! is it a wicked +game? Is it not fit? Ought I not to learn it?" + +The fire of questions reduced Julia Smith's confusion to simple tears. +"I don't know," she moaned, "that is the worst! I thought it was the +finger of Providence, and--ah, Feroza! If I have done you harm!" + +"You have done me no harm," said Feroza, with a kind smile. "You have +harmed yourself with cinnamon tea and greasy fritters in the other +zenanas, and you shall have some, English fashion, to take away your +headache." + +So grumbling Mytâb brought an afternoon tea-tray duly supplied with a +plate of thin bread-and-butter from within, and Feroza's small brown +face beamed over Julia Smith's surprise. "He will think himself back +amongst the _mems!_ won't he?" she asked with a happy laugh. + +Would he? As she jolted home in her palanquin Julia's head whirled. Old +and new, ignorance and wisdom!--here was a jumble. A stronger brain +than hers might well have felt confusion. For it was sunset in that +heathen 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 another, if only by a perfunctory performance of some rite, +testified that day to the fact that religion formed a part of his daily +round, his common task. And on the other side of the world, whence the +missions come?-- + +Meanwhile Kareema, bewailing the useless cards, found herself backed up +by old Mytâben. Such knowledge, the old woman said, would have 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 scented +soaps like a bad one, and living luxurious? Sheets and towels, +forsooth! Why, Shah-jehan himself never dreamed of such expenses. + +"I like them, for all that," cried Kareema gaily; "and I think the +_mems_ are wise to have big looking-glasses. It is hateful only seeing +a little bit of one's self at a time. And Feroza and I are going out to +be admired like the _mems_, aren't we, Feroza?" + +"If the Meer wishes it," replied her sister-in-law gravely. + +Mytâb looked from one to the other. "Have a care, players with fire!" +she said shrilly. "Have a care! Is the world changed because it reads +books and washes? Lo! the customs of the fathers bind the children." + +"Mytâb hath been mysterious of late," remarked Kareema, giving a queer +look, as the old lady moved away in wrath. "Ah me! if I had but my +handsome Inaiyut dicing in the vestibule 'twould be better for all of +us, maybe." + +Feroza laid her soft hand gently on the other's shoulder. "I am so +sorry for thee, dear! but we will love thee always and be a sister and +brother--" + +Kareema's look was queerer than ever, and she laughed hysterically. + +The day came at last when Feroza sat in the sunlit courtyard holding +another unopened letter in her hand, knowing that ere a week was over +the writer would be prisoned in her kind arms, surrounded by friendly +faces, caught in the meshes of familiar custom. She was not afraid, +even though his letters gave her small clue to the man himself. Her own +convictions 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 on a chair now, and her white stockings and +patent-leather shoes twisted themselves tortuously about its legs. She +thought mostly of the childish time when she, their cousin, had played +with Ahmed Ali and Inaiyut; it seemed somehow nearer than those other +days, when the studious lad's departure for college had been prefaced +by that strange, unreal marriage. + +And Kareema watched her furtively from the far corner where she and +Mytâb were making preserves. + +Suddenly a loud call, fiercely imperative, made them come sheepishly +forward to where Feroza stood at bay, one hand at her throat, the other +crushing her husband's letter. "What is this? What have you all been +keeping from me? What does he mean?--this talk of duty and custom. +Ah-h-h--!" + +Her voice, steady till then, broke into a ringing cry as a trivial +detail in Kareema's reluctant figure caught her eye. The palms and +nails of those delicate hands were 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 accusing palms to +heaven, while a tempest of sheer animal jealousy beat the wretched girl +down from each new-won foothold, down, down, to the inherited nature +underneath. + +"Then it is true," she gasped. "I see! I know! Holy Prophet! what +infamy to talk of duty. He is to marry,--and I who have slaved--He is +mine, mine, I say! Thou shalt not have him!" + +Mytâb's chill old hand fell on the girl's straining arm like the touch +of Death. "_Allah akhbâr wa Mohammed rasul!_[19] Hast forgotten the +faith, Feroza Begum, Moguli? Thine? Since when has the wife a right to +claim all? Since when hast thou become a _mem?_" + +The girl glared at her with wild passion, and Kareema gave a whimper as +the grip bit into her tender wrists. "Don't; you hurt me!" + +Feroza flung them from her in contemptuous loathing. "Fool! coward! as +if he would touch you. I will tell him all. He will know--Ah God! my +head! my head!--" She was in the dust at their feet stunned by her own +passion. + +"I warned the Moulvie to break it by degrees," grumbled Mytâb, dragging +the girl to some matting; "but he said 'twould make no more to her than +to the Meer. Books don't seem to change a man, but women are +different." + +"It's not my fault," whimpered Kareema. "I don't want to marry the +Meer; he was ever a noodle. Prating of its being a duty, forsooth!" + +"So it is! a bounden duty. Never hath childless widow had to leave this +house, and never shall, till God makes us pigs of unbelievers." + +"I wish my handsome Inaiyut had lived for all that," muttered the girl, +as Feroza showed signs of recovery. She resisted all attempts at +explanation or comfort, however, and made her way alone, a solitary +resolute figure, to her windowless room, where, when she shut the door, +all was dark. There she lay tearless while the others, sitting in the +sunlight, talked in whispers as if the dead were within. + +"The Moulvie must bid her repeat the creed," was old Mytâb's ultimatum. +"God send the Miss has not made a Christian of her, with all those +soapings and washings!" She had no spark of pity. Such was woman's lot, +and to rebel was sacrilege. + +"Don't make sure of my consent," pouted Kareema, her pretty face +swollen with easy tears. "If he is really the noodle Feroza deems, I'd +rather be a religious. 'Twould be just as amusing." + +Mytâb laughed derisively. "Thou a religious! The gossips would have +tired tongues. Besides, choice is over. Had the child lived, perhaps; +but now the Moulvie hath a right to see Inaiyut's children on his +knee." + +The sunshine had given place to shadow before Feroza appeared. + +"Bring me a _burka_;[20] I am going to see the Miss. Follow if thou +wilt," she said; and though her voice had lost its ring, the tone +warned Mytâb 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 passion blotted out by the formless white domino she wore. +"I could kill you for being pretty," she said in a hard whisper, as she +turned away. + +She had never been to the mission-house since that eventful night, and +the sight of its familiar unfamiliarity renewed the sense of injury +with which she had last seen it. "Miss _Eshsmitt sahib_," they told +her, was ill; but she would 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 beauty odds enough, +that she must fight also against this undreamed-of comfort? She flung +up her arms with the old cry, "_Dohai! Dohai!_" The fever-flushed face +on the frilled pillows turned fearfully. "What is it, Feroza? Oh! what +is it?" + +The question was hard to solve even in the calm sessions of thought, +well-nigh impossible here. Why had she been lured from the old life in +some ways and not in all? Was their boasted influence all words? Then +why had they prated of higher things? Why had they _lied_ to her? + +Poor Julia buried her face in a pocket-handkerchief drenched in +_eau-de-Cologne_, and sobbed, "Ah, take her away! Please take her +away!" + +So they led her gently to the text-hung drawing-room with a cottage +piano in one corner, and shook their heads over her passionate appeals. +They could do nothing, they said,--nothing at all,--unless she cast in +her lot with them absolutely; so she turned and left them with a sombre +fire in her eyes. + +She never knew how the days passed until, as she watched the sunlight +creep up the eastern wall of the court, it came home to her that on the +next evening Meer Ahmed Ali would watch it also. She seemed not to have +thought, and it was Kareema, and not she, who had 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 thyself to care. God knows he +may not look at either, through being enamoured of the _mems_. And oh, +Feroza," she added, her sympathy overborne by curiosity, "think you he +will wear the strange dress of the Miss _sahib's_ sun-pictures? If so I +shall laugh of a surety." + +A gleam of consolation shot through poor Feroza's brain. Men disliked +ridicule. "Of course the Meer dresses Europe-fashion," she replied +stiffly. "Thou seemest to forget that my husband is a man of culture." + +A man of culture! undoubtedly, if by culture we mean dutiful +self-improvement. That had been Meer Ahmed Ali's occupation for years, +and his gentle, high-bred face bore unmistakably the look of one +stowing away knowledge for future use. He was really an excellent young +man; and, during his three years at a boarding-house in Notting Hill, +had behaved himself as few young men do when first turned loose in +London. He spoke English perfectly, and it would be difficult to say +what he had not learnt that could be learnt by 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 that he was more actuated by a sense of duty than by any hope +of greater happiness for himself. The natural suggestion that he should +marry his brother's widow he looked on merely as a further development +of previous bondage; and he told himself again that, not having swerved +a hair's breadth from his faith, he was bound to set his own views +aside in favour of a custom desired by those chiefly concerned. +Besides, in the atmosphere of surprised sympathy in which he lived it +was hard, indeed, not to pose as a victim. + +And so, just as poor Feroza was confidently asserting his culture, he, +having given his English fellow-passengers the slip, was once more +putting on the clothes of an orthodox Mohammedan. Feroza, 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 hair and clustering jewels +degrades the veil to an unnecessary wrap; the propriety of the bodice +intensifies its shapelessness; the very face suffers by the unconcealed +holes in ears and nose. + +Kareema stared with a smile akin to tears. "There is time," she +pleaded. "Come! I can make you look twice as well." + +Their eyes met with something of the old affection, but Feroza shook +her head. "I must find out--" + +"If he is a noodle?" The interrupting giggle was almost a whimper. "You +mean if he is blind! Ah, Feroza! look at me." + +No need to say that; the puzzled eyes had taken in the sight already. +Gleams of jewelled hair under the gold threaded veil; a figure revealed +by the net bodice worn over a scantier one of flowered muslin; bare +feet tucked away in shells of shoes; long gauze draperies showing a +shadow of silk-clad limbs; above it all that dimpling, smiling face. +She shook her head again. + +In the long minutes of waiting she lost herself in counting the bricks +on the familiar wall until the sight of a tall man at the door dressed +as a Mohammedan startled her into drawing the veil to her face in fear +of intrusion. + +As the man withdrew quickly Kareema's laugh rang out. "To think, +Feroza! thou shouldest be _purdah_ to him after all thy big talk." + +"The Meer! Was that the Meer?" faltered Feroza. "I did not--the +dress--" + +"Bah! I knew the likeness to my poor Inaiyut. See! yonder he comes +again ushered by father-in-law. Now, quick, Feroza!" + +The voice quavering over the prepared phrases of thanks to the Great +Giver of home-coming was infinitely pathetic; and yet, as Ahmed Ali +took the outstretched hand, he was conscious above all things of a +regret, almost a sense of outrage; 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 have naught worthy his +acceptance save the memory of kinship. My sister and I greet you, _as +sisters_. Nay, more," she added lightly; "I too shake hands +English-fashion, and if I do it wrong forgive us both, since learned +Feroza is teacher." + +"You make me very happy," answered the Meer heartily. "How well you are +all looking!" + +No need to say where his eyes were. + +"You mistake, Meer _sahib_," cried Kareema swiftly, "Feroza looks ill. +'Tis your blame, since she worked over-hard to please you." + +The forbidden frown came too late to prevent Ahmed Ali's glance finding +it on his wife's face. It was not becoming. "Was it so hard to learn?" +he asked with a patronising smile. "But your handwriting improved +immensely of late." + +The tips of Feroza's fingers showed bloodless under their nervous +clasp, but she said nothing. Indeed, she scarcely opened her lips as +they sat talking over 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 eyes and ears, and not till the sun +tipping over the high walls glared down on them did she lose patience +enough to ask, vaguely, what he thought about it all. + +"_Wah illah_," cried the Moulvie, "Feroza hits the mark! What thinkest +thou, my son? But I fear not, for thou hast the faithful air, and canst +doubtless repeat thy creed purely." + +The young man looked round the familiar scene, every detail of which +fitted so closely to memory that no room remained for the seven years' +absence. A rush of glad recognition surged to heart and brain, making +him stand up and give the _Kalma_.[22] + +"I am content, oh, my father!" he cried in ringing tones, as the +sonorous echoes died away to silence. "I am content to come back to the +old life, to the old duties." + +"The sun makes my head ache," said Feroza, rising abruptly, "I will go +into the dark and rest." + +"Don't go, Feroza! Thou hast not told the Meer about thyself," pleaded +Kareema, rising in her turn. "She hath worked so hard," she added +petulantly to the young man. "No one is worth it, no one." + +The Meer looked from one to the other. "Learning is hard for women," he +began. Then something in his wife's face roused the new man in him, +making him say in a totally different tone and manner, "I am afraid I +hardly understand." + +"That is what Kareema says of me," replied Feroza icily. + +Her cousin, as she sat down once more to listen, shrugged her +shoulders. "And she counted herself as something better than a woman," +was her inward comment amid her smiles. + +Feroza saw nothing of her husband for the rest of the day. The men's +court was crowded with visitors, and she herself had to bear the brunt +of many feminine congratulations. Only at sunset, before starting to +attend a feast given in his honour, he 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 made her heart bound, and a distinct pause brought her to his +side with wistful eyes, only to see Kareema nodding and smiling to him +from the roof, whither she had gone for fresher air. "What is it?" he +asked kindly, though his looks were elsewhere. + +"Nothing," she answered, "nothing at all. Go in peace!" + +The moon, rising ere the sun set, stole the twilight. So she sat gazing +at the hard square outlines of the walls till far on into the night, +her mind filled with but one thought. The thought that by and by Ahmed +Ali, flushed with content at things 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 lattice +whence she had had her first glimpse of wisdom. Even on that brilliant +night the vestibule itself was dark; but through the door she could see +the empty arcades of the men's court surrounding the well where she and +her cousins used to play. + +A rustle in the alley made her peer through the fret-work, for the +veriest trifle swayed her; but it was only a dog seeking garbage in the +gutter. Then 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, she might have waited his return calmly +enough. Footsteps now! She cowered to the shadow at the sight of +Kareema followed by Mytâb bearing something. + +"He mayn't be back till late," came the familiar giggle; "and a soft +pillow will please him." + +The pair were back again before she recovered her surprise, and Kareema +paused ere re-entering the women's door. "Poor Feroza! She will get +accustomed to it, I suppose." + +"Of what hath she to complain?" retorted the old voice; "he is a +properer man than I deemed. Say, heart's desire, what said he when I +saw thee--?" + +"Mytâb! thou mean spy! Bah! he told me he would change a letter and +call me Carina, since it meant dearest in some heathen tongue. They +begin thus over the black water likely; 'tis not bad, and new at any +rate." + +Feroza scarcely waited for distance to deaden the answering giggle. She +was on her feet, pacing to and fro like a mad creature. Ah! to get away +from it all--from that name, from the look he must 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 cool damp stones, her eyes rested +themselves on the faint glimmer far down--ever, oh, ever so far away! +Hark! some one in the alley. If it were he? Ah! then she must go away, +ever so far away-- + + +Meer Ahmed Ali found his pillow comfortable, and only woke in the dawn +to see Mytâb standing beside him. + +"Feroza!" she cried. "Where is Feroza?" + +A dull remorse came to his drowsy brain. "It was so late--I--" + +"Holy Prophet, she is not here! Thou hast not seen her! Then she hath +gone to the _Missen_ to be baptised. Why didst turn her brain with +books? Fool! Idiot!" + +"The Mission!" Meer Ahmed Ali was awake now, and the peaceful party, +gathered in the verandah for early tea, stared as the young man burst +in on it with imperious demands for his wife. Then his surroundings +recalled his acquired courtesy, and he stammered an apologetic +explanation. + +"She has gone away?" cried Julia, with a queer catch in her breath. +"Oh, Meer _sahib!_ what a mistake we have all made. It was too late to +write, and then I got ill; but, indeed! I was going down this very +morning to try and make you understand." + +"Understand what?" asked the Meer, helplessly confused, adding +hurriedly, "but I can't stay now. She must be found. I will not have +her run away. I will have her back--yes! I _will_ have her back." + +Half-an-hour later Julia Smith, driven to the Moulvie's house by +remorseful anxiety, found the wicket-gate ajar. She entered silently +upon a scene framed like a picture by the dark doorway of the men's +court. + +Feroza had come back to those familiar walls. She lay beside the well, +and the water from her clinging garments crept in dark stains through +the dust. She had wrapped her veil round her to stifle useless cries, +and so the dead face, as in life, was decently hidden from the eyes of +men. She lay alone under the cloudless sky, for her friends, shrinking +from the defilement of death, stood apart: Kareema sobbing on Mytâb's +breast, with Ahmed Ali, dazed yet indignant, holding her hand; the +Moulvie, repeating a prayer; the servants still breathless from their +ghastly toil. Julia Smith saw it all with her bodily eyes; yet nothing +seemed worth seeing save that veiled figure in the dust. She knelt +beside it and took the slender cold hand in hers. "My dear, my dear!" +she whispered through her sobs. "Surely you need not have gone so far, +so very far--for help." + +But the dead face was hidden even from her tears. + + + + + IN THE HOUSE OF A COPPERSMITH. + + + I. + +The clangour of metal upon metal filling the low, dark workshop, +pulsating out into the hot sunshine of the courtyards behind, and the +hot shadow of the narrow street in front. Pulsating musically, yet with +an undercurrent of jarring vibration like a north-country burr on a +woman's tongue. The whole best described, perchance, in the native name +for the copper which the workmen were hammering and welding into pots +and pans--_tambur_. + +_Tâm bur, tâm-burr-urr-ur_. + +Thus endlessly through afternoon sunshine and afternoon shade, as the +shine fell full on a woman who was sitting silently beside a row of mud +cooking-places in the first courtyard. So still, so silent; it seemed +as if the waves of sound must break baffled upon the carven folds of +the coarse, whitey brown veil which, covering her almost from head to +foot, was drawn tight over the forehead to conceal the hair, and wound +tight under the chin so as to hide all save the oval face barred by +level black brows, and the brown curves of a wide mouth. Only about her +feet a voluminous petticoat showed its dingy red and green borderings +like a frill. The typical dress of a widow in Northern India, and the +face matched it. More indifferent than sad; the lack of 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 husband's younger +brother's wife--bound by every principle of religion and decency to +obey? Durga-dei's black brows grew straighter at the thought of the +change one short year had wrought. And Gopâl, Parbutti's husband, was +the master now. A pretty master for all his good looks, for all his +learning! yet what else could one expect, seeing he had spent his youth +over books at the Municipal School, while his elder brother, despite +his crippled condition, had kept the ancestral business a-going? Yes! +on that point the dead husband had been weak; and yet how proud he had +been of the handsome lad who was to bring sons to the ancestral hearth! +But he had not even done so much, though to be sure, for that Parbutti +was to blame; a jealous wife, too selfish-- + +"Durga! Durga-dei! The broom, quick! Am I to sit in the dust like a +lone widow because thou art lazy? The broom, I say!" + +The voice which overbore one clamour by another was not pleasant; but +it was so in comparison with Durga's face as she rose reluctantly. A +thousand times more so than that same 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 +figure, despite its shroud, as it leant despondently against the +lintel, while the black eyes shifted in a sort of helpless indifference +over the blank walls imprisoning them. + +A year ago; only a year ago! + +Her unpractised brain attempted no other complaint; but this +unformulated sense of injury possessed her utterly, and everything in +heaven and earth became an outrage on that capable past when she had +held the reins of government. Of a truth, in that small kingdom of hers +behind the coppersmith's shop naught had been wanting that she could +compass. Naught save children; for that Parbutti, feckless Parbutti, +with youth and health and strength on both sides, was far more +responsible than she. If the curse had been hers, would she not gladly +have given a handmaiden to her lord? But they had waited for the +brother's child which would be as their own, and in that hope had +refused to adopt a son while yet there was time. Even now--the small +supple hands sought the crevices beyond the door lintel against which +they had been resting slackly--sought them as if intent 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 +Gopâl 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 family; since she would then have the right +to keep handsome, lazy Gopâl and his work together for the sake of the +son who might be born to the old trade. She was of the stern old +school; but those two were not; and so, between the hearth and that +calm perpetuity in which lay its only chance of success, stood a strong +woman's jealousy and a weak man's cunning. For Gopâl knew well that +sooner or later even the most indecent of barren wives must give her +lord a child-bringer. And in such case, without being bad to the +heart's core, a handsome fellow like Gopâl might well speculate on a +youthful bride in the future, rather than take a widow in the present, +since Parbutti would never allow both. So, on the whole, he was not so +much to blame. Men were men when all was said and done. They loved +beauty. Yet she had been beautiful--surely she had been beautiful. + +The clangour ceased suddenly, leaving, as it were, an echo in the chime +of the police office gong at the nearest gate striking the hour--five +o'clock. Durga, as she counted the strokes, smiled contemptuously. As +usual Gopâl was seizing on 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 implements +put aside, or guard against the prentice trick of concealing a handful +or two of snippings and filings; for there was his lithe figure at the +door, about to cross to the inner courtyard--to ease and indolence--to +his supper--to--to Parbutti! + +A flash of intense vitality came to Durga's face: despite its silence, +its absolute stillness, her whole figure was instinct with life as she +stood looking at the man opposite her. He was about her own age, and +the scanty clothing of the artisan clashes left the strength and beauty +of his limbs unconcealed. The face was handsome also, and pleasant in +its beardless contours, surrounded by the fringe of silky black hair +showing beneath the artisan's round calico cap. Both figure and +features displaying at their best the characteristics of that curious +guild which for thousands of years has defied the Sudra origin imputed +to it by the Brahmans, and worn the sacred thread of the twice-born in +the smithy, the mason's yard, and the carpenter's shop. It curved now +like a piece of whipcord 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 Gopâl 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 Gopâl's own +skull were leavened with ideas foreign to those which had been +transmitted to him through ages of slow heredity. A curious anomaly; +one which has to be taken into account by the master builders of the +Great Imperial Institute when they count the cost of progress. And yet +as he paused, arrested by the glow on Durga's face, his thoughts defied +his education. For it came home to him suddenly, causelessly, that this +woman, the widow of his dead brother, was beautiful, and that he had a +right to her--if he chose. Yes! she was beautiful--far more beautiful, +despite her widowhood, than the jealous wife awaiting him within; and +she was his by right--if he chose. Why should he not choose? These +thoughts were crowding culture from his brain, as he crossed the +courtyard without a word; for convention so far held him fast. Only as +she stepped aside from the door to let him pass, their eyes met. + +When he had gone, and the sound of Parbutti's shrill welcoming rose +over the high partition wall, Durga crouched down beside the fireplace, +and blew softly at the smouldering embers under the pot of lentils. It +was woman's work to fan a flame if--if it were not fierce enough to do +its duty to the hearth. Easy work also: a woman could do it with no +more exertion than would make the bosom rise and fall a trifle quicker, +or send a tremble through the arm supporting the bowed 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 still Durga sat waiting, +her eyes upon the fire. The sunlight left the wall to dull shadow, the +flames died down, but no one called; perhaps they had eaten everything, +and she must stave off her whole day's hunger with a handful of parched +grain. Well! 'twould count as a virtue, not for herself, but for the +dead husband who had gone down to death sonless; not by her fault, +though--not by her fault! The old vague sense of injury returned, +lulling her to a sort of resignation. + +"Durga! Durga-dei!" + +She started from a half doze to see Parbutti pausing on her way to the +outer door, in order to exclaim at laziness--exclaiming all the louder +because Gopâl, also on his way to the world beyond those four walls, +stood by listening both to the scolding and the silence. Suddenly he +moved impatiently to the door. + +"Come, wife! There is no time for such things nowadays. Stay wrangling +if thou wilt. I hate it all. Holy Lukshmi! it hath been so since the +world began, and I am tired of it!" + +He scarcely knew his own meaning; only this was clear--the old customs, +the old conventional ways were an annoyance. Yet, as he walked moodily +down the narrow street towards the police station, his mind circled +round one thought--he had a right by immemorial usage to claim Durga if +he chose. A queer medley altogether was Gopâl, the coppersmith, seated +in the growing darkness on a certain flight of steps leading at one and +the same time to a small Hindu temple and the back door of a native +printing-office. Just over the way a yellow-trousered constable was +pacing up and down in front of the police and octroi station, between a +patent Birmingham-made weighing machine, warranted all the latest +improvements, and a primitive water-clock; thus as it were keeping +watch over the due measurement of the two great staples of +civilisation--Time and Money, and looking with equal impartiality at +the rising beam registering its burden accurately, and the copper +bowl--made no doubt by a forebear of Gopâl's--sinking lower and lower +as the water filtered through the hole in its bottom, until it marked +the whereabouts 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. Gopâl 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 composedly to the courtyard where Durga-dei still crouched by +the ashes of the fire, and, sidling into her accustomed corner, lowed +for her supper. The woman rose and brought it mechanically. The cow at +any rate must not fast. As she mixed the portion of parched grain with +the fodder it smelt appetising, but she did not taste it. The hunger +that was on her was not to be stayed by food. She did not envy Parbutti +away at the wedding festivities at a neighbour's house--those +festivities whence the ill-omened widow's face was barred; she did not +envy Gopâl sitting on the steps watching the current of life slip into +the old and the new channels, but in a vague way she envied Motiya, the +milk-giver, her honoured place by the hearthstone. She envied her the +calf which the milker on his rounds loosed from its tether in the dark +shed, and an answering quiver seemed to run through her limbs as she +saw the mother yield to the first rough touch of the sucking tongue. +When that was over, she crouched down again to brood over the empty +house. Parbutti would not be back till all hours, and Gopâl--what of +Gopâl? + +The night settled down. There was no moon, only a spangled star or two +showing in the narrow slip of sky above her. The noise of the city +without seemed lost in the stillness of the courtyard, where, through +the darkness, you could hear the sound of Motiya chewing the cud of +content. + +That in one corner; in the other something different, and yet-- + +"Durga! Durga-dei!" + +It was Gopâl's voice through the darkness. + + + II. + +The dark nights had yielded to light ones, and drawn back into darkness +again more than once, before the second act of the drama began. Such 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 where the +dead ashes of the past day's flame showed white. Through the stillness +and the moonshine a man's voice petulant, almost peevish. + +"Lo! I told thee from the beginning it must be so. There is time yet. +Have patience awhile, Durga; when there is no escape Parbutti will +yield--that is woman's way. Thou knowest that I love thee; were it not +so why should I have sought thee?" Durga's clasped hands fell from +their hold upon his arm listlessly. + +"Yea! thou didst love me; that is true. And I? Knowest thou, Gopâl, why +my heart sinks now as it never did when first I yielded to thy plan for +peace? Then it seemed naught to keep it secret awhile--no harm--no +blame; but now--Gopâl! knowest thou it comes upon me even as if I were +a shameless one--since--since I have learnt to care--" + +Her voice died away to a whisper, her dark eyes sought his with a +passionate gloom in them before which his shifted uneasily. + +"A wife should love her husband, surely? so say the Scriptures--and +thou lovest old sayings, O Durga! Yea! and she should obey him also. So +let the question be awhile. When due time comes Parbutti shall be told +that the old custom hath prevailed, and that the child is of the +hearth. She is quick-witted, and will see that after all 'tis better +for _her_ than a stranger wife." + +A certain aggressiveness of accent provoked a sharp, half-questioning +protest. + +"And for thee also, Gopâl; surely 'tis best for thee--if as thou sayest +I am dear unto thee?" + +"For me also, if thou desirest it so, though we men ask first that our +women live in peace. But see, the moon climbs high; Parbutti will be +returning, and she must not suspect yet awhile. Look not so troubled, +Durga! Sure I love thee, else wherefore should I have sought thee?" + +The repetition of this argument seemed as much for his own conviction +as for hers, and there was something of the same motive in the +half-hearted kiss he stooped to bestow upon her. To his surprise she +shrank from it, and the unexpected rebuff bringing 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 Gopâl, +when thou shouldest be thanking thy namesake,[23] _Mai_ Bhavani, for +sending pleasure in the path of duty. Afraid lest folk should blame +thee, when, woman-like, thou shouldest be praying the gods Parbutti +might return even now to see thee preferred before her." + +The words were spoken lightly, and the speaker's eyes smiled into the +earnest ones raised to his. So neither saw a muffled form at the +entrance behind them--a form which showed itself for a second, then +shrank back behind the strip of wall, built like a screen, across the +outer door. + +"If she came, Gopâl, wouldst thou tell her the truth?" + +The night was so still that every word of the passionate whisper was +audible to that unseen listener. + +"Sure would I, sweetheart, if only to prevent her claws from +scratching. For look you, once 'tis known that you and I have settled +it, she can do naught--save quarrel. That is why I say wait till the +last. There will be no time then for words--or wiles. Now, Durga, I +must go--I would not she had the knowledge secretly--that were an evil +chance." + +The night was so still that a keen listener might have heard a light +footfall behind the screen, as if some one were stealing away from it. +But those two only heard their own soft breathing as their lips met. + +"Durga! Durga! asleep as usual, and I bade thee keep the fire aglow +lest I should need aught." + +The familiar fault-finding rang through the courtyard, and not even a +tremble in Parbutti's voice betrayed knowledge of that unseen listener, +who, five minutes before, had hid behind the screen. Gopâl was right; +her wits were quick to seize on what was to her own advantage. Anger +and reproach were desirable, doubtless, but what if they left her +helpless? Besides, there was time to spare for such things 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 which had come so unexpectedly +to complicate the situation. So much for the women's thoughts; as for +the man's, as he sat in the dawning light eating his morning meal, they +might have been inferred from a certain irritation towards both the +women who, in one way or another, were engaged in ministering to his +comfort. For polygamy is not altogether tragic; it is often comic--at +times almost farcical. + +The clangour of metal upon metal rose with the sun, and all through the +long hot day the beat and the burr filled the courtyards where those +two women went about their daily tasks. When evening came it brought +Gopâl an unusual display of platters at supper time--an unusual +sweetness both in the viands and in Parbutti's voice. + +"Lo! 'tis like a wedding feast, wife," he said, well pleased. + +She gave an odd little hysterical laugh. "Perhaps 'tis time there was a +wedding, O Gopâl!" Then she grew grave. "Thy people say so, and mine +also. Even last night _Mai_ Râdha spoke to me of her daughter. And +perhaps 'twere better so. Thou wouldst not cease to love me, O Gopâl! +because I brought thee fair sons; ay! and a fair wife too." + +Her face was turned away; she spoke softly, regretfully, dutifully, as +a good Hindu wife should under the circumstances, and her husband could +hardly believe his ears. Parbutti--jealous Parbutti--suggesting a wife +of her own choice! Here indeed would have been a chance of peace, were +it 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 much taken aback for real assent or denial, and murmured +something incoherently about there being no need for hurry, no need to +bring a strange woman to the house--as yet. Parbutti's conventional +decorum gave way before even this faint allusion to realities, and she +turned upon him sharply. + +"Wherefore no stranger, Gopâl? Sure it must be so, seeing thou wouldst +not mock me by thinking of a widow--a childless widow. 'Tis not as if +thou didst set store by foolish old ways. 'Tis not as though thou wast +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_ Râdha's daughter is worthy of thee. Lo! I +have seen her, but if thou heedest me not inquire of her secretly. +Durga is old and a widow. We want no more childless ones in this +house--nor her sons, even if fate were kind; for look you, I hate +her--I hate her." + +Gopâl's faint protest died down before Parbutti's vehemence; if she +hated, she hated, and there was an end of it. No use in words, or for +the matter of that in deeds. He went moodily out into the bazaars for +comfort, telling himself he had been a fool to let his fancy for a +woman as old as he was fetter his future. He might have known it would +not last. That 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 the tie they imposed upon him. Durga was +his dead brother's widow, but what right had she to more consideration +than any other woman who had yielded to a man's promise? She was no +better than those others, would be no worse off than those others if +he-- Even Gopâl could not put the thought plainly before himself; so he +took refuge in a general sense of injury. + +"Let be! Let be," he said angrily, the next time that Durga, with a +growing passion in her voice, demanded that he should admit the truth. +"And if thou sayest a word--I swear I will deny it. Nay! look not so, +Durga! I meant only if thou wilt not obey." + +She stood as if turned to stone. + +"Thou wouldst deny it? deny thy brother's child? Thou durst not, lest +the gods should slay thee for the infamy." + +He gave an embarrassed laugh. + +"Thou believest in the gods more than I, Durga; but I mean no harm to +thee. None shall say aught against thee if thou wilt have patience." + + + III. + +"And see that thou cleanest them well; they may be wanted ere long." + +There was jeering malice in words, tone, and manner as Parbutti handed +over the tarnished silver ornaments; but Durga took them without a +word--that aggressive silence of hers seeming, as it always did, to +defy the ceaseless clang of the copper which, as usual, filled the +sunlit courtyard. And yet to a woman less restrained than she here was +an occasion for bitter outcry. The ornaments had been hers in those +past days of honoured wifehood; now they were Parbutti's to wear, or to +give, as she chose. But what did that matter? what did anything matter +if only Gopâl could be kept content--if only Gopâl 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 +painful in its intensity; and Parbutti, as she watched the widow begin +her task, smiled to herself at the certainty of its being well +performed; for Durga displayed a vast anxiety to please nowadays--a +most convenient state of affairs for the household generally. Parbutti +smiled again, thinking what Durga would say when she knew the +truth--that the ornaments were to go in the wedding baskets of the +virgin bride who was to be the reward of Gopâl's treachery. + +"They will need tamarinds to give them back their whiteness," thought +Durga, looking at the silver with experienced eyes. This interest in +the drudgery and detail of her life was not a conscious effort on her +part; of late a sort of dull comfort had come to her in the knowledge +that already, in a thousand ways, she was standing between the +household and that disregard of old ways which to her meant disgrace, +if not disaster. And so it was with a certain pride in her work that, +while Parbutti was sleeping, she watched the tamarind 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 bought more when next she wanted some. The thought +cheered her as, still with the same careful conservatism, she went on +to some other process, approved by old tradition, for the due cleansing +of tarnished silver. It was no light matter, that keeping of the +household ornaments as if they were fresh from the goldsmith's hands; +for did it not redound to the credit of the hearth? When she had worn +them, none could have told they were not newly-made out of new rupees; +but Parbutti thought only of wearing them in a becoming manner. + +Well! this time she should acknowledge that there was some good in +having Durga in the house. + +There was something infinitely pathetic in the slow workings of this +woman's mind, as she sat busy over the ornaments--something infinitely +pathetic in the pride with which, after the two or three days of +treatment prescribed, she showed them white and glistening to her +rival. + +"Ay!--they are as new--_Mai_ Râdha will deem them so at any rate," said +Parbutti, with studied carelessness. The time had come for revenge. +Gopâl's passion 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 springing the mine upon Durga. There is nothing in +heaven or earth so cruel as a jealous woman even when her nature is +kindly, and Parbutti's was not. + +"_Mai_ Râdha! What hath she to do with them?" The quick anxiety of the +widow's tone was as balm to the other's ears. + +"What a mother hath to do with her daughter's trousseau for sure," she +answered lightly. "I meant to tell thee ere this, but Gopâl would not +have it, and 'tis true that widows are ill meddlers with marriage. He +weds the girl next month by my consent. The house needs a child." + +So far Durga had stood staring at her enemy incredulously. Now she +flung out her arms in sudden passion, letting the widow's shrouding +veil fall from her figure recklessly. + +"'Tis a lie--an infamous lie! The house needs no stranger's child. Thou +knowest it! Yea, thou hast known it, and this is thy revenge. But it +shall not be. Gopâl shall speak! Gopâl, I say! Gopâl!" + +Parbutti's hands gripped her rival's as in a vice despite her +struggles. + +"So! is it that? And thou wouldst lay the burden of thy shame on Gopâl, +base walker of the bazaars, betrayer of thy dead lord! On Gopâl who +weds a virgin; let us see what he saith. Gopâl! I say, Gopâl!" + +It almost seemed as if their clamour must have pierced that of the +coppersmith's shop, for the latter ceased suddenly in the slow chiming +of five o'clock. Instinctively the women fell away from each other, +feeling that the crisis had come. Another minute would bring the man to +answer for himself. So they stood waiting for the well-known figure on +the threshold. + +"Gopâl!" + +He recoiled from the sight of them, coward to the backbone. + +And Parbutti knew it--knew the man with whom she had to deal a thousand +times better than Durga knew him; so her shrill voice came first, +allowing 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 bride to the house, nor indeed under such circumstances +would _Mai_ Râdha ever consent to her daughter's marriage. Let him take +his choice without delay. + +And Durga, still gauging him by the measure of her own nature, claimed +the truth also. Between the two Gopâl stood irresolute, divided between +fear and desire. + +"'Tis thy choice, O husband!" came Parbutti's shrill voice; "the widow +or the bride, thou canst not have both." + +He knew it perfectly. It was one or the other, and a sudden fierce +dislike leapt up against poor Durga. + +"It is a lie," he muttered, his eyes upon the ground; "I have naught to +do with her, naught." + +Durga fell back as if she had been struck, but Parbutti's laugh of +triumph failed before the sombre fire of those big blazing eyes. For an +instant it seemed as if the former would give herself up to vehement +upbraiding; then suddenly she passed 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 to find no foothold on which to recover her balance. He had +denied her, he had denied the hearth. Her tense fingers hung rigidly +without clasp or grip on anything, just as her mind seemed to have lost +hold on all her beliefs, all her knowledge. + +In a dim, half-dazed way she knew what would happen. By and by, when +opportunity occurred, Gopâl would creep out, as he had crept out many a +time before, and seek to soothe her. There need be no scandal, 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 that was not +shame, nor anger, nor horror, but sheer animal jealousy, leapt up +within her; for she had learnt to care, as women do learn, even when +they know that he for whom they care is not worth it. + +So Parbutti and this new woman were to have him, and she-- + +When the brain is quick its owner may suffer more from the very variety +and complexity it gives to grief; but the grief for all that is less +absorbing. Durga was so lost in hers that she scarcely noticed Parbutti +coming in after a time to see about the supper. There was no call on +her for help this evening, no blame because the fires were slack and +nothing ready. To tell truth, even Parbutti did not care to drive the +stunned look from Durga's face, lest it should be replaced by seven +devils; so she was left alone. Yet even so, something made her start, +and for a second her hand moved as if she 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 break up the surface of her hot anger against Gopâl. What! was +she to save Parbutti from the consequences of her own ignorance and +negligence? There was no more than that in Durga's mind as she watched +the cooking; no more than that, and a dumb conviction that somehow the +future must be changed, utterly changed. It could not be as the past +had been; so much was certain. Yet as she sat, thinking not at all, +something must have been juggling with her brain, for Parbutti's first +words, when an hour or so afterwards she came bustling back into the +outer court, found their reply ready on Durga's lips. + +"He is not well," she fussed. "Durga! thou art more learned in simples +than most. What shall I give to stay the burning 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 widow stood up mechanically, and her right +hand sought once more the crevices of the wall against which she was +leaning. + +"I know not. Give him tamarind water an thou likest. 'Tis not my work, +but thine." + +Revenge had sprung full-fledged from her slow brain in familiar face +and welcome form. And it would not be her doing, but Parbutti's! A sort +of sensual delight in the idea surged through her, making her add--as +if to, give an edge to the sword of fate--"yet if the sickness be about +'twere well to have more skill than mine. I would not have it said I +killed him!" + +Once more the spite against the woman overbore all other feelings for +the time. That, and a dull recognition of the fact that if Gopâl died +he would 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, suddenly, those black eyes of hers blazed up fiercely. Yes! that +was the only possible end; as well now, when opportunity offered a +beginning, as later. + +"Ay! give him tamarind water--'tis best for such as he." + +Not a shadow of regret came to her as she watched Parbutti follow her +advice. It was as if since all time this thing had been ordained, as if +aught else were beyond her control. The curious calm with which the +Oriental regards death, even for himself, does not count for nothing in +such situations as this. We of the West, who 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, summoned from the _sahib-logue's_ hospital beyond +the walls, to satisfy that curious streak of education in the sick +man's mind, said sooth in declaring it to be a case of cholera? or +whether the wise woman sent by _Mai_ Râdha was right in hinting at the +evil eye? Was it, briefly, God's judgment, or man's? The uncertainty +oppressed her. + +So the dawn breaking over that unseen, unknown world beyond the house +of the coppersmith found three haggard faces within it. Found the same +thought in each heart: was it to be death, or death in life for one, or +for all? yet each awaited the answer with a strange indifference. + +"Yes! 'tis the great sickness; he grows blue and cold already," said +the neighbours in frank wisdom as they looked in. The air was cooler +then with the sudden freshness which seems to come with the sun's first +rays; a thin blue smoke began to rise over the awakening city; the +sparrows sat preening 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 passively to the brightening sky from +the low string bed; the other two bent on the ground as passively. A +vessel full of tamarind water stood by the sick man, but he had +scarcely touched it. Perhaps after all it was the great sickness. Durga +scarcely knew whether she were glad or sorry at the thought. + +So the sun climbed up until, with one clear distinct +"_tam-burr-urr-ur-r_," the daily clamour of the shop began. Maybe the +master would not die, maybe he would; either way work must be done, and +no one had said the workers nay--as yet. + +"Gopâl is still alive," commented the neighbours cheerfully as they +listened; "they will stop, likely, when they hear the death wail, and +'tis as well for him to end as he began with the ring of the metal in +his ears." + +The water-clock from the stairs where Gopâl used to sit chimed noon. +The heavens were as brass. A perfect blaze of light beat down on the +courtyard and those three faces. But one of them waited no longer, +though it still gazed passively into the pale sky from the ground where +it lay. And Parbutti, the new-made widow, glared in terrified hatred at +the face of that other widow who stood looking down at the dead man. + +Then suddenly the death wail rose loud and clear in a woman's voice. + +"_Naked he came, naked has gone. This empty dwelling-place belongs +neither to you nor to me_." + +The clangour ceased, ending in a faint vibration like a dying breath. + +"Listen!" said the policeman watching the waterclock; "there is death +in the coppersmith's house. I heard he was ill of the sickness. God +save him--he hath no son." + + + + + FAIZULLAH. + + +He was beating his wife--an occupation which annihilates time, +dissolves the crust of culture, and reduces humanity in both +hemispheres to a state of original sin. It is therefore immaterial what +Faizullah and Haiyat Bibi did or said during the actual chastisement, +for they behaved themselves as any other couple in the same +circumstances would have done, that is to say, after the manner of two +animals--one injured in his feelings, the other in her body. + +She screamed vociferously, but for all that took her punishment with +methodical endurance; indeed, there was a distinct air of duty on both +sides which went far towards disguising the actual violence. 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 sympathetic, carrying a _lotah_ full +of water with which she administered comfort to the crushed victim. +Faizullah Khan watched the gradual subsidence of his wife's sobs with +evident satisfaction. + +"Hast had enough for this time, O Haiyat?" he asked mildly. "Or shall I +catch thee peeping through the door at the men-folk again like a cat +after a mouse? True, 'tis the way thou caughtest me for a husband, +Light of mine Eyes; but I will have none of it with other men. 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 that none +will seek her; but not I, Faizullah Khan, Belooch of Birokzai. Did I +not marry thee, O Haiyat, Marrow of my Bones, because of thy fair face? +Then what good wouldst thou be to me without a nose? Therefore be wise, +my heart, or I shall have to kill thee some day." + +"The _sahibs_ will hang thee in pigskin if thou dost," whimpered the +woman vindictively. "Yea, I would die gladly to see thee swing like the +wild beast thou art!" + +The sense of coercion was evidently passing away, nor were there +wanting signs that ere long tears would be dried at the flame of wrath +fast kindling in Haiyat's big black eyes. 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 +stretches and broken rocky distance to where a low line of serrated +blue mountains blocked the horizon. They were the Takt-i-Suleiman, and +beyond their peaks and passes lay Beloochistan. + +"There are no _sahibs_ yonder," he said, stretching his right hand +towards the hills; "no one to come between a man and his right of +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 keeps me +dawdling here a stranger in the house of mine ancient enemies. Why wilt +thou not come with me to the mountains, O Haiyat?" + +"I am not a wild beast as thou art," she retorted, still with +speech checked by sobs. "I will stay here and get thee swung, for the +_sahib-logues_ worship a woman away over the black water and do her +bidding. They will fill thy mouth with dirt, and burn thy body, and +curse thy soul to the nether--" + +"Nay! innermost Apple of mine Eye! do I not worship thee? And art thou +not a Belooch also by race, though thy people have dug the grave of +their courage with the plough, and tethered their freedom beside +their bullocks? They were not always dirt-eaters, mean-spirited, +big-bellied--" + +"_Hai! Hai!_" That was the beginning of the storm. What followed drove +big Faizullah into the court below, where the voices of the two women +ceased to be articulate; 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 right of subsequent abuse. So he smoked his pipe +placidly, and amused himself with polishing his well-beloved sword +which he kept in defiance of the Arms Act. + +The poorer women of the village nodded at each other as the shrill +clamour, floating over the high encircling wall, reached the well where +they came to draw water. + +"The stranger hath big hands," chuckled one; "yet are they smaller than +Haiyat's eye. That comes of being a widow so long." + +"There will be murder some day, mark my words!" muttered an old hag +with a toothless leer. "What else canst thou expect from a Belooch of +Birokzai? _Peace! Peace!_ 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 blood enough to quench them +afterwards. But they are afraid of the _sahibs_ and the pigskin; not so +Faizullah; he is of the old sort, knowing how to keep his wife." + +"He will not keep her for all that, _mai_," sneered a strapping girl, +who by the handsome water-vessels she carried showed herself to be a +servant in one of the richer houses. "We shall get her back some day, +despite her father-in-law's wickedness in letting her marry a +good-for-nothing soldier, just because of keeping a hold on her +jewels." + +"Hold on their honour, O thou false tongue!" shrilled another of the +group. "The daughter of thy house would have brought shame on ours. She +needed a fierce one to keep her straight." + +"After the man--woman, thy house gave her first, O depraved tongue that +tasteth not the truth. Had thy people sent her back, our house would +have kept her safe enough." + +"And her jewels doubtless--" + +So the war of words, begun on the top story of Faizullah's house, +found its way into the narrow village street, and thence into many a +mud-walled courtyard where the women set down the pots of water and +rested themselves in wrangling. It even went further, for in not a few +of them, when the men came back from their day's work in the fields, +the subject of Haiyat Bibi's peeping eyes and covetous jewels gave rise +to slow, deliberate conversation over the evening pipe. Faizullah was +right to beat her, of course; on that point all were agreed. The rest +was open to argument, and had been so any time these last two years, +ever since the bold Belooch of Birokzai, on his way home from short +service in a frontier regiment, had halted in his retreat at the sight +of a pair of big black eyes behind the chink of a door. Long before +that, however, the question as to whether those jewels of Haiyat 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 felt their +sheet-anchor of reference would be gone did any serious crime occur to +throw discredit on the converted community. Despite this constant care, +the village might have been situated in the moon for all the +authorities knew of the pretty intrigues, the hopes and fears, which +formed the mainspring of its life. Even the ordinary human interests of +its inhabitants were all too low in tone and insignificant to secure +alien sympathy. So Haiyat Bibi's peeping eyes and her Delhi-made jewels +were disturbing elements unknown to those who signed the monthly +criminal reports with placid self-satisfaction at their own success in +securing virtue. Even when, egged on by the family, her best-looking +male cousin made bids for possession of both these charms in various +underhand ways, the consequent employment of Faizullah Khan's marital +discipline did not resound so far as the _hâkm's_ ears. + +Therefore it was an unpleasant surprise when, some six weeks after the +original homily against peeping, the significant red envelope which +proclaims the shedding of blood found its way into the Deputy +Commissioner's mail-bag, and brought the news of Haiyat Bibi's murder +by her husband, and his subsequent flight to the hills. Furthermore, it +was reported by the sergeant of police, whose very writing showed signs +of trepidation, that the whole village was in an uproar, and he himself +quite unable to cope with the situation. As luck would have it, some +eighty miles of desert and alluvial land lay between the excited +village and the fountains of law and order; for when the red envelope +arrived, the responsible officials were in camp at the other end of the +district. Nearly a week passed ere they could arrive on the scene, and +by that time the villagers had sworn to renew a blood-feud which in +past days had thriven bravely between their clan and that of the +murderer. They were, in fact, on the point of turning their +ploughshares into swords--an example which is dangerously contagious +among the border tribes. Owing, therefore, to the necessity of +persuading the people to trust the far-reaching arm of the law 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 disappearance, were produced and +sworn to vociferously by all. Relics of this sort are apt to be +somewhat indefinite; this objection, however, was met by the subsequent +discovery of portions of Haiyat Bibi's clothing, and a golden ear-ring +which the murderer had evidently dropped in his flight. The latter +whetted the desire for revenge to a point, for, as the district-officer +sorrowfully admitted to himself, the old-fashioned wrath at injury to +their women, so conspicuous among these border clans, was now freely +intermixed with that greed of gold which civilisation brings in its +wake. Finally, since nothing else could be done, a reward of two +thousand rupees was put upon the capture of one Faizullah Khan, Belooch +of Birokzai, accused of murdering his wife and stealing her jewels, +value twelve hundred rupees. In addition, vague promises were made that +on the next punitive expedition into the mountains an eye would be kept +on the escaped criminal's particular village, and some indemnity +exacted. There the matter rested peacefully, and so, on the whole, did +the village, though the friction between the blood-relations of the +murdered woman and her connections by marriage remained a fruitful +source of petty disturbance. + +"There is something odd about that case," remarked a new magistrate +when some fresh complaint of quarrel came in for settlement. "It is +always more satisfactory to have a real, _whole_ body; but when there +is neither corpse nor criminal it is useless depending on facts at +all." The police officer, however, declared, that having personally +conducted the inquiry no mistake in either facts or conclusions was +possible. + +Eighteen months passed by and early spring was melting the snows on +that great rampart of hills which, properly guarded, would make the +rich plains of India impregnable to a western foe. The border land was +astir, its officials 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 the district-officer sat in front of his +tent writing a rose-coloured report on the progress of education. It +was long overdue owing to the pressure of martial preparations, so he +was in a hurry and superlatives came fast. + +"A Belooch from beyond the border is seeking the Presence with +insistence," pleaded a deferential myrmidon. + +"Let him come," was the prompt reply; and the pen, laid aside, rolled +over, blotting the last sentence. What matter? Reports have various +values, and the Belooch might bring information that would make force +more forcible. + +An old soldier, by the look of him, tall and well set up, with merry +brown eyes and a determined face. He brought himself to the salute +gravely. "May the life of the Presence be prolonged and may his +gracious ears bear with a question. Is it true that the armies of the +Lord of the Universe march against the village of one Faizullah of +Birokzai?" + +"The armies of the Kaiser-i-Hind march against all thieves and +murderers, no matter who they are." + +"The words of the Presence are just altogether. Yet may the Protector +of the Poor bear with this dust-like one. Is it true that he who brings +Faizullah captive will receive two thousand rupees reward?" + +"It is true." + +"_Wah illah!_ The purse of the great Queen is big if the long tongue of +the Presence wags in it so freely. The sum is great." + +"The crime is great. He murdered his wife; besides, he stole twelve +hundred rupees' worth of jewels." + +The smile of contempt which had crept into the listener's face at the +first part of the sentence gave place to a frown at the sequel. "The +Presence says it; shall it not be true?" he remarked with deference +after a pause. "Nevertheless the sum exceeds the purchase. Does not the +price of the calf buy the cow also?[24] There is no wisdom in a bad +bargain." + +The Deputy Commissioner looked at the new comer sharply. "Doubtless; +yet none have given the man up, though all know we will keep our threat +of burning the village next month." + +The sudden clenching of the slender, nervous hands and quick inflation +of the nostrils convinced the Englishman that there was an envoy +prepared with concessions, but asking for some in return. + +"The Presence hath said it, shall it not be true?" came the urbane +reply. "Yet we Beloochees do not give up our friends readily. Still +Faizullah is no friend of mine, so for twelve hundred rupees I will +bring him to the Presence, _dead or alive_, if his honour pleases." + +The Deputy Commissioner stared. "But the reward is two thousand; why do +you ask less?" + +"The price of the calf is the price of the cow, _Huzoor!_ I lack but +one thing, and the sum is enough for the purchase. Am I a pig of +_baniah_ to fill my stomach with rupees I cannot digest? Nevertheless +the task is hard, and those who go near violence may suffer violence. +What good then would the money be to me if I were dead?" + +Like many of his race, he had a curiously round mellow voice that +seemed to linger over the slow, stately periods as he went on +deliberately. "Surely God will reward the Presence for his patience! +But a man's son is as himself. And I have a son, _Huzoor_, a babe in +his mother's arms--may the Lord bring him safe to man's estate! If the +great Purveyor of Justice would cause a writing to be made, setting +forth that my son 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 therefore guileful. It knows also that without the hope of +money naught but the stars in heaven will move; and if I say, 'Lo, I +will give, when I have it,' who will listen? But if I say, 'Lo! there +it is safe, do my bidding and take it,' 'tis a different matter. If, +therefore, the Presence will do this, his slave will bring Faizullah, +Belooch of Birokzai, to him _alive or dead_, and there will be no need +to burn the village." + +"And the jewels?" + +Once more the frown came quick. "If I bring Faizullah to the Halls of +Justice alive, surely the mightiness of the Presence will make him +speak. If I bring him dead, can this slave follow him and find speech +in the silence of the grave? Say! is it a bargain? Yes or no?" + +The anxious brevity of the last question showed the sincerity of the +man more than all his measured words, and after some further parley, +the conditions were arranged. That is to say, the sum of twelve hundred +rupees was forthwith to be paid into the hands of a responsible third +party, and the informer was to bring Faizullah 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 utterances, firstly, that no one +would know if he gave a false one; secondly, that if he failed to keep +his promise he would prefer to remain in oblivion; thirdly, that if he +did succeed in bringing Faizullah to book, the Presence would be sure +to recognise his servant and slave. Thus he departed as he came, a +nameless stranger. + +Three days after an excited crowd rode pell-mell into the magistrate's +compound. "_Huzoor!_ we have found him! we have found him!" rose a +dozen voices, as the more influential men of the party crushed into the +office room. + +"Who?" + +"Faizullah the Belooch! Faizullah the murderer! The reward is ours, +praise be to God and to your honour's opulence. _Wah_, the glad day! +_Wah_, the great day!" + +"_Salaam alaikoum_, Friend of the Poor Man!" came an urbane voice from +their midst. "The dust-like slave of the Presence hath kept his word. +Behold! I bring to you Faizullah Khan, Belooch of Birokzai, alive, not +dead." + +A sudden hush fell on the jostling crew as the prisoner raised his +fettered hands in grave obeisance, and then solemnly, vigorously, spat +to right and left ere he began: "Snakes gorged to impotence by their +own greed! Bullocks with but one set of eyes to seven stomachs! Listen! +whilst I recount the tale of your infamies to the ear of this wise +judge. _Huzoor!_ I am Faizullah, husband of the virtuous Haiyat, mother +of my son, dwelling content in the house of my father. Yea! it is true. +For her jewels' sake, her father-in-law bound me by promises, when he +found me caught in the meshes. So for her sake I stayed in a strange +land, and the fields and the jewels were as his. Then the old man +yonder, her uncle, wroth at the marriage, set his son to beguile her; +so I beat her till she had no heart to be beguiled. For all that they +would not cease from evil ways. Therefore said I to her father-in-law: +'Let me go, for surely if I stay thy daughter-in-law will have to die +some day, and then 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 came next. When the paper concerning the +twelve hundred rupees had been writ, I knew that my house would have +her rights anyhow, even if the eyes of the Just Judge were blinded by +false oaths, or that I came dead into the Presence. So I said by +message to the carrion: 'Dispute no longer among yourselves. Let me buy +the jewels at the price ye have put on them. Let one take the money and +the other the land, or half-and-half. Only give me the jewels, and say +in the Court of Justice,--"Lo! we were mistaken! Faizullah hath not +killed his wife. He nursed her back to life, and she hath a right to +the jewels and her son after her. But the land is ours by agreement."' +And to this they said 'Yea' guilefully. But when I went to the village, +trusting them not at all, they seized me and brought me hither for the +reward, not knowing that the Presence had deigned to cast his gracious +eye on this poor man before, and that the reward was for me, or my son. +It is spoken. Let the Presence decide!" + +Nothing is more surprising than the rapidity with which a got-up case +breaks down when once the judge is seen to have an inkling of the +truth. _Suave qui peut_ is then the motto; especially when nothing more +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 +jewels, which were found carefully hidden away in the house of Haiyat +Bibi's female attendant, who had died of cholera the year before, an +ingenious incident productive of injured innocence to all the living. + +"It has not emptied the purse of the great Queen after all," said +Faizullah with a broad smile, as he stood beside the Deputy +Commissioner on the crest of a hill, and pointed to a terraced village +on the opposite side of the valley. "Nor hath the house of the poor +suffered; for the dwelling of this slave will not burn." + +The jewels were in a bundle under his arm, and he was taking leave of +the expedition he had accompanied so far. He turned to go, then +suddenly saluted in military fashion. "If this dust-like one might give +freedom to his tongue for a space, the wisdom of experience might reach +the ear of those above 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 oaths when once his own tongue +is stilled by death; and that even the justice of kings avails little +when the case has been decided already. Let this memory remain with the +_sahibs_, 'Peace bringeth Plenty, and Plenty bringeth Power.' So it +comes that false oaths are easy under the rule of the Presence." + +That was his farewell. + +The snow still lay low, but the orchards were ablaze with blossom as, +next morning, the little force led by white faces straggled peacefully +along the cobbled ledges of the steep village lane. On either side +strips of garden ground, where the heart-shaped leaves 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 arms. The Deputy Commissioner happening +to come last and alone, stopped to look at the child with kindly eyes. +As he did so a door above was set ajar, and through the chink he caught +a glimpse of a singularly beautiful pair of black eyes, and a flash of +jewels. + +"It is my house, _Huzoor_," said Faizullah with rather a sheepish grin. +"I gave her leave to peep this time." + + + + + THE FOOTSTEP OF DEATH. + +Godliness is great riches if a man be content with what he hath. + + +These words invariably carry me back in the spirit to a certain avenue +of _shesham_ trees I knew in India; an avenue six miles long, leading +through barren sandy levels to the river which divided civilisation +from the frontier wilds; an avenue like the aisle 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 shade and shine I have looked out sideways +on the yellow glare of noon beyond in grateful remembrance of the man +who,--Heaven knows when!--planted this refuge for unborn generations of +travellers. Not a bad monument to leave behind one among forgetful +humanity. + +The avenue itself, for all its contenting shade, had nothing to do with +the text which brings it to memory--that co-ordination being due to an +old _fakeer_ who sat at the river end, where, without even a warning +brake, the aisle ended in a dazzling glare of sand-bank. This sudden +change no doubt accounted for the fact that on emerging from the shade +I always seemed to see a faint, half-hearted mirage of the still unseen +river beyond. An elusive mirage, distinct in the first surprise of its +discovery, vanishing when the attention sought for it. Altogether a +disturbing 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 at his side, which proclaimed him a +member of the sweeper, or lowest, caste; in other words, one of those +who at least gain from their degradation the possibility of living +cleanly without the aid of others. There are many striking points about +our Indian Empire; none perhaps more so, and yet less considered, than +the disabilities which caste brings in its train--the impossibility, +for instance, of having your floor swept unless Providence provides a +man made on purpose. My _fakeer_, however, was of those to whom +cleanliness and not godliness is the reason of existence. + +That was why his appeal for alms, while it took a religious turn as was +necessary, displayed also a truly catholic toleration. It consisted of +a single monotonous cry: "In the 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 fact +that the scavenger's god was not a name wherewith to conjure charity. +What then? The passer-by could give in the name of his particular deity +and let the minor prophets go. + +The plan seemed successful, for the wooden bowl, placed within the +clean-swept ring bordered by its edging of dust or mud, wherein he sat +winter and summer, was never empty, and his cry, if monotonous, was +cheerful. Not ten yards from his station beneath the last tree, the +road ended in a 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 the drivers took the short cut by the +plank serving as a footbridge. It served also as a warning to the blind +_fakeer_, without which many a possible contributor to the bowl might +have passed unheard and unsolicited over the soft sand. As it was, the +first creak of the plank provoked his cry. + +It was not, however, till I had passed the old man many times in my +frequent journeyings across the river that I noticed two peculiarities +in his method. He never begged of me or any other European who 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 they had passed; but +the former seemed unaccountable; and one day when the red-funnelled +steam ferry-boat, which set its surroundings so utterly at defiance, +was late, I questioned him on the subject. + +"You lose custom, surely, by seeking the shade?" I began. "If you were +at the other side of the cut you would catch those who come from the +city. They are the richest." + +As he turned his closed eyes towards me with a grave obeisance which +did not match the jaunty content of his mask, he looked--sitting in the +centre of his swept circle--ludicrously like one of those penwipers +young ladies make for charity bazaars. + +"The Presence mistakes," he replied. "Those who come from the town have +empty wallets. 'Tis those who come from the wilderness who give." + +"But you never beg of me, whether I go or come. Why is that?" + +"I take no money, _Huzoor_; it is of no use to me. The _sahibs_ carry +no food with them; not even tobacco, only cheroots." + +The evident regret in the latter half of his sentence amused me. "'Tis +you who mistake, _fakeer-ji_," I replied, taking out my pouch. "I am of +those who smoke pipes. And now tell me why you refuse money; most of +your kind are not so self-denying." + +"That is easy to explain. Some cannot eat what is given; with me it is +the other way. As my lord knows, we dust-like ones eat most things your +God has made. But we cannot eat money, perhaps because He did not make +it--so the _padres_ say." + +"Ah! you are learned; but you can always buy." + +"Begging is easier. See! my bowl is full, and the munificent offering +of the Presence is enough for two pipes. What more do I want?" + +Viewed from his standpoint the question was a hard one to answer. The +sun warmed him, the leaves sheltered him, the passers-by nourished him, +all apparently to his utmost satisfaction. I felt instinctively that +the state of his mind was the only refuge for the upholders of +civilisation and a high standard of comfort. So I asked him what he +thought about all day long. His reply brought total eclipse to all my +lights. + +"_Huzoor!_" he said gravely, "I meditate on the Beauty of Holiness." + +It was then that the text already quoted became indissolubly mixed up +with the spreading _shesham_ branches, the glare beyond, and that +life-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 +here?" I asked, after a time, during which he sat still as a graven +image with his closed eyes towards the uncertain mirage of the river. + +"'Tis nigh on thirty years, my lord, since I have been waiting." + +"Waiting for what?" + +"For the Footstep of Death--hark!" he paused suddenly, and a tremor +came to his closed eyelids as he gave the cry: "In the name of your +God!" + +The next instant a faint creak told me that the first passenger from +the newly-arrived ferry-boat had set foot on the bridge. "You have +quick ears, _fakeer-ji_," I remarked. + +"I live on footsteps, my lord." + +"And when the Footstep of Death comes, you will die of one, I presume!" + +He turned his face towards me quickly; it gave me quite a shock to find +a pair of clear, light-brown eyes looking at, or rather beyond, me. +From his constantly closed lids I had imagined that--as is so often the +case 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 apparently as perfect as my own, and extraordinarily clear +and bright--so clear that it seemed to me as if they did not even hold +a shadow of the world around them. The surprise made me forget my first +question in another. + +"_Huzoor!_" he replied, "I am quite blind. The Light came from the sky +one day and removed the Light I had before. It was a bad thunder-storm, +_Huzoor_; at least, 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-mannered, waiting for none. God knows +wherefore it should hurry so. The river remains always, and sooner or +later the screeching thing sticks on a sand-bank." + +"True enough," I replied, laughing. "Well, _salaam, fakeer-ji_." + +"_Salaam_, Shelter of the World. May the God of gods elevate your +honour to the post of Lieutenant-Governor without delay." + +After this I often stopped to say a few words to the old man and give +him a pipeful of tobacco. For the ferry-boat fulfilled his prophecy of +its future to a nicety, by acquiring intimate acquaintance with every +shallow in the river--a habit fatal to punctuality. It was an odd sight +lying out, so trim and smart, in the wastes of sand and water. Red +funnels standing up from among Beloochees and their camels, bullocks +scarred by the plough, _zenana_-women huddled in helpless white heaps, +wild frontiersmen squatted on the saddle-bags with which a sham +orientalism has filled our London drawing-rooms. Here and there a +dejected half-caste or a specimen of young India brimful of _The +Spectator_. Over all, on the bridge, Captain Ram Baksh struggling with +a double nature, represented 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-places, seemed to me +well worth consideration. Imagine a man born of a long line of those +who have swept the way for princes--who have, as it were, prepared +God's earth for over-refined footsteps. That, briefly, had been +_fakeer-ji's_ inheritance before he began to wait for the Footstep of +Death. Whatever it may do to the imagination of others, the position +appealed to mine strongly, the more so because, while speaking freely +enough about the family of decayed kings to whom he and his forebears +had belonged, and of the ruined palace they still possessed in the +oldest part of the city, he was singularly reticent as to the cause +which had turned him into a religious beggar. For the rest he waited in +godliness and contentment (or so he assured me) for the Footstep of +Death. + +The phrase grew to be quite a catch-word between us. "Not come yet, +_fakeer-ji?_" I would call as I trotted past after a few days' absence. + +"_Huzoor!_ I am still waiting. It will come some time." + +One night in the rains word came from a contractor over the water that +a new canal-dam of mine showed signs of giving, and, anxious to be on +the spot, I set off at once to catch the midnight ferryboat. I shall +not soon forget that ride through the _shesham_ aisle. The floods 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 rustle of birds in +the branches overhead, and suddenly, causelessly, a snatch of song +hushed in its first notes, as if the singer found it too light for +sleep, too dark for song. The beat of my horse's feet seemed to keep +time with the stars twinkling through the leaves. + +I was met at the road's end by the unwelcome news that at least two +hours must elapse ere the _Pioneer_ could be got off a newly-invented +mudbank which the river had maliciously, placed in a totally unexpected +place. Still more unwelcome was the discovery 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 ghostlike in the moonlight with his bowl full to the +brim in front of him. "That snorting devil behaves worse every day," he +said fervently; "but if the Shelter of the Poor will tarry a twinkling +I will sweep him a spot suitable for his exalted presence." + +Blind as he was, his dexterous broom had traced another circle of +cleanliness in a trice, a new reed-mat, no bigger than a handkerchief, +was placed in the centre, and I was being invited to ornament just such +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," (even Shakespeare, it will be observed, yields at times to +platitude). "For see," he added solemnly, producing something from a +hollow in the root, "the Presence's own tobacco returns to the +Presence's pipe." + +Sure enough it was genuine Golden Cloud, and the relief overpowered me. +There I was after a space, half-lying, half-sitting in the clean warm +sand, my hands clasped at the back of my head as I looked up into the +shimmering light and shade of the leaves. + +"Upon my soul I envy you, _fakeer-ji_. We who go to bed at set times +and seasons don't know the world we live in." + +"Religion is its own reward," remarked the graven image beside me, for +he had gone back to his penwiper by this time. But I was talking more +to myself than to him, in the half-drowsy excitement of physical +pleasure, so I went on unheeding. + +"Was there ever such a night since the one Jessica looked upon! and +what a scent there is in the air,--orange blossoms or something!" + +"It is a tree farther up the water-cut, _Huzoor_, a hill tree. The +river may have brought the seed; it happens so sometimes. Or the birds +may have brought it from the city. There was a tree of the kind in a +garden there. A big tree with large white flowers; so large that you +can hear them fall." + +The graven image sat so still with its face to the river, that it +seemed to me as if the voice I heard could not belong to it. A dreamy +sense of unreality added to my drowsy enjoyment of the surroundings. + +"Magnolia," I murmured sleepily; "a flower to dream about--hullo! +what's that?" + +A faint footfall, as of some one passing down an echoing passage, loud, +louder, loudest, making me start up, wide awake, as the _fakeer's_ cry +rose on the still air: "In the name of your God!" + +Some one was passing the bridge from the river, and after adding his +mite to the bowl, went on his way. + +"It is the echo, _Huzoor_" explained the old man, answering my start of +surprise. "The tree behind us is hollow and the cut is deep. Besides, +to-night the water runs deep and dark as Death because of the flood. +The step is always louder then." + +"No wonder you hear so quickly," I replied, sinking back again to my +comfort. "I thought it must be the Footstep of Death at least." + +He had turned towards me, and in the moonlight I could see those clear +eyes of his shining as if the light had come into them again. + +"Not yet, _Huzoor!_ But it may be the next one for all we know." + +What a gruesome idea! Hark! There it was again; loud, louder, loudest, +and then silence. + +"That came from the city, _Huzoor_. It comes and goes often, for the +law-courts have it in grip. Perhaps that is worse than Death." + +"Then you recognise footsteps?" + +"Surely. No two men walk the same; a footstep is as a face. Sometimes +after long years it comes back, and then you know it has passed +before." + +"Do they generally come back?" + +"Those from the city go back sooner or later unless Death takes them. +Those from the wilderness do not always return. The city holds them +fast, in the palace or in the gutter." + +Again the voice seemed to me not to belong to the still figure beside +me. "It makes a devilish noise, I admit," I said, half to myself; +"but--" + +"Perhaps if the _Huzoor_ listened for Death as I do he might keep +awake. Or perhaps if my lord pleases I might tell him a story of +footsteps to drive the idle dreams from his brain till the hour of that +snorting demon comes in due time?" + +"Go ahead," said I briefly, as I looked up at the stars. + +So he began. "It's a small story, _Huzoor_. A tale of footsteps from +beginning to end, for I am blind. Yet life was not always listening. +They used to say that Cheytu had the longest sight, the longest legs, +and the longest wind of any boy of his age. I was Cheytu." He paused, +and I watched a dancing shadow of a leaf till he went on. "The little +princess 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_, Cheytu the sweeper did not fan the flies from the little +princess herself; that was not his work. I belonged to her footsteps. I +was up before dawn sweeping the arcades of the old house ready for +them, and late at night it was my work to gather the dust of them and +the dead flowers she had played with, and bury them away in the garden +out of sight." + +A dim perception that this was strange talk for a sweeper made me +murmur sleepily, "That was very romantic of you, Cheytu." On the other +hand, it fitted my environment so admirably that the surprise passed +almost as it came. + +"She was a real princess, the daughter of kings who had been--God knows +when! It is written doubtless somewhere. Yes! a real princess, though +she could barely walk, and the track of her little feet was often +broken by handmarks in the dust. For naturally, _Huzoor_, the dust +might help 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 are, crept down while the child slept, to work evil to +mankind as women will. _Huzoor_, it was a bad storm. The red clouds had +hung over us all day long, joining the red dust from below so that it +came unawares at last, splitting the air and sending a great ladder of +light down the roof. + +"'Aimna! Aimna!' cried some one. I was up first and had her in my arms; +for see you, _Huzoor_, it was life or death, and the dead belong to 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 light of a +thousand days in my eyes and on her face. It was the last thing I saw, +_Huzoor_--the very last thing Cheytu the sweeper ever saw. + +"But I could hear. I could hear her calling, and I knew how her face +must be changing by the change in her voice. And then one day I found +myself sweeping the house against her wedding-feast; heard her crying +amongst her girl friends in the inner room. What then? Girls always cry +at their weddings. I went with her, of course, to the new life, because +I had swept the way for her ever since she could walk, and she needed +me more than ever in a strange house. It was a fine rich house, with +marble floors and a marble summer-house on the roof above her rooms. +People said she had made a good bargain with her beauty; perhaps, but +that child's face that I saw in the light was worth more than money, +_Huzoor_. She had ceased crying by this time, for she had plenty to +amuse her. Singers and players, and better story-tellers than Cheytu +the sweeper. It was but fair, 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, starless night, and +then I first heard the footstep, if it was a footstep,--loud, louder, +loudest; then a silence save for the patter of the falling flowers. I +heard it often after that, and always when it had passed the flowers +fell. They fell about the summer-house too, and in the morning I used +to sweep them into a heap and fling them over the parapet. But one day, +_Huzoor_, they fell close at hand, and my groping fingers seeking the +cause found a plank placed bridge-wise amongst the branches. _Huzoor!_ +was there any wonder the flowers fell all crushed and broken? That +night I listened again, and again the footsteps came amid a shower of +blossoms. What was to be done? Her women were as women are, and the +others were jealous already. Next day when I went to sweep I strewed +the fallen flowers thick, thick as a carpet round her bed; for she had +quick wits I knew. + +"'Cheytu! Cheytu!' + +"The old call came as I knew it would, and thinking of that little +child's face in the light I went up to her boldly. + +"'My princess,' I said in reply to her question as I bent over the +flowers, ''tis the footstep makes them fall so thick. If it is your +pleasure I will bid it cease. They may hurt your feet.' + +"I knew from her silence she understood. Suddenly she laughed; such a +girl's laugh. + +"'Flowers are soft to tread upon, Cheytu. Go! you need sweep for me no +more.' + +"I laughed too as I went. Not sweep for her when she only knew God's +earth after I had made it ready for her feet! It was a woman's idle +word, but, woman-like, she would think and see wisdom for herself. + +"That night I listened once more. The footstep must come once I +knew--just once, and after that wisdom and safety. _Huzoor!_ it came, +and the flowers fell softly. But wisdom was too late. I tried to get at +her to save her from their pitiless justice. I heard her cries, for +mercy; I heard her cry even for Cheytu the sweeper before they flung me +from the steps where the twinkling lights went up and down as if the +very stars 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. Such things are forgotten quickly, my lord, because the +revenge must be secret as the wrong; else it is shame, and shame must +not come nigh good families. But the blind do not forget easily; +perhaps they have less to remember. Could I forget the child's face in +the light? As I told the Presence, those who go from the city come back +to it sooner or later unless Death takes them first. So I wait for the +Footstep--hark!" + +Loud--louder--loudest: "In the name of your own God." + + + * * * * * + + +Did I wake with the cry? Or did I only open my eyes to see a glimmer of +dawn paling the sky, the birds shifting in the branches, the old man +seated bolt upright in his penwiper? + +"That was the first passenger, _Huzoor_," he said quietly. "The boat +has come. It is time your honour conferred dignity on ill manners by +joining it." + +"But the footstep! the princess! you were telling me just now--" + +"What does a sweeper know of princesses, my lord? The Presence slept, +and doubtless he dreamed dreams. The tobacco--" + +He paused. "Well," said I, curiously. + +"_Huzoor!_ this slave steeps his tobacco in the sleep-compeller. It +gives great contentment." + +I looked down at my pipe. It was but half smoked through. Was this +really the explanation? + +"But the echo?" I protested. "I heard it but now." + +"Of a truth there is an echo. That is not a dream. For the rest it is +well. The time has passed swiftly, the _Huzoor_ is rested, his servant +has returned, the boat has come--all in contentment. The Shelter of the +World can proceed on his journey in peace, and return in peace." + +"Unless the Footstep of Death overtakes me meanwhile," said I, but half +satisfied. + +"_Huzoor!_ It never overtakes the just. Death and the righteous look at +each other in the face as friends. When the Footstep comes I will go to +meet it, and so will you. Hark! the demon screeches. Peace go with you, +my lord." + +About a year after this the daily police reports brought me the news +that my friend the old _fakeer_ had been found dead in the water-cut. +An unusually heavy flood had undermined the banks and loosened the +bridge; it must have fallen while the old man was on it, for his 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 the doctor when, as +in duty bound, he went to the dead-house to examine the body. The +smiling mask was unchanged, but the eyes were open, and looked somehow +less empty dead than in the almost terrible clearness of life. The +right hand was fast clenched over something. + +"Only a crushed magnolia blossom," said the doctor, gently unclasping +the dead fingers. "Poor beggar! it must have been floating in the +water--there's a tree up the cut; I've often smelt it from the road. +Drowning men--you know the rest." + +Did I? The coincidence was, to say the least of it, curious. It became +more curious still when, three weeks afterwards, the unrecognisable +body of a man was found half buried in the silt left in the alluvial +basin by the subsiding floods--a man of more than middle age, whose +right hand was clenched tight, over nothing. + +So the question remains. Did I dream that night, or did the Footstep of +Death bring revenge when it came over the bridge at last? I have never +been able to decide; and the only thing which remains sure is the +figure of the old _fakeer_ with blind eyes, looking out on the +uncertain mirage of the river and waiting in godliness and +contentment,--for what? + + + + + HABITUAL CRIMINALS. + + +The very _mise-en-scčne_ was indeterminate. A straight horizon meeting +the blue sky evenly, though not an inch of level ground lay far or near +in the pathless waste of yellow sand. Pathless, yet full of tracks. +Looking down at your feet, which, breaking through the rippling crust +of wind-waves on the surface, sank softly into the warm shifting sand +beneath, you could see the tracks crossing and re-crossing each other, +tracing a network over the world, each distinct, self-reliant, +self-contained. Yet such tiny tracks for the most part! That firm +zigzag, regular as a Gothic moulding, is 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 +upon a boy. He must have been ten years old, at least, by his size; any +age, judging by his face; stark naked save for a string and a scrap of +cloth. His head would have been an admirable advertisement to any hair +restorer, for it was thick and curly in patches, bald as a coot's in +others; briefly, like a well-kept poodle's. For the rest he was of +unusually dark complexion. He was sitting listless, yet alert, beside +some small holes in the sand, and when he saw me he smiled broadly, +showing a great gleam of white teeth. I asked him cheerfully who he +was, and he replied in the same tone, + +"_Huzoor! main Bowriah hone_." (I am a Bowriah.) It gave me a chill +somehow. So the lad was a Bowriah; in other words, one of that criminal +class which Western discipline keeps in 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 solemnly set down in black and write as an adult bad character. +The boy, however, seemed to have no misgivings, for he smiled still +more broadly when I asked him what he was doing. + +"Catching lizards, _Huzoor!_ They are fat at this time." + +My chill changed its cause incontinently. "You don't mean to say you +eat lizards?" + +He looked at me more gravely. "Wherefore not, _Huzoor_? The Bowriahs +eat everything, except cats. Cats are heating to the blood, especially +in spring time." + +His air of well-defined wisdom tickled me; perhaps it touched me also, +for, ere riding off, I asked him his name, thinking I might inquire +more of him; for the sole reason of my tents being a few miles farther +in this sandy wilderness was the due inspection of a Bowriah village +which had been planted there, out of harm's way, by the authorities. + +"Mungal, _Huzoor_" he replied. So I left him watching for the fat +lizards, and cantered on over the desert. + +Suddenly I drew rein with a jerk. There he was again in front of me +sitting before another group of holes. + +"Hullo!" I cried, "how on earth did you manage to get here, Mungal?" + +The boy smiled his broad, white smile, "The _Huzoor_ mistakes. I am +Bungal. Mungal is my brother over yonder." He stretched a thin dark arm +into the desert whence I had come. Mungal and Bungal! Twins, of course! +Even so the likeness was almost incredible. My memory could find no +dissimilarity of any sort or kind--no outward dissimilarity, at any +rate. The thought suggested an experiment, and I asked him what he was. + +"_Huzoor! main Bowriah hone_," came instantly. + +"And what are you doing?" I continued. + +"Catching lizards, _Huzoor!_ They are fat at this time." + +Positively my chill returned, making me say quite naturally, "What! do +you eat lizards?" + +"Wherefore not, _Huzoor_? The Bowriahs eat everything, except cats. +Cats are heating to the blood, especially in, spring time." + +Identical so far. The quaintness of the idea prevented me from +disturbing it by further inquiry, so I rode on, dimly expectant of +finding a third habitual criminal--say Jungal this time--watching for +fat lizards at other holes. But I did not. They were twins only; 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 three months. By no means a +disagreeable occupation, for the Bowriahs have always a broad smile for +a sportsman. Indeed, several of the most suspicious characters had +promised me the best of _shikar_ on the morrow; and what is more, they +kept their promise faithfully. + +As for Mungal and Bungal, even when seen together it was absolutely +impossible for me to detect any difference of any kind between the two +boys. Even their heads were shaven in the same tufts, and as they +invariably repeated each other, there was no differentiating them by +their words. + +Only their works remained as a means of knowledge, and with a view to +this I questioned the Deputy Inspector of Police, who was out with me, +as to the lads. + +"_Huzoor!_" he said, "they are of the Bowriah race. Their father and +mother are dead, but in life these were Bowriahs also. The boys, +however, not being adult, are not as yet on the Register; but they will +be. For the rest they are as Bowriahs. They eat jackals, wolves, and +such unclean things." + +I felt myself on the point of adding, "But not cats--cats, etc.;" +however I stopped myself in time, and asked instead if the boys stole, +or lied, or-- + +The Deputy Inspector interrupted me respectfully, yet firmly. +"_Huzoor!_ not being adult they are not on the Register. Therefore the +police have no cognizance of them--as yet." + +"Then why do they make for the village now they hear the roll +beginning?" I persisted somewhat testily, as I saw Mungal and Bungal +racing along to the gateway in company with a number of boys about +their own age. + +"They do it to please themselves. It gives them dignity. Besides, in +youth one learns habits easily. Thus it is better, since the boys will +surely be on the Register if God spares them to adult age." + +I looked at the man sharply; there was positively not one atom of +expression of any kind whatever on his face. It is a great art. + +On the morrow Mungal and Bungal turned up again as part of the shooting +excursion, for even among their tribe of hunters they had already made +themselves a sporting reputation; perhaps because, being orphans, they +lived chiefly on their wits. It certainly was remarkable to see them on +a trail, turning and twisting and doubling on traces invisible 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 bush whence I +intended to fire, when a small dark hand clutched mine from behind, and +another pointed to something within an inch of where I had been about +to place my fingers. By everything unpleasant! a viper coiled in a true +lover's knot! "T--Tss-ss," came a sibilant whisper checking my start; +"the buck is there, _Huzoor_; the buck is there still." + +And he remained there, for my bullet went clean through his heart. It +was after the excitement of success was over that I turned to the boys, +and, somewhat thoughtlessly, held out a rupee. + +"Which of you two pointed out that _jelaibee?_" I asked. + +"_Huzoor!_ I did," came both voices simultaneously. At first they +refused to budge from this simple statement, reserving the remainder of +their vocabulary for indignant abuse of each other. Nor could I from +their expression or tone glean the slightest corroborative evidence for +or against the truth of either. The greed in 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 deserved a rupee. Certainly there had been two +hands, the one to clutch, the other to point, but I felt morally +certain that they had belonged to one body. However, to settle the +matter I gave each of the boys eight annas, and went back to my tents +convinced that either Mungal or Bungal was a liar. The question +was--which? + +That evening, when I was awaiting the appearance of my dinner with the +comfortable sense of a good appetite, I heard trouble in the cook-room +tent. It was followed by the violent irruption into mine of the whole +posse of servants gathered round my old _khânsâman_ who, breathless but +triumphant, held Mungal and Bungal each by one ear. + +"It was the _esh-starffit_[25] quails, _Huzoor_, that I had prepared +for the Protector of the Poor; two for his Honour, seeing that he loves +the dish, and one for _Barker sahib_,[26] should God send a guest, so +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 +I am I fled after him, then remembering boys' ways, ran back round the +tent in time to see him, from fear, replacing it. Finally, with hue and +cry, we caught both escaping into the darkness of the desert." + +"Both of them!" I echoed; "but you said there was only one." + +"The _Huzoor_ mistakes," retorted the _khânsâman_ quite huffily. +"Perchance there was one who stole, and one who gave back. This slave +had no time for trivial observation, these being undoubtedly 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 remarks, that being Bowriahs the +boys were necessarily thieves, and that in addition it was superfluous, +if not impious, to draw invidious distinctions where it had pleased +Providence to make none. + +But my curiosity had been aroused. "Mungal and Bungal," I said +solemnly, addressing the culprits who, with hands folded in front of +them like infant Samuels, stood cheerfully stolid, just as the adult +members of their tribe invariably did when brought before me as +habitual criminals, "do you by chance know what telling the truth +means?" + +As they assured me fervently that they did, I went on to explain that +my only desire in this case was to have the truth; that no one should +suffer by it; that contrariwise the tellers should 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 knew instinctively that +they were discounting my words by inherited experience of similar +promises. So it was with a prescience of what would follow that I put +the least formidable question-- + +"Which of you replaced the quail?" + +The answer came double-barrelled, unhesitating, "I did, _Huzoor_." + +"Let me give the boys five stripes each with the bamboo, _Huzoor!_" +suggested the Deputy Inspector with a stifled yawn, when I had wasted +much time and more unction, "it is good for boys at all times, and +these are but boys--as yet." + +It would have been the wisest plan, but I could not make up my mind to +it, so I went to bed that night certain of but one thing--either Mungal +or Bungal was a thief. The question was--which? + +It kept me awake until I made up my mind that somehow, by hook or by +crook, I would find out. Twenty-four hours was 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 boys with me I should have ample opportunity +of settling the question. Besides, they would be invaluable as +trackers. + +They proved themselves useful in many ways, and even the old khânsâman +grudgingly admitted their skill in the capture of chickens. The +spectacle of a half-plucked fowl defying all the resources of the camp +became a thing of the past, for Mungal or Bungal had it fast by the leg +in a trice. + +"_Sobhan ullah!_" (Power of the Lord) the old man would say piously. +"But there! they were made for such work from the beginning. We all +have our uses." + +My first desire was naturally to distinguish Mungal from Bungal. The +camp, it is true, had no such ambition. It was content to speak of them +as "_Yeh_" or "_Dusra_" (This or the Other), to which they answered +alternately. Thinking to effect my purpose, I gave one a necklace of +blue, the other a necklace of red beads; but they were evidently +suspicious of some plot, for I caught them exchanging decorations +several times. Evidently no reliance was to be placed on beads, so I +had a brass bangle riveted on the arm of one, and an iron bangle on the +arm of the other. That succeeded for a week. At least so I thought, +till I discovered that they had utilised my English files to cut +through the 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 stood, as usual when before me, in the attitude of the +praying Samuel, but I noticed their shoulders seemed glued to each +other, and that the whole balance of their lithe brown bodies was +towards each other. In truth the tie between them was strong indeed. By +day they and my big dog hunted together, and by night the trio slept in +each other's arms like puppies of one litter. When they pilfered, they +pilfered in pairs, and when they lied, they lied in pairs; still, +through it all, the idea clung to me that perhaps only one lied and +stole. But punishment of some sort being imperative, I gave in to the +impartial bamboo--for which, to say sooth, neither of them seemed to +care very much. + +In fact, the experiment appeared so successful, the boys so happy, that +the demon of self-complacency entered into me on my return to +headquarters, and I determined to send Mungal and Bungal to school, and +so differentiate them by their intellects. It was a disastrous +experiment, both to the clothes in which I had to dress them, and to +the peace of the compound; but it proved one thing, that neither Mungal +nor Bungal had any aptitude for learning the alphabet. Then, as the +recognised way of reclaiming the predatory tribes is to make them +tillers of the soil, I set my boys to work weeding in the garden. It +was a large garden, full of blossoming shrubs and shady fruiting trees, +where the squirrels loved to chatter, the birds to sing, and I to watch +them both. Within a fortnight neither fur nor feather was to be seen +anywhere. On the other hand, Mungal, Bungal, and Co. had killed five +cobras, two iguanas, and some dozens of cockroaches, rats, and +mice--all of which they had eaten. It was when, failing other game, a +pet parrot of the _khânsâman'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 _khitmutghâr_ 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 them up without food for twenty-four hours, and begged me to +continue the like discipline whenever the offence was repeated. Hunger, +she said, had a gentle and humanising influence on all wild animals, +who might thus be brought to eat from the hand of authority. So it +seemed; for one night the lady's pet Persian kitten disappeared +mysteriously from her room. I tried to persuade myself it could not be +the boys, because "cat is heating to the blood," etc., etc.; but I knew +they had been hungry, and that game was scarce in both gardens. And, +sure enough, the police in searching their hut found some gnawed bones, +poor pussy's white skin neatly stretched on a board to dry, and, of +course, both the boys. They always were found together. This time they +attempted excuse, the one for the other. Mungal or Bungal had been +hungry; must have been hungry, or he would not have eaten cat, seeing +that cat, etc., etc. So they were sentenced judicially to so many +stripes apiece, and I resolved on sending them back to the walled +village as incurable. + +"It is a good word, indeed," said the old _khânsâman_ pompously. "Thus +the _Huzoor's_ compound will be free from all kinds of vermin; for, as +I live, the boy hath killed a snake in his Honour's henhouse every +night, save the last; and that, methinks, is because there are no more +to kill." + +"The boy? which boy?" I asked, suddenly curious. Then it came out that +every one in the place knew that either "Yeh" or "Dusra" had been +locked up in the hen-house from dusk till dawn every night for a +week or more, because some vermin was carrying off the chickens. Locked +up from daylight to daylight! without a possibility of cat_icide_. The +fact revived all my old curiosity, all my old determination to +differentiate these boys. I shall not easily forget the Deputy +Inspector's face of incredulous horror when I told him that +Mungal-Bungal was to remain for another trial. Even the Commissioner's +wife told me she thought it conceited on my part, seeing that female +influence had failed so signally. + +And, as a matter of fact, I gained nothing in the end by my +perseverance. + +The nights were growing warm, so I slept with the doors open; secure, +however, so I deemed, from fear of any kind by reason of the mastiff +which was 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, where I slept in order to enjoy the full current of air. +Hopelessly dark for the eyes as I woke one night to the touch of a +small flexible hand on mine. + +"Hullo! who are you?" I cried in the half-drowsy alertness which comes +with a sudden decisive awakening. + +"_Huzoor, main Bowriah hone_." + +I seem to hear the answer as I write--confident, contented, cheerful. +And then my attention shifted absolutely to a streak of light +glimmering under the closed door of my office. Thieves! thieves in the +house! I was among them in an instant, getting a glimpse of dark +figures at my cash box before the light 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 retainers I saw Mungal-Bungal led by the ears, caught +in the very act of running away in the rear of those adult members +of their tribe whose accomplices they had been; for the mastiff was +dead--brutally, skilfully strangled by some fiend of a friend whom the +poor dog had trusted to slip a noose round its neck. + +One of those two, of course; who else could it have been? + +But then that small warning hand on mine! That answer I knew so +well:-- + +"_Huzoor! main Bowriah hone_." + +Great God! what a tragedy lay in these words! + +I was too sick at heart to question those infant Samuels again; I knew +the double-barrelled denial too well. However, as I had been roused in +time to prevent actual theft, I managed to hush the matter up by +promising the Deputy Inspector to send the boys back to their village +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 watched +Mungal-Bungal go from my gate in charge of the constable who was to +conduct it back to the hereditary place in life to which it had, +apparently, pleased God to call the firm, I knew that if one-half was +already a habitual criminal, the other half was an embryo saint. + +The question remains--which? + + + + + MUSSUMÂT KIRPO'S DOLL. + + +They had gathered all the schools into the Mission House compound, and +set them out in companies on the bare ground like seedlings in a +bed,--a perfect garden of girls, from five to fifteen, arrayed in +rainbow hues; some of them in their wedding dresses of scarlet, most of +them bedecked with the family jewelry, and even the shabbiest boasting +a row or two of tinsel on bodice or veil. + +And down the walks, drawn with mathematical accuracy between these +hotbeds of learning, a few English ladies with eager, kindly faces, +trotting up and down, conferring excitedly with portly native Christian +Bible-women, and pausing occasionally to encourage some young offshoot +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, kindly foreign faces, +not confined here to one sex, but in fair proportion male and female; +yet, bearded like the pard or feminine to a fault, all with the same +expression, the same universal kindly benevolence towards the +horticultural exhibition spread out before their eyes. + +At the table, pale or flushed with sheer good feeling, two or three of +the chief Mission ladies, and between them, with a mundane, married +look about her, contrasting strongly with her surroundings, the +Commissioner's wife, about to give away the prizes. A kindly face also, +despite its half-bewildered look, as one after another of the seedlings +comes up to receive the reward of merit. One after another solemnly, +for dotted 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, scholastic Hindustani with which her flushed, excited +countrywomen introduce each claimant to her notice. Still she smiles, +and says, "_Bohut uchcha_" (very good), and nods as if she did. In a +vague way she is relieved when the books are finished and she begins +upon the dolls. There is something familiar and cosmopolitan in the +gloating desire of the large dark eyes, and the possessive clutch of +the small hands over the treasure. + +"Standard I. Mussumât[27] Kirpo," reads out the secretary, and a tall +girl of about fifteen comes forward. A sort of annoyed surprise passes +among the ladies in quick whispers. 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 +school so irregularly, and really Julia Smith might have explained! +This the lady in question proceeds to do almost tearfully, until she is +cut short by superior decision. + +"Well, we must give it her now as there isn't anything else for her. +So, dear Mrs. Gordon, if you please! Of course, as a rule, we always +draw the line about dolls 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 emphasise our views on the +child-marriage question. But if you will be kind enough in this +case--just to avoid confusion--we will rectify the mistake to-morrow." + +Mussumât Kirpo took her doll stolidly;--a sickly, stupid-looking girl, +limping as she walked dully, stolidly back to her place. + +"_Ari!_" giggled the women behind the bushes. "That's all she is likely +to get in that way. Lo! they made a bad bargain in brides in Gungo's +house, and no mistake. But 'twas ill luck, not ill management; for they +tell me Kirpo was straight and sound when she was betrothed. May the +gods keep my daughters-in-law healthy and handsome." + +Then they forgot the joke in tender delight over more suitable gifts to +the others; and so the great day passed to its ending. + +"I do believe poor Kirpo's getting that doll was the only +_contretemps_," said the superintendent triumphantly, "and that, dear +Julia, you can easily remedy to-morrow, so don't fret about it." + +With this intention Julia Smith went down at the first opportunity to +her school in the slums of the city. A general air of slackness +pervaded the upstairs room, where only a row of little mites sat +whispering to each other, while their mistress, full of yawns and +stretchings, talked over the events of yesterday with her monitor. +Briefly, if the Miss-_sahib_ thought she was going to slave as she had +done for the past year for a paltry eight yards of _sussi_-trousering, +which would not be enough to cut into the "fassen "--why, the +Miss-_sahib_ was mistaken. And then with the well-known footfall on the +stairs came smiles and flattery. But Kirpo 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 glances +of longing on every house where she had not as yet found entrance. +Hence her reluctance to quarrel definitely with her pupil, or rather +her pupil's belongings, since poor Kirpo did not count for much in that +bustling Hindu household. But for the fact that she was useful at the +trade and as a general drudge, _Mai_ Gungo would long ago have found +some excuse for sending the girl, who had so wofully disappointed all +expectations, back to her people,--those people who had taken the +wedding gifts and given a half-crippled, half-silly bride in exchange. +Unparalleled effrontery and wickedness, to be avenged on the only head +within reach. + +"She wants none of your dolls or your books," shrilled _Mai_ Gungo, who +was in a bad temper; "they aren't worth anything, and I expected +nothing less than a suit of clothes, 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 folk, +and she costs to feed--she who will never do her duty as a wife. Yet +must not Kuniya's son remain sonless; thus is there the expense of +another wife in the future." + +So the complaints went on, while Kirpo, in full hearing, sat filing +away at the combs without a flicker of expression on her face. + +But when Julia had settled the business with eight annas from her +private pocket, and was once more picking her way through the +drain-like alley, she heard limping steps behind her. It was Kirpo and +the Japanese doll. + +"The Miss-_sahib_ has forgotten it," she said stolidly. Julia Smith +stood in the sunlight, utterly unmindful of a turgid stream of +concentrated filth which at that moment came sweeping along the +gutter. Her gentle, womanly eyes saw something she recognised in the +child-like, yet unchild-like face looking into hers. + +"Would you like to keep it, dear?" she asked gently. Kirpo nodded her +head. + +"She needn't know," she explained. "I could keep it in the cow-shed, +and they will sell the book you left for me. They would sell this too. +That is why I brought it back." + +This admixture of cunning rather dashed poor Julia's pity; but in the +end Kirpo went back to her work with the Japanese doll carefully +concealed in her veil, and for the next year Julia Smith never caught +sight of it again. Things went on as if it had not been in that +straggling Hindu house, with its big courtyard and dark slips of rooms. +Perhaps Kirpo got up at night to play with it; perhaps she never played +with it at all, but, having wrapped it in a napkin and buried it away +somewhere, was content in its possession like the man with his one +talent; for this miserliness 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, seemed +disposed to save the family from the expense of another bride by +presenting it with a child. Nothing, of course, could alter the fact of +the girl's ugliness and stupidity and lameness; still, if she did her +duty in this one point _Mai_ Gungo could put up with her, especially as +she really did very well at the combs. She was not worked quite so hard +now, since that might affect the future promise. Perhaps this gave +Kirpo more time to play with the Japanese doll, perhaps it did not. +Outwardly, at any rate, life went on in the courtyard as though no such +thing existed. + +"She may die, the crippled ones often do," said the gossips, scarcely +lowering their voices; "but it will be a great saving, _Mai_ Gungo, if +the grandson comes without another daughter-in-law; they quarrel so. +Besides, it is in God's hands. May He preserve both to you." _Mai_ +Gungo echoed the wish, with the reservation that if the whole wish was +impossible, the child at least 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 shrill voice. It had +been much greater fun at the school; and as for the prize-giving days! +Kirpo had four of those red-letter glimpses of the world to recollect, +but she always gave the palm of pleasure to the last, when they had +laughed at her and the Japanese doll. Perhaps because she remembered it +best; for, as has been said, poor Kirpo's was not a brilliant +intellect. + +So just about the time when the Mission House was once more buying +large consignments of dolls and books, and laying in yards on yards of +_sussi_-trousering and Manchester veiling against another prize-giving, +the mistress of the little school-room up two pair of stairs said to +Julia Smith, + +"Kirpo had a son last week. _Mai_ Gungo hath given offerings galore." + +"And Kirpo herself?" + +"She ails, they say; but that is likely. The hour of danger is over." + +That same afternoon Julia Smith once more picked her way along the +gutters to the mud steps and closed door of Kuniya's house. Kirpo was +lying alone on a bed in the shadow of a grass thatch. + +"And where is the baby?" asked Julia, cheerfully. + +"Mother-in-law hath it. 'Tis a son--doubtless the Miss hath heard so." +There was the oddest mixture of pride and regret in the girl's dull +face. + +"She will let thee have it when thou art stronger," said her visitor +quickly. "Thou must give me back the dolly, Kirpo, now thou hast a live +one of thine own." + +The girl's head shifted uneasily on the hard pillow. + +"Ay! and the prize-giving day must be close, I have been thinking. If +the Miss-_sahib_ will look behind the straw yonder she will find the +doll. It is not hurt. And the Miss can give it to some one else. I +don't want it any more. She might give it to a little girl this time. +She could play with it." + +"_Mai_ Gungo!" said Julia severely, as, on her way out, she found the +mother-in-law surrounded by her gossips, exhibiting the baby to them +with great pride, "you must look to Kirpo; she thrives not. And give +her the baby--she pines after it." + +"The Miss doth not understand," flounced Gungo. "What can Kirpo do with +a baby? She is a fool; besides, a mother like that hath evil influences +till the time of purification hath passed." + +Ten days afterwards the mistress of the school told Julia that Kirpo +had the fever, and they did not think she would recover. It was never +safe for such as she to have sons, and nothing else was to be expected. + +Perhaps it was not; for Julia found her on the bare ground of the +courtyard where she had been set to die. The oil lamps flared smokily +at her head and her feet, and _Mai_ Gungo, with the fortnight-old baby +in her arms, cried "_Râm! Râm!_" lustily. But the girl lingered in +life, turning her head restlessly from side to side on Mother Earth's +bosom. + +"Give her the baby--only for a minute," pleaded Julia with tears in her +eyes. _Mai_ Gungo frowned; but a neighbour broke in hastily-- + +"Ay! give it to her, gossip, lest in her evil ways she returns for it +when she is dead." + +So they laid the baby beside her; but the restless head went on turning +restlessly from side to side. + +"My doll! my doll! I like my doll best." + +Before they could fetch it from the Mission compound Kirpo was dead. + + + + + "LONDON." + + +The rains had fallen late, bringing unusual greenness to the stretches +of waste-land, and unusual promise of harvest to the bare, brown fields +where man and beast were hard at work, day and night, ploughing, +harrowing, 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 uninterested though it was; for surely no one who has seen a Jât +cultivator, tall, meagre, soft eyed, wandering amongst his green wheat, +waiting for Râm to send rain, can ever forget the incarnate tragedy of +the sight. + +The sun was setting cloudless in a sea of light, that still flooded the +scene with the brightness of noon, though the shadows lengthened in +swift strides. I was sitting on a wide flight of steps leading down +into a small tank closed in on all sides by masonry. Viewed thus, with +the mass of brick work surrounding it, this square of placid water +reflecting back the lemon-coloured sky, the fringe of dull _farâsh_ +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 woman in a saffron veil was filling her brass pot, and +on the trumpery stucco arcades of the temple-plinth were painted blue +elephants, gingerbread tigers, and spidery monkeys. Round and round the +central spire the iridescent breasts of the whirling pigeons glinted in +the level rays. + +It was peaceful, colourful, almost in its way beautiful, especially +after a long day's work in the office tent which rose a few hundred +yards away. Suddenly the clear-cut silence of the scene was marred by a +deprecatory voice behind me. + +"The Presence will not think it so fine as '_Ide Park_, doubtless?" + +"So fine as what?" I echoed carelessly, being accustomed to the +thousand and one interruptions of a district officer's life. + +"So fine as your '_Ide Par-k_ in the town of London." + +"Hyde Park!--why! what the deuce do you know of Hyde Park?" + +Intense surprise had replaced my indifference, for there was nothing to +account for the strangeness of his words either in the face or figure +of the man who stood behind me leaning on a long staff over which +his hands were crossed. It was just such a face and figure as I saw +every day. A typical Jât--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 cotton +cloth suggesting the lean, bony frame beneath. A face well cut, but not +refined, marked, but not strong, in which the most noticeable features +were the large dreamy eyes like those of Botticelli's Moses in the +Sistine Chapel. + +Immovable from the knee downwards he squatted, as the Americans say, +"in his tracks," keeping his submissive face towards mine like a dog +awaiting his master's pleasure. + +"By the mercy of the Presence I have seen 'Ide Park. Yes, I have been +there--in the city of London--where the _sahibs_ and the _mem-sahibs_ +sit and walk." + +A vision of the figure before me planted out amongst flower-decked +mashers and powdery belles aroused such a sense of incongruity in my +mind that I could only echo feebly-- + +"So you have been to London!" + +"Yes!" he replied cheerfully, "I've been to London to see the great +Queen." + +For the life of me I could not help reverting to the sequence of +childish days: "_Pussy cat, pussy cat, what saw you there?_" and his +reply fitted in so neatly that my query lost its lightness and became +serious. + +"I saw the _Sikattar_ (secretary) who sits in her chair." + +I laughed then; I could not help it, for I felt convinced that no other +words could have expressed the whole incident more truthfully. + +"I went to London, O Protector of the Poor!" continued the stranger +softly, "because I wanted, to get back the land. The Presence knows we +Jâts cannot live without our land." + +Involuntarily his eyes turned to a neighbouring field, where a couple +of plough bullocks were slowly scoring the levels into feeble furrows, +whilst the ploughman--just such a man as the one before me--held his +hookah in one hand, his goad in the other. + +"So you did not get the land after all? How was that?" God knows I was +not always so ready of access to the native (as the departmental +pastorals put it), but then one does not meet a Jât who has been to +Hyde Park every day. + +"Perhaps if it had not been a _Sikattar_," replied the low soft +voice--"perhaps if it had been the great Queen herself--" Here the +plough bullocks he was watching turned too sharply, and his hand closed +mechanically on the stick he held between his knees, as if he were +responsible for the mistake. "If the Presence has not heard it all +before, I will tell it why Dewa Râm the Jât went to London." + +I give the story in his own words, for mine might fail to transmit the +perfection of his patience. + +"The land was my father's, and my father's father from Mahratta times. +In those days no one could sell the land or prevent the sons from +following the father's plough. To begin with, no one wanted to sell +good land, and then they could not if they would. That was before the +great Sirkâr--life and prosperity be with it always--came to lift the +hearts of the poor and set their heads high. There was much land, and +on some of it in olden days a mortgage had been put. The Presence will +know the kind of mortgage, where for a hundred rupees or so of loan +another man is allowed to till the soil worth thousands. Only if it is +wanted back, then the owner returns the hundred rupees. That is all. It +is done when a family is small and has too much land to till properly. +So the village accountant's people held the land because they were +relations by marriage. It was in my father's time that the great Sirkâr +came, and we began paying the dues to it instead of to the Maharajah. +Then, when my father fell into evil ways because of drugs, my mother +took her sons--we were twins, Sewa Râm and I--if the Presence pleases, +back to her people far away beyond Amritsar. For 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 Sirkâr 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 Sirkâr and say, 'Here is the hundred rupees, give us back the land +and write it in our names,' because, as I have said, Sewa Râm and I +were away beyond Amritsar, and our mother thought the land could not +run away. It was no wonder the Sirkâr was deceived, no wonder at all, +but when we came to claim the land even our names were not on the list. +They had written the wrong thing because the mortgage had been +foreclosed, and there were no heirs. After this one judge--may he +become the _Lât Sahib_--said he would put it right, but the accountant +was rich and made it into an appeal. The Presence knows what an appeal +is, doubtless, and how, when a little thing like this--just a mistake +in a map--gets up amongst the pleaders and the _Sikattars_, it is +sometimes too small for them to see. It would have been different if +the Sirkâr had seen two big noisy boys when it counted the village. +Then Sewa Râm was set free from the prison of life, and I was alone; +for the Presence knows a Jât cannot marry without land, or have sons +when there is no plough to keep the furrow of existence straight. So I +sold my mother's jewels and went to show the great Queen herself that +my father really had a son. Thus I came to 'Ide Park in London city, +and saw the _Sikattar_." + +"Then you did not succeed?" + +"The Presence knows that the _vizier_ is not as the _badshah_. He was +very kind, sending me back by ship P. and O. And writing! God knows how +many letters he wrote, and he bade me wait. That is two years gone, so +I am waiting still." + +"Have you a case in my Court?" + +He shook his head with a certain pride. "Oh no! it is in the big Court, +or with the Financial, or a _Sikattar_ just now; but it will come to +the Presence sooner or later. That is why I journey with the Protector +of the Poor. When that day comes the Presence will remember how Dewa +Râm the Jât went to 'Ide Park." + +As I strolled back to the tent he followed at a discreet distance. +Afterwards, as I sat smoking outside, I saw him wandering in the fields +listlessly, his tall figure standing out against the sky as he paused +to look at the sprouting wheat. When I questioned my underlings as to +his story, they smiled obsequiously, as the native will smile before +the master's face. The case, it appeared, had grown to be quite a +standing joke in the office, nor was this the first cold weather that +Dewa Râm had haunted the camp of the Deputy Commissioner and waited for +news of his land. They hemmed and hawed, however, over the rights and +wrongs of his claim, until I asked them point blank what their own +impressions were; 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 bring the promised land within his reach. +He was very grateful. So condescending a Presence, he said, had never +before dwelt in the tents of the great Sirkâr; and often on Sunday +afternoons, when the camp was at rest, he would steal ostentatiously to +a spot about thirty yards from where I was sitting, and if opportunity +offered, enter into conversation--generally beginning by some +apologetic allusion to 'Ide Park, but ending with a vast amount of +information. He was a perfect mine of folk-lore, and many a half hour +did he beguile by old-world stories and traditions. One, in particular, +I will retail in his own words, because it seems to me to give insight +into the nature of the man and of his race. + +I had been having my Sunday cup of afternoon tea in the shade of a huge +banian tree, and was idly amusing myself by throwing crumbs to a +bright-eyed, bushy-tailed palm squirrel, that had crept down 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 nearer and nearer, its +tail in an aggressive pluff, its large eyes scanning my face knowingly. +A pause, a dart, and it was chirruping on the branch above my head with +the crumb in its deft fingers. + +"The Presence is a friend of Râm's," said "London" deferentially, "that +is why the heart of the Presence is so soft." + +"And why do you say I am a friend of Râm's?" I asked. + +"Because the Presence is a friend to Râm's friend. Has the _Huzoor_ +never heard how the squirrel people come to have four black marks on +their golden backs? Then I will tell. It was in the old days when Râm's +parents fastened the silken bracelet on his wrist, and sent him out to +find Seeta his wife. The Presence will have heard of that, and how each +year our women folk tie the _râm rukkhi_ to our wrists for luck. Well, +when Râm, 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 Râm was the Lord of the whole earth. Now the first to answer +his call was the squirrel. In those days it was all golden, like corn +in the sunlight, and light-hearted beyond all mortal things, as it is +now. It leapt on to Râm's sword and cried, 'Master! I am ready.' But +the great god's eyes grew soft as he saw the little thing's slender +beauty, and perceived that it had the bravest heart of all his +creatures. So he laid his hand on it in blessing, saying softly-- + +"'Nay! tender little warrior! thou art too pretty for strife and death. +Live on, brave and careless for ever, so that weary men may see the +beauty of the life great Râm has given.' + +"But, lo! when he raised his hand the squirrel's shining coat bore the +shadow of Râm's tired fingers, for even golden life is dimmed by the +touch of care." + +This and many another tale he told to me, while the green pigeons +bustled about in the branches, and the squirrels lay yawning amongst +the mango flowers. For the winter had flown, the camping season was +at an end, and still "London" was waiting. He never complained; only +when rain fell, or when there was a heavy dew, or a good winnowing +wind,--anything, in short, calculated to gladden the heart of a +farmer,--he used to talk of 'Ide Park, and bewail the fact that +_Sikattar sahibs_ had penetrated even there. The hot weather passed, as +usual, in a stagnation of mind and body more or less modified 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 "to be let" as they are in +England, and the State, though in reality owner, has no power to turn +out one man or his heirs in favour of another, or in any way to +manipulate the holdings of hereditary cultivators. Why, knowing this, +it could have delegated the power to the money lender, in giving the +right of alienation by sale or mortgage to the cultivator, is one of +those abstruse mysteries over the elucidation of which volumes have +been and are still to be written. A mystery, moreover, which is +responsible for half the growing poverty of those whose patient labour +is the bulwark of the State. + +The particular village in which I hoped to find a more or less +temporary outlet for poor "London's" hereditary instinct--which made +the sight of a plough have much the same effect on 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 direct Government control by confiscation, and as the +country settled down, had been leased, at fixed rentals, to the loyal +families, or in many cases to the heirs of the dead offenders. + +One of these, the son of a notorious mutineer, had just died childless, +and it was into his place that I determined, if possible, to put +"London." The case "Dewa Râm _versus_ the Empress and others" had come +back to me for the third time, with a request for further inquiry and +evidence. There was none to give, for in a country where 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 Sirkâr +had been deceived by the foreclosed mortgage, and the lying man who +tilled the soil, joined to the newly-invented theory that the peasant +proprietor had a right to alienate the ancestral property of his +descendants. So, with the prospect of another cold weather camp before +me, I felt an almost morbid desire to get rid of "London," and those +patient eyes that seemed to me as if they were ever on the look-out for +the promised land. + +I was told afterwards by my superiors, in set terms, that my behaviour +was illegal and indiscreet, and that I should have gone round the +mutinous crew one by one, giving them the option of leasing the land, +before offering it to any one else, above all, before putting in a man +whose claim to other ground was "in course of settlement." I believe my +superiors to have been quite right theoretically, and I know that, +practically, my philanthropic experiment proved a 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, and the Jâts, once aroused from their +usual calm placidity, fight like devils with their long quarterstaves. +On this occasion they gave the truculent crew as good as they got, +until overpowered by numbers. When the incident occurred I was in a +very out of the way part of the district, and I well remember having to +send a special messenger thirty miles with an urgent telegram in order +to allay still more urgent inquiries as to the "serious agrarian riot +in B----." + +When I returned to head-quarters I found "London" convalescent and +distinctly cheerful. He was sitting on the hospital steps whittling a +new staff, and expressed his determination of going back to the village +as soon as possible with a larger supply of friends. I felt +constrained, however, to 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 that I too might +become a prey to _Sikattars_ ere long. He took great pride in his +broken arm and new stick, and more than once suggested that if the +great Queen only knew how he had clouted the heads of the misbegotten, +unfaithful devils, she might believe that his father had indeed left a +son. + +After this I made several attempts to bring a plough handle within +"London's" reach, but my philanthropy was guarded, and my efforts +uniformly unsuccessful. Once, a small atom of land on which I had my +eye was taken up by a newly-made Municipal 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 of aniline dyes, occupied what they were pleased to call +the Industrial Department. In the reading room opposite an interesting +collection of seditious journalism lay on the table, and a chromo of +the "Kaiser-i-Hind" hung over the fireplace. + +Then once again, when I thought I had found a resting-place for those +dreamy eyes, the Military Department stepped between hope and fruition +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 +those who, living amongst the peasantry learn to admire them as they +deserve to be admired--came to put an end to all my plans for "London." + +He bore the tidings with gentle regret. The Presence, he said, had not +been well for some time; It would be the better of seeing 'Ide Park +again, and perhaps as It was to be away so long--a whole year he was +told--there would be a chance of seeing not only the _Sikattar_, but +the great Queen herself. + +"And if," he continued, standing up and leaning on his staff as I had +first seen him, whilst his eyes followed the ploughing for yet another +harvest,--"and if the Presence is so fortunate, perhaps It might find +time to remember that Dewa Râm the Jât is waiting for his land." + +The reason for my writing this absolutely true experience is one of +those distressing inconsistencies which are part and parcel of poor +humanity. 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 peasant life of which the rulers and governors know so little. But +it needed an unreality, a mere feverish fancy to supply the motive +power. + +I was in Hyde Park yesterday at the close of a bright afternoon. No +need to describe what I saw. To those who live in London the scene is +as familiar as their own faces, while those who do not, have at their +disposal a thousand descriptions 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 vast number of +sandwich men advertising lectures, meetings, and addresses on every +conceivable subject, struck me as favourable evidence of the growing +intelligence and sympathy of the many for things beyond the daily round +of English life. + +I sat down, and being a comparative stranger, amused myself, as many +have done before me, in listening to the scraps of conversation which +fell from the lips of the passers by--the flotsam-jetsam left by the +stream of humanity; and as usual my initial curiosity and interest died +down before the growing perception of some strange likeness underlying +all the atoms of thought and speech. + +Slowly, uncertainly, as the confused tints of a child's magic lantern +focus into some horrid monster, or as the ebbing tide discloses the +drowned face of a victim, the half-heard assertions, denials, +protestations of the pleasure-seeking crowd, 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. +Inevitable, no doubt, but depressing in the masks are men and women +claiming to be the cream of culture and civilisation. I wondered if, +when the best was said and done, the art of widening our vitality by +our sympathies had made much progress. + +A stir in the crowd, a murmur, a look of expectation roused me from +idle moralisings. A couple of outriders in red came down the drive, and +people paused to look. + +"By Jove! it's the Queen herself," said some one hurriedly, as a +brougham drove past giving a glimpse from behind closed windows of grey +hair and a widow's cap. The murmur swelled to a roar, almost a cheer. +Every hat was off, and some country cousins stood up in their chairs in +order to see better. + +Now, what followed will, I know, be set down to the attack of Indian +fever which some ten minutes afterwards sent me home to shiver in bed. +Nevertheless, I am prepared to swear that there, amongst the +flower-decked mashers and the powdery belles, I saw the tall, gaunt +form of "London" leaning on his quarterstaff. 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 me! On me, the tape-tied, sealing-waxed representative of a paternal +despotism in India. The myriad tongues resumed their civilised +shibboliths, but above them came a well-known cadence, "And if the +Presence is so fortunate, perhaps it might find time to remember that +Dewa Râm the Jât is waiting for his land." + +As I said before, I went home to bed. What else could I do? Perhaps if +other people could have seen what I saw, Dewa Râm and his kind would +not be so often in difficulties about their land. + + + + + LÂL. + + +Who was Lâl? What was he? This was a question I asked many times; and +though it was duly answered, Lâl remained, and remains still, an +unknown quantity--an abstraction, a name, and nothing more. L A L. The +same backwards and forwards, self-contained, self-sufficing. + +The first time I heard of Lâl was on a bright spring morning, one of +those mornings when the plains of Northern India glitter with +dew-drops; when a purple haze of cloud-mountain bounds the pale +wheat-fields to the north, and a golden glow strikes skywards from 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 law and bucklered +by foot-rules and maps, the Government of India, in the person of one +of its officers, came gravely and altered the proportion of land and +water on the surface of the globe, while the river gurgled and dimpled +as if it were laughing in its sleeve. + +Strange work, but pleasant too, with a charm of its own wrought by +infinite variety and sudden surprise. Sometimes watching the stream +sapping at a wheat-field, where the tender green spikes fringed the +edges of each crack and fissure in the fast-drying soil. A promise of +harvest,--and then, sheer down, the turbid water gnawing hungrily. +Every now and again a splash, 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 sagely over the +problem, and younger voices protest that it was not worth while to +enter such a flotsam-jetsam as a field. But the ruthless iron chain +would come into requisition, and another green spot be daubed on the +revenue map, for Governments ignore chance. And still the river dimpled +and gurgled with inward mirth; for if it gave the vetch, had it not +taken the wheat? + +So from one scene of loss or gain to another, while the sun shone in +the cloudless sky overhead. Past pools of shining water where +red-billed cranes stood huddled up on one leg, as if they felt cold in +the crisp morning air. Out on the bare stretches of sand where +glittering streams and flocks of white egrets combined to form a silver +embroidery on the brown expanse. Over the shallow ford where the +bottle-nosed alligators slipped silently 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 to another. +Back again to higher ground through thickets of tamarisk dripping with +dew. The bushes sparse below with their thin brown stems, so thick +above where the feathery pink-spiked branches interlaced. Riding +through it, the hands had to defend the face from the sharp switch of +the rosy flowers as they swung back disentangled; such tiny flowers, +too, no bigger than a mustard seed, and leaving a pink powder of pollen +behind them. + +It was after forcing my way through one of these tamarisk jungles that +I came out on an open patch of rudely ploughed land, where a mixed crop +of pulse and barley grew sturdily, outlining an irregular oval with a +pale green carpet glistening with dew. In the centre a shallow pool of +water still testified to past floods, and from it a purple heron winged +its flight, lazily craning its painted neck against the sky. + +The whole _posse comitatus_ of the village following me broke by twos +and threes through the jungle, and gathered round me as I paused +watching the bird's flight. + +"Take the bridle from his honour's pony," cried a venerable pantaloon +breathlessly. "Let the steed of the Lord of the Universe eat his fill. +Is not this the field of Lâl?" + +Twenty hands stretched out to do the old headman's bidding; twenty +voices re-echoed the sentiment in varying words. A minute more, and my +pony's nose was well down on the wet, sweet tufts of vetch, and I was +asking for the first time, "Who is Lâl?" + +Lâl, came the answer, why, Lâl was--Lâl. This was his field. Why should +not the pony of the Protector of the Poor have a bellyful? Was it not +more honourable than the parrot people and the squirrel people, and the +pig people who battened on the field of Lâl? + +It was early days yet for the flocks of green parrots to frequent the +crops, and the dainty squirrels were, I knew, still snugly a-bed +waiting for the sun to dry the dew; but at my feet sundry furrows and +scratches told that the pig had already been at work. + +"Is Lâl here?" I asked. + +A smile, such as greets a child's innocent ignorance, came to the +good-humoured faces around me. + +Lâl, they explained, came when the crop was ripe, when the parrot, the +squirrel, and the pig people--and his honour's pony too--had had their +fill. Lâl was a good man, one who walked straight, and laboured truly. + +"But where is he?" I insisted. + +Face looked at face half puzzled, half amused. Who could tell where Lâl +was? He might be miles away, or in the next jungle. Some one had seen +him at Sukkhur a week agone, but that was no reason why he should not +be at Bhukkur now, for Lâl followed the river, and like it was here +to-day, gone to-morrow. + +Baulked in my curiosity, I took refuge in business by inquiring what +revenue Lâl paid on his field. This was too much for the polite gravity +of my hearers. The idea of Lâl's paying revenue was evidently +irresistibly comic, and the venerable pantaloon actually choked himself +between a cough and a laugh, requiring to be held up and patted on the +back. + +"But some one must pay the revenue," I remarked a little testily. + +Certainly! the Lord of the Universe was right. The village community +paid it. It was the village which lent Lâl the field, and the bullocks, +and the plough. It was the village which gave him the few handfuls of +seed-grain to scatter broadcast over the roughly-tilled soil. So much +they lent to Lâl. The sun and the good God gave him the rest. All, that +is to say, that was not wanted for the parrot, the pig, and the +squirrel people, and, of course, for the pony of the Lord of the +Universe. + +There are so many mysteries in Indian peasant life, safe hidden from +alien eyes, that I was lazily content to let Lâl and his field slip +into the limbo of things not thoroughly understood, and so, ere long, I +forgot all about him. Spring passed ripening the crops; summer came +bringing fresh floods to the river; and autumn watched the earth once +more make way against the water; but Lâl was to me as though he had not +been. + +It was only when another year found me once more in the strange land +which lies, as the natives say, "in the stomach of the river," that +memory awoke with the words, "This is the field of Lâl." There was, +however, no suggestion made about loosening my pony's bridle as on the +former occasion, the reason for such reticence being palpable. Lâl had +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 previous +gifts of rich alluvial soil--a trick which has given her a bad name, +the worst a woman can bear, because she gives and destroys with one +hand. Here and there, in patches, the sparse crop showed green; but for +the most part the ground lay bare, cracking into large fissures under +the noonday sun, and peeling at the top into shiny brown scales. + +"A bad lookout for Lâl," I remarked. + +Bad, they said, for the squirrel people and the parrot people, no +doubt; but for Lâl--that was another matter. L&I did not live by bread +alone. The river gave, the river took away; but to Lâl at any rate it +gave more than it stole. + +"What does it give?" I asked. + +It gave crocodiles. Of all things in the world crocodiles! Not a +welcome gift to many, but Lâl, it seemed, was a hunter of crocodiles. +Not a mere slayer of alligators, like the men of the half-savage tribes +who frequent the river land; who array themselves in a plethora of blue +beads, and live by the 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. Lâl was not of +these; he was of another temper. He hunted the crocodile in its native +element, stalked it through the quicksands, knife in hand, dived with +it into the swift stream, sped like a fish to the soft belly beneath, +and struck upwards with unerring hand, once, twice, thrice, while the +turbid orange water glowed crimson with the spouting blood. + +I heard this tale curiously, but incredulously. Why, I asked, should +Lâl run such risks? What good were crocodiles to him when they were +slain? There was not so much risk, after all, they replied, for it was +only the bottle-nosed ones that he hunted, and though, of course, the +snub-nosed ones lived in the river also--God destroy the horrid +monsters!--still they did not interfere in the fight. And Lâl was +careful, all the more careful, because he had but two possessions to +guard, his skin and his knife. As to what Lâl did with the crocodiles, +why, he ate them, of course. Not all; he spared some for his friends, +for those who were good to him, and gave him something in return. Had +the Presence never heard that the poor ate crocodile flesh? They +themselves, of course, did not touch the unclean animal; and their +gifts to Lâl 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 Lâl 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 Lâl had left for the poor. It was dry? Oh, +yes! Lâl cut the great beasts into strips, and laid them in the sun on +the dry sand, sitting beside them to scare away the carrion birds. +Sometimes there would be a crowd of vultures, and Lâl with his knife +sitting in the midst. "He will have to sell some of his jerked +crocodile to pay his revenue this year," I remarked, just to amuse +them. Again the idea was comic; evidently Lâl and money were +incompatible, and the very idea of his owning any caused them to +chuckle unrestrainedly amongst themselves. Then, growing grave, they +explained at length how Lâl had nothing in the world but his knife. All +the rest--the sun, the river, the crocodiles, the field, the bullocks, +the plough, and the seed-grain--were lent to him by them and the good +God; lent to him and to the other people who ate of the field of Lâl. + +As I rode away a brace of black partridges rose from one of the green +patches, and close to the tamarisk shelter a brown rat sat balancing a +half-dried stalk of barley. The river gleamed in the distance, a +wedge-shaped flight of _coolin_ cleft the sky. All that day, when the +shadow-like crocodiles slipped into the sliding water, I thought of Lâl +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 Lâl yonder where the vultures ringed a sand-bank far on the +western side? Why not? None knew whence he came or whither he went, +what he hoped, or what he feared; only his field bare witness to one +human frailty--hunger; and that he shared with the pig, and the parrot, +and the squirrel people. But though my thoughts were full of Lâl for a +day or two, the memory of him passed as I left the river land, and once +more spring, summer, and autumn brought forgetfulness. + +There were busy times for all the revenue officers next year. The +fitful river had chosen to desert its eastern bank altogether, and +concentrate its force upon the western; so while yard after yard of +ancestral land was giving 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 sight of the river land failed to awake any +memory of Lâl. It was not until I was re-entering the outskirts of the +village at sundown that something jogged my brain, making me turn to +the _posse comitatus_ behind me and ask,-- + +"And where, this year, is the field of Lâl?" + +We were passing over an open space baked almost to whiteness by the +constant sun,--a hard resonant place set round with gnarled _jhand_ +trees, and dotted over with innumerable little mud mounds. + +"There," wheezed the venerable pantaloon, pressing forward and pointing +to one newer than the rest. "That is the field of Lâl." + +Then I saw that we were in the village burial-ground. I looked up +inquiringly. + +"_Huzoor!_" repeated a younger man, "that is Lâl's field. It is his own +this time; but for all that the Sirkâr will not charge him revenue." +The grim joke, and the idea of Lâl's having six feet of earth of his +own at last, once more roused their sense of humour. + +"And the other people who ate of the field of Lâl?" I asked, half in +earnest, for somehow my heart was sad. + +"The good God will look after them, as He has after the crocodiles." + +Since then, strangely enough, the memory of Lâl has remained with me, +and I often ask myself if he really existed, and if he really died. +Does he still 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 other people have had their fill? I cannot say; +but whenever I see a particularly fat squirrel I say to myself, "It has +been feeding in the field of Lâl." + + + + + A DEBT OF HONOUR. + + +A flood of yellow sunshine on yellow sand, and a horse at the gallop. A +horse guided by an English boy, in blue spectacles, sitting squarely +enough, but somewhat stiffly, in his saddle, as if too independent to +give 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 other words, one appointed to administer justice to the +ignorant heathen--those ignorant heathen who seemed to have such odd +ideas of life, and to require such immediate regeneration--at the hands +of English boys. + +In front, across the foreground, the glaring white high road for which +he was steering; to the left centre a gnarled, knotted old _jhand_ tree +hung with coloured threads and patches, proclaiming it to be still +sacred to some effete modern form of serpent-worship--one of 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 but +incomprehensive eye of superiority. A not uncommon feeling of +contemptuous interest came over him, which prolonged itself even when +the cause changed into a wonder why the brute he was riding would not +keep its head at the proper angle. Then darkness, and silence! + +Smith-Jones's horse had put its foot into a rat-hole and given him a +bad fall, about as bad a fall as could well have been, short of those +curious plunges over the edge of one world into the next. 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 and his thoughts that it must +be seen and told; therefore until he began to gain consciousness the +scene remained, as it were, a blank, despite the fact that there were +other actors on the stage. + +Most people when coming to themselves (to use a popular, but confusing +phrase) meet first of all with a sound of slow, storm-spent breakers +rolling in on some unknown shore. Is it the one they 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, for a decision. Then, as a rule, +comes a kindly, familiar voice or touch to settle the question in +favour of this earth; perhaps some day it may come to summon us to +another. Again, who knows? + +Smith-Jones, however, felt something so distinctly unfamiliar that he +opened his eyes in a fright, relieved to find himself in that +unmistakable flood of sunshine which does not exist out of India. +Briefly he felt, or thought he felt, a kiss upon his lips. Now +Smith-Jones, like most well-trained, unemotional 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 +while Robin the gardener hoisted the brand-new cabin-trunk on to the +fly, which from the large white placards on the luggage was evidently +destined to carry Smith-Jones part of the way to Bombay, he had only +got as far as a kiss on the cheek, despite a choke in his throat, and a +distinct inclination to cry. + +And now? It was startling in the extreme! + +Lying on his back, a prey to somewhat alarmed surprise, he became aware +through his nose of a pleasant scent, and through his eyes, of the +pendant mistletoe-like twigs of the _jhand_ tree. Mistletoe,--yes, that +might account for the kiss; but what about the perfume of roses? There +it was again, in company with an old peacock's feather fan which looked +as if it were half through a severe moulting. Some one was fanning him, +positively fanning him! for the feathers swooped again and again just +above his face in composed curves suggestive of leisure and perpetual +motion. 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. Then, being still confused out of speech, +he tried to arrest the arm by catching hold of it; but either he had +not yet recovered a just estimate of distance, or it eluded his grasp, +for the even monotony of the curve continued. And, on the whole, it was +pleasant enough to lie on one's back in the yellow sand and be fanned +sleepily, gracefully. An enjoyment, however, which could not be allowed +long continuance when there was a horse to be caught, a camp to be +reached, a judgment to be written; the whole burden of a world, in +short, on Smith-Jones's young shoulders. + +"I could get up now, if you would remove that fan," he said at last, +weakly surprised at his own difficulty in stringing two words together +in a foreign tongue. + +"There is no hurry, _Huzoor_," came in immediate reply. "The Protector +of the Poor being so very young, there is naturally plenty of time for +all things ere he has to leave life; yea, plenty of time." + +What a remarkable voice! Soft as the cooing of the doves in the _jhand_ +tree, and no louder; the far-away echo of a voice, toneless, yet +mellow. But then the whole experience was remarkable, and he lay trying +to piece common-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 other averting the sweep of the fan. There was +no doubt as to the place; yonder was the white road, there the +responsible hole, the wallow in the sand where his horse had rolled, +the _jhand_ tree gay in its shreds and patches. + +But what was that to one side of him? Some one, either half-fledged +girl or shrunken old woman, seated in one of those flat baskets which +packmen use for carrying their burdens. It was, in effect, a +pack-basket, since cords attached it to one end of a _banghy_, or yoke, +which was resting against a net-full of small earthern pots fastened to +the other extremity of the pliant lever. The sight of a human being in +a pack-basket was unusual, but Smith-Jones during the last six months +(that is to say, during his service in India) had seen so many strange +things that he set it down as yet another eccentricity of an eccentric +people. The occupant of the basket, however, disturbed him more; he +even thought (with a certain sense of shame, which would have been +wanting had he been 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 fancied kiss still haunting his brain, +looked at her without a shudder. She was dressed in a way which even +his ignorance of the gala costumes of respectable females told him was +unusual. A very full red silk petticoat bordered with gay colours was +half tucked into the basket, half displayed over the edge in coquettish +quillings and frillings of the bright embroidery. A loose sacque of the +same stuff, many times too large for the bones it covered, lay in +wrinkles on arms and bust with here and there a glint of tarnished +tinsel, while a veil of like material, faded to a purplish tint, its +heavy gold thread tracings torn, frayed, or wanting, hid all but the +tiny hand and arm swaying the fan, and a shrunken, waxen face whence a +pair of bright black eyes looked at him wisely. + +"The Presence would do well to repose once more," came the worn-out +voice. "He is not to die this time. He has broken nought save his blue +spectacles, and that is well. Spectacles are not for the young; and, as +this slave said but now, my Lord 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 +gorge in a _gram_ field. But I, being Dittu's relation, can affirm that +he will of a surety return ere long; therefore rest is within reach, +and if the Presence will lie down again I will keep the fly-people from +settling on the Presence's face." + +To tell the truth, the effort to rise had made Smith-Jones feel +decidedly queer, so without more ado he lay back on the pillow which +the strange watcher had evidently improvised from the coarse outside +veil she had worn over her finery. He guessed this by the lingering +smell of roses which clung to the fabric. + +"You might tell me how I came to fall off, and who you are," said he +after a pause, a little fretfully, for he was unused to inaction, and +impatient at things he did not understand. + +"_Huzoor!_ rat-holes are very simple things. Or perhaps it was a +snake-hole. If my Lord had gone a pace farther from the tree, he would +not have been on sacred ground, and then the serpent might not have +revenged himself." + +Smith-Jones gave a little wriggle. "What bosh!" he muttered; adding +aloud, as if to change the subject, "And who are you, mother?" + +"If my Lord dislikes old wives' tales," came the cooing voice, +"he will not care for mine. He is so young. If the Presence's +great-grandfather--" + +"What do you know about my great-grandfather?" he interrupted hotly. + +"Nothing, except that the Protector of the Poor must have had one. That +is all. Nevertheless, if the Presence's great-grandfather (Heaven cool +his grave!) had been in Jodhnagar when he was young he might have heard +Gulâbi[28] sing. I am Gulâbi, _Huzoor_." + +The peacock's feather fan, with its scent of dead roses, swung +backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, in that even rhythmical +sweep which only those accustomed to the task from childhood can +maintain for long without break or flaw. It was particularly soothing. + +"I was singer to the great Mâharâni at the Pearl Palace," went on the +voice, "I had to sing her to sleep whilst I fanned her as I am fanning +the Pillar of Justice even now, I used to sing also before the 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 in those days for gold +and jewels. Sometimes also for love; not for justice, as my Lord comes +now. Nor did they wear blue spectacles; but then they were young, and +I, who am so old now, I was young also." + +The melancholy cadence of her words was quite lost on Smith-Jones, who +was fast recovering himself, and beginning once more to take a rational +view of life, and an interest in the situation, as a 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 tempting. "You must know a lot of old +songs, mother," he said in superior tones. "Sing me one while we are +waiting for Dittu. Or if you can't sing it, you know, just say it; I +only want the words." + +Was it a faint chuckle he heard, as he lay prone on his back, or only a +louder gurgle of those ceaseless doves in the _jhand_ tree? The old +lady's voice, imperturbably 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 father's father sang of +them before me; yet I have no son to sing them after me. So the songs I +sing die with me. When I am dead no one will hear them any more." + +All the more reason why he should hear them now, thought Smith-Jones, +feeling surreptitiously in his pocket for a note-book. + +"The Presence need not trouble himself. He must close his eyes or I +shall forget my song. My singing is for sleep and dreams, and this song +has been waiting to be sung so long that it is well-nigh forgotten +already. Listen and dream, _Huzoor!_" + +She began in the usual low chant, varied by occasional sudden turns +modulating the tone into a higher or a lower key in accordance with the +spirit of the story. From a musical point of view there was nothing +remarkable in the performance, save the absolute want of vibration in +the worn-out voice, whose even softness became all the more remarkable +when contrasted by the passion in the words. Yet Smith-Jones 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 clung close to the original, +and that her song swept on untrammelled by more rhyme or rhythm than +what seemed to come to it spontaneously through the chant. She sang, in +fact, as the native bards sing, with every now and again an interlude +of refrain or exclamation serving as a pause during which the singer +grasps a fresh idea, a new measure. And this, according to Smith-Jones, +was the song that she sang. + + + Listen, Pillar of Justice! Listen. +Roses smell sweet, but they are silent when the sun kisses them. I sing +of a rose who sang, yet rose-like was silent of kisses. Heart of my +heart? why should I sing of a kiss which never came, of the kiss owed +to the rose, not by the dead but the living! + +For what is a dead man's kiss to lips that are like the rose? He was so +fair and young, he came from far over the seas. Was it jewels or gold +he was seeking? No matter! 'twas love that he found. + +His hair was golder than gold, his eyes, full of laughter, were +blue--blue as the sapphires he sought whilst love was seeking for him. +Yea, the black sought for love in the blue. Oh, cold were his eyes! +cold as the snows in the north when the rose began singing + + + _Hai_, golden sun! _Hai_, cold blue skies! + Grant me but this, a look, a kiss. + _Hai! Hai! Hai!_ + + +Right to the inner court of marbles and jewels, 'mid peacocks' fans +waving and tinkling sutaras, he came when the stars came and talked to +my mistress--talked of love and of jewels, 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 +sought her for love and for kisses, who sought not her mistress. And +one, a snake of a man, sought both without shame; he was high in the +Court and a noble, the Rani's known lover. + + + _Hai_, the snake! _Hai_, venomous thing, + Dead of your own poisoning! + _Hai! Hai!_ + + +But what is a snake to a rose when the gold sun may kiss her? So she +sang sweeter and sweeter till blue eyes grew kinder. "What is your +price for a song, Singing-Rose?" he asked softly. "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 whispered of love and of jewels. "I owe her a gift of a +surety," he said the last night to my mistress. "Give her gold," she +replied with a sneer. "What more would you give to a slave?" + + _Hai!_ Gold, nothing but gold! + The heart of the Rose turned cold. + She sought for love! + Listen! listen! + Oh, the ways of love are bold, + And the guiles of love are old. + + +The coins were wrapped in a paper; it had a voice of its own. +"To-night, when the gong chimes one, the seeker will find a kiss, in +the twelve-doored marble summer-house bowered in roses." 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 dies; for the Rani sought love, and he gave +her but words. What are words in exchange for the jewels she gave as a +bride? The jewels he steals from the Queen when he leaves us +to-morrow." + + + Lies, lies! nothing but lies from the snake! + The sun gives gold he does not take. + Lies! lies! + + +Heart of my heart! what are words and tears to a snake? And the sun +far, far from the rose; too far for a warning. Listen! the rose has +thorns to protect her blossoms; a woman has guiles and smiles to +protect her lover. "What matters a kiss at one?" said I. "Take yours at +_eleven_, in the twelve-doored marble summer-house bowered in roses." + + + _Hai!_ the greed and lust in his look. + The greed at the baited hook! + He saw not the thorn. + + +But the Rose saw his lying soul; she knew he would take his kiss, and +betray her when it was over. She knew that with venomous snakes there +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 than +a scratch, ere the paper was lost by the maiden and found by her +mistress. Lost by the guile of one woman, found in the path of another. + + + Oh, heart! waiting 'mid the flowers, + Counting out the hours + Till the snake's kiss! + + +_One--two--three--four--five--six--seven--eight--nine--ten--eleven!_ + + +The clasp of a snake is cold, but the clasp of death is colder; and +coldest of all, the warm clinging clasp of a rose, holding him tighter +and 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 staining her bosom as she waited for death in her turn. Then +lights and an uproar, and, lo! instead of the stranger the Rani's own +lover was dead. + + + Dead! who grieves when a snake is dead? + Men are glad that its power has fled. + They laugh in their sleeve. + + +Yet was there crying and shouting, and noise bringing warning to all, +reaching the moon in the heavens, the sun in its rising,--hastening its +flight from the east, to its home in the arms of the west. Is not that +the course of the sun? Leaving the cast with a smile; leaving the rose +and the nightingale? Yea! 'tis the course of the sun. + + + _Hai_, for the Rose, the Singing-Rose! + _Hai_, for the nightingale. + + +Yet who kills his own pleasure? Who kills the bulbul in the rose? No! +they cut its wings, they prison it, they bid it sing; sing with a +blood-stained heart when the sun shines on other roses. So it sang, +waiting always for the kiss which never came. Pillar of Justice, from +the land of the western sun, say! did the Rose deserve the kiss which +never came? Hath she not waited long enough for the promised kiss? + + +The song ceased as abruptly as it began, and Smith-Jones, distinctly +disappointed at its want of historical value, thanked the old lady +politely. It appeared 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 chiming of the hours pointed conclusively +to the swallowing up of darkness by light, and _vice-versâ_. And--by +Jove, that must be Dittu returning with the horse! + +It was; Dittu, the horse, a bundle of green wheat, and a very broad +grin--all of which common objects relieved Smith-Jones, who, to say +sooth, felt out of his element lying on his back and being fanned by an +old mummy. 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, which with a courteously intended grunt he +tendered to the old woman. She might have been a graven image for all +the notice she took of him or his coin. The hand holding the fan rested +on her lap, her eyes were half-closed. + +"The Presence wastes time. He had better give the _bucksheesh_ to me," +remarked Dittu, grinning again. "The old mother is nigh stone-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! The stirrup of the +Protector of the Poor is broken. God send the iron may be lying in the +sand where the base-born beast fell!" + +Smith-Jones's puzzled, perturbed look, as he watched Dittu on his knees +searching for the missing stirrup-iron, may have been due to anxiety +lest he should have to walk six miles into camp. On the other hand, he +may have been wondering if the fall had seriously injured his brain; +anyhow there was an unusual air of doubt 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'en cover up the old mother again with the veil he had taken from her. +It was more decent like; and she was a decent old creature, despite the +fancy she had to wear those gay garments of her youth. So the white +veil was wound about the faded finery, leaving nothing visible but the +waxen face with its half-closed eyes. + +"What are you carrying her about for?" asked Smith-Jones jerkily. + +"She is so old, _Huzoor_, and we, her belongings, thought she might +like to end her long life peacefully in holy Ganges. So as I had the +dead ancestors of the village to carry (they are in those little pots +on the other side of the yoke, _Huzoor_) we just put her to make a +balance in the basket." + +Smith-Jones's blue eyes (they really were fine eyes now the spectacles +were away) grew big with surprise. "You mean that those little pots +contain your dead ancestors?" + +"Their ashes, _Huzoor_; the ashes of the village for the year. Some one +always takes them at pilgrimage-time, and as I was strong I brought the +old lady too. She doesn't seem able to die up there amongst us all, and +she will have to be brought along some time. She is mostly bones, as it +is, no heavier than the ashes yonder." + +He nodded his head at the net-full of pots and went on twining the +thread. Smith-Jones's face grew more and more troubled. He had read in +books of old people being brought thus to end their days devoutly in +the sacred stream, and it had seemed to him an interesting and curious +habit. That was all. It seemed different now. + +"The Presence is surprised at the ways of the dust-like ones," +continued Dittu cheerfully; "but old Gulâbi is accustomed to being +carried about in a basket. When 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 cut off for something she +did. I have heard my grandmother say she was a gay one; but it must +have been so long ago that we may forget it in her present decency." + +"Both her feet cut off!" + +"_Huzoor_, the feet of young people lead them into mischief. She was a +singer, and she got into trouble, so I have heard old folk say. If the +Presence will cause forgiveness to be awarded to the speaker, it may be +said that the trouble was an Englishman. One of the no-account +wanderers who used to come before the Great Company Bahâdur threw the +mantle of protection over the poor. I know not the story rightly; +perhaps even old Gulâbi 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 for her art. That they could not +spare. What tyrant kills the bulbul in his garden? So they cut her feet +off to keep her in the paths of virtue. It is an excellent plan for +those who walk lightly. See! the stirrup is ready for the foot of the +Presence and will support him safely on his road." + +Smith-Jones stood irresolute before the mummylike figure in the basket. +"Did she ever tell you the story herself?" he asked at length. + +Dittu's tongue clucked emphatic denial from the roof of his mouth. +"_Huzoor_, she became decent before my day. Besides, grandmother said +even when she was young Gulâbi 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 feet, and she expected her deserts some +day. _Hai! Hai!_ a bold saying for carnal sinners, but holy Ganges will +choke the wickedness from her for ever." + +"Then you will take her--to--to Hurdwâr--and--and leave her there." +Smith-Jones had a difficulty with this euphemism for the strange and +barbarous custom he had read about in books. He seemed to see the old +creature seated in her flat basket in the stream, a prey to exposure +and cold. + +"It would scarcely be worth while her coming back," suggested Dittu +humbly. "My grannie (she is over there, _Huzoor_," nodding his head +towards the earthern pots) "was the last person who knew her ere she +ceased singing. Now she is gone, wherefore should Gulâbi wait longer? +She hath waited over long as it is. To-night, when the moon rises, we +will travel onwards to her rest. I must get back to the village by +harvest-time." + +Smith-Jones gave Dittu the rupee. He rode into camp sedately; he wrote +his judgment still more sedately; then he ate his dinner and sat down +sedately to read, one book after another--the _Asiatic Antiquary_, a +sermon by his father on the relative guilt of the heathen--which +in its day had fluttered the fold of Muddleton-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 leafage of the banyan-tree, the white road +shining like a straight broad path to heaven--or elsewhere. Sitting +beside the reading lamp he could see past the furled _chicks_ of the +door, right away to east and west: west to Rajputana and the Pearl +Palace; east to holy Ganges and the golden gates of the great +Rest-House. + +_Chink-a-chink-a-chink_ came the brass jingles of a _banghy_, making +Smith-Jones lay down _The Whole Duty of Man_ restlessly, and move +towards the door. Along that broad white shining path from west to east +came a strange sight,--an old mummy of a 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 at either end look as if they were alive. Shuffle, shuffle, +shuffle, bob, bob, bob, came Dittu and his burden. _Hurri Gunga! Hurri +Gunga! Hurri Gunga!_[29] Just a little guttural grunting, like a pig's, +to keep the shuffle and the bob together. + +Smith-Jones stood staring into the moonlight, the picture of +irresolution. The shadow of the banyan-tree lay right across the road +in a solid mass of darkness, 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 the lever into position with his +packman's stick, and made sideways for an interlude of tobacco among +the camp-followers at the watchfires across the road. + +Smith-Jones and the _banghy_ were alone. He could scarcely see it in +the darkness, though a wayward gleam of moonlight glittered on the +brass jingles and lit up the peacock'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 clothes to the +faded finery within, and through that again to something which had not +faded despite the long, long years. To something which was waiting +still for its reward. + +And then a strange thing happened. Smith-Jones forgot everything he had +been taught. He forgot his father's sermon, he forgot sociology, +folklore, and the whole duty of man. He forgot the sun-myth and the +great fight between darkness and dawn which never ceases. He even +forgot himself, as he stepped into the shadowy gulf, stooped, and paid +another man's debt of honour with a kiss. + + +He told me the tale years after, when we were sitting over our toddy +round a camp fire. It was a moonlight night, and the shadow of a great +banyan-tree lay like a gulf across a white road; perhaps that awoke the +memory. He was then a married man, with a charming 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 took off his spectacles, for though he had +given up wearing blue ones years before, his kind eyes had become a +little dim, perhaps with the sympathy they bestowed on all sorts and +conditions of men; he took off his spectacles, I say, and wiped them +furtively. + + + + + THE VILLAGE LEGACY. + + +"The case of Mussumât[30] Nuttia being without heirs," droned the +Court-Inspector. + +"Bring her in." + +"She is already in the Presence. If the Protector of the Poor will rise +somewhat,--at the other side of the table, _Huzoor!_--beside the +yellow-trousered legs of the guardian of peace,--that is Mussumât +Nuttia." + +A child some three years of age, with a string of big blue beads round +her neck,--a child who had evidently had a very satisfying meal, and +who was even now preserving its contour by half-a-yard of sugar-cane, +stared gravely back at the Assistant Magistrate's grave face. + +"She has no heirs of any kind?" he asked. + +"None, _Huzoor!_ Her mother was of the Harni tribe, working harvests in +Bhâmaniwallah-khurd. There the misfortune of being eaten by a snake +came upon her by the grace of God. Mussumât Nuttia therefore +remains,--" + +"Oh, Guardian of the Poor!" said two voices in unison, as two tall +bearded figures swathed in whitish-brown draperies pressed a step +forward with outstretched petitioning hands. They had been awaiting +this crisis all day long with that mixture of tenacity and indifference +which is seen on most faces in an Indian Court. + +"Give her in charge of the head-men of the village; they are +responsible." + +"Shelter of the world! 'tis falsely represented. The woman was a +vagrant, a loose walker, a--" + +"Is the order, written? Then bring the next case." + +One flourish of a pen, and Mussumât Nuttia became a village-legacy; +the only immediate result being that having sucked one end of her +sugar-cane dry, she began methodically on the other. Half-an-hour +afterwards, mounted on a white pony, with pink eyes and nose, and a +dyed pink tail to match, she was on her way back to the cluster of reed +huts dignified by the name of Bhâmaniwallah-khurd, or Little +Bhâmaniwallah. Big Bhâmaniwallah 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 +Bhâmaniwallah lay in the lap of the river, and so Bahâdur, and Boota, +and Jodha, and all the grave big-bearded Dogas who fed their herds of +cattle on the low ground, and speculated in the cultivation of +sandbanks, lived with their loins girded ready to shift house with the +shifting of the river. That was why the huts were made of reeds; that +was why the women of the village clanked about in solid silver jewelry, +thus turning their persons into a secure savings-bank. + +Mussumât Jewun, Bahâdur the head-man's wife, wore bracelets like +manacles, and a perfect yoke of a necklet, as she patted out the dough +cakes and expostulated shrilly at the introduction of a new mouth into +the family, when Nuttia, fast asleep, was lifted from the pony and put +down in the warm sand by the door. + +"She belongs to the village," replied the elders, wagging their beards. +"God knows what my Lords desire with the Harni brat, but if they ask +for her, she must be forthcoming; ay! and fat. They like people to grow +fat, even in their jail-_khanas_." + +So Nuttia grew fat; she would have grown fat even had the fear of my +Lords not been before the simple villagers' eyes, for despite her +tender years, she was eminently fitted to take care of herself. She had +an instinct as to the houses where good things were being prepared, and +her chubby little hand, imperiously stretched out for a portion, was +seldom sent 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 again after every rebuff, till she felt herself in a +condition to seek some warm sunny corner, and curl round to sleep. She +lived for the most part with the yelping, slouching village dogs, +following them, as the nights grew chill, to the smouldering +brick-kilns, where she fed the little dust-coloured puppies with +anything above, or beneath, her own appetite. + +As she outgrew childhood's vestment of curves and dimples, some one +gave her an old rag of a petticoat. Perhaps the acquisition of clothes +followed, as in ancient days, a fall from grace; certain it was that +Nuttia in a garment 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 prize off on the world as a various and +complete wardrobe, and dishonesty flagrant and unabashed; for once +provided with a convenient receptacle for acquired trifles, Nuttia took +to stealing as naturally as a puppy steals bones. + +Then, once having recognised the pleasures of possession, she fought +furiously against any infringement of her rights. A boy twice her size +went yelling home to his parents on her first resort to brute force +consequent on the discovery of a potsherd tied to her favourite puppy's +tail. This victory proving unfortunate for the peace of the village, +the head-men awoke to the necessity for training up their Legacy in the +paths of virtue. So persistent pummelling was resorted to with the +happiest effect. Nuttia stole and fought no more; she retired with +dignity 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 hunched themselves together to doze away digestion, or a +snub-nosed alligator took a slimy snooze on the extreme edge. If you +wished to watch the birds, or the palm-squirrels, or the jerboa rats, +you had to face northwards and skirt the high bank. So much of Dame +Nature's ways, and a vast deal more, Mussumât Nuttia learnt ere the +setting sun and hunger drove her back to the brick-kilns, and the +never-failing meal of scraps--never-failing, because the Lords of the +Universe liked people to be fat, and the head-men were responsible for +their Legacy's condition. + +So when an Assistant Magistrate--indefinite because of the constant +changes which apparently form part of Western policy--included the +Bhâmaniwallahs in his winter tour of inspection, a _punchaiyut_, or +Council of Five, decided that it was the duty of the village to 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 delight for the first five +minutes was exhilarating, and sent the head-men back to other duties +with a glow of self-satisfaction on their solemn faces. Then she folded +the veil up quite square, sat down on it, and meditated on the various +uses to which it could be put. + +The result may be told briefly. Two days afterwards the Assistant +Magistrate, being a keen sportsman, was crawling on his stomach to a +certain long low pool much frequented by teal and mallard. In the rear, +gleaming white through the caper bushes, showed the 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 them forward, prodigal of apology; but +the sight that met their eyes dried up the fountain of excuse. Nuttia, +stark naked, stood knee-deep in the very centre of the pool, catching +small fry with a bag-net ingeniously constructed out of the Manchester +veil. + +The _punchaiyut_ sat again to agree that a child who could not only +destroy the sport of the Guardian of the Poor, but could also drag the +village honour through the mud, despite munificent inducements toward +decency, must be possessed 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 be unkind to children, +and so, when the function was over, Mussumât Jewun and the other +deep-chested, shrill-voiced women comforted the victim with sweetmeats +and the assurance that she would be ever so much better behaved in +future. + +Nuttia eyed them suspiciously, but ate her sweetmeats. This incident +did not increase her confidence in humanity; on the other hand, the +attitude of the brute creation was a sore disappointment to her. She +might have had a heart instinct with greed of 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 in the sunshiny sand; then in a rage, she would fling +the crumbs at the timid creatures, and go home to the dogs and the +buffaloes. They at least were not afraid of her; but then they were +afraid of nobody, and Nuttia wanted something of her very own. + +One day she found it. It was only an old bed-leg, but to the eye of +faith an incarnation. For the leg of an Indian bed is not unlike a huge +ninepin, and even a Western imagination can detect the embryo likeness +between a ninepin and the human form divine. Man has a head, so has a +ninepin; and if humanity is to wear petticoats one solid leg is quite +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 few hours afterwards something comically, yet pitifully, +like the Legacy herself stared back at her from that humble studio +among the dirt-heaps--a shag of goat's hair glued on with prickly-pear +juice, two lovely black eyes drawn with Mussumât Jewun's _khol_ pencil, +a few blue beads, a scanty petticoat and veil filched from the child's +own garments. + +Nuttia, inspired by the recollection of a tinsel-decorated bride in Big +Bhâmaniwallah, called her creature Sirdar Begum on the spot. Then she +hid her away in a tussock of tiger-grass beyond the thorn enclosures, +and strove to go her evening rounds as though nothing had happened. Yet +it was as if an angel from heaven had stepped down to take her by the +hand. Henceforward she was never to be alone. All through the silent +sunny days, as she watched the big black buffaloes grazing on the muddy +flats--for Nuttia was advanced to the dignity of a herd-girl by this +time--Sirdar Begum was with her as guide, counsellor, 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 butter she managed to twirl out of +the sour curds satisfied even Mussumât Jewun's demands; whereupon the +other herds looked at her askance, and muttered an Indian equivalent of +seven devils. Then the necessity for amusing the doll led Nuttia into +lingering round the little knots of story-tellers who sat far on into +the night, discoursing of _jins_ and _ghouls_, of faithful lovers, +virtuous maidens, and the beauties of holiness. Down on the edge of the +big stream, with the water sliding by, Nuttia rehearsed all these +wonders to her adored bed-leg until, falling in love with +righteousness, she took to telling the truth. + +It was a fatal mistake in a cattle-lifting district, and +Bhâmaniwallah-khurd lay in the very centre of that maze of tamarisk +jungle, quicksand, and stream, which forms the cattle-thief's best +refuge. So Bahâdur, and Jodha, and Boota, together with many another +honest man, made a steady income by levying black-mail on those who +sought safety within their boundaries; and this without in any way +endangering their own reputations. All that had to be done was to +obliterate strange tracks by sending their own droves in the right +direction and thereafter to keep silence. And every baby in both +Bhâmaniwallahs 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 Luckimpura island maybe, to reach which she +had to hold on to the biggest buffalo's tail, and thus, with Sirdar +Begum tied securely to its horns, and her own little black head bobbing +up and down in its wake, cross the narrow stream; after which the three +would spread themselves out to dry on the hot sand. Nuttia took a great +fancy to the island, and many a time when she might have driven the +herds to nearer pastures, preferred the long low stretches of +Luckimpura where a flush of green lingered even in the droughts of +April. + +But even there on one very hot day scarcely a blade was to be found, +and Nuttia, careful of her beasts, and noting the lowness of the river, +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 +beyond. To her surprise they stood knee-deep in the water immovable, +impassive, noses in air, with long curled horns lying on their necks. + +The Legacy shaded her eyes to see more clearly. Nothing was to be seen +but the swift shallow stream, the level sand, and gleams of water +stretching away to the horizon. Something had frightened them--but +what? She gave up the puzzle, and with Sirdar Begum bolt upright before +her sat on a snag, dangling her feet over the stream for the sake of +the cool air which seemed to rise from the river. + +The buffaloes roamed restlessly about, disturbed doubtless by the cloud +of flies. The sun beat down ineffectually on the doll's fuzzy head, but +it pierced Nuttia's thick pate, making her nod drowsily. Her voice +recounting the thrilling adventures of brave Bhopalutchi died away into +a sigh of sleep. So there was nothing left but the doll's wide +unwinking eyes to keep watch over the world. + +What was that? Something cold, icy-cold! Nuttia woke with a start. One +brown heel had touched the water; she looked down at it, then swiftly +around her. The buffaloes huddled by the ford had ceased to graze, and +a quiver of light greeted her glance at the purple horizon. She sprang +to her feet, and breaking off a root from the snag, held it to the +dimpling water. The next instant a scared face looked at the horizon +once more. The river was rising fast, rising as she had never seen it +rise before. Yet in past years she had witnessed many a flood--floods +that had swept away much of the arable land, and driven the villagers +to till new soil thrown up nearer the high bank. Ay! and driven many of +them to seek new homes beside the new fields, until Bhâmaniwallah-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 Mussumât 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 herd rose on the hot air, and with Sirdar Begum close clasped in +her veil she drove the big buffalo Moti into the stream. How cold the +water was--cold as the snows from which it came! The Legacy had not +lived in the lap of the river for so long without learning somewhat of +its ways. She knew of the frost-bound sources whence it flowed and of +the disastrous floods which follow, beneath a cloudless sky, on unusual +heat or unusual rain in those mountain fastnesses. The coming storm +whose arch of cloud, shimmering with sheet-lightning had crept beyond +the line of purple haze, was nothing; that was not the nightmare of the +river-folk. + +She stood for a moment when dry land was reached, hesitating whether to +strike straight for the high bank or make for the village lying a mile +distant. Some vague instinct of showing Sirdar Begum she was not +afraid, made her choose the latter course, though most of the herd +refused to follow her 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? What if the low levels between +that rising ground and the high bank were to flood? And every one +beyond in the yellow corn, except _Mai_ Jewun and people who did not +count,--babies, and old women, and the crippled girl in the far hut! +Only herself and Sirdar Begum to be brave, for _Mai_ Jewun was sick. + +"Wake up! Wake up! _Mai_ Jewun! the floods are out!" broke in on the +new-born baby's wail as Nuttia's broad, scared face shut out the +sunlight from the door. + +"Go away, unlucky daughter of a bad mother," grumbled Jewun drowsily. +"Dost wish to cast thy evil eye on my heart's delight? Go, I say." + +"Yea! go!" grumbled the old nurse, cracking her fingers. "Sure some +devil possesseth thee to tell truth or lies at thy own pleasure." + +But the crippled girl spinning in the far hut had heard the flying +feet, caught the excited cry, and now, crawling on her knees to the +door, threw up her hands and shrieked aloud. The water stood ankle-deep +among the tamarisk roots, and from its still pool tiny tongues licked +their way along the dry sand. + +"The flood! the flood!" The unavailing cry rang out as the women +huddled together helplessly. + +"_Mai_ Jewun! there is time," came the Legacy's eager voice. "Put the +baby down, and help. I saw them do it at Luckimpura that time they took +the cattle over the deep stream, and Bahâdur beat me for seeing it. +Quick! quick!" + +Simple enough, yet in its very simplicity lay their only chance of +escape. A string-woven bed buoyed up with the bundles of reeds cut +ready for re-thatching, and on this frail raft four people--nay five! +for first of all with jealous care Nuttia placed her beloved Sirdar +Begum in safety, wrapping her up in the clothes she discarded in favour +of free nakedness. + +Quick! Quick! if the rising ground is to be gained and the levels +beyond forded ere the water is too deep! Moti and a companion yoked by +plough-ropes to the bed, wade knee-deep, hock-deep, into the stream, +and now with the old, cheerful cry Nuttia, clinging to their tails and +so guiding them, urges the beasts deeper still. The stream 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 end is near,--when another frantic +struggle leaves Moti alone to her task. The high childish voice calling +on her favourite's courage rises again and again; but the others, cowed +into silence, clutch together with hid faces, till a fresh plunge +loosens their tongues once more. It is Moti finding foothold, and they +are safe--so far. + +"Quick! _Mai_ Jewun," cries Nuttia, as her companions stand looking +fearfully over the waste of shallows before them. She knows from the +narrowness of the ridge they have reached that time is precious. "We +must wade while we can, saving Moti for the streams. Take up the baby, +and I--" + +Her hands, busy on the bed, stilled themselves,--her face grew +grey,--she turned on them like a fury. "Sirdar Begum! I put her +there--where is Sirdar Begum?" + +"That bed-leg!" shrilled the mother, tucking up her petticoats for +greater freedom. "There was no room, and Heart's Delight was cold. Bah! +wood floats." + +"_Hull-lal-lal-a lalla la!_" The herdsman's cry was the only answer. +Moti has faced the flood again, but this time with a light load, for +the baby nestling amid Nuttia's clothes is the only occupant of the +frail raft. + +"My son! My son! Light of mine eyes! Core of my heart! Come back! Come +back!" + +But the little black head drifting down stream behind the big one never +turned from its set purpose. Wood floated, and so might babies. Why +not? + +Why not, indeed! But, as a matter of fact, _Mai_ Jewun was right. A +dilapidated bed-leg was picked up on a sand-bank miles away when the +floods subsided; and Moti joined the herd next day to chew the cud of +her reflections contentedly. But the village Legacy and Heart's Delight +remained somewhere seeking for something,--that something, doubtless, +which had turned the bed-leg into Sirdar Begum. + + + + FOOTNOTES + + +[Footnote 1: Head of a religious community.] + +[Footnote 2: Name of Vishnu.] + +[Footnote 3: Runjeet Singh never enlisted a man who, in counting up to +thirty, said _puch-is_ for five and twenty, but those who said +_punj-is_ were passed. In other words, the _patois_ was made a test of +whether the recruit belonged to the Trans-Sutlej tribes or the +Cis-Sutlej.] + +[Footnote 4: _Bunniah_, a merchant. _Bunniah-ji_ signifies, as +Shakespeare would have said, Sir Merchant.] + +[Footnote 5: _Zemindar-ji_, Sir Squire.] + +[Footnote 6: _Baba_, as a term of familiarity, is applied indifferently +to young and old.] + +[Footnote 7: _Purohit_, a spiritual teacher, a sage, answering in some +respects to the Red Indian's medicine-man.] + +[Footnote 8: Snakes are said to be attracted by the scent of blood, as +they are undoubtedly by that of milk.] + +[Footnote 9: With faith.] + +[Footnote 10: Priest.] + +[Footnote 11: Lit. Father. Baba is constantly used to a religious +teacher.] + +[Footnote 12: Lit. _rice and lentil_. A catchword for native food.] + +[Footnote 13: A fact.] + +[Footnote 14: The Sikh bible.] + +[Footnote 15: Lit. stick-bearer, but applied always to wandering +devotees who tramp the country living on alms.] + +[Footnote 16: Roast chicken.] + +[Footnote 17: The Sikh Commonwealth.] + +[Footnote 18: A Mohammedan preacher.] + +[Footnote 19: "God Almighty and his prophet Mohammed;" a brief +confession of faith.] + +[Footnote 20: The veil worn by secluded women.] + +[Footnote 21: Unleavened cakes and mince-meat balls.] + +[Footnote 22: The Creed.] + +[Footnote 23: The Hindu Venus; Durga in another form.] + +[Footnote 24: In India the cow will not give milk if separated from her +calf.] + +[Footnote 25: Stuffed.] + +[Footnote 26: Literally _bâkee_, or extra; but _Barker sahib_ is a +perennial jest with both master and man, answering to the English Mr. +Manners.] + +[Footnote 27: Title of honour equivalent to our "mistress."] + +[Footnote 28: Rose.] + +[Footnote 29: The usual pilgrim's cry.] + +[Footnote 30: A title of courtesy equivalent to our mistress.] + + + + + END. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Flower of Forgiveness, by Flora Annie Steel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS *** + +***** This file should be named 39987-8.txt or 39987-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/9/8/39987/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (Harvard University) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Flower of Forgiveness + +Author: Flora Annie Steel + +Release Date: June 13, 2012 [EBook #39987] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (Harvard University) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> +<br> +1. Page scan source:<br> +http://books.google.com/books?id=XqMYAAAAYAAJ<br> +(Harvard University)</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>THE</h2> +<br> +<br> +<h1>FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h5>BY</h5> +<br> +<h2>FLORA ANNIE STEEL</h2> + +<h5><span class="sc">Author of "Miss Stuart's Legacy," Etc.</span></h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>New York</h3> +<h2>MACMILLAN AND CO.</h2> +<h4>AND LONDON</h4> +<h3>1894</h3> +<br> +<h5><i>All rights reserved</i></h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><span class="sc2">Copyright, 1894</span>,<br> +<span class="sc">By</span> MACMILLAN AND CO.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><span class="sc2">Norwood Press</span>:<br> +J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith<br> +Boston, Mass. U.S.A.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01"><span class="sc">The Flower of Forgiveness.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02"><span class="sc">Harvest.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03"><span class="sc">For the Faith.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04"><span class="sc">The Bhut-Baby.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05"><span class="sc">Râmchunderji.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06"><span class="sc">Heera Nund.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07"><span class="sc">Feroza.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08"><span class="sc">In the House of a Coppersmith.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09"><span class="sc">Faizullah.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_10" href="#div1_10"><span class="sc">The Footstep of Death.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_11" href="#div1_11"><span class="sc">Habitual Criminals.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_12" href="#div1_12"><span class="sc">Mussumât Kirpo's Doll.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_13" href="#div1_13"><span class="sc">"London."</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_14" href="#div1_14"><span class="sc">Lâl.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_15" href="#div1_15"><span class="sc">A Debt of Honour.</span></a></p> +<br> +<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_16" href="#div1_16"><span class="sc">The Village Legacy.</span></a></p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Surely this is very rare?" I remarked, as looking through a herbarium +of Himalayan plants belonging to a friend of mine, I came upon a small +anemone which, contrary to the custom of that most delicate of flowers, +had preserved its colour in all its first freshness. Indeed, the +scarlet petals, each bearing a distinct, heart-shaped blotch of white +in the centre, could scarcely have glowed more brilliantly in life than +they did in death.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very rare," returned the owner after a pause; "I have reason to +believe it unique--so far as collections go, at any rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see you have called it <i>Remissionensis</i>. What induced you to give it +such an odd name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He smiled. "Dog Latin, I acknowledge. As for the reason--can you not +guess?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," I replied, looking closer at the white and red flowers, "I have +not your vivid imagination, but I presume it was in allusion to sins as +scarlet, and hearts white as wool. Ah! it was found, I see, near the +Cave of Amar-nâth; that accounts for the connection of ideas."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No doubt," he said quietly, "that accounts for the connection in a +measure; not entirely. The fact is, a very odd story--the oddest story +I ever came into personally--is connected with that flower. You +remember Taylor, surgeon of the 101st, who died of pyćmia contracted in +some of his cholera experiments? Well, just after I joined we chummed +together in Cashmere, where he was making the herbarium at which you +have been looking. He was a most charming 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 amount of +information utterly undreamed of by most Englishmen. For instance, his +first acquaintance with the existence of this anemone grew out of a +chance conversation with an old ruffian besmeared with filth from head +to foot, and it was his consequent desire to add the rarity to his +collection, joined to my fancy for seeing a real pilgrimage, which +brought us to Islamabad about the end of July, about the time, that is +to say, of the annual festival.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The sacred spring where the pilgrimage is inaugurated by a solemn +feeding of the holy fish is some way from the town, so we pitched our +tents under a plane-tree close to the temples, in order to see the +whole show. And a queer show it was. Brummagem umbrellas stuck like +mushrooms over green stretches of grass, and giving shelter to a motley +crew; <i>jogis</i>, or wandering mendicants, meditating on the mystic word +Om, and thereafter lighting sacred fires with Swedish <i>tändstickors</i>; +Government clerks, bereft of raiment, forgetting reports and averages +in a return to primitive humanity. Taylor never tired of pointing out +these strange contrasts, and over his evening pipe read me many a long +lecture on the putting of new wine into old bottles. For myself, it +interested me immensely. I liked to think of the young 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-nâth 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 <i>jogis</i> and <i>gosains</i>. It was from one of the latter, +a horrid old ruffian (so ridiculously like <i>Il Re Galant 'uomo</i>, that +we nicknamed him Victor Emanuel on the spot), that Taylor had first +heard of the Flower of Forgiveness, as the man styled it. He and the +doctor grew quite hot over the possible remission of sins; but the +subsequent gift of one rupee sterling sent him away asseverating that +none could filch from him the first-fruits of pilgrimage--namely, the +opportunity of meeting a Protector of the Poor so virtuous, so +generous, so full of the hoarded wisdom of ages. I recognised the old +humbug in the crowd as we made our way to a sort of latticed gallery +belonging to the Maharajah's guest-house, which gave on the tank where +the fish are fed. He salaamed profoundly, and, with a grin, expressed +his delight that, after all, the great doctor <i>sahib</i> should be seeking +forgiveness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I seek the flower only, Pious One,' replied Taylor, with a shrug of +the shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Perhaps 'tis the same thing,' replied Victor Emanuel with another +salaam.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The square tank was edged by humanity in the white and saffron robes +of pilgrimage. Brimming up to the stone step, worn smooth by +generations of sinners, the waters of the spring lapped lazily, stirred +by the myriads of small fish which, in their eagerness for the coming +feast, flashed hither 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 attendant Brahmans stood with +high-heaped baskets of grain awaiting the sacrificial words about to be +spoken by an old man, who, with one foot on the bank, spread his arms +skywards--an old man of insignificant height, but with an indescribable +dignity, on which I remarked to my companion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'It is indescribable,' he assented, 'because it is compounded of +factors not only wide as the poles asunder from you and me, but also +from each other. Pride of twice-born trebly-distilled ancestry bringing +a conviction of inherited worthiness; pride in hardly-acquired devotion +giving birth to a sense of personal frailty. <i>That</i> is the Brahman whom +we lump into a third-class railway carriage with the ruck of humanity, +and then wonder--hush! he is going to begin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Thou art Light! Thou art Immortal Life!' The voice, with a tremor of +emotion in it, pierced the stillness for a second before it was +shattered by a hoarse, strident cry--'Silence!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Taylor leaned forward, suddenly interested. 'You're in luck,' he +whispered, 'I believe there is going to be a row of some sort.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Once more the cry rose harsher than before: 'Silence, Sukya! Thou art +impure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"A stir in the crowd, and a visible straightening of the old man's back +were the only results.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Thou art the Holiest Sacrifice! We adore Thee, adorable Sun!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Silence!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"This time the interruption took shape in a <i>jogi</i>, who, forcing his +way through the dense ranks, emerged on the platform to stand pointing +with denunciatory finger at the old Brahman. Naked, save for the cable +of grass round his loins and the smearing of white ashes, with hair +lime-bleached and plaited with hemp into a sort of <i>chignon</i>, no more +ghastly figure could be conceived. The crowd, however, hailed him with +evident respect, while a murmur of 'Gopi! 'tis Gopi the <i>bikshu</i> +(religious beggar)' passed from mouth to mouth. This reception seemed +to rouse the old man's wrath, for after one scornful glance at the +new-comer he was about to continue his invocation to the sun, when the +<i>jogi</i>, striding forward, flourished his mendicant's staff so close to +the other's face that he perforce fell back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Before the crowd had grasped the deadly earnest of the scene, a lad of +about sixteen, clad in the black antelope skin which marks a religious +disciple, had leaped, quivering with rage, between the old man and his +assailant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'By George,' muttered Taylor, 'what a splendid young fellow!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was indeed. Extraordinarily fair, even for the fairest race in +India, he might have served as model for a young Perseus as he stood +there, the antelope skin falling from his right shoulder, leaving the +sacred cord of the Brahman visible on his left, while his smooth, round +limbs showed in all their naked, vigorous young beauty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Stand off, Amra! who bade thee interfere?' cried the old man sternly. +The bond between them was manifest by the alacrity with which the boy +obeyed the command; 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 the expected almsgiving, hurried +forward. Luckily the crowd kept the silence which characterises +gregarious humanity in the East, so we could follow what was said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Wilt remove yonder drunken fanatic, or shall the worship of the +Shining Ones be profaned?' asked the old Brahman savagely; and at a +sign from their chief the attendants stepped forward.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the <i>jogi</i> facing the crowd, appealed direct to that fear of +defilement which haunts the Hindu's heart. 'Impure! Impure! Touch him +not! Hear him not! Look not on him!' The vast concourse swayed and +stirred, as with a confident air the <i>jogi</i> turned to the chief priest. +'These twelve years agone, O! <i>mohunt-ji</i>'<a name="div4Ref_01" href="#div4_01"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +thou knowest Gopi--Gopi +the <i>bikshu!</i> since for twelve years I have been led hither by the +Spirit, seeking speech, and finding silence! But now speech is given by +the same Spirit. That man, Sukya, anchorite of Setanagar, is unclean, +false to his race, to his vows, to the Shining Ones! I, Gopi the +<i>bikshu</i>, will prove it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Once again a murmur rose like the wind presaging a storm, and as the +crowd surged closer to the temple, a young girl in the saffron drapery +of a pilgrim took advantage of the movement 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, whispered something in her ear. She smiled up at him; +and so they stood, hand in hand, eager but confident, as the Brahman's +voice, clear with certainty, dominated the confusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Ay! Prove it! Prove that I, Sukya, taught of the great Swami, +twice-born Brahman, faithful disciple, blameless householder and pious +anchorite in due turn, as the faith demands, have failed once in the +law without repentance and atonement! Lo! I swear by the Shining Ones +that I stand before ye to-day, body and soul, holy to the uttermost.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'God gie us a gude conceit o' oursels,' muttered Taylor.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The remark jarred on me painfully, for the spiritual exaltation in the +man's face had nothing personal in it; nothing more selfish than the +rapt confidence which glorified the young disciple's whole bearing, as +he gazed on his master with the sort of blind adoration one sees in the +eyes of a dog.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Think! I am Sukya!' went on the high-pitched voice. 'Would Sukya come +between his brethren and the Shining Ones? I, chosen for the oblation +by reason of virtue and learning; I, Sukya, journeying to holy +Amar-nâth not for my own sake,--for I fear no judgment,--but for the +sake of the disciple, yonder boy Amra, betrothed to the daughter of my +daughter, and vowed to the pilgrimage from birth.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"A yell of crackling laughter came from the <i>jogi</i> as he leapt to the +bastion of the bathing-place, and so, raised within sight of all, +struck an attitude of indignant appeal. 'When was an outcast vowed to +pilgrimage? And by my <i>jogi's</i> vow I swear the boy Amra, disciple of +Sukya, to be an outcast. A Sudra of Sudras! seeing that his mother, +being twice-born, defiled her race with scum from beyond the seas.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'By George!' muttered Taylor again, 'this is getting lively--for the +scum.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Perhaps the Presence is becoming tired of this vulgar scene,' +suggested an obsequious <i>chuprassi</i>, who had been devoted to our +service by order of the Cashmere officials; but the Presences were +deeply 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 +<i>jogi</i>, was turned now on the boy, who stood absolutely alone; the +girl, moved by the unreasoning habit of race, having dropped his hand +at the first word and crept to her grandfather's side. I can see that +young face still, awful in its terror, piteous in its entreaty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Thou liest, Gopi!' cried the Brahman, gasping with passion; and at +the words a gleam of hope crept to those hunted eyes. 'Prove it, I say; +for I appeal to the Shining Ones whom I have served.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I accept the challenge,' yelled the <i>jogi</i> with frantic gestures, +while a perfect roar of assent, cries of devotion, and prayers for +guidance, rose from the crowd.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Taylor looked round at me quickly. 'You are in luck. There is going to +be a miracle. I saw that Gopi at Hurdwâr once; he is a rare hand at +them.' He must have understood my resentment at being thus recalled to +the nineteenth century, for he added half to himself, ''Tis tragedy for +all that,--to the boy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"An appeal for silence enabled us to hear that both parties had agreed +to refer the question of birth to the sacred cord, with which every +male of the three twice-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 of anything pointing to the +despised Sudra would make him <i>anathema maranatha</i>, and render his +master impure, and therefore unfit to lead the devotions of others.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot attempt to describe the scene which followed; for even now, +the confusion inseparable from finding yourself in surroundings which +require explanation before 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 wild cries, '<i>Hurri! +Gunga-ji! Dhurm! Dhurm!</i>' (Hurri!<a name="div4Ref_02" href="#div4_02"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +Ganges! the Faith! the Faith!) +Then suddenly a roar--'Gopi! a miracle! a miracle! Praise be to the +Shining Ones!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"It seemed but a moment ere the enthusiastic crowd had swept the <i>jogi</i> +from his pedestal, and, crowned with jasmin chaplets, he was being +borne high on men's shoulders to make a round of the various temples; +while the keepers of the shrine swelled the tumult judiciously by cries +of 'Oblations! offerings! The Shining Ones are present to-day!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"In my excitement at the scene itself I had forgotten its cause, and +was regretting the all too sudden ending of the spectacle, when Taylor +touched me on the arm. 'The tragedy is about to begin! Look!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Following his eyes I saw, indeed, tragedy enough to make me forget +what had gone before; yet I knew well that I did not, could not, fathom +its depth or measure its breadth. Still, in a dim way I realised that +the boy, standing as if turned to stone, had passed in those few +moments from life as 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 from hands whose touch was to +his Brahmanised soul worse than death. For him there was no future. For +the old man who, burdened by the weeping girl, stood opposite him, +there was no past. Nothing but a hell of defilement; of daily, hourly +impurity for twelve long years. The thought was damnation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Come, Premi! come!' he muttered, turning suddenly to leave the +platform. 'This is no place for us now. Quick! we must cleanse +ourselves from deadly sin--from deadly, deadly sin.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"They had reached the steps leading down to the tank when the boy, with +a sob like that of a wounded animal, flung himself in agonised entreaty +at his master's feet. 'Oh, cleanse me, even me also, oh my father!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old man shrank back instinctively; yet there was no anger, only a +merciless decision in his face. 'Ask not the impossible! Thou art not +alone impure; thou art uncleansable from birth--yea! for ever and ever. +Come, Premi, come, my child.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall never forget the cry which echoed over the water, startling +the pigeons from their evening rest amid the encircling trees. +'Uncleansable for ever and ever!' Then in wild appeal from earth to +heaven he threw his arms skyward. 'Oh, Shining Ones! say I am the same +Amra, the twice-born Amra, thy servant!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Peace! blasphemer!' interrupted the Brahman sternly. 'There are no +Shining Ones for such as thou. Go! lest they strike thee dead in +wrath.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"A momentary glimpse of a young face distraught by despair, of an old +one firm in repudiation, and the platform lay empty of the passions +which had played their parts on it as on a stage. Only from the +distance came the discordant triumph of the <i>jogi's</i> procession.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I besieged Taylor's superior knowledge by vain questions, to most of +which he shook his head. 'How can I tell?' he said somewhat fretfully. +'The cord was manipulated in some way, of course. For 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 know more, I'll send for Victor +Emanuel. Five rupees will fetch some slight fraction of truth from the +bottom of his well, and that, as a rule, is all we aliens can expect in +these incidents.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"So the old ruffian came and sat ostentatiously far from our +contaminating influences in the attitude of a bronze Buddha, his +mustaches curled to his eyebrows, his large lips wreathed in solemn +smiles. 'It was a truly divine miracle,' he said blandly. 'Gopi, the +<i>bikshu</i>, never makes mistakes, and performs neatly. Did the Presence +observe how neatly? Within the cotton marking the Brahman came the +hempen thread of the Kshatriya, inside again the woollen strand of the +Vaisya; all three twice-born. But last of all, a strip of cowskin +defiling the whole.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Why cow-skin?' I asked in my ignorance. 'I always thought you held a +cow sacred.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Victor Emanuel beamed approval. 'The little Presence is young, but +intelligent. He will doubtless learn much if he questions the right +people judiciously. He will grow wise like the big Presence, who knows +nearly as much as we know about some things--<i>but not all!</i> The cow is +sacred, so the skin telling of the misfortune of the cow is <i>anathema</i>. +Yea, 'twas a divine miracle. The money of the pious will flow to make +the holy fat; at least that is what the doctor <i>sahib</i> is thinking.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Don't set up for occult power on the strength of guessing palpable +truths,' replied Taylor; 'that sort of thing does not amuse me; but the +little <i>sahib</i> wants to know how much truth there was in Gopi's story.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Gopi knows,' retorted our friend with a grin. 'The Brahman saith the +boy was gifted to him by a pious woman after the custom of +thanksgiving. Gone five years old, wearing the sacred thread, versed in +simple lore, intelligent, well-formed, as the ritual demands. Gopi +saith the mother, his wife, 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 fulfilled her life, but not +the name of the anchorite she deceived. So Gopi, knowing from the +mother's babbling of this mongrel's blasphemous name, and the vow of +pilgrimage for the expiation of sins, hath come hither, led by the +Spirit, every year. It is a tale of great virtue and edification.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'But the boy! the wretched boy?' I asked eagerly. Taylor raised his +eyebrows and watched my reception of the <i>jog's</i> answer with a +half-pitying smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Perhaps he will die; perhaps not. What does it matter? One born of +such parents is dead to virtue from the beginning, and life without +virtue is not life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'He might try Amar-nâth and the remission of sins you believe in so +firmly,' remarked Taylor, with another look at me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Victor Emanuel spat freely. 'There is no Amar-nâth for such as he, and +the Presence knows that as well as I do. No remission at all, even if +he found the Flower of Forgiveness, as the doctor <i>sahib</i> hopes to do.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Upon my soul,' retorted Taylor impatiently, 'I believe the existence +of the one is about as credible as the other. I shall have to swallow +both if I chance upon either.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'That may be; but not for the boy Amra. He will die and be damned in +due course.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"That seemed to settle the question for others, but I was haunted by +the boy's look when he heard the words, 'Thou art uncleansable for ever +and ever.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'After all 'tis only a concentrated form of the feeling we all have at +times,' remarked Taylor drily; 'even I should like to do away with a +portion of my past. Besides, all religions claim more or less a +monopoly of repentance. They are no worse here than at home.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"We journeyed slowly to Amar-nâth, watching the pilgrims pass us by on +the road, but catching them up again each evening after long rambles +over the hills in search of rare plants. It is three days' march, by +rights, to Shisha Nag, or the Leaden Lake, where the pilgrimage begins +in real earnest by the pilgrims, men, women, and children, divesting +themselves of every stitch of raiment, and journeying stark naked +through the snow and ice 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 the cold extremely, +and was in consequence seldom sober, and extremely loquacious. I +thought I had never seen such a dreary place as Shisha Nag, though the +sun shone brilliantly on its cliffs and glaciers. I think it must have +been the irresponsiveness of the lake itself which deadened its +beauties, for the water, surcharged with gypsum, lay in pale green +stretches, refusing a single reflection of the hills which held it so +carefully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The next march was awful; and in more than one place, half hidden by +the flowers forcing their way through the snow, lay the corpses of +pilgrims who had succumbed to the cold and the exposure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Pneumonia in five out of six cases,' remarked Taylor casually. 'If it +were not for the <i>churrus</i> (concoction of hemp) they drink, the +mortality would be fearful. I wonder what Exeter Hall would say to +getting drunk for purposes of devotion?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"At Punjtârni we met the returning pilgrims; among others Victor, very +sick and sorry for himself physically, but of intolerable moral +strength. He told us, between the intervals of petitions for pills and +potions, that the remaining fourteen miles to the Cave were unusually +difficult, and had been singularly fatal that year. On hearing this, +Taylor, knowing my dislike to 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 much drunkenness or +so much devotion as I saw that evening at Punjtârni. It was hard indeed +to tell where the one began and the other ended; for excitement, +danger, and privation lent their aid to drugs, and a sense of relief to +both. The very cliffs and glaciers resounded with enthusiasm, and I saw +Sukya and Premi taking their part with the rest as if nothing had +happened.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Taylor and I started alone next morning. We were to make a long round +in search of the Flower of Forgiveness, and come back upon the Cave +towards afternoon. The path, if path it could 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. Yet not a trace did we find of the anemone. Taylor grew +fretful, and when we reached the snow slope leading to the Cave, he +declared it would be sheer waste of time for him to go up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Get rid of your sins, if you want to, by all means,' he said; 'I've +seen photographs of the place, and it's a wretched imposture 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 cliffs on your return; and +don't be long, for the going before us is difficult.' So I left him +poking into every crack and cranny.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could scarcely make up my mind if I was impressed or disappointed +with the Cave. Its extreme insignificance was, it is true, almost +ludicrous. Save for a patch of red paint and a shockingly bad attempt +at a stone image of Siva's bull, there was nothing to distinguish this +hollow in the rock from a thousand similar ones all over the Himalayas. +But this very insignificance gave mystery to the fact that hundreds of +thousands of the conscience-stricken had found consolation here. '<i>What +went ye out into the wilderness to see?</i>' 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; but ere long the usual difficulties of short cuts cropped up, and +I had eventually to limp back to the slope with a badly cut ankle, +which bled profusely despite my rough efforts at bandaging. The loss of +blood was sufficient to make me feel quite sick and faint, so that it +startled me to come suddenly on Taylor sooner than I expected. He was +half kneeling, half sitting on the snow; his coat was off, and his face +bent over something propped against his arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'It's that boy,' he said shortly, as I came up. 'I found him just +after you left, lying here--to rest, he says. It seems he has been +making his way to the Cave ever since that day, without bite or sup, by +the hills,--God knows how,--to avoid being turned back by the others. +And now he is dying, and there's an end of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'The boy--not Amra!' I cried, bending in my turn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sure enough, on Taylor's arm, with Taylor's coat over his wasted body, +lay the young disciple. His great, luminous eyes looked out of a face +whence even death could not drive the beauty, and his breath came in +laboured gasps.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Brandy! I have some here,' I suggested in hot haste, moved to the +idiotic suggestion by that horror of standing helpless which besets us +all in presence of the Destroyer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Taylor looked at the boy with a grave smile and shook his head. 'To +begin with, he wouldn't touch it; besides, he is past all that sort of +thing. No one could help him now.' He paused, shifting the weight a +little on his arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'The Presence will grow tired holding me,' gasped the young voice +feebly. 'If the <i>sahib</i> will put a stone under my head and cover me +with some snow, I will be able to crawl on by and by when I am rested. +For it is close--quite close.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very close,' muttered the doctor under his breath. Suddenly he looked +up at me, saying in a half-apologetic way, 'I was wondering if you and +I couldn't get him up there--to Amar-nâth I mean. Life has been hard on +him; he deserves an easy death.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Of course we can,' I cried in a rush of content at the suggestion, as +I hobbled round to get to the other side, and so help the lad to his +legs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Hollo,' asked Taylor, with a quick professional glance, 'what have +you done to your ankle? Sit down and let me overhaul it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"In vain I made light of it, in vain I appealed to him. He peremptorily +forbade my stirring for another hour, asserting that I had injured a +small artery, and without caution might find difficulty in reaching the +tents, as it would be impossible for him to help me much on the sort of +ground over which we had to travel.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'But the boy, Taylor!--the boy!' I pleaded. 'It would be awful to +leave him here.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Who said he was to be left?' retorted the doctor crossly. 'I'm going +to carry him up as soon as I've finished bandaging your leg. Don't be +in such a blessed hurry.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Carry him! You can't do it up that slope, strong as you are, +Taylor--I know you can't.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Can't?' he echoed, as he stood up from his labours. 'Look at him and +say can't again--if you can.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"I looked and saw that the boy, but half conscious, yet restored to the +memory of his object by the touch of the snow on which Taylor had laid +him while engaged in bandaging my foot, had raised himself painfully on +his hands and knees, and was struggling upwards, blindly, doggedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Damn it all,' continued the doctor fiercely, 'isn't that sight enough +to haunt a man if he doesn't try? Besides, I may find that precious +flower,--who knows?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"As he spoke he stooped with the gentleness, not so much of sympathy, +as of long practice in suffering, over the figure which, exhausted by +its brief effort, already lay prostrate on the snow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What is--the Presence--going--to do?' moaned Amra doubtfully, as he +felt the strong arms close round him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You and I are going to find the remission of sins together at +Amar-nâth,' replied the Presence with a bitter laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The boy's head fell back on the doctor's shoulder as if accustomed to +the resting-place. 'Amar-nâth!' he murmured. 'Yes! I am Amar-nâth.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I sat there helpless, and watched them up the slope. Every slip, +every stumble, seemed as if it were my own. I clenched my hands and 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 to +think. It was the longest hour I ever spent before Taylor's voice +holloing from the cliff above roused me to the certainty of success.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'And the boy?' I asked eagerly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Dead by this time, I expect,' replied the doctor shortly. 'Come +on,--there's a good fellow,--we haven't a moment to lose. I must look +again for the flower to-morrow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But letters awaiting our return to camp recalled him to duty on +account of cholera in the regiment; so there was an end of anemone +hunting. The 101st suffered terribly, and Taylor was in consequence +hotter than ever over experiments. The result you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, poor fellow! but the anemone? I don't understand how it came +here."</p> + +<p class="normal">My friend paused. "That is the odd thing. I was looking after the +funeral and all that, for Taylor and I were great friends--he left me +that herbarium in memory of our time in Cashmere. Well, when 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 said, by a young +Brahman, who assured him that it contained something which the great +doctor <i>sahib</i> had been very anxious to possess, and which was now sent +by some one to whom he had been very kind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You told him the <i>sahib</i> was dead, I suppose?' I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'This slave informed him that the master had gained freedom, but he +replied it was no matter, as all his task was this.' On opening the +basket I found a gourd such as the disciples carry round for alms, and +in it, planted among gypsum debris, was that anemone; or rather that is +a part of it, for I put some in Taylor's coffin."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! I presume the <i>gosain</i>--Victor Emanuel, I think you called +him--sent the plant; he knew of the doctor's desire?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps. The bearer said the Brahman was a very handsome boy, very +fair, dressed in the usual black antelope skin of the disciple. It is a +queer story anyhow--is it not?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">HARVEST.</a></h2> +<br> +<p class="hang1" style="font-size:90%">[Respectfully dedicated to our law-makers in India, who, by giving to +the soldier-peasants of the Punjab the novel right of alienating their +ancestral holdings, are fast throwing the land, and with it the balance +of power, into the hands of money-grubbers; thus reducing those who +stood by us in our time of trouble to the position of serfs.]</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ai!</i> Daughter of thy grandmother," muttered old Jaimul gently, as one +of his yoke wavered, making the handle waver also. The offender was a +barren buffalo doomed temporarily to the plough, in the hopes of +inducing her to look more favourably on the first duty of the female +sex, so she started beneath the unaccustomed goad.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ari!</i> sister, fret not," muttered Jaimul again, turning from obscure +abuse to palpable flattery, as being more likely to gain his object; +and once more the tilted soil glided between his feet, traced straight +by his steady hand. In that vast expanse of bare brown field left by or +waiting for the plough, each new furrow seemed a fresh diameter of the +earth-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 +sometime if the blue was kind. That was all Jaimul knew or cared. The +empire beyond, hanging on the hope of harvest, lay far from his simple +imaginings; and yet he, the old peasant with his steady hand of patient +control, held the reins of government over how many million square +miles? That is the province of the Blue Book, and Jaimul's blue book +was the sky.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Bitter blue sky with no fleck of a cloud,</p> +<p class="t2">Ho! brother ox! make the plough speed.</p> +<p class="t0">[<i>Ai! soorin!</i> straight, I say!]</p> +<p class="t0">'Tis the usurers' bellies wax fat and proud</p> +<p class="t2">When poor folk are in need."</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">The rude guttural chant following these silent, earth-deadened +footsteps was the only sound breaking the stillness of the wide plain.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Sky dappled grey like a partridge's breast,</p> +<p class="t2">Ho! brother ox! drive the plough deep.</p> +<p class="t0">[Steady, my sister, steady!]</p> +<p class="t0">The peasants work, but the usurers rest</p> +<p class="t2">Till harvest's ripe to reap."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">So on and on interminably, the chant and the furrow, the furrow and the +chant, both bringing the same refrain of flattery and abuse, the same +antithesis--the peasant and the usurer face to face in conflict, and +above them both the fateful sky, changeless or changeful as it chooses.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun climbed up and up till the blue hardened into brass, and the +mere thought of rain seemed lost in the blaze of light. Yet Jaimul, as +he finally unhitched his plough, chanted away in serene confidence--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Merry drops slanting from west to east,</p> +<p class="t2">Ho! brother ox! drive home the wain;</p> +<p class="t0">'Tis the usurer's belly that gets the least</p> +<p class="t2">When Râm sends poor folk rain."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">The home whither he drove the lagging yoke was but a whitish-brown +mound on the bare earth-circle, not far removed from an ant-hill to +alien eyes; for all that, home to the uttermost. Civilisation, +education, culture could produce none better. A home bright with the +welcome of women, the laughter of children. Old Kishnu, mother of them +all, wielding a relentless despotism tempered by profound affection +over every one save her aged husband. Pertâbi, 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. Târadevi, whose soldier-husband was away guarding some +scientific or unscientific frontier, while she reared up, in the +ancestral home, a tribe of sturdy youngsters to follow in his +footsteps. Fighting and ploughing, ploughing and fighting; here was +life epitomised for these long-limbed, grave-eyed peasants whose +tongues never faltered over the shibboleth which showed their claim to +courage.<a name="div4Ref_03" href="#div4_03"><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">The home itself lay bare for the most part to the blue sky; only a few +shallow outhouses, half room, half verandah, giving shelter from +noon-day heat or winter frosts. The rest was courtyard, serving amply +for all the needs of the household. In one corner a pile of golden +chaff, ready for the milch kine which came in to be fed from the mud +mangers ranged against the wall; in another a heap of fuel, and the +tall, beehive-like mud receptacles for grain. On every side stores of +something brought into existence 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. +Târadevi 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. Pertâbi, down by the grain-bunkers, rakes more wheat from the +funnel-like opening into her flat basket, and as she rises flings a +handful to the pigeons sidling on the wall. A fluttering of white +wings, a glint of sunlight on opaline necks, while the children cease +playing to watch their favourites tumble and strut over the feast. Even +old Kishnu looks up from her preparation of curds without a word of +warning against waste; for to be short of grain is beyond her +experience. Wherefore was the usurer brought into the world save to +supply grain in advance when the blue sky sided with capital against +labour for a dry year or two?</p> + +<p class="normal">"The land is ready," said old Jaimul over his pipe. "'Tis time for the +seed, therefore I will seek Anunt Râm at sunset and set my seal to the +paper."</p> + +<p class="normal">That was how the transaction presented itself to his accustomed eyes. +Seed grain in exchange for yet another seal to be set in the long row +which he and his forbears had planted regularly, year by year, 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 any time if the blue sky +was kind. He knew nothing of Statutes of Limitation or judgments of the +Chief Court, and his inherited wisdom drew a broad line of demarcation +between paper and plain facts.</p> + +<p class="normal">Anunt Râm, the usurer, however, was of another school. A comparatively +young man, he had brought into his father's ancestral business the +modern selfishness which laughs to scorn all considerations save that +for Number One. He and his forbears had made much out of Jaimul and his +fellows; but was that any reason against making more, if more was to be +made?</p> + +<p class="normal">And more <i>was</i> indubitably to be made if Jaimul and his kind were +reduced to the level of labourers. That handful of grain, for instance, +thrown so recklessly to the pigeons--that might be the usurer's, and so +might the plenty which went to build up the long, strong limbs of +Târadevi's tribe of young soldiers--idle young scamps who thrashed the +usurer's boys as diligently during play-time as they were beaten by +those clever, weedy lads during school-hours.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Seed grain," he echoed sulkily to the old peasant's calm demand. "Sure +last harvest I left thee more wheat than most men in my place would +have done; for the account grows, O Jaimul! and the land is mortgaged +to the uttermost."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mayhap! but it must be sown for all that, else <i>thou</i> wilt suffer as +much as I. So quit idle words, and give the seed as thou hast since +time began. What do I know of accounts who can neither read nor write? +'Tis thy business, not mine."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis not my business to give ought for nought--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For nought," broke in Jaimul, with the hoarse chuckle of the peasant +availing himself of a time-worn joke. "Thou canst add that nought to +thy figures, O <i>bunniah-ji!</i><a name="div4Ref_04" href="#div4_04"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +So bring the paper and have done with +words. If Râm sends rain--and the omens are auspicious--thou canst take +all but food and jewels for the women."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Report saith thy house is rich enough in them already," suggested the +usurer after a pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jaimul's big white eyebrows met over his broad nose. "What then, +<i>bunniah-ji?</i>" he asked haughtily.</p> + +<p class="normal">Anunt Râm made haste to change the subject, whereat Jaimul, smiling +softly, told the usurer that maybe more jewels would be needed with +next seed grain, since if the auguries were once more propitious, the +women purposed bringing home his grandson's bride ere another year had +sped. The usurer smiled an evil smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Set thy seal to this also," he said, when the seed grain had been +measured; "the rules demand it. A plague, say I, on all these +new-fangled papers the <i>sahib-logue</i> ask of us. Look you! how I have to +pay for the stamps and fees; and then you old ones say we new ones are +extortionate. We must live, O <i>zemindar-ji!</i><a name="div4Ref_05" href="#div4_05"><sup>[5]</sup></a> +even as thou livest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Live!" retorted the old man with another chuckle. "Wherefore not! The +land is good enough for you and for me. There is no fault in the land!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay! it is good enough for me and for you," echoed the usurer slowly. +He inverted the pronouns--that was all.</p> + +<p class="normal">So Jaimul, as he had done ever since he could remember, walked over the +bare plain with noiseless feet, and watched the sun flash on the golden +grain as it flew from his thin brown fingers. And once again the +guttural chant kept time to his silent steps.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Wheat grains grow to wheat,</p> +<p class="t2">And the seed of a tare to tare;</p> +<p class="t0">Who knows if man's soul will meet</p> +<p class="t2">Man's body to wear.</p> +<br> +<p class="t0">Great Râm, grant me life</p> +<p class="t2">From the grain of a golden deed;</p> +<p class="t0">Sink not my soul in the strife</p> +<p class="t2">To wake as a weed."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">After that his work in the fields was over. Only at sunrise and sunset +his tall, gaunt figure stood out against the circling sky as he +wandered through the sprouting wheat waiting for the rain which never +came. Not for the first time in his long life of waiting, so he took +the want calmly, soberly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a bad year," he said, "the next will be better. For the sake of +the boy's marriage I would it had been otherwise; but Anunt Râm must +advance the money. It is his business."</p> + +<p class="normal">Whereat Jodha, the youngest son, better versed than his father +in new ways, shook his head doubtfully. "Have a care of Anunt, O +<i>baba-ji</i>,"<a name="div4Ref_06" href="#div4_06"><sup>[6]</sup></a> he +suggested with diffidence. "Folk say he is sharper +than ever his father was."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis a trick sons have, or think they have, nowadays," retorted old +Jaimul wrathfully. "Anunt can wait for payment as his fathers waited. +God knows the interest is enough to stand a dry season or two."</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth fifty per cent, and payment in kind at the lowest harvest +rates, with a free hand in regard to the cooking of accounts, should +have satisfied even a usurer's soul. But Anunt Râm 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 of dibbled-in seals dotting the +unending scroll of accounts began to sprout and bear fruit. Drought +gave them life, while it brought death to many a better seed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not give the money for the boy's wedding!" shrilled old Kishnu six +months after in high displeasure. "Is the man mad? When the fields are +the best in all the country side."</p> + +<p class="normal">"True enough, O wife! but he says the value under these new rules the +<i>sahib-logue</i> make is gone already. That he must wait another harvest, +or have a new seal of me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that all, O Jaimul Singh! and thou causing my liver to melt with +fear? A seal--what is a seal or two more against the son of thy son's +marriage?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis a new seal," muttered Jaimul uneasily, "and I like not new +things. Perhaps 'twere better to wait the harvest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait the harvest and lose the auspicious time the <i>purohit</i><a name="div4Ref_07" href="#div4_07"><sup>[7]</sup></a> +hath +found written in the stars? <i>Ai</i>, Târadevi! <i>Ai!</i> Pertâbi! there is to +be no marriage, hark you! The boy's strength is to go for nought, and +the bride is to languish alone because the father of his father is +afraid of a usurer! <i>Hač, Hač!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">The women wept the easy tears of their race, mingled with half-real, +half-pretended fears lest the Great Ones might resent such disregard of +their good omens--the old man sitting silent meanwhile, for there is no +tyranny like the tyranny of those we love. Despite all this his native +shrewdness 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 <i>purohit</i> was always finding in the skies. Trust a good fee +for that! So he hardened his heart, went back to Anunt Râm, and told +him that he had decided on postponing the marriage. The usurer's face +fell. To be so near the seal which would make it possible for him to +foreclose the mortgages, and yet to fail! He had counted on this +marriage for years; the blue sky itself had fought for him so far, and +now--what if the coming harvest were a bumper?</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I will seal for the seed grain," said old Jaimul; "I have done +that before, and I will do it again--we know that bargain of old."</p> + +<p class="normal">Anunt Râm closed his pen-tray with a snap. "There is no seed grain for +you, <i>baba-ji</i>, this year either," he replied calmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ten days afterwards, Kishnu, Pertâbi, and Târadevi were bustling about +the courtyard with the untiring energy which fills the Indian woman +over the mere thought of a wedding, and Jaimul, out in the fields, was +chanting as he scattered the grain into the furrows--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Wrinkles and seams and sears</p> +<p class="t0">On the face of our mother earth;<br> +There are ever sorrows and tears<br> +At the gates of birth."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">The mere thought of the land lying fallow had been too much for him; so +safe in the usurer's strong-box lay a deed with the old man's seal +sitting cheek by jowl beside Anunt Râm'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 wandered +oftener than ever over the brown expanse of field where a flush of +green showed that Mother Earth had done her part, and was waiting for +Heaven to take up the task.</p> + +<p class="normal">The wedding fire-balloons rose from the courtyard, and drifted away to +form constellations in the cloudless sky; the sound of wedding drums +and pipes disturbed the stillness of the starlit nights, and still day +by day the green shoots grew lighter and lighter in colour because the +rain came not. Then suddenly, like a man's hand, a little 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 solid purple and the +solid brown, what joy to pick a dry-shod way along the boundary ridges +and see the promise of harvest doubled by the reflection of each tender +green spikelet in the flooded fields! The night settled down dark, +heavenly dark, with a fine spray of steady rain in the old, +weather-beaten face, as it set itself towards home.</p> + +<p class="normal">The blue sky was on the side of labour this time, and, during the next +month or so, Târadevi's young soldiers made mud pies, and crowed more +lustily than ever over the <i>bunniah's</i> boys.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the silvery beard began to show in the wheat, and old Jaimul +laughed aloud in the fulness of his heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is an end of the new seal," he said boastfully, as he smoked his +pipe in the village square. "It is a poor man's harvest, and no +mistake."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Anunt Râm was silent. The April sun had given some of its sunshine +to the yellowing crops before he spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can wait no longer for my money, O <i>baba-ji!</i>" he said; "the three +years are nigh over, and I must defend myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What three years?" asked Jaimul, in perplexity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The three years during which I can claim my own according to the +<i>sahib-logue's</i> rule. You must pay, or I must sue."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pay before harvest! What are these fool's words? Of course I will pay +in due time; hath not great Râm sent me rain to wash out the old +writing?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But what of the new one, <i>baba-ji?</i>--the cash lent on permission to +foreclose the mortgages?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the harvest failed--if it failed," protested Jaimul quickly. "And I +knew it could not fail. The stars said so, and great Râm would not have +it so."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is old-world talk!" sneered Anunt. "We do not put that sort of +thing in the bond. You sealed it, and I must sue."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What good to sue ere harvest? What money have I? But I will pay good +grain when it comes, and the paper can grow as before."</p> + +<p class="normal">Anunt Râm sniggered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What good, O <i>baba-ji?</i> Why, the land will be mine, and I can take, +not what you give me, but what I choose. For the labourer his hire, and +the rest for me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thou art mad!" cried Jaimul, but he went back to his fields with a +great fear at his heart--a fear which sent him again to the usurer's +ere many days were over.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here are my house's jewels," he said briefly, "and the mare thou hast +coveted these two years. Take them, and write off my debt till +harvest."</p> + +<p class="normal">Anunt Râm smiled again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It shall be part payment of the acknowledged claim," he said; "let the +Courts decide on the rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"After the harvest?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, after the harvest; in consideration of the jewels."</p> + +<p class="normal">Anunt Râm kept his word, and the fields were shorn of their crop ere +the summons to attend the District Court was brought to the old +peasant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By the Great Spirit who judges all it is a lie!" That was all he could +say as the long, carefully-woven tissue of fraud and cunning blinded +even the eyes of a justice 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 need to detail the +strands which formed the net. The long array of seals had borne fruit +at last, fiftyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold--a goodly harvest for the +usurer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look not so glum, friend," smiled Anunt Râm, as they pushed old Jaimul +from the Court at last, dazed, but still vehemently protesting. "Thou +and Jodha thy son shall till the land as ever, seeing thou art skilled +in such work, but there shall be no idlers; and the land, mark you, is +<i>mine</i>, not thine."</p> + +<p class="normal">A sudden gleam of furious hate sprang to the strong old face, but died +away as quickly as it came.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thou liest," said Jaimul; "I will appeal. The land is mine. It hath +been mine and my fathers' under the king's pleasure since time began. +Kings, ay, and queens, for that matter, are not fools, to give good +land to the <i>bunniah's</i> belly. Can a <i>bunniah</i> plough?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet as he sat all day about the court-house steps awaiting some legal +detail or other, doubt even of his own incredulity came over him. He +had often heard of similar misfortunes to his fellows, but somehow the +possibility of such evil appearing in his own life had never entered +his brain. And what would Kishnu say--after all these years, these long +years of content?</p> + +<p class="normal">The moon gathering light as the sun set shone full on the road, as the +old man, with downcast head, made his way across the level plain to the +mud hovel which had been a true home to him and his for 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 scarce discernible hamlets +here and there. Not a soul in sight, but every now and again a glimmer +of light showing where some one was watching the heaps of new threshed +grain upon the threshing-floors.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then a straighter thread of path leading right upon his own fields +and the village beyond. What was that? A man riding before him. The +blood leapt through the old veins, and the old 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 with long, swinging stride on the figure +ahead. A white figure on a white horse like death; or was the avenger +behind beneath the lank folds of drapery which fluttered round the +walker?</p> + +<p class="normal">The land! No! He should never have the land. How could he? The very +idea was absurd. Jaimul, thinking thus, held his head erect and his +hands relaxed their grip. He was close on the rider now; and just +before him, clear in the moonlight, rose the boundary mark of his +fields--a loose pile of sunbaked clods, hardened 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, a silent white group in the moonlight; then the figure +on the horse slipped to the ground and moved a step forward. Only one +step, but that was within the boundary. Then, above the even wheeze of +the thirsty beast, rose a low chuckle as the usurer stooped for a +handful of soil and let it glide through his fingers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is good ground! Ay, ay--none better." They were his last words. In +fierce passion of love, hate, jealousy, and protection, old Jaimul +closed on his enemy, and found something to grip with his steady old +hands. Not the plough-handle this time, but a throat, a warm, living +throat where you could feel the blood swelling in the veins beneath +your fingers. Down almost without a struggle, the old face above the +young one, the lank knee upon the broad body. And now, quick! for +something to slay withal, ere age tired 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 +fields. They were at least free from that <i>thing</i> at his feet; for what +part in this world's harvest could belong to the ghastly figure with +its face beaten to a jelly, which lay staring up into the over-arching +sky? So far, at any rate, the business was settled for ever, and in so +short a time that the mare had scarcely slaked her thirst, and still +stood with head down, the water dripping from her muzzle. The <i>thing</i> +would never ride her again either. Half-involuntarily he stepped to her +side and loosened the girth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ari!</i> sister," he said aloud, "thou hast had enough. Go home."</p> + +<p class="normal">The docile beast obeyed his well-known voice, and as her echoing amble +died away Jaimul looked at his blood-stained hands and then at the +formless face at his feet. There was no home for him, and yet he was +not sorry, or ashamed, or frightened--only dazed at the hurry of his +own act. Such things had to be done sometimes when folk were unjust. +They would hang him for it, of course, 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 +indeed! Some one lay asleep upon the biggest pile; and his stern old +face relaxed into a smile as, stooping over the careless sentinel, he +found it was his grandson. The boy would watch better as he grew older, +thought Jaimul, as he drew his cotton plaid gently over the smooth +round limbs outlined among the yielding grain, lest the envious moon +might covet their promise of beauty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Son of my son! Son of my son!" he murmured over and over again, as he +sat down to watch out the night beside his corn for the last time. Yes, +for the last time. At dawn the deed would be discovered; 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 blood upon his hands. He +looked at them with a curious smile before he lay back among the corn. +Many a night he had watched the slow stars wheeling to meet the morn, +but never by a fairer harvest than this.</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy at his side stirred in his sleep. "Son of my son! Son of my +son!" came the low murmur again. Ay! and his son after him again, if +the woman said true. It had always been so. Father and son, father and +son, father--and son--for ever--and ever--and ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, lulled by the familiar thought, the old man fell asleep beside the +boy, and the whole bare expanse of earth and sky seemed empty save for +them. No! there was something else surely. Down on the hard white +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 bearing +steadily towards the sleepers; past the boy, making him shift uneasily +as the cold coil touched his arms; swifter now as it drew nearer the +scent, till it found what it sought upon the old man's hands.<a name="div4Ref_08" href="#div4_08"><sup>[8]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ari</i>, sister! straight, I say, straight!" murmured the old ploughman +in his sleep, as his grip strengthened over something that wavered in +his steady clasp. Was that the prick of the goad? Sure if it bit so +deep upon the sister's hide no wonder she started. He must keep his +grip for men's throats when sleep was over--when this great sleep was +over.</p> + +<p class="normal">The slow stars wheeled, and when the morn brought Justice, it found old +Jaimul dead among his corn and left him there. But the women washed the +stains of blood and sweat mingled with soil and seed grains from his +hands before the wreath of smoke from his funeral pyre rose up to make +a white cloud no bigger than a man's hand upon the bitter blue sky--a +cloud that brought gladness to no heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">The usurer's boys, it is true, forced the utmost from the land, and +sent all save bare sustenance across the seas; but the home guided by +Jaimul's unswerving hand was gone, the Târadevi's tribe of budding +soldiers drifted away to learn the lawlessness born of change. Perhaps +the yellow English gold which came into the country in return for the +red Indian wheat more than paid for these trivial losses. Perhaps it +did not. That is a question which the next Mutiny must settle.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">FOR THE FAITH.</a></h2> +<br> +<br> +<h3>I.</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">An old man dreaming of a past day and night as he sat waiting, and +these were his dreams.</p> +<br> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Darkness, save for the light of the stars in the sky and the flare of +blazing roof-trees on earth. Two shadowy figures out in the open, and +through the parched silence of the May night a man's voice feeble, yet +strenuous in appeal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dhurm Singh?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">The kneeling figure bent closer over the other, waiting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>mem sahiba</i>, Dhurm Singh."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor--dhurm nâl</i>."<a name="div4Ref_09" href="#div4_09"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">Then silence, broken only by the long howl of jackals gathering before +their time round that scene of mutiny and murder.</p> +<br> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Darkness once more. The darkness of daylight shut out by prisoning +walls. The sweltering heat of July oozing through the shot-cracked +walls; the horrors of starvation, and siege, and sickness round two dim +figures. And once again a strenuous voice--this time a woman's.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dhurm Singh!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">The answer came as before--broad, soft, guttural, in the accent of the +north--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sonny <i>baba</i>, Dhurm Singh!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor--dhurm nâl</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then silence, broken only by the <i>whist-ch-t</i> of a wandering bullet +against the wall of the crumbling fort, where one more victim had found +peace.</p> +<br> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Both the May night and the July day were in old Dhurm Singh's thoughts +as he sat on his heels looking out from the Apollo Bunder at Bombay +across the Black Water, waiting, after long years, for Sonny <i>baba's</i> +ship to loom over the level horizon. A stranger figure among the +slight, smooth 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 like a white streak between the open brown forehead and +the open brown eyes. A faded red tunic, empty of the left arm, a +solitary medal on the breast, and above the unseen coils of white +hair--long as a woman's--the high wound turban bearing the sacred steel +quoit of the Sikh devotee.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was Dhurm Singh, <i>Akâli</i>; in other words, Lion of the Faith and +member of the Church Militant. Pensioner to boot for an anna or so a +day to a Government which he had also served <i>dhurm nâl</i> as he had +served his dead captain, his dead mistress, and, last of all, Sonny +<i>baba!</i></p> + +<p class="normal">Twenty years ago. Yes! twenty years since he had answered those +strenuous appeals by his favourite word-play on his own name. He had +used it for many another promise during those long years; as a rule, +truthfully. For Dhurm Singh, as a rule, did things <i>dhurm nâl</i>--partly +because a slow, invincible tenacity of purpose made all chopping and +changing distasteful, 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 +<i>baba</i> 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 <i>baba</i> to come sailing over the edge +of his world again, the broad simple face expanded into smiles at the +memory. He passed by all the stress and strains of that unforgotten +flight in favour of a little yellow head nestling back in alarm against +the bloodstains on the old tunic, when the white <i>mems</i> in the big +cantonment of refuge had held out their arms to the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sonny <i>baba</i> had known his friends in those days; ay! and he had +remembered them all these years: he and the <i>mem's</i> sister, who had +taken charge of the boy in the foreign land across the Black Waters +whence the masters came--a gracious Miss who wrote regularly once a +year to ex-<i>duffadar</i> Dhurm Singh, giving him the last news of Sonny +<i>baba</i> and as regularly urging her correspondent to safeguard himself +against certain damnation by becoming an infidel. For this, briefly, +crudely, was the recipient's view of the matter as he sat staring at +the little picture texts and tracts in the Punjâbi character which +invariably accompanied the letters. They puzzled him, those picture +cards in the sacred characters which were printed so beautifully in the +far off land by people who knew nothing of him or his people, and who +yet wrote better than any <i>mohunt</i>.<a name="div4Ref_10" href="#div4_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> +Puzzled him in more ways than +one, since duty and desire divided as to the method of their disposal. +Respect for the <i>captân-sahib</i>, 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 old swash-buckler it was infinitely more amusing, even in these +degenerate days when <i>Akâli-dom</i> had lost half its power, to go +swaggering about from fair to festival, from festival to fair, +representing the Church Militant, than to lounge about the village +watching the agricultural members of the family cultivate the ancestral +lands. They did it admirably without his help, as they had done it +always; so Dhurm Singh, at a loose end now legitimate strife was over, +took to cultivating his hair with baths of buttermilk instead, adopted +the quoit and the bracelets, and used the most pious of Sikh oaths as +he watched the wrestlers wrestle, or played singlestick for the honour +of God and the old regiment. And there were other advantages in the +profession. A man might take a more than reasonable amount of opium +occasionally without laying himself open to a heavier accusation than +that of religious enthusiasm; since opium is part of the <i>Akâli's</i> +stock in trade.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he sat among the tarred ropes with his back against a consignment of +beer and rum for the British soldier, he broke off quite a large corner +of the big black lump he kept in the same pocket with the tracts, and +swallowed it whole. Sonny <i>baba's</i> ship was not due, they told him, for +some hours to come, so there would be time for quiet dreams both of +past and future. The latter somewhat confused, since the Miss-<i>sahib's</i> +letters had not always been adequately translated by the village +schoolmaster. Only this was sure: Sonny <i>baba</i> 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 <i>captân</i> already, which was big promotion for +his few years. So Dhurm Singh--who to say sooth, was becoming somewhat +tired of the Church Militant now that younger men began to beat him at +singlestick--had returned to the old allegiance and made his way down +country, like many another old servant, to meet his master's son and +take service with him. You see them often, these old, anxious-looking +retainers, waiting on the Apollo Bunder, or coming aboard in the steam +launches with wistful, expectant faces.</p> + +<p class="normal">And some beardless youth, fresh from Eton or Harrow, says with a laugh, +"By George! are you old Munnoo or Bunnoo? Here! look after my traps, +will you?" And the traps are duly looked after, while the Philosophical +Radical on the rampage is taking the opportunity 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 both rulers and ruled may be glad to get rid of +him on the approach of the hot weather. Mosquitoes are troublesome, and +cholera is disconcerting, but they are bearable beside the man who +invariably knows the answers to his own questions before he asks them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dhurm Singh's dreams, however, if confused, were pleasant; full of +strong meats and drinks, and men in buckram. He could not, of course, +serve the Sirkâr again with the chance of <i>batta</i> and <i>loot</i>, but he +could serve the <i>chota sahib</i> and wear a badge. After all, a +badge-wearer had his opportunities of hectoring. 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 <i>Gurus</i>. 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 +horses clattered up and down, the Royal Yacht Club pennant flew out +against the blue sky, a match was being played on the links hard by, +and the very coolies, as they hauled and heaved, used a polyglot of +sailors' slang. Only the palm-trees on the point over the bay gave an +Oriental touch to the scene.</p> +<br> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Dhurm Singh! my dear, dear old friend! Look, comrades, this is the man +who carried me to safety in his arms even as the Good Shepherd carries +His lambs."</p> + +<p class="normal">The speech had that unreal sound which is the curse of the +premeditated, except in the mouth of a born actor, which Sonny <i>baba</i> +was not. And yet the young curves of the lips quivered. Perhaps the +commonplace exclamation of the British boy mentioned before would have +come more naturally to them, but Staff-captain Sonny <i>baba</i> of the +Salvation Army was on parade, and bound to keep up his character. +Nevertheless there was no lack of warmth in the grip he got of the old +man's reluctant hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor</i>," faltered Dhurm Singh, taken aback at this condescension, +and letting the sword he was about to present fall back on its belt +with a clatter. The fact being that the said sword had been an occasion +of much mental distress; as an actual ex-<i>duffadar</i> it was irregular, +but as a possible bodyguard it was strictly <i>de rigueur</i>. 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 strange; and what did that squad of <i>mem sahibs</i> mean? Their +dress did not seem so strange to the old <i>Akâli</i>, since in those palmy +days before the Mutiny the fashions were not so far removed from the +costume of a Salvation lass; but the tambourines!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come and speak to the General," said Sonny <i>baba</i> somewhat hurriedly. +He spoke in English; but just as the formula, "Look after my traps" is +"understanded of the common people" at once, so the word "General" +brought a relieved comprehension to the old Sikh's face. There were +blessed frogs on this one's coat also, which, like the word +Mesopotamia, were charged with consolation.</p> + +<p class="normal">The General looked at him with that curious philanthropic smile which, +while it welcomes the object, has a kind of circumambient beam of +mutual congratulation for all spectators of the benevolence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have seen service, my good old friend," he exclaimed in fluent +Urdu, as he pointed with a declamatory wave of his hand to the solitary +medal, "but it was poor service to what we offer you now. Come to us, +be our first-fruit, and help to carry the colours of the Great Army in +the van of the fight."</p> + +<p class="normal">A speech meant palpably for the gallery.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dhurm Singh, however, took it at attention, and saluted--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pension-<i>wallah</i>, <i>Huzoor</i>, unfit for duty," he replied with modest +brevity, indicating his empty sleeve.</p> + +<p class="normal">The General caught at the occasion for even greater unction with a +complacency which could not be concealed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Great Army is recruited from those who are unfit for duty, from +those who are sinners. Is it not so, comrades? Are we not all maimed, +halt, blind, yet entering into life?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" cried the company, bursting into the refrain +of a hymn, in which Sonny <i>baba</i> joined with an angelic voice. The +voice, in fact, was largely 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 sure, of his dead father, +who had been the pride of the regiment. Nevertheless the effervescence +of song left the old man still deprecating and fumbling in his tunic.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The General-<i>sahib</i> mistakes; these are my <i>pinson</i> papers."</p> + +<p class="normal">That proved a climax. When, just as you are setting foot on a country +which you have sworn to conquer, an old warrior comes aboard and +produces a bundle of Scripture texts and Salvation hymns out of his +innermost breast pocket, naturally nothing is left but to <i>enthuse</i>. +What followed Dhurm Singh only dimly understood, but he stuck manfully +to his intention of following Sonny <i>baba</i> to the death if needs be. +The result being that 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 complexion; so had Dhurm Singh, as he sat in the lock-up, +vastly contented with his black eye and an ugly cut on the nose, which +he explained gleefully to Sonny <i>baba</i> put him in mind of old times. +The latter, through the medium of a fellow-passenger who knew Punjâbi, +was meanwhile trying to make the old sinner understand that he had got +the whole army into trouble, and that personally he must stand his +trial for a breach of the peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And tell him, please," said Sonny <i>baba</i> with grieved diffidence, +"that we all think he must have been drunk."</p> + +<p class="normal">An odd smile struggled with the gravity of Dr. Taylor's interpretation +of the reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He says, of course he was drunk, as you all were. In fact, he bought a +bottle of rum instead of taking his opium, so that the effects might be +uniform--I'm telling you the sober truth, my 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 can when they go down or come up to the sea in +ships. Perhaps it's the connection between reeling to and fro, you +know. I beg your pardon; no offence--but really, what with the +tambourines--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Taylor paused with his bright eyes on the boy's face. They had been +cabin companions, and despite an absolute antagonism of thought, chums. +It is so sometimes, and as a rule such friendships last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did you tell him the General was greatly displeased? It is such a +terrible beginning to our campaign; so unscriptural," mourned Sonny +<i>baba</i> evasively.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know about that; wasn't there some one who smote off some one +else's ear? and that, I believe, is what the old man is accused of +doing. I beg your pardon again, but the coincidence is remarkable."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what is he saying now?" put in the other hurriedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Taylor paused.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is calling down the blessing of the one true God upon your head, +now and for all eternity," he answered slowly, and there was a sort of +hush in his voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sonny <i>baba's</i> eyes grew suspiciously moist, but he shook his head +dutifully. "How--how sad," he began.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very sad that you can't understand what he says," interrupted Dr. +Taylor curtly, "because as I've only just time to catch my train I must +be off. Salaam, <i>Akâli sahib!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dhurm Singh, standing to salute, detained the doctor for a minute with +eager questioning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" asked Sonny <i>baba</i> again. "What is it he wants to know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Taylor gave a short laugh. "He wants to know who the General's papa +and mamma were, because he isn't a gentleman. You needn't stare so, my +dear fellow. That is the first thing they find out about 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 appreciate their lives +before you try to change them. And look here! don't go taking an +<i>Akâli</i> about in a religious procession with drums and banners. It +isn't safe, especially if you are going to Bengal."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why Bengal more than other places?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Accustomed to lick them, that's all--hereditary instinct. Well, +good-bye again, and take my advice and come north. The old +swash-buckler might be of some use to you there. He'll be in the way +down country."</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>II.</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">Some eighteen months afterwards, the doctor, being busy over that great +hunt for the comma-shaped <i>bacillus</i>, which, as is told elsewhere, +ended in a full stop for the seeker, saw a man come into his verandah +with a note.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old swash-buckler, by all that's sinful," he said to himself. +"Now, what can he want?" According to the superscription of the letter, +it was a "Civil Surgeon"; according to a few almost illegible words +inside, help for a suspected case of cholera in the European room of +the <i>serai</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dr. Taylor, with grave doubts as to being able to supply either of +these desires, went into the verandah.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it Sonny <i>baba?</i>" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dhurm Singh's delight was boundless; since a <i>sahib</i> to whom you have +once spoken is not as other <i>sahibs</i>; just as a <i>sahib</i> whom you have +once served becomes a demi-god--transfigured, immortal. Undoubtedly it +was the <i>Baba-sahib</i><a name="div4Ref_11" href="#div4_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a>--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 master's +son? Undoubtedly also he was ill, though, in the poor opinion of the +dustlike one, it was not cholera--at least it need not have been if the +<i>Baba-sahib</i> had only taken the remedy proposed to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Opium? hey!" asked Taylor, who in a huge pith hat which made him look +like an animated mushroom, was by this time walking over to the +<i>serai</i>, which was but a few hundred yards off.</p> + +<p class="normal">The old <i>Akâli</i> grinned from ear to ear, the massive curves of his lips +stretching like india-rubber. "The <i>Huzoor</i> knows the great gift of God +in the bad places of mind and body. But the <i>Baba-sahib</i> will not have +it so. He understands not many things through being so young. But he +learns, he learns!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a cheerful content in the apology, suggestive of the +possibility that Dhurm Singh had something to do with the teaching. If +so, he had been an unsafe guide in one point; for it was cholera; +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 renewing a +friendship which, like the majority of those struck up on board ship, +would have been forgotten but for an accident--the accident of his +doing civil duty for a colleague during ten days' leave.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Civil Surgeon, indeed!" he would say, as he sat on the edge of the bed +amusing Sonny <i>baba</i> when the latter began to pull round. "Deuce take +me if I could be that to save my life! One of my patients the other day +said I was the most uncivil person calling himself a gentleman she ever +came across, just because I told her she couldn't expect her liver to +act if she lived the life of a Strasburg goose. 'Liver!' she cried, +'why, doctor, it's all heart that is the matter with me.' Now, 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; but what the +devil have you done with your muscle, my dear fellow? Oh, I know! you +have been doing the <i>dâl-bhât</i><a name="div4Ref_12" href="#div4_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> +trick, in order to show your +sympathy with the people, and to assimilate your wants to theirs, so +that in some occult way they are to assimilate their religious beliefs +to yours. Lordy, Lordy, what an odd creature man is! But you didn't get +old Dhurm Singh to give up his kid <i>pullao</i>, I'll go bail. Now, he +looks fit--more like your Church Militant business than you do."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I've--I've given up the Army," said Sonny <i>baba</i> after an embarrassed +pause.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Dr. Taylor actually refrained from asking why, or from saying he +was glad to hear it; for there was a puzzled, pained look in his +patient's face, which, 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 turban off and his long white hair coiled +round the high wooden comb like any woman's, was putting an extra fine +polish to his sword to while away the time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i> it is true. It did not suit us. I told the <i>Baba-sahib</i> so +from the beginning. They were not of his caste. As the Protector may +see, I did all in my power. 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, praise be to the Lord, we have +taken '<i>pinson</i>' again, and the Baba is to serve the Big <i>Lât-padre</i> +(bishop) according to <i>hukm</i> (orders), as all the <i>padre sahibs</i> do."</p> + +<p class="normal">As he drove home, the doctor decided that he would gladly give a +month's pay to know the history of the past year and a half. The very +imagination of it made him smile. Yet there must have been more than +mere laughter in his thoughts, 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 <i>baba</i> was reserved on some +points. But the enthusiasm, and the fervour, and the faith were strong +in him as ever, though the angelic voice now busied itself with Hymns +Ancient and Modern; especially the Ancient. For, face to face with the +Rig-Vedas, the advantages of unquestioned authority had begun to show +themselves.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is no need to repeat the arguments on either side; they are +easily imagined, given the characters of the arguers. Nor is it +difficult to imagine the grip of hands when they parted. One of them, +no doubt, said something about 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 <i>bacillus</i> as he watched Sonny +<i>baba</i> and the old swash-buckler set off together to the wilderness +again. The former to itinerate from village to village, learning the +language and lives of the people he hoped by and by to convert; the +latter, presumably, to complete the education he had begun. They were +an odd couple.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ten to one on the swash-buckler," thought the doctor; "he is a fine +old chap."</p> + +<p class="normal">Christmas had come and gone ere Sonny <i>baba</i> reappeared in civilised +society. When he did so he looked weather-beaten and yet spruce--the +natural result on a healthy young Englishman of combined exposure to +sunshine and a good washerman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hullo!" cried the doctor cheerily, "back again in boiled shirts, I +see! Find 'em a bit stiff, I expect, after <i>kurtas</i> and <i>dhotees</i>. The +natives know how to dress comfortably at any rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">Sonny <i>baba</i> blushed under his bronze and hesitated. "The fact is," he +said with an effort, "I did not, after all, adopt native costume as I +intended, or perhaps"--here a faint smile obtruded itself--"I might 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 sleeping in +public places--<i>serai's</i> and <i>dhurmsâlas</i>--or out in the open--somehow +my day clothes were always being stolen. As soon as ever I got a new +outfit it disappeared, until at last Dhurm Singh said,--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! what did Dhurm Singh say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That it was very peculiar, and that as the thieves didn't seem to +fancy my English clothes it might be--more economical--" Here a +half-embarrassed laugh finally interrupted the sentence. "I don't +think I was sorry," went on the speaker hastily; "I found out +afterwards 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 <i>sahib-logue</i>, the '<i>missen</i>' people preferred to preach +without them? Of course it was an exaggeration both ways, but the more +I see of these people, the more necessary it seems to me that we should +be ourselves armed at all points before beginning the attack. And then +their poverty, their patience, the insanitary conditions--the needless +suffering! Surely before we can touch their minds--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know," broke in the doctor cynically. "Medical missions, <i>et +cetera</i>; so it has come to that already, has it, old chap?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I don't know what you mean by its having come to that," retorted Sonny +at a white heat; "but if you think it right to live in the lap of +luxury while these brothers and sisters of ours--"</p> + +<p class="normal">So the arguments began again, more fiercely than ever, for the two +fought at closer quarters--so close that ofttimes the doctor had to +retreat from his own position and seek another, because Sonny <i>baba</i> +had already entrenched himself therein; the which is a direful offence, +rousing determined resistance in a real argufier.</p> + +<p class="normal">Despite this, Sonny <i>baba</i> rented a room in the doctor's house, and +shared the doctor's dinners and library and hospital after the easy +Indian fashion, while Dhurm Singh swaggered about among the dispensary +badge-wearers, explaining at full length why he did not wear a badge +like the rest of them. His <i>sahib</i> had not yet settled which branch of +the public service he 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 "<i>naukeri</i>" (service), in which he paid all the rupees +and no one gave him anything; a topsy-turvy arrangement: not that his +<i>sahib</i> needed the <i>paisas</i>. He was rich as a nawab. Then he thought +of +being a <i>padre sahib</i>; now it was <i>doctoré</i> department, but in his, +Dhurm Singh's opinion, that was not much either. Personally he would +just as soon wear no badge, as one of those with "Charitable +Dispensary" on it. But only God knew where the <i>Baba-sahib</i> might end; +at Simla, as "<i>burra Lât sahib</i>," no doubt. Till then it was more +dignified to refrain from ignoble badges of which afterwards one might +be ashamed.</p> + +<p class="normal">And while he talked in this fashion he sat in the sunshine combing his +long hair, and piously wondering how folk could defile their insides +with tobacco. Then he would stroll off into the shadow and bring out +the black lump of dreams. Yet if Sonny <i>baba</i> came out into the +verandah calling after the Indian fashion for some one, the broad +northern accent was always ready with its "<i>Huzoor!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">So the months passed in preparations, and the angelic voice might have +been heard to sing "Lead, kindly Light" more often than any other hymn +in the book. About this time, also, Sonny <i>baba</i> 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 +stripes--a speech which roused the doctor to vigorous retort. He had +observed, he said, that the remark held good about most honest, healthy +men who could play singlestick.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fact being, however, that Sonny <i>baba</i> was beginning to get +obstinate, as is only natural when a man passes five and twenty. It was +time, he felt, to begin work in earnest; for the enthusiasm and the +faith and the fervour were as hot as ever in him still. Looking back on +the last three years he hardly understood why he had done so little.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There seems so much to learn before one can even begin on the +problem," he sighed, "and then, dear as the old man is, I really think +Dhurm Singh is a drawback. I hoped when we left the Army--but indeed, +Taylor, I think even you will allow that he is hardly the sort of man +for a missionary's servant."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I don't know that I should classify him under that head; but +then," he paused, thinking, perhaps, that when all was said and done +the master was no more fit for the place than the servant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm glad you agree with me," put in Sonny eagerly, "for I've quite +made up my mind to a change. You have no idea how the old fellow +hectors over getting me a pint of milk or a couple of eggs. You would +think 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 habit +of eating opium. It does not seem to hurt him, I own; but that again is +not what it ought to be. It is bad enough to belong to a race who, +while they go about with words of condemnation on their lips--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pardon me," murmured the doctor, "I pass--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"--on their lips, are at the same time battening on the proceeds of an +infamous monopoly of a drug dealing death and disease to a whole +continent."</p> + +<p class="normal">"One-third of one per cent of the total population," murmured the +doctor again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You forget the opium grown in China," put in Sonny with great heat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear fellow, isn't there a story somewhere about the Emperor of +China's clothes? If I remember right he forgot to put 'em on, and then +every one was afraid 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 afraid to say so. If we can prevent our +subjects from growing poppy except under supervision, why can't he? It +isn't Jonah's gourd, but a three month crop."</p> + +<p class="normal">Sonny <i>baba</i> began to walk up and down the room excitedly. "It is +perfectly inexplicable to me how a man like you--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Excuse me," interrupted the doctor. "I'll explain. I'm forty-four +years of age. Two and twenty years of that I lived in a parish in +Scotland where every decent, respectable body would have thought shame +to himself if he didn't have more whisky than he could carry on market +days. The other 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 seriously from the effects of opium.<a name="div4Ref_13" href="#div4_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> +But it is a +subject which it is quite useless to discuss. It turns on a question of +heredity, like most things. The Indo-Germanic races never have taken +and never will take to narcotics, so naturally they abuse them--and +drink instead. <i>Chacun ŕ son gout</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And mine is to give poor old Dhurm Singh an extra pension when I go +itinerating, and send him back to end his days in peace in his +village."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor whistled. "Don't you wish you may get him to do it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"He must if he is a hindrance to the work--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if your work is a hindrance to him? That's what it comes to all +round. He was put in charge of you, and mark my words, Dhurm Singh will +do it <i>dhurm nâl</i> until he goes to settle the vexed question."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What vexed question?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whether his work or yours was the better."</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>III.</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">"Dhurm Singh?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">After five and twenty years the same appeal--the same reply. But on +that May night and July day neither the man nor the woman had any doubt +as to what was to come next; the universe held no possibility save "the +<i>mem sahib</i>" or "Sonny <i>baba</i> But the latter, now it came to his turn, +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, +self-respecting conversations overheard at home sprang to memory +obtrusively. "Then, Mary Ann, it had better be this day month." "Yes, +ma'am, this day month, if you please; and if you please, ma'am, +Wednesdays and Saturdays from eleven till one, if convenient, for a +character."</p> + +<p class="normal">But things were different somehow in this heathen country, which was so +backward in education, so ignorant of liberty, equality, and--ahem!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dhurm Singh," began Sonny once more rather hurriedly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I--I am going to make a complete change of plan, Dhurm Singh. I--I am +going to begin work on a new principle. I--I am going to start in +another part of the country where I shall not require--er--many things +I have hitherto required." He paused, well satisfied at his plunge <i>in +medias res</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dhurm Singh, standing attention at the door, smiled approvingly. "It is +a good word, <i>Huzoor</i>. So said the <i>Gurus</i> also. When do we start?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Half an hour afterwards Sonny <i>baba</i> in rather a shamefaced manner, +told the doctor that, after all, he had come to the conclusion it would +be better not to dismiss Dhurm Singh. To begin with, the village +children delighted in his tales, and then--it was a triviality, 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. In addition, +Dhurm Singh had promised to amend his ways generally; to spend his days +in compounding pills and potions instead of hectoring about. Finally, +he had agreed to an allowance of opium, swearing <i>dhurm nâl</i> to take no +more than was served out by the master.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," said Sonny <i>baba</i> at this juncture, with a considerate +superiority which raised every atom of the doctor's original sin, "I +shall be careful, I shall not dock it too much at once; but in the +course of a year or two I hope to break him entirely of this most +pernicious habit."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Which has never done him or his surroundings the least harm," growled +Taylor savagely. "Upon my soul, I begin to wish I were five and twenty +again, if only that I might be as cock-sure of being right about +everything as you are. As it is, even the <i>bacillus</i>--" He wrinkled his +eyes over the microscope once more, and did not finish his sentence.</p> + +<p class="normal">After this Dhurm Singh might have been seen any day of the week in the +dispensary verandah grinding away vigorously with pestle and mortar at +unsavoury medicaments, rolling pills under his flexible brown fingers, +or polishing up surgical instruments with all the fervour bestowed of +yore on the old sword.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lo! if the <i>Baba-sahib</i> cares not for being a big <i>Hâkm</i> (magistrate, +ruler), sure the next best thing is to be a big <i>Hâkeem</i> (doctor)," he +would say, smiling simply at his own wit. "And doth not the <i>Guru</i> say, +'Fight with 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 is ever the first step towards dream-getting. Thus +in all ways, I, Dhurm Singh, Sikh, ex-<i>duffadar</i>, <i>pinson-wallah</i>, and +<i>Akâli</i>, am consoled. But there! God is good to the Sikh. Know you that +He never made an ugly one yet?"</p> + +<p class="normal">This was a favourite boast of the old man's, backed always, should +doubts be expressed, by a modest appeal to his own looks, joined to an +assertion--which, by the way, was perfectly true--that he was the +meanest looking of ten brothers.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, in due season, the doctor once more watched the odd couple pass out +together into the wilderness; and this time, noticing the change in +Sonny <i>baba</i> and remembering the raw lad who had been his cabin +companion, he, so to speak, put his whole pile on Dhurm Singh--unless +the boy killed him with philanthropy.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rains, after an unusually heavy fall, had ceased early, the result +being an epidemic of autumnal fever. Now the cholera may kill its +thousands, but year by year, with every now and again a sort of jubilee +over its own strength, malaria kills its tens of thousands quietly, +unostentatiously; so quietly, that it is only when the officer in +charge of a district finds himself during his cold weather camp +deciding the rival claims to hereditary offices day after day in +village 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 at +the same time with cautions not to be over generous except in genuine +cases. Let him stick to the country medicines as prophylactics. Opium +and aconite were to be had for the buying; and if he did wander into +the low jungles close to the hills, and if he could be tolerant and +learn not to despise old wisdom, let him prescribe the former in +preference to the latter--though perhaps that was too much to expect +from a five-and-twenty-year old who was cock-sure he knew best.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know nothing of myself," replied Sonny in all seriousness. "The +Eternal Right decides. There lies the difference between you and +me--pardon me if I say between the Christian and the Unbeliever. You +trust to your finite mind, I to Something which is and was, which +cannot err."</p> + +<p class="normal">And Dhurm Singh, gleefully employed in turning a cash transport mule +with its fixings into a perambulating dispensary, was keeping up his +character of devotee by repeating verses from the <i>Adhee Grunt'h</i><a name="div4Ref_14" href="#div4_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> +in sing-song; his round, mellow voice echoing out through the +sunshine--</p> +<br> +<div class="font-size:90%"> +<p class="hang1">"Remember, oh man, the primal truth--the Truth ere the +world began.</p> +<p class="hang1">The Truth which is and the Truth which must remain.</p> +<p class="hang1">How can this Truth be told, save by doing the will of the +Lord?"</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="normal">"Listen!" said Taylor, and Sonny <i>baba</i> moved uneasily in his chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">When these same preparations were complete, the old man's delight was +huge; and he drove the mule forth to the wilderness before him with +much futile waving of the stick which had replaced the sword. Even over +that abnegation he was cheerful.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lo! I am turned a <i>dhundi-wallah</i><a name="div4Ref_15" href="#div4_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> +in mine old age, as becomes the +pious-minded. <i>Ari!</i> thou misbegotten offspring of a mixed race doomed +to childless extinction, wilt stray from the beaten path! Wouldst steal +the corn of others, when thy master is a <i>missen sahib</i>, and thy tender +a devotee? May the uttermost--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then to Sonny's pained reproof he would reply, cheerfully as ever, that +he had understood the refraining of his tongue from abuse was to be +towards those born of Adam; and this was not even a God-created thing, +but a nondescript invented by the <i>sahib-logue</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Cheerful always; even when, as time went on, his daily pills of opium +were mixed with quinine. He sat and compounded them himself <i>dhurm +nâl</i>, keeping no grain of the beloved dream-giver from the sacrilegious +mixture, and telling the full tale of the "<i>fiat pillulć</i>" into the +master's locked medicine chest, whence they were doled out daily.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the first month or more, everything went smoothly. Never before had +Sonny <i>baba</i> had such attentive listeners to the great truths he +expounded as a preliminary to his other work; never before had he felt +that he was really on the right 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 excellent creature +with sheer, unalloyed delight. She told all her circle of friends that +her nephew had fulfilled her dearest wishes in going in for the medical +mission, which was undoubtedly the only way of getting at the poor, +dear natives.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Sonny, in less emotional fashion, felt this to be so true that he +worked as he had never worked before. A sort of feverish desire to +utilise every opportunity, to lose no occasion for preaching the great +Gospel of Peace came over him, and he spared himself not at all, after +the manner of his kind.</p> + +<p class="normal">So that sometimes returning tired out in evening from some long tramp, +it was a relief to find the old swash-buckler ready with kid <i>pullao</i> +or "<i>rose chikken</i>,"<a name="div4Ref_16" href="#div4_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> +and to see the tea-kettle swinging over a fire +of twigs. Sometimes 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 keeping an eye on roast pork, and at +the same time utilising the flame-light in giving a suspicious clean to +the biggest surgical knife--a queer picture seen by the fire, leaping +and dancing up into the shadows of a mango grove.</p> + +<p class="normal">But one evening Sonny came home with no appetite for dinner, and half +an hour afterwards he was blue and shivering in the cold fit of ague.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the <i>Huzoor</i> would take some of my pills," said Dhurm Singh +wistfully; "look at me! nothing touches me, and, lo! am I not three +times as near the grave as the <i>Baba-sahib</i>?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There is no need to describe the scorn which this suggestion met. As +for the pills, where would the old sinner be but for the quinine +contained therein? This was nothing but a chill, an isolated attack. He +would take an extra dose of the specific and be done with it.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the third day, suddenly, in the very middle of an eloquent appeal +he felt goose skin going in thrills down his back, and five minutes +after the only sound he could make was the chattering of his teeth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the <i>Huzoor</i>," began Dhurm Singh, but was checked by the frown on +the master's face; for the lad had grit and fire in him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Neither of these, however, avail much against a tertian ague, and it +was not long before Sonny <i>baba</i> in the half-querulous, half-hysterical +stage before the hot fit merges into perspiration, confided with tears +to the old swash-buckler that it was no use. He was 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 often as not, it struck the +listener, to be referred to his own share in the business. To the +speaker it was otherwise. He was not fit for the work; he was of no +account, and now when at long last the time had come, when he felt that +his hand was on the plough--</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is time the <i>Baba-sahib</i> took his quinine," remarked Dhurm Singh +sagely, unsympathetically. "If the <i>Huzoor</i> will give the keys of the +chest, this dust-like one will bring the medicine--<i>dhurm nâl</i>." 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 pills in +the burning hand before passing his one arm under the burning body, +"but the <i>Huzoor</i> must have faith. Without it medicine is but a bad +taste in the mouth. He who believes shall be saved."</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps Sonny <i>baba</i> took his advice yet once again, perhaps the +quinine got a fair hold of the enemy at last. Certain it is that from +the time Dhurm Singh commenced to bring the pills <i>dhurm nâl</i>, the ague +began to abate. At the end of a week Sonny <i>baba</i> was eating "<i>rose +chicken</i>" once more with appetite. That evening, as the sun was setting +red over the thick brakes of sugar-cane, the old man sat pounding +diligently with pestle and mortar while he intoned away at the <i>Adhee +Grunt'h</i>--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"God asks no man of his birth,</p> +<p class="t0">He asks him what he has done,<br> +Since all are the seed of God,<br> +Lo! what is the world but clay,<br> +Tho' the pots are of many moulds."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">And Sonny <i>baba</i> lying out in the shade blissfully conscious that he +was getting better, nay, that he was better, raised himself on one arm +and looked over with moist eyes to the old man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you doing, Dhurm Singh?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"This slave makes pills. The <i>Huzoor</i> hath eaten so many, and those of +the dust-like one have given out also. Lo! I fill the bottles against +the return of the <i>Baba-sahib</i> to his medicine chest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, I say! are you sure you have made them right?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>Huzoor</i> may rest satisfied. Five grains of the blessed medicine +for the master, and the other as before. It is <i>dhurm nâl, Huzoor</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you call it a blessed medicine now, Dhurm Singh?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wherefore not, since the master is better?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well! the addition of that small quantity of ipecacuanha which I +began--let me see--that day when I was so bad, certainly had a +marvellous effect. I shall write and tell Taylor about it; he was +inclined to sneer at the idea just because he didn't suggest it. +Doctors are awfully jealous of each other. That's the worst of them."</p> + +<p class="normal">These remarks were made mostly for his own benefit, as he lay +comfortably watching the stars come out one by one as the daylight +died.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was that same night that Dhurm Singh had his first go of ague. It +shook him as a sharp attack of malarious fever does shake a native past +his prime, and Sonny <i>baba</i> amid his regrets, could not avoid a certain +elation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So much for opium," he said, and yet in his heart of hearts a fear +gained ground that perhaps he might have been over rapid in diminishing +the dose. Now that the old man was actually ill, it seemed unkind to +deny him comfort; so an addition was made to the number of pills, thus +increasing the amount both of opium and quinine.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was more than a month later that a small procession of two men +carrying a string bed on their heads, and one man driving a pack mule, +turned into the dispensary compound.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is the old man," said Sonny <i>baba</i> to the doctor, "and I'm +afraid--" he paused before the break in his own voice. "It was that +<i>terai</i> land. I was as bad as could be, and thought I should have to +give up; but, under Providence, quinine and ipec. pulled me round to do +the best work I have ever done in my 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 impression would +not have been so good. Still--it came upon me quite by surprise three +days ago--and--and I've brought him in by forced marches. You--" The +voice failed again. Indeed, there was no need for more, the doctor +being already on his knees by the bed, making his examination. Suddenly +he looked up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why the devil did you stop his opium, you young fool? Here, Boota +Mull, the syringe and a disc of morphia--sharp. But, after all, what +does anything matter so long as you save your own soul alive!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Sonny <i>baba</i> looking very white, drew himself up into dignity. "We can +discuss that question by and by, Dr. Taylor. In the mean time, let me +warn you, that the man has already had ten grains of opium in the last +twenty-four hours."</p> + +<p class="normal">The doctor's quick hands were at the closed eyelids. "Ten grains--bosh! +But, as you say, those questions can be settled by and by--when he is +dead, if you like."</p> + +<p class="normal">Sonny <i>baba's</i> face had grown whiter still. "I tell you he has had the +opium--I gave it to him myself--I was afraid--" he paused abruptly, and +the doctor looking up shot a rapid glance of negation towards him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's a mistake, or else-- It doesn't matter now, at any rate. The +thing is done."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Sonny <i>baba</i> did not hear the latter words; he was beside the mule, +fumbling hastily in the travelling dispensary, of which the old man had +been so proud, for 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 hands busy over the morphia, heard an +odd sound--something between a gasp and a cry--behind him. Then some +one came and knelt down at the other side of the bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dhurm Singh!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But there was no answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dhurm Singh, you can tell them it was <i>dhurm nâl</i>, and that I killed +you."</p> +<br> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Killed him--fudge! Though, upon my soul, it would serve you right if +you had. So the old sinner changed the pills, and it wasn't the ipec. +after all. Most reprehensible practice, and, upon my soul, it would +serve him right if he did die. Now--don't be a fool, man! I tell you he +shan't die--I won't let him die. Besides, he can't die--it's +impossible--absolutely impossible."</p> + +<p class="normal">Despite his despair and dejection, the young man gave a wan smile at +the other's vehemence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And why?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because of you, naturally. You don't suppose that you're fit to be +trusted alone with a medicine chest, do you? Boota Mull, if you don't +hurry up with that turpentine and the brandy mixture I'll report you. +So it wasn't the ipec. after all! I'm glad of that."</p> + +<p class="normal">In after years the young fellow used to deny strenuously that it had +been the opium either. Plainly and palpably he had been cured of his +fever "by faith." And as for Dhurm Singh? What the doctor said was +true; he could not be spared as yet. How could he be spared when even +now from the verandah came a woman's voice, soft, confident--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dhurm Singh, Sonny <i>baba</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor! dhurm nâl</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">And any one looking out might have seen a very old man, gorgeous in +scarlet raiment, decked with golden lace and golden curls, as a child's +head nestled up against a solitary arm, and a child's fingers played +with the solitary medal, or tugged unavailingly at the hilt of the old +sword.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>Huzoor</i> is too young," would come the broad, arrogant voice, "but +he will learn--he will learn. Even a Sikh is made, not born. He must +wait till the years bring the Sacred Steel. Let the <i>Huzoor</i> rest +awhile peacefully, and old Dhurm will sing to him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then there would be a surreptitious swallowing of a pill before the +drowsy chant began.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"He is of the <i>Khâlsa</i><a name="div4Ref_17" href="#div4_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p> +<p class="t0">Who combats in the van,<br> +Who gives in charity,<br> +Who loves the Poor.</p> +<br> +<p class="t0">He is of the <i>Khâlsa</i><br> +Whose mind is set on God,<br> +Who never fears though often overcome,<br> +Knowing all men created of one God.</p> +<br> +<p class="t0">He is of the <i>Khâlsa</i><br> +Who lives in arms,<br> +Who combats with the wrong,<br> +Who keeps--the--faith--"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">So there would be a silence broken only by the even breathing of the +old man and the child.</p> + +<p class="normal">For Sonny <i>baba</i> and his wife, watching the scene from within, only +looked into each other's eyes and said nothing.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">THE BHUT-BABY.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"According to established precedent it is reported, under section so +and so, that one Buddha Singh of Kidderjana having died, his rightful +heirs inherit." The court-reader's voice hurried the liquid Urdu +syllables into long, sleepy cadences like the drone of a humble-bee +entangled in the swaying punkah overhead. Backwards and forwards, +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 furlough, and stand once +more on that big boulder at the foot of the One-stone pool waiting for +a new ring of light to show on the dark eddy by the far side--a ring +with a swirl and a gleam of silver scales in the centre, a tightening +line under the finger, till the reel went whirr-rr-rr-rr! It was a +lovely dream while it lasted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"According to established precedent, the canal-officer reports, under +section so-and-so, that certain rebellious persons in Chori-pani have +opened the sluices of the cut, and taken water that did not belong to +them." The heather-sweet breeze off the One-stone pool ceased to blow, +and I was back, with the punkah, 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 +within reach? Even a juicy apple on a hot day is irresistible, despite +Farmer Smith's big dog watching from below, while you sit on the lower +branch, and Jerry sits on the upper, eating all the ripe fruit just to +pass the time, and thanking Providence meanwhile for making you +Christian children in a cider-country!</p> + +<p class="normal">"According to established precedent it is reported, under section +so-and-so, that the devil was born three days ago in village +Hairan-wallah. Orders are requested. Meanwhile the <i>chowkidar</i> +[watchman] remains watching the same." Startled into wakefulness, I +looked sharply to see if the reader had not been nodding in his turn; +but my alertness merely produced a respectful iteration of the +paragraph, which showed all too clearly my subordinate's explanation of +the sudden display of attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">The suspicion of sleep is always irritating. "<i>Sarishtadar!</i>" [clerk of +the Court] I began in English, "what, the devil?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nossir," interrupted the reader suavely in the same language, "pardon +the suggestion, sir, but the devil is somewhat free translation, sir. +In Dictionary <i>bhut</i> (the word used, sir,) equals an <i>indefinite</i> +devil, thus <i>a</i> devil, <i>a</i> fiend, <i>a</i> imp--pardon the +indiscretion, +sir! an imp."</p> + +<p class="normal">A glow of proud humility at his own quick detection of these trivial +errors filled up the pause which followed, while the punkah went on +swinging, and I sat wondering if I were asleep or awake. Finally the +<i>sarishtadar</i> dipped his pen in the ink, fluttered the superfluous +moisture on the carpet, and suggested deferentially that the +<i>chowkidar</i> was waiting for orders. A sudden curiosity as to what his +self-complacent brain, surcharged with Western culture, would do with +the situation made me reply curtly, "The usual orders."</p> + +<p class="normal">I managed to forbear laughing in the grave face raised to mine in +deprecating apology. "I am unable, sir," he said after a pause, "to +recall, at the present moment, any section, penal 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-thought, "it is political job." Then, I regret to say, I +went off into yells of unseemly mirth, as most Englishmen have to do at +times over the portentous solemnity of the Aryan brother.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a stir in the verandah, a sudden waking to renewed effort on +the part of the punkah coolie, resulting in a general breeziness. Or +was it that Terence O'Reilly, our young Irish doctor, as he came into +the darkened Court, brought with him a thought 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 look at him. His face sympathised promptly +with the unknown joke. "Whwhat the divvle are ye laughing at--me?" he +asked in a rich brogue as he seated himself astride a chair, in which +equestrian position his dandy costume for polo showed to great +advantage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nero fiddling over the flames of Rome is sympathy itself compared to +the indifference with which we often speak the first lines of a coming +tragedy in every-day life. So it was with a jest that I introduced +Terence O'Reilly to the existence of the <i>bhut</i>-baby, and 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 his mind. "'Twill be +one of those poor little craytures that come into this worrld God knows +why," he said with an infinite tenderness of voice. "Ten to wan 'tis +better it should die, fifty to wan I can do nothing to help it, but +I'll ride over and see annyhow."</p> + +<p class="normal">The <i>sarishtadar</i> laid aside his pen somewhat mournfully, the practical +being out of his line; while I, smitten by admiration into immediate +regret at my own indifference, murmured something about having thought +of going over next morning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There's no time loike the present, my dear fellow," he replied +buoyantly. "The pony's at the door, and sure I'm got up for riding +annyhow;" and as he spoke he stretched out his long legs, and surveyed +their immaculate boots and breeches critically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what will your team do without their best forward?" I asked, +feeling a certain captiousness at his prompt decision.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Get along with your blarney! Sure it's practising, and you can take my +place at that anny day; indeed 'twas to fetch you I ventured into the +dock, for whin I caught a glimpse of your face at the jail this morning +I said to meself, 'Terence, me bhoy, that's a case of polo, or blue +pill, for by the powers his liver's not acting.' So 'twas to hound you +into exercise I came annyhow."</p> + +<p class="normal">A feverish desire to amend and excuse my own lukewarmness shot up +through the loophole his words afforded. "To tell the truth, I <i>was</i> +feeling a bit slack; but if you'll wait five minutes while I slip over +to the bungalow and change my clothes, I'll ride with you to +Hairan-wallah. It will be better for me than polo; I might get +over-heated, you know."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis over-<i>eating</i>, not over-<i>heating</i> that's the matter with you, me +bhoy," he replied coolly; "but I'm proud,--and by the powers!" he +added, starting 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 send me <i>syce</i> round for the Lily of Killarney. I've a +bet on her at the <i>gymkhana</i> next Monday, and we'll try her on the +quiet against the stable."</p> + +<p class="normal">Half an hour afterwards I was enjoying plenteous exercise, and it +seemed to me, far behind, as if the Lily--a great black beast without a +single 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 came back to me, however, after a time, as fresh as paint; but the +mare, with head down and heaving flanks, appeared to have had enough of +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis a pity the faymale sex is so narvous," he said casually. "Ye +can't hold 'em responsible for annything; but if it wasn't for hysteria +they'd be angels entirely. She has the paces of wan, annyhow."</p> + +<p class="normal">Fourteen miles of constant canal cuts, that were a perpetual joy to the +doctor and a terror to me, brought us to Hairan-wallah, a large village +standing among irrigated fields. Here cautious inquiries for the devil +led us to a cluster of mud huts beyond the pale, where the low-caste +servants of the community dwelt apart. Before reaching it we were +joined by the head-men and their followers, all anxious to explain and +excuse the calamity which had befallen their reputation; but as the +fear of evil eye had prevented any of them from personally inspecting +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 <i>chowkidar</i>, 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 women were +huddled up dejectedly in one corner. So far the crowd followed us; but +when some of the reputed relations showed us into a dark out-house +at the further end, even curiosity failed to prevent a visible +hanging-back. Blinded by the change from the glare outside, I could at +first see nothing but my companion's tall form bending over a bundle of +rags on a low stool, beside which a half-naked hag sat chanting a +guttural charm; and before I regained clearer sight his voice rang out +in tones of evident relief, "By the powers! 'tis only a black albino."</p> + +<p class="normal">The bull was perfect, seeing that it conveyed succinctly a very +accurate description. The <i>bhut</i>-baby was a black, a very black albino, +for the abnormal colouring was confined to its hair, which was unusally +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 startling. For the rest, it +was as fine a man-child as ever came to gladden a mother's heart. I +deemed it asleep till I saw the doctor bend closer, and then raise the +eyelid in keen professional scrutiny.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where's the mother?" he cried, turning like lightning on the nearest +male relative, and seizing him by the scruff of the neck in order 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 rapidly in +English, "and it's nigh dead of neglect. You're a magistrate! Make them +bring the devil of a mother here at once, or it will die."</p> + +<p class="normal">But they met my commands and remonstrances with frightened obstinacy, +asserting after some hesitation that the mother was dead, had died +virtuously of shame at bringing such disgrace to her people. I had +every reason to believe this statement was a lie, but no means of +proving it to be one, for of course the whole village favoured it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then there came to Terence O'Reilly's face a look that was good to see, +but not to endure. "And if the poor little creature has lost its own +mother," he cried in that strong, round voice of his, "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 frightened of? 'Tis as fine a +babe as a woman could bear. Only the white hair of it, and God knows we +shall all come to that if we are spared. Look at it, I say! Handle it, +and see for yourselves!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Suiting the action to the word, he lifted the infant in his arms and +carried it out to the lingering light of day, among the crowd which +fell back in alarm from him and his burden. He did, indeed, look +somewhat of an avenging angel with his face ablaze with 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 shrieks brought Terence back to earth; +and ceasing to hold the child at arm's length, as if offering it for +acceptance, he turned to me once more. "At least your magistracy can +make them bring me milk. If ye can't even do that, then God help the +British rule!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Stung by the sarcasm, I exerted myself to such an extent, that three +separate head-men arrived breathless at the same moment with large +<i>lotahs</i> full of nourishment for the devil, or any one else on whom the +Presence was foolish enough to bestow it. So much lay within their +conceptions of duty.</p> + +<p class="normal">The scene which followed will linger in my memory until memory itself +ceases to be. Terence in polo-costume seated on a string bed under the +darkening skies with the devil on his lap, feeding it methodically with +the corner of his pocket-handkerchief moistened in the milk held by +three trembling <i>lambadars</i>. Beside him the Presence, with, thank God, +sufficient vitality left for admiration. And round about a cloud of +awestruck witnesses, wondering at his audacity, doubtful of its effect +on the future.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sure 'tis the firrst toime I ever did dhry-nurse," he remarked after a +long silence, during which I became absorbingly interested in the +little imp's growing desire for life. "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 think it's time you stepped in as ripresentative of the +<i>Kaiser-i-Hind</i>, and took things in hand a bit? Ah, it's after having +dill-water ye are now, is it? Whist, whist, whist now!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He walked up and down, the crowd swaying from him, as he dandled the +infant with what seemed to me marvellous skill, while I did my best to +argue sense into the dull brains of the villagers. I was quite +unsuccessful, of course, and after many words found myself, as before, +with two courses open to me; either to leave the <i>bhut</i>-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 +the cause of not drinking milk properly," which figures so largely in +the records of infant mortality in India; the former for choice, since, +as Terence remarked, "It would save trouble to kill it at the beginning +instead of the end of its life."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So the magistracy can do nothing," he said at last; "thin I will. +<i>Chowkidar!</i> take this baby to the headquarters' hospital. I'm master +there, annyhow, and I'll make it anny case I please, and dye its hair, +an' no man shall say me nay!"</p> + +<p class="normal">So the <i>chowkidar</i> was ordered to carry the devil to hospital to be +cured of its devilry, and we rode home in frantic haste, because +Terence was engaged to sing "<i>Killaloe</i>" that evening in barracks. Some +of the relations ran about a mile after us yelling out blessings for +having removed the curse from them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Six weeks after I saw an atrocious hag nursing a white-haired infant in +the doctor's own compound, and questioned him on the subject. "The 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 it betrayed +the cloven hoof. And dye wouldn't stick on; so I've hired a harridan on +two rupees a month to look after it under my own eye."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was, no doubt, something of combativeness in this particular +instance of Terence O'Reilly's charity; but the <i>bhut</i>-baby was +by no means the only pensioner on his bounty. The row of mud houses +beyond the cook-room was filled with the halt, the maimed, and the +blind--especially the latter, for the fame of his infinite skill and +patience as an eye-doctor 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, had, on recovery, made his +way straight from hospital to the doctor's house, and announced his +intention of serving him till death. "What are hands, and feet, or +brain," he answered calmly to all objections, "if they have not eyes to +guide them? Therefore are they all predestined since all time to be +servants to my Lord the Light-bringer for ever and ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">Treated at first as a joke, Shivdeo's determination had outlived +opposition, and at the time of the <i>bhut</i>-baby's advent he had achieved +his intention of becoming trusted personal attendant to the "Light of +the World," for without some such allusion to the benefit he had +received at his hands he never spoke of his master. The introduction of +a baby, pariah to begin with and devil to follow, brought about a +temporary disturbance of his office; for he was haughty, with all the +pride of his race, and superstitious beyond belief. But after a week of +dismissal consequent on failing to provide the harridan with proper +milk for the bottle, Shivdeo, almost blind again with fruitless tears, +crept back to the Light-giver's feet and swore a big oath to feed the +low-caste demon himself if thereby he might return to the only life he +could live. He kept his promise of strict neutrality to the 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 articulate sound +whatever; but once or twice when we tired of it and forgot its +presence, I have heard a purring noise like a cat, and looking down, +found that the little creature was curled up with its silver curls +resting on the doctor's foot in perfect content. He spent many hours in +demonstrating its full possession of all five senses, and always +declared it would speak in time; certainly if speech went by +intelligence it would have been the most eloquent of babies. As it was, +its unusual silence undoubtedly added to its uncanny appearance, and +helped to strengthen the still lingering belief in its devilish origin. +As long, however, as Terence O'Reilly's voice gave the orders for its +well-being, not a soul in his compound or elsewhere would have dreamt +of disobedience. Indeed, it often struck me that poor little Boots +lived by virtue of his exuberant vitality, and by nothing else.</p> + +<p class="normal">I remember one evening we had been screaming with laughter over the +comical little creature's mimicry of Shivdeo's stately, short-sighted +way of bringing in whisky and soda-water. The applause seemed to get +into the baby's brain, and it took us off one after the other with such +deadly truth that we nearly rolled off our chairs. Then some one +suggested that we should ask it to imitate Terence, who happened to be +absent; and when it failed to respond, a young subaltern, thinking it +had not understood, came out with a fair copy of the doctor's round, +rich brogue. We were all startled at the result; 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 <i>tattie</i>, 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 with a rapid insistence that left me wondering. So, +when the man brought me my parting cheroot, I questioned him on his +interference. He looked startled for a moment; then replied gravely +that it was not meet for the Light of the Universe to bear a sweeper's +child in his bosom. "Nor is it meet for a Brahman either," I returned, +feeling sure he had some other reason. The man's eyes flashed before +they dropped submissively: "Nor is it meet for a Brahman to serve; but +the Presence knows that this slave cares not if he wakes as a dog so +that the Lord of Light remains to give sight to the blind."</p> + +<p class="normal">Shortly after this Boots sickened for some childish complaint, in the +course of which pneumonia developed, making it hover for a day or two +between this world and the next. Once more Terence stood between the +<i>bhut</i>-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 for its benefit. Indeed the doctor looked quite +worn out when I met him one morning, going, as he said, to give himself +a freshener by taking the Lily round the steeple-chase course.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You're over-working, Terence," said I, noting his fine-drawn clearness +of feature; "up all night after Boots (I'm glad to hear the little +fellow's better, by the way), and Blue Pill waiting for you day after +day till after dark at the hospital gates, to say nothing of +<i>gymkhanas</i>. It won't do for long; I'm serious about it, old chap."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you? Well, it's kind of you to be that," he laughed; "though +mayhap 'twould be more of a change for your friends if you were the +t'other thing. 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; but I think he's well through. And d'ye know! the +little beggar wouldn't touch a thing unless I gave it him. 'Tis a queer +place this worrld, annyhow."</p> + +<p class="normal">His voice had a suspicion of a break in it, and his eyes were brighter +than ever; whence I augured that he felt worse than he cared to +confess. Next day he sent a note asking me to inspect the jail for him, +as he was going to try conclusions with his liver; the day after I +found him in bed, but lively. Then the deadly fever which kills so many +fine young fellows in India laid fast hold on him, and for three long +weeks we, who loved him, watched the struggle for life, helpless to do +aught save keep up his strength as best we might against the coming +crisis. It was as if a calamity had befallen the whole Station. Men +when they met each other asked first of all how <i>he</i> 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 pillar, whence my slightest sign would rouse him. For I +assumed the office of head-nurse after Terence, full of gratitude for +the kindly offers of help showered upon him, had said with a wistful +gleam of the old mischief, "But I loike your sober face best, old man; +it makes me feel so pious." I sent in for leave that morning and never +left him again. It was the twenty-sixth day, about ten o'clock in the +evening, that the doctor in charge shook his head over my patient +sorrowfully. "He is terribly weak, but while there's life-- We shall +know by dawn."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old formula fell on my ears--though I had been waiting for it--with +a sense of sickening failure, and unable to reply, I turned away from +the figure which lay so still and lifeless despite all my care. As I +did so I noticed Shivdeo listening with eyes and ears at the door. For +the last three days the man had been strangely restless, and more than +once I had discovered odd things disposed about the room, and even on +poor Terence's pillow--things used as talismans to keep away the evil +eye, such as I had seen in Hairan-wallah when the <i>bhut</i>-baby was born; +and I had smiled--good heavens, how ignorant we are in India!--smiled +at the silly superstition which evidently 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 <i>salaamed</i> +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 service his desire to avoid any disturbance. It was just +upon twelve o'clock when, with Shivdeo's help, I gave Terence, who was +quite unconscious, a few drops of stimulant before sitting down with a +sinking heart to my anxious watch. It was early April, and the doors, +set wide open to let in the cool air, showed a stretch of moonlit grass +where shadows from the unseen trees above quivered and shifted as the +night-wind stirred the leaves. In the breathless silence I could hear +even the faint respiration of the sick man, and found myself counting +its rise and fall, until the last thing I remembered was Shivdeo's +immovable figure with the moonlight streaming full in his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I awoke the rapid Eastern dawn had come. The sparrows were +twittering in the verandah, and Shivdeo stood by his master's bed +holding his finger to his lips. "Hush!" he whispered, as my eyes met +his; "the light has brought life to the Giver of Light."</p> + +<p class="normal">It must have been the sound of wheels which woke me, for ere I had time +to reply the doctor entered the room, and after a glance at his patient +shook me silently by the hand. "I believe 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. Hullo! what's that?" It was only a tiny spot of blood on +the forehead just where the trident of Shiva is painted by his +worshippers, but it showed vividly against the pallor of the skin.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is a little spot by the Light-giver's feet also," remarked +Shivdeo quietly. "I noticed it yesterday just after the Presence cut +his hand with the soda-water bottle." And sure enough there was one.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't think how I came to fall asleep," I said to him after the +doctor had gone; "just at the critical time, too, when I was most +wanted."</p> + +<p class="normal">The man smiled. "We do not always guess aright when we are wanted, +<i>Huzoor</i>. You slept and the Light-giver got better. It is God's way; He +has refreshed you both."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Refreshed!" I retorted crossly. "I feel as if I had been pounded in a +mortar. I had the most frightful dreams, but I can't recall what they +were."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not well to try," replied Shivdeo, with rather an odd look. "If +I were the Presence I would forget them. There is enough evil to come +without recalling what is past and over for ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps involuntarily I followed his suggestion, for, though I chased +the fleeting memory more than once through my brain, I never overtook +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Terence O'Reilly made a quick recovery; but in view of the fast +approaching hot weather, the doctors put him on board ship as soon as +it could be done with safety. Hurry was the order of the day, so it was +not until my return from seeing him to Bombay that I found time for +outside affairs. Then it was that Shivdeo informed me of poor little +Boots' death in the interval. 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 doctor who had seen +it, he had kept the death secret at first, from fear of the news +delaying his master's recovery. I made every inquiry, but found nothing +of any kind to give rise to suspicion of foul play. The native doctor +had sent medicine three days running as for bronchitis, and on the +fourth he had seen the child's dead body. It had died, he thought, of +croup.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will write and tell the Light-bringer?" asked Shivdeo, when the +inquiry was over. "And you will say that I did my best, my very best, +for my lord's interest?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly," I replied; "but he will be sorry, the child was so fond of +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"When people are beautiful as Krishna, like the Lord of Light, it is +easy to be fond of them."</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not see Shivdeo again for over three months; and the bungalow in +the Civil Lines, which he kept swept and garnished against his master's +return, gradually assumed the soulless, empty appearance peculiar to +the dwelling-places of those who make holiday at the other side of the +world. Then a message came to say that he was ill, and wished to see me +on business. I found 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 when it ceases to beat? Men +cannot live without the light, and it is night for me now. Perhaps that +is it, who knows? Yonder old man is my father come to see me die; yet +ere the last 'Ram-Ram' sounds in mine ears I want the Presence to +understand something, else would I not have vexed his quiet. It will be +hard for the <i>Huzoor</i> to understand, because he is not of our race."</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused so long that I asked what he wished me to understand, +thinking that in his weakness he had drifted away from his desire. +"Something 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 used to +do, because old memories return in the old places, making us see and +remember things that are past or forgotten. Is it not so?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Truly enough, as I humoured him by occupying the familiar chair, ready +placed half-way between the bed and the window, it seemed to me as if I +were once more watching Terence pass through the valley of the shadow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence once slept in that chair," continued the weak voice, "and +he dreamed a dream. Let him recall it now, if he can."</p> + +<p class="normal">How or wherefore I know not, but as he spoke a sudden certainty as to +what he wished me to know rushed in on me. "Great God," I cried, +starting up and seizing him roughly by the shoulder, "you killed poor +little Boots! You brought the child here! You killed it before his very +eyes and mine! I know it! I think--I think I saw it done!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He set my hand aside with unexpected force and a strange dignity. "I am +the prisoner of Death, <i>Huzoor!</i> There is no need to hold me; I cannot +escape him. For the rest, if I killed the child, what then? The Lord of +Light lives, and that is enough for me. What is a Sudra or two more or +less to the Brahman? But what if it was a devil sucking his heart's +blood because of his beauty? Shall I not have honour for saving him? +Thus both ways I am absolved; but not from my oath, the false oath +which I swore to my lord for my own sake. When I wander through the +shades waiting for Vishnu's decree, it will lead my blind steps to the +body of a foul thing. So I speak that the Presence may judge and say if +I were not justified, and confess that we people of the old knowledge +are not always wrong. <i>Huzoor!</i> 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, men +with such tenderness for life that they bid God speed to the flea which +keeps them wakeful; but they all said, 'Yea! one of the two must die.' +Did I stop to ask which? Not I. So I fasted, and prayed, and made clean +my heart, and waited patiently for the moment of fate; for so they bid +me. Even then, <i>Huzoor</i>, the holy men would do naught by chance or +without proof. It was a bright moonlight night, and the Presence slept +by reason of our arts and drugs; and so we put the accursed creature we +had brought from the sweeper's hut down at the gate, yonder by the +flowering oleanders, and hiding ourselves among them, watched it. +Straight, straight as a hawk or a bustard, until we found it there in +the old place! Devil of Hell! we made it vomit back the blood, we--"</p> + +<p class="normal">My hand was on his mouth, my one thought to stop the horrible words +that somehow conjured up the still more horrible sight before my eyes. +"I know,--there is no need for more,--I cannot bear it."</p> + +<p class="normal">And indeed, the vision of poor dumb little Boots in their relentless +hold froze my blood. As my hands fell away from him in sudden, +shrinking horror, he looked at me compassionately. "The Presence does +not understand aright. Let him remember the strange doctor's face when +he came in the dawn, thinking to find hope had fled. One of the two had +to die. If the Presence had thought as I did, as I <i>knew</i>, what would +he have done?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I was silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">His face, which had remained calm enough so far, assumed a look of +agonised entreaty, as with an effort painful to see he dragged himself +to my feet and clung to them. "What would you have done, <i>Huzoor</i>, in +my place? What would you have done?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a fearful fit of coughing seized him, and his lips were tinged +with blood. Water lay close at hand, yet I knew that this murderer +would sooner have died than accept it from my defiling 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 as he did so, Shivdeo, looking at the faint stains +on the cloth, smiled an unearthly smile, and whispered, "I did not suck +my lord's blood, for all that. It comes from my own heart."</p> + +<p class="normal">I am not ashamed to say that my brain was in such a whirl that I turned +to escape from a situation where I felt utterly 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 to the parched lips; but it was arrested by +the dying hand, and the dying eyes looked wistfully up into his +father's.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did I do well, O my father?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You did well, my son; drink in peace."</p> + +<p class="normal">When I reached home, the English mail was in. It brought a letter from +Terence. He was in Dublin and engaged to be married; considering that +he was an Irishman, no more need be said. He wrote the 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 how the love of a good woman can +make existence seem a sacred trust. He ended by these words: "And sure, +old man, if it be true that all happiness is bought, some one must have +paid dear for mine!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I could not sleep that night--the war of conflicting thoughts waged too +fiercely; but it was nearly dawn before I found it impossible to +withstand the memory of Shivdeo's cry: "If the Presence had thought as +I did, what would he have done?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was dead before I reached the house, but surely if he knows +anything, he must know that I, for one, cast no stone.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">RÂMCHUNDERJI.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"But the tenth <i>avatar</i> of the Lord Vishnu is yet to come."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Exactly so, pundit-<i>ji</i>," I replied, looking at my watch. "It is yet +to come, seeing that time's up. Half-past eight; so not another stroke +of work to-day. No, not for twice a thousand rupees!"</p> + +<p class="normal">A thousand rupees being the sum with which the Government of India +rewards what they are pleased to call "high proficiency" in languages, +I, having regard to its literature, 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, and prosed away over the +doings of the Hindoo pantheon until I came to the conclusion that my +Lord Vishnu had been rather extravagant in the matter of incarnations.</p> + +<p class="normal">The pundit, however, to whom would be due a hundred rupees of the +thousand if I succeeded, smiled blandly. "The tenth <i>avatar</i> will +doubtless await his Honour's leisure; the tenth, and last."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Last!" I echoed with scorn. "How do you know? Some authorities hold +there are twenty-four, and upon my soul I don't see why there should +not be twenty-four thousand. 'Tis the same old story all through; +devils and demigods, <i>rakshas</i> and <i>rishies</i>, Noah's ark and +Excalibur. +That sort of thing might go on for ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, Pundit Narayan Das was a very learned man. He had taken a Calcutta +degree, and was accustomed to educate the rising generation on a +mixture of the <i>Rig-Veda</i> and <i>The Spectator</i>. So he smiled again, +saying in English, "'History repeats itself.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Thereupon he left me, and I, going into the verandah with my cigar, +came straight upon Râmchunderji and his wife Seeta. At least I think +so.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were the oddest little couple. He, at a stretch, might have +touched a decade of life, she, something more than half such distance +of time. That is, taking them by size: in mind and manners, and in +their grave, careworn faces, they were centuries old. His sole garment +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 which, at the time, I +failed to catch. Afterwards I remembered the effigies in Indra's +celestial court as represented by some Parsee actors I had once seen. +Seeta was simply a bundle, owing to her being huddled and cuddled up in +a veil ample enough for an ample woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am Râmchunderji, and this is my wife Seeta," said the boy gravely. +"If the Presence pleases, I will beguile time by singing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What will you sing?" I asked, preparing to idle away ten minutes +comfortably in a lounge-chair which lay convenient.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I sing what I sing. Give me the <i>vina</i>, woman."</p> + +<p class="normal">The veil gave up such a very large instrument that the smallness of the +remaining wife became oppressive. So large indeed was it, that one +gourd over-filled the boy's lap, while the other acted as a prop to the +high twined turban. Even the connecting bamboo, slender though it was, +seemed all too wide for those small fingers on the frets.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is the permission of the Presence bestowed?" suggested Râmchunderji, +with the utmost solemnity.</p> + +<p class="normal">Twang, twang, twangle! Heavens, what a <i>vina</i> and what a voice! I +nearly stopped both at the first bar; then patience prevailing, I lay +back and closed my eyes. Twang, twangle! A sudden difference in the +tone made me open them again, only 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 shadows, the flash of +shining swords, the twang of golden bows bent on ten-headed many-handed +monsters. Bah! Pundit Narayan Das, prosing over those epic poems of +his, had made me drowsy. "What have you been singing?" I asked, rousing +myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Râmchunderji spread his hands thumbs outwards, and the three wrinkles +on his high forehead deepened: "God knows! It is what they sang before +the great flood came. The <i>vina</i> 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 the heart hath none left, +and the nine-<i>lakh</i> necklace is worth no more than a mouthful. If the +Presence could see into my heart now, he would find no greed there."</p> + +<p class="normal">This delicate allusion to an inward craving produced a four-anna bit +from my pocket, and sent Râmchunderji away to the sweet-meat sellers in +order to appease his hunger; for sweet-stuff is cheap in the East, +especially when it is stale. Seeta and the <i>vina</i>, mysteriously +intertwined beneath the veil, followed duteously behind.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next day they were back again, and the twang of that infernal +instrument broke in on the pundit's impassioned regrets over the heroic +days of his favourite poems. "By 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 went out to +listen. They were sitting under a trellised arch covered with jasmin +and roses, and a great Gloire de Dijon had sent a shower of blown +petals over Seeta's veil.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," quoted Narayan Das +sententiously, after listening a while. "It is Râmayâna, the immortal +poem your honour reads even now; but debase, illiterate. You say wrong, +boy! it is thus."</p> + +<p class="normal">Râmchunderji waited till the pompous periods ceased; then he shook his +head gravely. "We did not sing it so in the days before the great flood +came."</p> + +<p class="normal">His words gave me a curious thrill; but there is no more matter-of-fact +being in the world than a Calcutta Bachelor of Arts; so the pundit at +once began a cross-examination that would have done credit to a Queen's +counsel. "What flood? who were 'we'?" These and many other questions +put with brutal bluntness met with a patient reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">It had been a very big flood, somewhere, God knows how far, in the +south country. One, two, three years ago? Oh, more than that! but he +could not say how much more. The bard who sang and the woman who +carried the <i>vina</i> had disappeared, been swept away perhaps. Since then +he, Râmchunderji, 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 <i>vina</i> was so old) people had not +cared to listen, and since the great flood nothing could be got without +money. Seeta? Oh, yes! she was his wife. They had been married ever so +long; he could not remember the time when they had not been married.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Narayan Das's opportunity for shaking his head. These infant +marriages were subversive of due education. Here was a boy, who should +be in Standard II. doing the compound rules, idling about in ignorance. +It struck me, however, that Râmchunderji must be pretty well on to +vulgar 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 annas +would fill their stomachs (which were not big) for many days. They had +not come for alms, only to make music for the Presence out of +gratitude. Thinking that music out of an ill-tuned <i>vina</i> was hardly +the same thing, I forced another four-anna bit on the boy and sent him +away.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nearly a month passed ere I saw him again, though Narayan Das and I +used, as the days grew warmer, to sit out in the trellised arch, within +sight of the road. My knowledge of Sanskrit increased as I read of +Râmchunderji's long exile, shared by Seeta, his wife; of how he killed +the beasts in the enchanted forest; how she was reft from him by +Râvana, the hydra-headed many-handed monster; and of how finally she +was restored to his arms by the help of Hanumân the man-monkey, the +child of the wild winds. But though the pundit used to waste many words +in pointing out the beauties of a poem which held such hold on the +minds of the people that their commonest names were derived from it, I +never seemed to get into the spirit of the time as I had done when I +listened with closed eyes to the boy's debased, illiterate rendering of +the <i>s'lokas</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was after the school vacation had sent Narayan Das to see his +relatives at Benares that the odd little couple turned up again. +Râmchunderji's face looked more pinched and careworn than ever, and as +he held the <i>vina</i> across his knees, Seeta, losing its contours, seemed +more than ever inadequate to her veil.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps one of the many devils which beset the virtuous has entered +into the instrument," he said despondently; "but when I play, folk +listen not at all. So greed remaineth in the stomach, and the heart is +empty."</p> + +<p class="normal">I offered him another four-anna bit, and when he demurred at taking it +before beguiling the time with music, I laid it on the flat skin top of +one of the gourds, hoping thus to ensure silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">The wrinkles on his forehead seemed to go right up into his turban, and +his voice took a perplexed tone. "It used not to be so. Before the +flood Seeta and I had no thought of money; but now--" He began +fingering the strings softly, and as they thrilled, the four-anna bit +vibrated and jigged in a murmur of money that fitted strangely to the +sort of rude chant in which he went on.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Money is in the hands, the head, the heart;</p> +<p class="t2">Give! give, give, before we give again;</p> +<p class="t0">Money hath ten heads to think out evil-doing;</p> +<p class="t2">Money hath twenty hands to mete out pain.</p> +<p class="t0">Money! money! money! money!</p> +<p class="t2">Money steals the heart's love from our life.</p> +<p class="t0">Money I have not--say! art thou hungry, wife?"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">If anything was possessed of a devil it was that four-anna bit. It +buzzed, and hummed, and jigged infernally, as the boy's finger on the +strings struck more firmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll tell you what it is, Râmchunderji," said I uneasily, "that <i>vina</i> +is enough to ruin Orpheus. As you don't care for my money, I'll give +you another instrument instead. I have one inside which is easier to +play, and more your style in every way."</p> + +<p class="normal">So I brought out a <i>ravanâstron</i>, such as professional beggars use, a +thing with two strings and a gourd covered with snake-skin. To my +surprise the boy's face lost its impassive melancholy in palpable +anger.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence does not understand," he said quite hotly. "We do not +beg; Seeta and I fill ourselves with songs. That thing whines for +money, money, money, like the devil who made it. Rather would I live by +<i>this</i> 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 the <i>vina</i> must find a home first. Therefore I +came to the Presence, hearing that he collected such things. Perhaps he +will keep it in exchange for one rupee. It is worth one rupee, surely."</p> + +<p class="normal">His wistful look as he handed me the instrument made me feel inclined +to offer a hundred; but in good sooth the <i>vina</i> was worth five, and I +told him so, adding, as I looked at some curious tracery round the +gourds, that it appeared to be very old indeed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence saith truly; it is very old," echoed Râmchunderji +drearily. "That is why folk will not listen. It is too old; too old to +be worth money."</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevertheless he cheered up at the sight of his rupee; for he would not +take more, saying he had every intention of returning to claim the +<i>vina</i> ere long, and that five rupees would be beyond his hopes of +gain.</p> + +<p class="normal">A fortnight after I came home from my early morning ride by the police +office, which stood outside the native town, close to a brick-stepped +tank shaded by <i>peepul</i>-trees, my object being to check the tally of +poisonous snakes brought in for the reward given by Government for +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 habit +inures one, and I walked along the thin grey fringe of certain death +spread out on the first step of the tank with an air of stolid +business, only stopping before an unusually large specimen to ask the +captor, who sat behind awaiting his pence, where he had come across it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Six hundred and seventy in all, <i>Huzoor</i>" remarked the Deputy +Inspector of Police, following me, resplendent in silver trappings and +white cotton gloves. "That is owing to the floods, and the season, +since this is the sixth of <i>Bhâdron</i> (August) the month of snakes. Yet +the outlay is excessive to the Government, and perhaps with justice the +price of small ones, such as these, might be reduced one-half."</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked up, and behind a fringe of diminutive vipers sat Râmchunderji +and the bundle he called Seeta. On his bare right arm he wore a much +betasselled floss silk bracelet bound with tinsel.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad to see the greed is in your heart again," said I, pointing +to the ornament.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>Râm-rucki</i> is not bought, but given, as in the days before the +flood," replied the boy. "Every one wears the <i>Râm-rucki</i> still, every +one!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The Deputy Inspector pulled down the cuff of his uniform hastily, but +against the gleam of his white gloves I caught a glimpse of bright +colours. The <i>Râm-rucki</i>, he explained evasively, was the bracelet of +luck given to Râmchunderji in old days before his search 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 <i>Bhâdron</i>. +There was so much deplorable ignorance amongst the uneducated classes, +and did the Presence look with favour on the proposal for reducing the +rewards? Perhaps it was Râmchunderji's eager, wistful face hinting at +the way promises were kept before the flood, which made me reply that I +considered no one but the Viceroy in Council had power to reduce the +price of snakes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Several times after this I found the odd little couple disposed behind +their tally of small vipers; then the season of serpents ceased, and +one by one the <i>habitués</i> of the tank steps dropped off to pursue other +professions. The fringe broke into isolated tassels, and finally the +worn, ruddy steps lay bare of all save the flickering light and shade +of the leaves above.</p> + +<p class="normal">November had chilled the welcome cool weather to cold, when a report +came in the usual course that a boy calling himself Râmchunderji, and a +girl said to be his wife, had been found in a jasmin garden outside the +city, half dead of exhaustion and without any ostensible means of +livelihood. They had been taken up as vagrants and sent to hospital, +pending Government orders. Now the Jubilee year was coming to a close, +leaving behind it a legacy of new charities throughout the length and +breadth of India. Of some the foundation stone only had been laid by +direct telegram to the Queen-Empress; others had sprung to life in a +manner suggestive of workmen's tenements. Among the latter 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. A real live, genuine, +Hindu female orphan going a begging! Preposterous! Sacrilegious! The +Chairman of the Orphanage Committee almost wept as he pictured the +emptiness of those white walls, and actually shed tears over the +building estimates which he produced in order to strengthen his claim +to poor little Seeta. Was it fair, he asked, that such a total of +munificent charity should not have a single orphan to show the +Commissioner-<i>sahib</i> when he came on tour? His distress touched me. +Then winter, hard on the poor even in sunlit India, was on us; besides, +Narayan Das tempted me further, with suggestions of a Jubilee +Scholarship at the district school for Râmchunderji himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">I broke it very gently to the boy as he lay on a mat in the sun, slowly +absorbing warmth and nourishment. He was too weak to contest 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 whispering +confidences to Mother Earth respecting that happy time before the +flood, and I slunk away as though I had been whipped.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, if in telling this veracious history I seem too intermittent, I +can but offer as an excuse the fact that an official's work in India is +like that of a Jacquard loom. A thread slips forward, shows for a +second, and disappears; a pause, and there it is again. Sometimes not +until the pattern is complete is it possible to realise that the series +of trivial incidents has combined to weave an indelible record on the +warp and woof. So it was early January before the Râmchunderji shuttle +stirred again. Narayan Das came to me with a look on his face +suggestive that neither the <i>Rig-Veda</i> nor <i>The Spectator</i> 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 <i>krikutts</i> (cricket) or gymnastics, the medium +ones engaged on marbles, but in a sunny corner backed by warm brick +walls sat Râmchunderji surrounded by a circle of Standard I. Small as +he was, he was still so much larger than the average of the class, +that, as he leant his high yellow turban against the wall, with +half-closed eyes, and hands upon his knees, the memory of India's Court +came back to me once more. He was reciting something in a low voice, +and as the children munched popcorn or sucked sweeties their eyes never +left his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look!" said Narayan Das in a whisper from our spying-ground behind the +master's window. The song came to an end, a stir circled through the +audience, and one by one the 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 stuff, +and as they did so each said in turn, "Salaam, Râmchunderji!" "No +wonder the boy has grown fat," I whispered, dropping the reed screen +round which I had been peeping.</p> + +<p class="normal">Narayan Das shook his head. "If it were only comestibles," he replied +gravely, "I could arrange; but when they are devoid of victuals they +give their 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 it is subversive of discipline, and +parents object to pay. Besides, the <i>in forma-pauperis</i> pupils come on +contingent with great expense to Government."</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked through the screen again with a growing respect for +Râmchunderji. "Does he eat them too?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">The head-master smiled the sickly smile of one who is not quite sure if +his superior officer intends a joke, and fell back as usual on +quotation, "The ostrich is supposed by some to digest nails, but--"</p> + +<p class="normal">I laughed aloud, and being discovered, went out and spoke seriously to +the offender. His calm was not in the least disturbed. "I do not ask, +or beg," he replied; "they give of their hearts and their abundance, as +in old days before the flood. Is it my fault if they possess +slate-pencils, and ink-pots, and First-Lesson books?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I must confess that this argument seemed to me unanswerable, but I +advised him, seeing that the flood <i>had</i> come, to return such offerings +in future to the store. He did not take my advice, and, about a week +after, being 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 scholarship forfeited for absence without +leave, and the arrears absorbed in refunds for slate-pencils and +ink-pots. So that was an end of Râmchunderji's schooling, and Standard +I. once more became amenable to the Code.</p> + +<p class="normal">Winter was warming to spring, the first bronze vine leaves were +budding, and the young wheat shooting to silvery ears, before the +Commissioner, coming his rounds, was taken in pomp to visit the +Orphanage and its occupants. I remember it so well. The Committee and +the Commissioner, and I, and every one interested in female orphans and +female education, on one side of a red baize table 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 satisfactory than the general behaviour and +moral tone of the inmates, except in one point. And this was the +feeding of the monkeys, which, as every one knew, infested the town. +The result being that the <i>bunder-lôg</i> had become bold even to the +dropping down of stones into the court--quite large stones, such as the +one placed as a stepping-stone over the runnel of water from the well.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here I unguardedly suggested an air-gun; whereupon Narayan Das, who +always attended these functions as an educational authority, reminded +me reproachfully that monkeys were sacred to the god Hanumân, who, if I +remembered, had finally rescued Seeta from the ten-headed, many-armed +monster Ravana, the inventor of the <i>ravanastron</i> or beggar's fiddle.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was at this juncture that I suddenly became aware that the Jacquard +loom of Fate was weaving a pattern; Râmchunderji! Seeta! the exile! the +killing of the wild beasts! the ten-headed, many-handed monster Râvana! +Yet I could tell you almost every word of the Commissioner'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 snatching the female orphan of +India from unmerited misfortune, and educating her to be an example to +the nineteenth century." Every one was highly delighted, and the +Committee approached me with a view of adding the Commissioner's name +as a second title to the school.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I awaited the completion of the pattern. It was on the eleventh of +April, that is to say, on the High Festival of Spring, at the fair held +beside the tank where humanity in thousands was washing away the old +year, and putting on the new in the shape of gay-coloured clothing, +that my attention was attracted by a small, dense crowd whence came +hearty guffaws of laughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis a performing monkey," said a bearded villager in response to my +question as to what was amusing them so hugely. "The boy makes him do +tricks worthy of Hanumân; yet he saith he taught him yonder down by the +canal. Will not the Protector of the Poor step in and see? Ho, ho! +'twould make a suitor laugh even if the <i>digri</i> (decree) were against +him." But I recognised the pattern this time, and I had made up my mind +not to interfere with the shuttle again. As I turned away, another roar +of laughter and a general feeling in pockets and turbans told me that +the final tip had succeeded, and that collection was going on +satisfactorily.</p> + +<p class="normal">A few days later the Chairman of the Committee came to me in excited +despair. The real, genuine female Hindu orphan was not to be found, and +the stucco walls were once more 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 was +not going to aid Râvana, or prevent the due course of incarnation, if +it <i>was</i> an incarnation. That great city of men, women, and monkeys +should give the trio fair play.</p> + +<p class="normal">Last year, when I was in Simla, I overheard a traveller giving his +impressions of India to a lady who was longing all the time to find out +from a gentleman with a mustache when the polo-match was to begin at +Annandale next day.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The performing troupes are certainly above the European average," he +said. "At Benares, especially, I remember seeing a monkey; he, his +master, and a girl, did quite a variety of scenes out of the Râmayâna, +and really, considering who they were, I--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Excuse me,--but--oh! Captain Smith, is it half-past eleven or twelve?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The <i>vina</i> still hangs in my collection next the <i>ravanastron</i>. +Sometimes I take it down and sound the strings. But the waving palms, +the odorous thickets, and the shadowy, immortal forms have got mixed up +somehow with that infernal humming and bumming of the four-anna bit. So +I get no help in trying to decide the question,--"Who was Râmchunderji?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">HEERA NUND.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He stood in the verandah, salaaming with both hands, in each of which +he held a bouquet--round-topped, compressed, prim little posies, with +fat bundles of stalk bound spirally with date-fibre; altogether more +like ninepins than bouquets, for the time of flowers was not yet, and +only a few ill-conditioned rosebuds, suggestive of worms, and a +dejected <i>champak</i> or two, showed amongst the green.</p> + +<p class="normal">The holder was hardly more decorative than the posies. Bandy, hairy +brown legs, with toes set wide open by big brass rings--a sight +bringing discomfort within one's own slippers from sheer sympathy; a +squat body, tightly buttoned into a sleeveless white coat; a face of +mild ugliness overshadowed by an immaculately white turban. From the +coral and gold necklace round 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 before masterful +men from the West had jotted down their trivial boundary pillars to +divide light from darkness, the black man from the white, cantonments +from the rest of God's earth. One of these little white pillars stood +in a corner of my garden, and beyond it lay an illimitable stretch of +bare brown plain, waiting till the young wheat came to clothe its +nakedness.</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not inquire, however; few people do in India. Perhaps they are +intimidated by the extreme antiquity of all things, and dread letting +loose the floodgates of garrulous memory. Be that as it may, I was +content to accept the fact that Heera Nund, whether representing +ancestral proprietors or not, had come to congratulate me, a stranger, +on having taken, not only the house, but the garden also. The <i>sahibs</i>, +he said, went home so often nowadays that they had ceased to care for +gardens. This one having been in a contractor's hands for years had +become, as it were, a miserable low-degree 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 ćgis 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, +consisting of a flat basket decorated with a few coarse vegetables. A +bunch of rank-smelling turnips, half-a-dozen blue radishes running two +to the pound, various heaps of native greens, a bit off an overblown +cauliflower proclaiming its bazaar origin by the turmeric powder +adhering to it in patches, a leaf-cup of mint ornamented by two glowing +chillies. He laid the whole at my feet with a profound obeisance. "This +dust-like offering," he said gravely, "is all that the good God +(<i>Khuda</i>) can give to the <i>sahib</i>. Let the Presence (<i>Huzoor</i>) +wait a +few months and see what Heera Nund can do for him."</p> + +<p class="normal">I shall not soon forget the ludicrous solemnity of voice and gesture, +or the simple self-importance overlaying the ugly face with the smile +of a cat licking cream.</p> + +<p class="normal">I did not see him again for some days, for accession to a new office +curtails leisure. When, however, I found time for a stroll round my new +domain I discovered Heera Nund hard at work. His coatee hung on a bush; +his bare, brown back glistened in the sunshine as he stooped down to +deepen a watercourse 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 holding. The well-wheel +creaked in recurring discords, every now and again giving out a note or +two as if it were going to begin a tune. The red evening sun shone +through the mango-trees, where the green parrots hung like unripe +fruit. The bullocks circled round and round; the water dripped and +gurgled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How about the seeds I sent you?" I asked, when Heera Nund drew his wet +feet from the stream, and composing himself for the effort, produced an +elaborate salaam.</p> + +<p class="normal">He left humility behind him as he stalked over to a narrow strip of +ground on the other side of the well, a long strip portioned out into +squares and circles like a doll's garden, with tiny one-span walks +between.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Behold!" he said, "his Honour will observe that the cabbage caste have +life already."</p> + +<p class="normal">Truly enough the half-covered seeds showed gussets of white in their +brown jackets. "But where are the tickets? I sent word specially that +you were to be sure and stick the labels on each bed. How am I to know +which is which?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence can see that the sticks are there," he answered with a +superior smile; "but there are others beside the <i>sahibs</i> who love +tickets."</p> + +<p class="normal">He pointed to the tree above us, where on a branch sat a peculiarly +bushy-tailed squirrel, as happy as a king over the brussels-sprouts' +wrapper, which he was crumpling into a ball with deft hands and sharp +teeth. How I came to know it was this particular wrapper happened thus: +I threw my cap at the offender, and in his flight he dropped the paper +on my bald head; it was hard, and had points.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are mis-begotten devils," remarked Heera cheerfully; "but they +are building nests, <i>sahib</i>, and like to paper the inside. +Notwithstanding, the Presence need fear no confusion; his slave has +many names in his head. This is <i>arly walkrin</i> (Early Walcheren), that +is <i>droomade</i> (Drumhead), yonder is <i>dookoyark</i> (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 stood next to a sturdy crop of broadcast radishes. +Only a few panes of glass remained intact, but the vacancies had been +neatly supplied by coarse muslin. The gardener's face, always simple in +expression, became quite homogeneous with pure content.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i> It is the <i>mâlin</i> (female gardener)!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>mâlin!</i> What on earth do you mean?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Have you ever watched the face of a general servant when she takes the +covers off the Christmas dinner? Have you ever seen a very young +conjurer lift his father's hat to show you that the handkerchief (which +he has palpably secreted 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 a flourish, thus +disclosing to view a fat and remarkably black baby asleep on a bed of +leaves. It was attired in a pair of silver bangles, and a Maw's +feeding-bottle grew, like some new kind of root-crop, from the ground +beside it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My daughter, <i>Huzoor</i>--little Dhropudi the <i>mâlin</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">His voice thrilled even my bachelor ears as he squatted down and began +mechanically to fan the swift-gathering flies from the sleeping child.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You seem to be very fond of her," I remarked after a pause. "It is +only a girl after all. Have you no son?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is the only one, and I waited for her ten years--ten long years; +so I was glad even to get a mâlin. Dhropudi grows as fast as a boy, +almost as fast as the <i>Huzoor's</i> cabbages. Only the other day she was +no bigger than my hand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your wife is dead, I suppose?" The question was, perhaps, a little +brutal, but it was so unusual to see a man doing dry nurse to a baby +girl, 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 simplicity left it, and in place thereof came a curious +anxiety such as a child might show with the dawning conviction that it +has lost itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is not at all dead, <i>Huzoor</i>; on the contrary, she is very young. +Children cry sometimes, and my house does not like crying. You see, +when people are young they require more sleep; when she is old as I am +she will be able to keep awake."</p> + +<p class="normal">His tone was argumentative, as if he were reasoning the matter out for +his own edification. "Not that Dhropudi keeps me awake often," he +added, in hasty apology to that infant's reputation; "considering how +young a person she is, her ways are very straight-walking and meek."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If she cries you can always stop her with the watering-pot, I +suppose."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked shocked at the suggestion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i> it is not difficult to stop them; such a very little thing +pleases a baby. Sometimes it is the sunshine--sometimes it 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 always the milk in its +stomach. Dhropudi's goat is yonder; it lives on your Honour's weeds. +You are her father and her mother."</p> + +<p class="normal">However much I might repudiate the relationship, I soon became quite +accustomed to finding Dhropudi in the most unexpected places in my +garden. For, soon after my first introduction to her, the claims of an +early crop of lettuces to protection from the squirrels led Heera Nund +to transfer the hand-light from one of his charges to another. +Dhropudi, he said, could grow nicely without it now; the black ants +could not carry her off, and the squirrels had quite begun to recognise +that she 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 water channel, and, forgetting which one +it was, turn the shallow stream that way. Then there would be a +momentary outcry at the cold bath; but the next, she would be pacified +with a flower, and sit in the sun to dry, for to say sooth, no more +good-tempered child ever existed than Dhropudi. In this, at any rate, +she was like her father, though I could trace no resemblance in other +ways. "She is like my house," he would say, when I noticed the fact. +"She is young, and I am old--quite old."</p> + +<p class="normal">Indeed, as time passed I saw that Heera Nund was older than I thought +at first. Before the barber came in the morning there was quite a +silver stubble on his bronze cheek, and his bright, restless eyes +were haggard and anxious. Despite his almost comic jauntiness and +self-importance, he struck me as having 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 her new accomplishment of crawling, to the detriment of a bed of +<i>sootullians</i> (Sweet Williams) in which he took special pride, was +quite pathetic. I found him simply howling between regret for the +plants and fear lest I should order punishment to the offender. His +gratitude when I laughed was unbounded.</p> + +<p class="normal">After this Dhropudi used to be set in a twelve-inch pot, half sunk in +the ground, where she would stay contentedly for hours, drumming the +sides with a carrot, while Heera weeded and dibbled.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She grows," he would say, snatching her up fiercely in his arms; "she +grows as all my plants grow. See my <i>sootullians!</i> They will blossom +soon, and then all the <i>sahibs</i> will come and say, 'See the +<i>sootullians</i> which Heera Nund and Dhropudi have grown for the +<i>Huzoor</i>.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet with all this blazoning of content the man was curiously +restless--almost like a child in his desire for action and vivid +interest in trivialities. "See the misbegotten creature I have found +eating the honourable <i>Huzoor's</i> roots!" he would say, casting a +wire-worm on the verandah steps, and dancing on it vindictively. "It +was in the <i>Huzoor's</i> carnations, but by the blessing of God and Heera +Nund's vigilance it is dead. Nothing escapes me. Have I not fought +wire-worms since the beginning of all things, I and my fathers? We kill +all creeping, crawling things, except the holy snake that brings fruit +and blossom to the garden."</p> + +<p class="normal">One night I was disturbed by unseemly noises, coming apparently from +the servants' quarters; but my remonstrances next morning were met by +my bearer, with swift denial. "It is Heera. He, poor man, has to beat +his wife almost every night now. I wonder the Presence has not heard +her before; she screams very loud."</p> + +<p class="normal">I stood aghast.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He should let her go, or kill her," continued the bearer placidly. +"She is not worth the trouble of beating; but he is a fool, because she +is Dhropudi's mother. Yes, he is a fool; he beats her when he finds her +lover there. He should beat her well before the man comes. That is the +best way with women."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was an old story, it seemed, dating before Dhropudi's appearance on +the scene. It occurred to me that perhaps a deeper tragedy than I had +thought for was ripening in my garden 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 hide the truth away forever in the bottom of that well where +Heera often held the child to smile at her own reflection, far down +where the water showed like a huge round dewdrop.</p> + +<p class="normal">So time went on, until the <i>sootullians</i> showed blossom buds, and +Dhropudi cut her first tooth on one and the same day. Perhaps the +excitement of the double event was too much for Heera's nerves; perhaps +what happened was due anyhow; but as I strolled through 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 +<i>can-can</i> among his <i>sootullians</i>, while Dhropudi shrieked with +delight +and beat frantically on her flower-pot. Even with the knowledge of all +that came after, the remembrance provokes a smile,--the rhythmic +bobbing up and down of the uncouth figure, the cowlike kicks of the +bandy legs, the preternaturally grave face above, the crushed +<i>sootullians</i> below.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sent him in charge of two sepoys to the Dispensary, and there he +remained for two months, more or less. When he came back he was very +quiet, very thin, and there were the marks of several blisters 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 her mother--were to be +found spending their days together in amicable companionship; his only +regrets being, apparently, that the <i>sootullians</i> had blossomed and +Dhropudi learnt to walk in his absence.</p> + +<p class="normal">But for one or two little eccentricities I might have been tempted to +forget that <i>can-can</i> among the flowers; indeed, I always met his +inquiries as to the <i>sootullians</i> with the remark that they had done as +well as could be expected in the circumstances. The eccentricities, +however, if few, were striking. One was his exaggerated gratitude for +the blisters on the back of 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 separate occasions +she formed part of the daily basket of vegetables which he brought in +to me, and very quaint the little black morsel looked sitting +surrounded by tomatoes and melons. But though he treated the matter as +an elaborate joke when I remarked on it, there was a dazed, uncertain +look in his eyes as if he were not quite sure as to the right end of +the stick.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevertheless peace and contentment reigned apparently in his house. +When I sat out in the dark, hot evenings, a glow of flickering +firelight from within showed the mysterious mud-walled enclosure by the +wall, decorous and conventional. The winking stars looking down into it +knew more of the life within than I did, but at any rate no unseemly +cries disturbed the scented night air and the <i>Huzoor's</i> 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 who had taken my warning so sullenly had +learnt more craft; perhaps the languor which creeps over all things in +May had sucked the vigour even from passion. Who could say? Those +crumbling mud walls hid it all, and Heera seemed to have begun a new +life with the hot-weather vegetables.</p> + +<p class="normal">So matters stood when an old enemy laid hold of me. Ten days after I +found myself racing Death with a determination to reach the sea, and +feel the salt west 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 the exile is over; the doctor's +verdict, the swift packing of a trunk or two, the hope, the fear, the +mad longing at least to see the dear faces once more.</p> + +<p class="normal">They packed me and a half hundred pillows into a <i>palki ghâri</i> one +afternoon. The servants stood, white clad, in a row beside the white +pillars, dazzling in the slanting sunlight. I drove through the flower +garden dusty and scorched. At the gate stood Heera Nund, one arm +occupied 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 ninepin +bouquets as he had carried on our first introduction. "Take them, +<i>sahib!</i>" he cried. "Take them for luck! and come back soon to the +<i>mâdli</i> and the <i>mâlin</i>." As the <i>ghâri</i> turned sharp down the +road I +saw him standing amidst the ruins of the basket with Dhropudi in his +arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">Six months passed before I set foot on Indian soil again, and then fate +and a restless Government sent me to a new station. When my servants +arrived with my baggage from the old one, I naturally fell to asking +questions. "And how is Heera Nund?" was one. My bearer smiled benignly. +"<i>Huzoor</i>, he is well--in the month of July he was hanged."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bearer!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Without doubt; it was in the month of July. He killed his wife with an +axe. Dhropudi was bitten by a snake while she slept one day when Heera +had to leave her with her mother; and that night he killed his wife as +<i>she</i> slept also. It was a mistake to be so revengeful, for every one +knew Dhropudi was not really his daughter."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you think that Heera knew?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She told him when the child died, in order to stop his grief; but it +did not. She was very kind to him,--after the other one went to prison +for lurking about."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And did no one tell about it all?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"About what, <i>Huzoor?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"About the vegetables, and Dhropudi, and the <i>sootullians</i>, and the +blisters on the back of his head! Did no one say the man was mad?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There was a new assistant at the Dispensary, <i>sahib</i>, and her people +were very rich; besides, Heera was not mad at all. He did it on +purpose. He was a bad man, and the Sirkâr did right to hang him--in +July."</p> + +<p class="normal">But as I turned away I could think of nothing but that <i>can-can</i> among +the <i>sootullians</i>, with little Dhropudi beating time with a carrot.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">FEROZA.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Two hen sparrows quarrelling over a feather, while a girl watched them +listlessly; for the rest, sunshine imprisoned by blank walls, save +where at one end a row of scalloped arches gave on two shallow, shadowy +verandah-rooms, and at the other a low doorway led to the world beyond. +But even this was veiled by a brick screen, 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 letter from which the London post-mark stared up into the +brazen Indian sky. She was waiting to have it read to her--waiting with +a dull, almost sullen patience, for the afternoon was still young. It +was old enough, however, to make a sheeted figure in the shadow sit up +on its string bed and yawn because siesta time was past.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Still thinking of thy letter, Feroz? <i>Bismillah!</i> I'm glad my man +doesn't live in a country where the women go about half naked."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who told thee so, Kareem? The Meer <i>sahib</i> said naught."</p> + +<p class="normal">A light laugh seemed prisoned in the echoing walls. "<i>Wah!</i> How canst +tell? 'Tis father-in-law reads thy letters. Inaiyut saith so. He saw +them at Delhi dancing like bad ones with--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Peace, Kareema! Hast no decency?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Enough for my years, whilst thou art more like a grandam than a +scarce-wed girl. Why should not Inaiyut be a man? A husband is none the +worse for knowing a pretty woman when he sees one."</p> + +<p class="normal">She settled the veil on her sleek black head and laughed again. Feroza +Begum's small brown face hardened into scorn. "Inaiyut hath experience +and practice in the art doubtless, as he hath in cockfighting and +dicing."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, don't gibe at him for that. Sure 'tis the younger son's portion +amongst us Moguls. Do I sneer at thy Meer amusing himself over the +black water amongst the <i>mems?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Meer is not amusing himself. He is learning to be a barrister."</p> + +<p class="normal">Kareema swung her legs to the ground with another giggle. "<i>Wah!</i> Men +are men all the world over, and so are women. Yea! 'tis true." She +looked like some gay butterfly as she flashed out into the sunlight, +and began with outstretched arms and floating veil to imitate the +sidelong graces of a dancing girl.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Hai! Hai!</i> Bad one!" cried a quavering voice behind her, as an old +woman clutching for scant covering at a dirty white sheet shambled +forward. "Can I not close an eye but thou must bring iniquity to +respectable houses? 'Tis all thy scapegrace husband; for when I brought +thee hither thou wast meek-spirited and--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Deck me not out with lies, nurse," laughed Kareema. "Sure I was ever +to behaviour as a babe to walking--unsteady on its legs. So wast thou +as a bride; so are all women." She seized the withered old arms as she +spoke, and threw them up in an attitude. "Dance, Mytâben! dance! 'Tis +the best way."</p> + +<p class="normal">The forced frown faded hopelessly before the young, dimpling face. +"Kareema! Why will'st not be decent like little Feroz yonder?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why? Because my man thinks I'm pretty! Because I've fine clothes! +Feroza hath old green trousers and her man is learning to be '<i>wise</i>,' +forsooth! amongst the <i>mems</i>. So she is jealous--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not jealous," interrupted the other hotly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Peace, peace, little doves!" expostulated the old nurse. "Feroz is no +fool to be jealous of a <i>mem</i>. Holy Prophet, Kareem! hadst thou seen +them at Delhi as I have--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Inaiyut hath seen them too. He saith they are as <i>houris</i> in silk and +satins with bare breasts and arms--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mytâben's bony fingers crackled in a shake of horrified denial. +"Silence! shameless one! I tell thee they have no beauty, no +clothes--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There! I said they had no clothes," pouted Kareema.</p> + +<p class="normal">The duenna folded her sheet round her with great dignity. "Thy +wit is sharp, Kareema! 'Tis as well; for thou wilt need it to +protect thy nose! The <i>mems</i> 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 <i>mems</i>, with green spectacles serving as veils. Not +that they need them, for they are virtuous and keep their eyes from men +truck. Not like bad bold hussies who dance--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis not true," cried Kareema shrilly. "Thou sayest it to please +Feroza. Inaiyut holds they are <i>houris</i> for beauty, and he knows."</p> + +<p class="normal">In the wrangle which ensued the London postmark revolved between earth +and heaven as the letter turned over and over in Feroza's listless +fingers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish I knew," she muttered with a frown puckering her forehead. "He +saith they are so wise, and yet--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mytâben paused in the war of words and laid her wrinkled old fingers on +the girl's head. "Plague on new-fangled ways!" she grumbled half to +herself. "Have no fear, heart's life! they are uncomely. But for all +that, 'tis a shame of the Meer to leave thee pining."</p> + +<p class="normal">A hand was on her mouth. "Hush, Mytâben! 'Tis a wife's duty to wait her +lord's pleasure to stay or come."</p> + +<p class="normal">There is a dignity in submission, but Kareema laughed again, and even +old Mytâb looked at the girl compassionately. "For all that, heart's +life, 'tis well to be sure. Certainty soothes the liver more than hope. +So thou shalt see a <i>mem</i>. For lo! the book-readers have come to this +town, and one passeth the door every eve at sundown."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Mytâb! why didn't you tell us before?" cried both the girls in a +breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because 'tis enough as it is, to keep two married girls straight, with +never a mother-in-law to make them dance to her tune," grumbled the +nurse evasively. "<i>Hai</i>, Kareema! I will tell thy father-in-law the +Moulvie,<a name="div4Ref_18" href="#div4_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> and then 'twill +be bread and water."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bread and water is not good for brides," retorted Kareema with a +giggle. "And I will see the <i>mems</i> too, or I will cry, and then--" She +nodded her head maliciously.</p> + +<p class="normal">That evening at sundown the two girls sat huddled up by the latticed +window of the outer vestibule, while Mytâb watched at the door of the +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 +they could see up and down a narrow alley where a central drain, full +of black sewage, usurped the larger half of the rough brick pavement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Look, Feroza! look!" cried Kareema in a choked voice. A white +umbrella lined with green, a huge pith hat tied round with a blue veil, +a gingham dress, a bag of books, white stockings, and tan shoes,--that +was all. They watched the strange apparition breathlessly till it came +abreast of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Kareema's pent-up mirth burst forth in peals of laughter so +distinctly audible through the open lattice that the cause stopped in +surprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">Feroza started to her feet. "For shame, Kareem, for shame! He says +they are so good." And before they guessed what she would be at, the +wicket-gate was open, and she was on the bare, indecent doorstep.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Salaam! mem sahib, salaam!</i>" rang her high-pitched, girlish voice. +"I, Feroza Begum of the house of Meer Ahmed Ali, barrister-at-law, am +glad to see you."</p> + +<p class="normal">Before Kareema, by hanging on to Mytâb's scanty attire, lent weight +enough to drag the offender back to seclusion, the English lady raised +her veil, and Feroza Begum, Moguli, caught her first glimpse of a pair +of mild blue eyes. She never forgot the introduction to Miss Julia +Smith, spinster of Clapham. Perhaps she had reason to remember it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I might have believed it of Kareem," whimpered the duenna over a +consolatory pipe, "but Feroz! To stand out in the world yelling like a +hawker. <i>Ai, Ai!</i> Give me your quiet ones for wickedness. <i>Phut!</i> in a +moment, like water from the skin-bag, spoiling everything."</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Twas Kareem's laugh burst the <i>mashk</i>, nursie," laughed Feroza. She +and her sister-in-law seemed to have changed places for the time, and +she was flitting about gay as a wren, while the former sulked moodily +on her bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet as the days passed a new jealousy came like seven devils to possess +poor Feroza utterly.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was this wisdom which inspired so many well-turned periods in the +Meer's somewhat prosy letters? Beauty was beyond her, but women even of +her race had been wise; passionate Nurjehan, and even pious Fâtma--God +forgive her for evening her chances with that saintly woman's! The +thought led to such earnest study of the Koran that old Mytâb's wrath +was mollified into a hope of permanent penitence. And all the time the +girl's heart was singing pćans of praise over the ease with which she +remembered the long strings of meaningless words. Buoyed up by hope she +confided her heart's desire to Kareema.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eat more butter and grow fat," replied that little coquette. "Dress in +bright colours and redden thy lips. And thou mightest use that powder +the <i>mems</i> have to make their skins fair. Inaiyut saith he will buy me +some in the bazaar. That is true wisdom; the other is for wrinkles."</p> + +<p class="normal">Despite this cold water, the very next London post-mark brought matters +to a crisis.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that all?" asked Feroza dismally, when her father-in-law, the +Moulvie, had duly intoned her husband's letter. "It looks, oh! it looks +ever so much more on paper."</p> + +<p class="normal">The old Mohammedan stared through his big horn-rimmed spectacles at her +reluctant finger feeling its way along the crabbed writing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite enough for a good wife, daughter-in-law," he replied. "Bring my +pipe, and thank God he is well."</p> + +<p class="normal">As she sat fanning the old man duteously, her mind was full of +suspicion. Could <i>she</i> have compressed the desire and love of her heart +into a few well-turned sentences? Ah! if she could only learn to read +for herself. The thought found utterance in a tentative remark that it +would save the Moulvie trouble if she were a scholar.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis not much trouble," said the old man courteously; "the letters are +not long."</p> + +<p class="normal">The effect of these words surprised him into taking off his spectacles, +as if this new departure of quiet Feroza's could be better seen by the +naked eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So thou thinkest to learn all the Meer has learnt?" he asked +scornfully, when her eloquence abated. "<i>Wah illah!</i> What? Euclidus and +Algebra, Political Economy and Justinian?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The desire of the girl's heart was not this, but jealousy and shame +combined prevented her declaring the real standard of her aims, so she +replied defiantly, "Why not? I can learn the Koran fast--oh, ever so +fast."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was an unfortunate speech, since it brought down on her the +inevitable reply that such knowledge was enough for those who, at best, +must enter Paradise at a man's coat-tails. Driven into a corner, she +felt the hopelessness of the struggle, until, flushed by success, the +Moulvie forgot caution, and declaimed against his son's stupidity in +desiring more.</p> + +<p class="normal">Feroza seized on this slip swiftly. If it was as she feared, if her +husband's wishes were kept from her ignorance, she must, she would +learn. If she could not go to school, the <i>mems</i> would come and teach +her at home. They did such work at 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 <i>mems</i> not to sing +their hymns. Indeed, such a question seemed all too trivial for +comparison with her future happiness. Therefore her disappointment when +Mytâben brought back a peremptory refusal from the mission-ladies to +teach on such condition was very keen. Her piteous, surprised tears +roused Kareema's scornful wonder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't think why thou shouldst weep; it thickens the nose, and thine +is over-broad as it is. Inaiyut offered once to teach me, but when I +asked him if learning would make him love me better, he kissed me with +a laugh. So I let it alone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thou dost not understand," sobbed Feroza; "no one does. The Meer is +wise, and I am different."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Wah!</i> Thou art but a woman at best, and life is over for us with the +first wrinkle, no matter what we learn. Ah, Feroz! let's enjoy youth +whilst we have it. See! I have a rare bit of fun for thee if thou wilt +not blab to Mytâben. Promise!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Three days afterwards Feroza, escaping from the turmoil of a great +marriage in a relative's house, found herself, much to her own surprise +and bewilderment, forming one of a merry party of young women disguised +in boy's clothes, and bound for an hour or so of high jinks in one of +the walled 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 taken up their abode close by. So she had +allowed her doubts and fears to be allayed; though inwardly she failed +to see the vast difference on which her sister-in-law insisted, between +the iniquity of standing on doorsteps in the full light of day, and +sneaking out at night on the quiet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Verily," said Kareema in a pet, "thou art a real noodle, Feroz! I tell +thee all the good-style women do thus, and my sister will be there with +her boys. <i>Wah!</i> were it not for my handsome Inaiyut, I should die in +this dull old house where folk wish to be better than God made them."</p> + +<p class="normal">So it came to pass that while Miss Julia Smith, spinster of Clapham, +sat with her fellow-workers in the verandah resting after their +labours, a boyish figure with a beating heart was creeping towards her +as the goal of every hope.</p> + +<p class="normal">The English mail was in; an event which by accentuating the severance +from home ties is apt to raise the enthusiasm of the mission-house +beyond normal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How very, very interesting it is about the young man Ahmed Ali," +remarked Julia, in a voice tuned to superlatives. "Dearest Mrs. +Cranston writes that he spoke so sweetly about his ignorant child-wife. +As she says, there is something so--so--so comforting, you know, in the +thought of work coming to us, as if--well, I can't quite express it, +you know,--but from our own homes,--from dear, dear, old England!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a large amount of confused good feeling in Julia Smith. A +kindly soul she was, if a little over-sentimental. Perhaps a broken +sixpence, stored side by side with a decayed vegetable in her desk, +formed a creditable explanation of the latter weakness. Such things +account for much in the lives of most women.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose," she continued, "we were right to refuse without hymns; but +I shall never forget the sweet child's face as she popped from her +prison. I am making up the incident for our magazine; it will be most +touching. But now that dearest Mrs. Cranston has written, it seems like +the finger of Providence--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A boy wanting a Miss," interrupted the nondescript familiar, +inseparable from philanthropy in India. "The one with an umbrella, a +big hat, and a bag of books."</p> + +<p class="normal">A very womanly laugh with an undercurrent of militant pleasure, ran +round the company. The description fitted one and all, and they were +proud of the fact.</p> + +<p class="normal">The moon shone bright behind the arches, the scent of orange blossoms +drifted over the high garden wall, and every now and again a burst of +laughter close at hand overbore the more distant noise of wedding drums +and pipes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you want, my son?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The soft voice with its strange inflections took away the last vestige +of Feroza's courage. She stood dizzy with absolute fear, her tongue +cleaving to her mouth. A 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; then, suddenly, +inheritance broke through her terror. She flung her hands up to heaven, +and her young voice rose in the traditional cry for justice. "<i>Dohai! +Dohai!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We do not keep justice here," was the soft answer. "You must go to the +Courts for that. We are but women--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And I too am a woman! Listen!" The words which had lagged a moment +before now crowded to her lips, and as she stepped closer her raised +arm 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; and when I also ask for learning, you say, 'You must sing.' What +is singing when I am sad? Surely God will hear my tears and not your +songs!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her passion swayed her so that but for Julia Smith's supporting arm she +would have fallen. "I don't understand," said the Englishwoman kindly. +"What have we done? Who are you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am the wife of Meer Ahmed Ali, barrister-at-law, and I want to be +taught Euclidus, and Justinian, and the--the other things. You shall +not take him away for always. Justice! I say, justice!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dears! My dears!" cried Julia Smith, "didn't I tell you it was the +finger of Providence--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Half-an-hour afterwards little Feroza, flying back to rejoin her +companions, felt as if Paradise had been opened to her by a promise. +But if Paradise 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 her. All was still and silent save for the +creak of the well-wheel and a soft rustle from the burnished leaves +where the moonlight glistened white.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Kareem! let me in! for pity sake let me in!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a wild, uncontrollable fear at finding herself alone in an unknown +world claimed her body and soul, and she fled like a hare to the only +refuge she knew. The <i>mems</i> must protect her; for were they not the +cause of her venturing forth at all? But for them, or their like, would +she not have been well content at home? Yea! well content.</p> + +<p class="normal">The verandah was empty, and from within came a monotonous voice. She +peered into the dimly lit room to see a circle of kneeling figures, and +hear her own name 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 seized and baptised against their +will leapt to her memory. She covered her eyes as if to shut out the +horrid sight and fled; whither she neither knew nor cared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Hai!</i> have I found thee at last, graceless! scandalous!" scolded some +one into whose arms she ran at full tilt.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mytâb! oh, dear Mytâb!" she cried, clinging frantically to the +familiar figure. "Take me home, oh, please take me home! I will never +go out again, no, never!"</p> + +<p class="normal">That was the determination of ignorance. Eighteen months after wisdom +had altered it and many other things, for during that time Julia Smith +had sung hymns on the doorstep three days a week. Sometimes she had +quite a large audience, and sometimes Feroza herself would listen at +the lattice. On these occasions the thin voice had a ring in it; for, +despite the fact that her pupil was taught all the truths of religion +in prose and monotone, poor Julia used to wonder if this relegating of +hymns to the doorstep 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 in his wife. And meanwhile +time brought other changes to the quiet courtyard. Handsome, dissipated +Inaiyut died of cholera, and over him, and the boy-baby she lost, +Kareema shed tears which did not dim her beauty. Three months after she +was once more making the bare walls ring with her inconsequent +laughter. She jeered at Feroza's diligence with increased scorn. No +man, she said, was worth the losing of looks in books, and if the Meer +really spoke of return, a course of cosmetics would be more advisable.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even Julia shook her head over Feroza's thin face. "You work too hard, +dear," she sighed. "Ah! if it were the one thing needful; but I have +failed to teach you that."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dear Miss! don't look sad; think of the difference you have wrought. +Oh, do not cry," she went on passionately, for the mild blue eyes were +filling with tears. "Come, we will talk of his return, full of 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 unkind +person had poisoned Julia's peace with remarks of the mixing of unknown +chemicals. After all, what did she know of this absent husband, save +that dear Mrs. Cranston had met him at a conversazione?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose the Meer is really an enlightened man?" she asked dubiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gingham dress gave up a scared face. "Dear Miss! why, he is a +barrister-at-law!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her teacher coughed. "But are you sure, dear, that he wanted you to +learn?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not everything; because he did not think I could; but he spoke of many +things. I have learnt all,--except--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Except what?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Feroza hesitated. "I was not sure,--Inaiyut said he would teach it, but +he died-- 'Tis only a game called whist."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Whist!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do I not say it right? W-h-i-s-t--<i>wist</i>. Oh, Miss! is it a wicked +game? Is it not fit? Ought I not to learn it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The fire of questions reduced Julia Smith's confusion to simple tears. +"I don't know," she moaned, "that is the worst! I thought it was the +finger of Providence, and--ah, Feroza! If I have done you harm!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have done me no harm," said Feroza, with a kind smile. "You have +harmed yourself with cinnamon tea and greasy fritters in the other +zenanas, and you shall have some, English fashion, to take away your +headache."</p> + +<p class="normal">So grumbling Mytâb brought an afternoon tea-tray duly supplied with a +plate of thin bread-and-butter from within, and Feroza's small brown +face beamed over Julia Smith's surprise. "He will think himself back +amongst the <i>mems!</i> won't he?" she asked with a happy laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">Would he? As she jolted home in her palanquin Julia's head whirled. Old +and new, ignorance and wisdom!--here was a jumble. A stronger brain +than hers might well have felt confusion. For it was sunset in that +heathen 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 another, if only by a perfunctory performance of some rite, +testified that day to the fact that religion formed a part of his daily +round, his common task. And on the other side of the world, whence the +missions come?--</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Kareema, bewailing the useless cards, found herself backed up +by old Mytâben. Such knowledge, the old woman said, would have 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 scented +soaps like a bad one, and living luxurious? Sheets and towels, +forsooth! Why, Shah-jehan himself never dreamed of such expenses.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I like them, for all that," cried Kareema gaily; "and I think the +<i>mems</i> are wise to have big looking-glasses. It is hateful only seeing +a little bit of one's self at a time. And Feroza and I are going out to +be admired like the <i>mems</i>, aren't we, Feroza?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If the Meer wishes it," replied her sister-in-law gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mytâb looked from one to the other. "Have a care, players with fire!" +she said shrilly. "Have a care! Is the world changed because it reads +books and washes? Lo! the customs of the fathers bind the children."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mytâb hath been mysterious of late," remarked Kareema, giving a queer +look, as the old lady moved away in wrath. "Ah me! if I had but my +handsome Inaiyut dicing in the vestibule 'twould be better for all of +us, maybe."</p> + +<p class="normal">Feroza laid her soft hand gently on the other's shoulder. "I am so +sorry for thee, dear! but we will love thee always and be a sister and +brother--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Kareema's look was queerer than ever, and she laughed hysterically.</p> + +<p class="normal">The day came at last when Feroza sat in the sunlit courtyard holding +another unopened letter in her hand, knowing that ere a week was over +the writer would be prisoned in her kind arms, surrounded by friendly +faces, caught in the meshes of familiar custom. She was not afraid, +even though his letters gave her small clue to the man himself. Her own +convictions 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 on a chair now, and her white stockings and +patent-leather shoes twisted themselves tortuously about its legs. She +thought mostly of the childish time when she, their cousin, had played +with Ahmed Ali and Inaiyut; it seemed somehow nearer than those other +days, when the studious lad's departure for college had been prefaced +by that strange, unreal marriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Kareema watched her furtively from the far corner where she and +Mytâb were making preserves.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly a loud call, fiercely imperative, made them come sheepishly +forward to where Feroza stood at bay, one hand at her throat, the other +crushing her husband's letter. "What is this? What have you all been +keeping from me? What does he mean?--this talk of duty and custom. +Ah-h-h--!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her voice, steady till then, broke into a ringing cry as a trivial +detail in Kareema's reluctant figure caught her eye. The palms and +nails of those delicate hands were no longer stained with henna. They +were as her own, as nature made them, as the Meer <i>sahib</i> said he liked +them! She seized both wrists fiercely, turning the accusing palms to +heaven, while a tempest of sheer animal jealousy beat the wretched girl +down from each new-won foothold, down, down, to the inherited nature +underneath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then it is true," she gasped. "I see! I know! Holy Prophet! what +infamy to talk of duty. He is to marry,--and I who have slaved--He is +mine, mine, I say! Thou shalt not have him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mytâb's chill old hand fell on the girl's straining arm like the touch +of Death. "<i>Allah akhbâr wa Mohammed rasul!</i><a name="div4Ref_19" href="#div4_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> +Hast forgotten the +faith, Feroza Begum, Moguli? Thine? Since when has the wife a right to +claim all? Since when hast thou become a <i>mem?</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl glared at her with wild passion, and Kareema gave a whimper as +the grip bit into her tender wrists. "Don't; you hurt me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Feroza flung them from her in contemptuous loathing. "Fool! coward! as +if he would touch you. I will tell him all. He will know--Ah God! my +head! my head!--" She was in the dust at their feet stunned by her own +passion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I warned the Moulvie to break it by degrees," grumbled Mytâb, dragging +the girl to some matting; "but he said 'twould make no more to her than +to the Meer. Books don't seem to change a man, but women are +different."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It's not my fault," whimpered Kareema. "I don't want to marry the +Meer; he was ever a noodle. Prating of its being a duty, forsooth!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"So it is! a bounden duty. Never hath childless widow had to leave this +house, and never shall, till God makes us pigs of unbelievers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wish my handsome Inaiyut had lived for all that," muttered the girl, +as Feroza showed signs of recovery. She resisted all attempts at +explanation or comfort, however, and made her way alone, a solitary +resolute figure, to her windowless room, where, when she shut the door, +all was dark. There she lay tearless while the others, sitting in the +sunlight, talked in whispers as if the dead were within.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Moulvie must bid her repeat the creed," was old Mytâb's ultimatum. +"God send the Miss has not made a Christian of her, with all those +soapings and washings!" She had no spark of pity. Such was woman's lot, +and to rebel was sacrilege.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't make sure of my consent," pouted Kareema, her pretty face +swollen with easy tears. "If he is really the noodle Feroza deems, I'd +rather be a religious. 'Twould be just as amusing."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mytâb laughed derisively. "Thou a religious! The gossips would have +tired tongues. Besides, choice is over. Had the child lived, perhaps; +but now the Moulvie hath a right to see Inaiyut's children on his +knee."</p> + +<p class="normal">The sunshine had given place to shadow before Feroza appeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bring me a <i>burka</i>;<a name="div4Ref_20" href="#div4_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> I +am going to see the Miss. Follow if thou +wilt," she said; and though her voice had lost its ring, the tone +warned Mytâb 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 passion blotted out by the formless white domino she wore. +"I could kill you for being pretty," she said in a hard whisper, as she +turned away.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had never been to the mission-house since that eventful night, and +the sight of its familiar unfamiliarity renewed the sense of injury +with which she had last seen it. "Miss <i>Eshsmitt sahib</i>," they told +her, was ill; but she would 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 beauty odds enough, +that she must fight also against this undreamed-of comfort? She flung +up her arms with the old cry, "<i>Dohai! Dohai!</i>" The fever-flushed face +on the frilled pillows turned fearfully. "What is it, Feroza? Oh! what +is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The question was hard to solve even in the calm sessions of thought, +well-nigh impossible here. Why had she been lured from the old life in +some ways and not in all? Was their boasted influence all words? Then +why had they prated of higher things? Why had they <i>lied</i> to her?</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Julia buried her face in a pocket-handkerchief drenched in +<i>eau-de-Cologne</i>, and sobbed, "Ah, take her away! Please take her +away!"</p> + +<p class="normal">So they led her gently to the text-hung drawing-room with a cottage +piano in one corner, and shook their heads over her passionate appeals. +They could do nothing, they said,--nothing at all,--unless she cast in +her lot with them absolutely; so she turned and left them with a sombre +fire in her eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">She never knew how the days passed until, as she watched the sunlight +creep up the eastern wall of the court, it came home to her that on the +next evening Meer Ahmed Ali would watch it also. She seemed not to have +thought, and it was Kareema, and not she, who had 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 thyself to care. God knows he +may not look at either, through being enamoured of the <i>mems</i>. And oh, +Feroza," she added, her sympathy overborne by curiosity, "think you he +will wear the strange dress of the Miss <i>sahib's</i> sun-pictures? If so I +shall laugh of a surety."</p> + +<p class="normal">A gleam of consolation shot through poor Feroza's brain. Men disliked +ridicule. "Of course the Meer dresses Europe-fashion," she replied +stiffly. "Thou seemest to forget that my husband is a man of culture."</p> + +<p class="normal">A man of culture! undoubtedly, if by culture we mean dutiful +self-improvement. That had been Meer Ahmed Ali's occupation for years, +and his gentle, high-bred face bore unmistakably the look of one +stowing away knowledge for future use. He was really an excellent young +man; and, during his three years at a boarding-house in Notting Hill, +had behaved himself as few young men do when first turned loose in +London. He spoke English perfectly, and it would be difficult to say +what he had not learnt that could be learnt by 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 that he was more actuated by a sense of duty than by any hope +of greater happiness for himself. The natural suggestion that he should +marry his brother's widow he looked on merely as a further development +of previous bondage; and he told himself again that, not having swerved +a hair's breadth from his faith, he was bound to set his own views +aside in favour of a custom desired by those chiefly concerned. +Besides, in the atmosphere of surprised sympathy in which he lived it +was hard, indeed, not to pose as a victim.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so, just as poor Feroza was confidently asserting his culture, he, +having given his English fellow-passengers the slip, was once more +putting on the clothes of an orthodox Mohammedan. Feroza, 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 hair and clustering jewels +degrades the veil to an unnecessary wrap; the propriety of the bodice +intensifies its shapelessness; the very face suffers by the unconcealed +holes in ears and nose.</p> + +<p class="normal">Kareema stared with a smile akin to tears. "There is time," she +pleaded. "Come! I can make you look twice as well."</p> + +<p class="normal">Their eyes met with something of the old affection, but Feroza shook +her head. "I must find out--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he is a noodle?" The interrupting giggle was almost a whimper. "You +mean if he is blind! Ah, Feroza! look at me."</p> + +<p class="normal">No need to say that; the puzzled eyes had taken in the sight already. +Gleams of jewelled hair under the gold threaded veil; a figure revealed +by the net bodice worn over a scantier one of flowered muslin; bare +feet tucked away in shells of shoes; long gauze draperies showing a +shadow of silk-clad limbs; above it all that dimpling, smiling face. +She shook her head again.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the long minutes of waiting she lost herself in counting the bricks +on the familiar wall until the sight of a tall man at the door dressed +as a Mohammedan startled her into drawing the veil to her face in fear +of intrusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the man withdrew quickly Kareema's laugh rang out. "To think, +Feroza! thou shouldest be <i>purdah</i> to him after all thy big talk."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Meer! Was that the Meer?" faltered Feroza. "I did not--the +dress--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bah! I knew the likeness to my poor Inaiyut. See! yonder he comes +again ushered by father-in-law. Now, quick, Feroza!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The voice quavering over the prepared phrases of thanks to the Great +Giver of home-coming was infinitely pathetic; and yet, as Ahmed Ali +took the outstretched hand, he was conscious above all things of a +regret, almost a sense of outrage; 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 have naught worthy his +acceptance save the memory of kinship. My sister and I greet you, <i>as +sisters</i>. Nay, more," she added lightly; "I too shake hands +English-fashion, and if I do it wrong forgive us both, since learned +Feroza is teacher."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You make me very happy," answered the Meer heartily. "How well you are +all looking!"</p> + +<p class="normal">No need to say where his eyes were.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You mistake, Meer <i>sahib</i>," cried Kareema swiftly, "Feroza looks ill. +'Tis your blame, since she worked over-hard to please you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The forbidden frown came too late to prevent Ahmed Ali's glance finding +it on his wife's face. It was not becoming. "Was it so hard to learn?" +he asked with a patronising smile. "But your handwriting improved +immensely of late."</p> + +<p class="normal">The tips of Feroza's fingers showed bloodless under their nervous +clasp, but she said nothing. Indeed, she scarcely opened her lips as +they sat talking over the morning meal. Even when the Meer refused tea +and toast in favour of <i>chupatties</i> and <i>koftas</i><a name="div4Ref_21" href="#div4_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> +it was Kareema who +supplied surprise. Feroza was all eyes and ears, and not till the sun +tipping over the high walls glared down on them did she lose patience +enough to ask, vaguely, what he thought about it all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Wah illah</i>," cried the Moulvie, "Feroza hits the mark! What thinkest +thou, my son? But I fear not, for thou hast the faithful air, and canst +doubtless repeat thy creed purely."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man looked round the familiar scene, every detail of which +fitted so closely to memory that no room remained for the seven years' +absence. A rush of glad recognition surged to heart and brain, making +him stand up and give the <i>Kalma</i>.<a name="div4Ref_22" href="#div4_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">"I am content, oh, my father!" he cried in ringing tones, as the +sonorous echoes died away to silence. "I am content to come back to the +old life, to the old duties."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The sun makes my head ache," said Feroza, rising abruptly, "I will go +into the dark and rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't go, Feroza! Thou hast not told the Meer about thyself," pleaded +Kareema, rising in her turn. "She hath worked so hard," she added +petulantly to the young man. "No one is worth it, no one."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Meer looked from one to the other. "Learning is hard for women," he +began. Then something in his wife's face roused the new man in him, +making him say in a totally different tone and manner, "I am afraid I +hardly understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is what Kareema says of me," replied Feroza icily.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her cousin, as she sat down once more to listen, shrugged her +shoulders. "And she counted herself as something better than a woman," +was her inward comment amid her smiles.</p> + +<p class="normal">Feroza saw nothing of her husband for the rest of the day. The men's +court was crowded with visitors, and she herself had to bear the brunt +of many feminine congratulations. Only at sunset, before starting to +attend a feast given in his honour, he 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 made her heart bound, and a distinct pause brought her to his +side with wistful eyes, only to see Kareema nodding and smiling to him +from the roof, whither she had gone for fresher air. "What is it?" he +asked kindly, though his looks were elsewhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing," she answered, "nothing at all. Go in peace!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The moon, rising ere the sun set, stole the twilight. So she sat gazing +at the hard square outlines of the walls till far on into the night, +her mind filled with but one thought. The thought that by and by Ahmed +Ali, flushed with content at things 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 lattice +whence she had had her first glimpse of wisdom. Even on that brilliant +night the vestibule itself was dark; but through the door she could see +the empty arcades of the men's court surrounding the well where she and +her cousins used to play.</p> + +<p class="normal">A rustle in the alley made her peer through the fret-work, for the +veriest trifle swayed her; but it was only a dog seeking garbage in the +gutter. Then 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, she might have waited his return calmly +enough. Footsteps now! She cowered to the shadow at the sight of +Kareema followed by Mytâb bearing something.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He mayn't be back till late," came the familiar giggle; "and a soft +pillow will please him."</p> + +<p class="normal">The pair were back again before she recovered her surprise, and Kareema +paused ere re-entering the women's door. "Poor Feroza! She will get +accustomed to it, I suppose."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of what hath she to complain?" retorted the old voice; "he is a +properer man than I deemed. Say, heart's desire, what said he when I +saw thee--?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mytâb! thou mean spy! Bah! he told me he would change a letter and +call me Carina, since it meant dearest in some heathen tongue. They +begin thus over the black water likely; 'tis not bad, and new at any +rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">Feroza scarcely waited for distance to deaden the answering giggle. She +was on her feet, pacing to and fro like a mad creature. Ah! to get away +from it all--from that name, from the look he must 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 cool damp stones, her eyes rested +themselves on the faint glimmer far down--ever, oh, ever so far away! +Hark! some one in the alley. If it were he? Ah! then she must go away, +ever so far away--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Meer Ahmed Ali found his pillow comfortable, and only woke in the dawn +to see Mytâb standing beside him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Feroza!" she cried. "Where is Feroza?"</p> + +<p class="normal">A dull remorse came to his drowsy brain. "It was so late--I--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Holy Prophet, she is not here! Thou hast not seen her! Then she hath +gone to the <i>Missen</i> to be baptised. Why didst turn her brain with +books? Fool! Idiot!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Mission!" Meer Ahmed Ali was awake now, and the peaceful party, +gathered in the verandah for early tea, stared as the young man burst +in on it with imperious demands for his wife. Then his surroundings +recalled his acquired courtesy, and he stammered an apologetic +explanation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She has gone away?" cried Julia, with a queer catch in her breath. +"Oh, Meer <i>sahib!</i> what a mistake we have all made. It was too late to +write, and then I got ill; but, indeed! I was going down this very +morning to try and make you understand."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Understand what?" asked the Meer, helplessly confused, adding +hurriedly, "but I can't stay now. She must be found. I will not have +her run away. I will have her back--yes! I <i>will</i> have her back."</p> + +<p class="normal">Half-an-hour later Julia Smith, driven to the Moulvie's house by +remorseful anxiety, found the wicket-gate ajar. She entered silently +upon a scene framed like a picture by the dark doorway of the men's +court.</p> + +<p class="normal">Feroza had come back to those familiar walls. She lay beside the well, +and the water from her clinging garments crept in dark stains through +the dust. She had wrapped her veil round her to stifle useless cries, +and so the dead face, as in life, was decently hidden from the eyes of +men. She lay alone under the cloudless sky, for her friends, shrinking +from the defilement of death, stood apart: Kareema sobbing on Mytâb's +breast, with Ahmed Ali, dazed yet indignant, holding her hand; the +Moulvie, repeating a prayer; the servants still breathless from their +ghastly toil. Julia Smith saw it all with her bodily eyes; yet nothing +seemed worth seeing save that veiled figure in the dust. She knelt +beside it and took the slender cold hand in hers. "My dear, my dear!" +she whispered through her sobs. "Surely you need not have gone so far, +so very far--for help."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the dead face was hidden even from her tears.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">IN THE HOUSE OF A COPPERSMITH.</a></h2> +<br> +<br> +<h3>I.</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">The clangour of metal upon metal filling the low, dark workshop, +pulsating out into the hot sunshine of the courtyards behind, and the +hot shadow of the narrow street in front. Pulsating musically, yet with +an undercurrent of jarring vibration like a north-country burr on a +woman's tongue. The whole best described, perchance, in the native name +for the copper which the workmen were hammering and welding into pots +and pans--<i>tambur</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Tâm bur, tâm-burr-urr-ur</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus endlessly through afternoon sunshine and afternoon shade, as the +shine fell full on a woman who was sitting silently beside a row of mud +cooking-places in the first courtyard. So still, so silent; it seemed +as if the waves of sound must break baffled upon the carven folds of +the coarse, whitey brown veil which, covering her almost from head to +foot, was drawn tight over the forehead to conceal the hair, and wound +tight under the chin so as to hide all save the oval face barred by +level black brows, and the brown curves of a wide mouth. Only about her +feet a voluminous petticoat showed its dingy red and green borderings +like a frill. The typical dress of a widow in Northern India, and the +face matched it. More indifferent than sad; the lack of 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 <i>dewarani</i>--the husband's younger +brother's wife--bound by every principle of religion and decency to +obey? Durga-dei's black brows grew straighter at the thought of the +change one short year had wrought. And Gopâl, Parbutti's husband, was +the master now. A pretty master for all his good looks, for all his +learning! yet what else could one expect, seeing he had spent his youth +over books at the Municipal School, while his elder brother, despite +his crippled condition, had kept the ancestral business a-going? Yes! +on that point the dead husband had been weak; and yet how proud he had +been of the handsome lad who was to bring sons to the ancestral hearth! +But he had not even done so much, though to be sure, for that Parbutti +was to blame; a jealous wife, too selfish--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Durga! Durga-dei! The broom, quick! Am I to sit in the dust like a +lone widow because thou art lazy? The broom, I say!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The voice which overbore one clamour by another was not pleasant; but +it was so in comparison with Durga's face as she rose reluctantly. A +thousand times more so than that same 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 +figure, despite its shroud, as it leant despondently against the +lintel, while the black eyes shifted in a sort of helpless indifference +over the blank walls imprisoning them.</p> + +<p class="normal">A year ago; only a year ago!</p> + +<p class="normal">Her unpractised brain attempted no other complaint; but this +unformulated sense of injury possessed her utterly, and everything in +heaven and earth became an outrage on that capable past when she had +held the reins of government. Of a truth, in that small kingdom of hers +behind the coppersmith's shop naught had been wanting that she could +compass. Naught save children; for that Parbutti, feckless Parbutti, +with youth and health and strength on both sides, was far more +responsible than she. If the curse had been hers, would she not gladly +have given a handmaiden to her lord? But they had waited for the +brother's child which would be as their own, and in that hope had +refused to adopt a son while yet there was time. Even now--the small +supple hands sought the crevices beyond the door lintel against which +they had been resting slackly--sought them as if intent 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 +Gopâl by <i>kurao</i>, 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 family; since she would then have the right +to keep handsome, lazy Gopâl and his work together for the sake of the +son who might be born to the old trade. She was of the stern old +school; but those two were not; and so, between the hearth and that +calm perpetuity in which lay its only chance of success, stood a strong +woman's jealousy and a weak man's cunning. For Gopâl knew well that +sooner or later even the most indecent of barren wives must give her +lord a child-bringer. And in such case, without being bad to the +heart's core, a handsome fellow like Gopâl might well speculate on a +youthful bride in the future, rather than take a widow in the present, +since Parbutti would never allow both. So, on the whole, he was not so +much to blame. Men were men when all was said and done. They loved +beauty. Yet she had been beautiful--surely she had been beautiful.</p> + +<p class="normal">The clangour ceased suddenly, leaving, as it were, an echo in the chime +of the police office gong at the nearest gate striking the hour--five +o'clock. Durga, as she counted the strokes, smiled contemptuously. As +usual Gopâl was seizing on 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 implements +put aside, or guard against the prentice trick of concealing a handful +or two of snippings and filings; for there was his lithe figure at the +door, about to cross to the inner courtyard--to ease and indolence--to +his supper--to--to Parbutti!</p> + +<p class="normal">A flash of intense vitality came to Durga's face: despite its silence, +its absolute stillness, her whole figure was instinct with life as she +stood looking at the man opposite her. He was about her own age, and +the scanty clothing of the artisan clashes left the strength and beauty +of his limbs unconcealed. The face was handsome also, and pleasant in +its beardless contours, surrounded by the fringe of silky black hair +showing beneath the artisan's round calico cap. Both figure and +features displaying at their best the characteristics of that curious +guild which for thousands of years has defied the Sudra origin imputed +to it by the Brahmans, and worn the sacred thread of the twice-born in +the smithy, the mason's yard, and the carpenter's shop. It curved now +like a piece of whipcord 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 Gopâl 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 Gopâl's own +skull were leavened with ideas foreign to those which had been +transmitted to him through ages of slow heredity. A curious anomaly; +one which has to be taken into account by the master builders of the +Great Imperial Institute when they count the cost of progress. And yet +as he paused, arrested by the glow on Durga's face, his thoughts defied +his education. For it came home to him suddenly, causelessly, that this +woman, the widow of his dead brother, was beautiful, and that he had a +right to her--if he chose. Yes! she was beautiful--far more beautiful, +despite her widowhood, than the jealous wife awaiting him within; and +she was his by right--if he chose. Why should he not choose? These +thoughts were crowding culture from his brain, as he crossed the +courtyard without a word; for convention so far held him fast. Only as +she stepped aside from the door to let him pass, their eyes met.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he had gone, and the sound of Parbutti's shrill welcoming rose +over the high partition wall, Durga crouched down beside the fireplace, +and blew softly at the smouldering embers under the pot of lentils. It +was woman's work to fan a flame if--if it were not fierce enough to do +its duty to the hearth. Easy work also: a woman could do it with no +more exertion than would make the bosom rise and fall a trifle quicker, +or send a tremble through the arm supporting the bowed 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 still Durga sat waiting, +her eyes upon the fire. The sunlight left the wall to dull shadow, the +flames died down, but no one called; perhaps they had eaten everything, +and she must stave off her whole day's hunger with a handful of parched +grain. Well! 'twould count as a virtue, not for herself, but for the +dead husband who had gone down to death sonless; not by her fault, +though--not by her fault! The old vague sense of injury returned, +lulling her to a sort of resignation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Durga! Durga-dei!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She started from a half doze to see Parbutti pausing on her way to the +outer door, in order to exclaim at laziness--exclaiming all the louder +because Gopâl, also on his way to the world beyond those four walls, +stood by listening both to the scolding and the silence. Suddenly he +moved impatiently to the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, wife! There is no time for such things nowadays. Stay wrangling +if thou wilt. I hate it all. Holy Lukshmi! it hath been so since the +world began, and I am tired of it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He scarcely knew his own meaning; only this was clear--the old customs, +the old conventional ways were an annoyance. Yet, as he walked moodily +down the narrow street towards the police station, his mind circled +round one thought--he had a right by immemorial usage to claim Durga if +he chose. A queer medley altogether was Gopâl, the coppersmith, seated +in the growing darkness on a certain flight of steps leading at one and +the same time to a small Hindu temple and the back door of a native +printing-office. Just over the way a yellow-trousered constable was +pacing up and down in front of the police and octroi station, between a +patent Birmingham-made weighing machine, warranted all the latest +improvements, and a primitive water-clock; thus as it were keeping +watch over the due measurement of the two great staples of +civilisation--Time and Money, and looking with equal impartiality at +the rising beam registering its burden accurately, and the copper +bowl--made no doubt by a forebear of Gopâl's--sinking lower and lower +as the water filtered through the hole in its bottom, until it marked +the whereabouts 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. Gopâl 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 <i>pooja</i> 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 composedly to the courtyard where Durga-dei still crouched by +the ashes of the fire, and, sidling into her accustomed corner, lowed +for her supper. The woman rose and brought it mechanically. The cow at +any rate must not fast. As she mixed the portion of parched grain with +the fodder it smelt appetising, but she did not taste it. The hunger +that was on her was not to be stayed by food. She did not envy Parbutti +away at the wedding festivities at a neighbour's house--those +festivities whence the ill-omened widow's face was barred; she did not +envy Gopâl sitting on the steps watching the current of life slip into +the old and the new channels, but in a vague way she envied Motiya, the +milk-giver, her honoured place by the hearthstone. She envied her the +calf which the milker on his rounds loosed from its tether in the dark +shed, and an answering quiver seemed to run through her limbs as she +saw the mother yield to the first rough touch of the sucking tongue. +When that was over, she crouched down again to brood over the empty +house. Parbutti would not be back till all hours, and Gopâl--what of +Gopâl?</p> + +<p class="normal">The night settled down. There was no moon, only a spangled star or two +showing in the narrow slip of sky above her. The noise of the city +without seemed lost in the stillness of the courtyard, where, through +the darkness, you could hear the sound of Motiya chewing the cud of +content.</p> + +<p class="normal">That in one corner; in the other something different, and yet--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Durga! Durga-dei!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Gopâl's voice through the darkness.</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>II.</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">The dark nights had yielded to light ones, and drawn back into darkness +again more than once, before the second act of the drama began. Such 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 where the +dead ashes of the past day's flame showed white. Through the stillness +and the moonshine a man's voice petulant, almost peevish.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lo! I told thee from the beginning it must be so. There is time yet. +Have patience awhile, Durga; when there is no escape Parbutti will +yield--that is woman's way. Thou knowest that I love thee; were it not +so why should I have sought thee?" Durga's clasped hands fell from +their hold upon his arm listlessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yea! thou didst love me; that is true. And I? Knowest thou, Gopâl, why +my heart sinks now as it never did when first I yielded to thy plan for +peace? Then it seemed naught to keep it secret awhile--no harm--no +blame; but now--Gopâl! knowest thou it comes upon me even as if I were +a shameless one--since--since I have learnt to care--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her voice died away to a whisper, her dark eyes sought his with a +passionate gloom in them before which his shifted uneasily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A wife should love her husband, surely? so say the Scriptures--and +thou lovest old sayings, O Durga! Yea! and she should obey him also. So +let the question be awhile. When due time comes Parbutti shall be told +that the old custom hath prevailed, and that the child is of the +hearth. She is quick-witted, and will see that after all 'tis better +for <i>her</i> than a stranger wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">A certain aggressiveness of accent provoked a sharp, half-questioning +protest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And for thee also, Gopâl; surely 'tis best for thee--if as thou sayest +I am dear unto thee?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For me also, if thou desirest it so, though we men ask first that our +women live in peace. But see, the moon climbs high; Parbutti will be +returning, and she must not suspect yet awhile. Look not so troubled, +Durga! Sure I love thee, else wherefore should I have sought thee?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The repetition of this argument seemed as much for his own conviction +as for hers, and there was something of the same motive in the +half-hearted kiss he stooped to bestow upon her. To his surprise she +shrank from it, and the unexpected rebuff bringing 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 Gopâl, +when thou shouldest be thanking thy namesake,<a name="div4Ref_23" href="#div4_23"><sup>[23]</sup> </a> +<i>Mai</i> Bhavani, for +sending pleasure in the path of duty. Afraid lest folk should blame +thee, when, woman-like, thou shouldest be praying the gods Parbutti +might return even now to see thee preferred before her."</p> + +<p class="normal">The words were spoken lightly, and the speaker's eyes smiled into the +earnest ones raised to his. So neither saw a muffled form at the +entrance behind them--a form which showed itself for a second, then +shrank back behind the strip of wall, built like a screen, across the +outer door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If she came, Gopâl, wouldst thou tell her the truth?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The night was so still that every word of the passionate whisper was +audible to that unseen listener.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sure would I, sweetheart, if only to prevent her claws from +scratching. For look you, once 'tis known that you and I have settled +it, she can do naught--save quarrel. That is why I say wait till the +last. There will be no time then for words--or wiles. Now, Durga, I +must go--I would not she had the knowledge secretly--that were an evil +chance."</p> + +<p class="normal">The night was so still that a keen listener might have heard a light +footfall behind the screen, as if some one were stealing away from it. +But those two only heard their own soft breathing as their lips met.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Durga! Durga! asleep as usual, and I bade thee keep the fire aglow +lest I should need aught."</p> + +<p class="normal">The familiar fault-finding rang through the courtyard, and not even a +tremble in Parbutti's voice betrayed knowledge of that unseen listener, +who, five minutes before, had hid behind the screen. Gopâl was right; +her wits were quick to seize on what was to her own advantage. Anger +and reproach were desirable, doubtless, but what if they left her +helpless? Besides, there was time to spare for such things 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 which had come so unexpectedly +to complicate the situation. So much for the women's thoughts; as for +the man's, as he sat in the dawning light eating his morning meal, they +might have been inferred from a certain irritation towards both the +women who, in one way or another, were engaged in ministering to his +comfort. For polygamy is not altogether tragic; it is often comic--at +times almost farcical.</p> + +<p class="normal">The clangour of metal upon metal rose with the sun, and all through the +long hot day the beat and the burr filled the courtyards where those +two women went about their daily tasks. When evening came it brought +Gopâl an unusual display of platters at supper time--an unusual +sweetness both in the viands and in Parbutti's voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lo! 'tis like a wedding feast, wife," he said, well pleased.</p> + +<p class="normal">She gave an odd little hysterical laugh. "Perhaps 'tis time there was a +wedding, O Gopâl!" Then she grew grave. "Thy people say so, and mine +also. Even last night <i>Mai</i> Râdha spoke to me of her daughter. And +perhaps 'twere better so. Thou wouldst not cease to love me, O Gopâl! +because I brought thee fair sons; ay! and a fair wife too."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her face was turned away; she spoke softly, regretfully, dutifully, as +a good Hindu wife should under the circumstances, and her husband could +hardly believe his ears. Parbutti--jealous Parbutti--suggesting a wife +of her own choice! Here indeed would have been a chance of peace, were +it 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 much taken aback for real assent or denial, and murmured +something incoherently about there being no need for hurry, no need to +bring a strange woman to the house--as yet. Parbutti's conventional +decorum gave way before even this faint allusion to realities, and she +turned upon him sharply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wherefore no stranger, Gopâl? Sure it must be so, seeing thou wouldst +not mock me by thinking of a widow--a childless widow. 'Tis not as if +thou didst set store by foolish old ways. 'Tis not as though thou wast +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. <i>Mai</i> Râdha's daughter is worthy of thee. Lo! I +have seen her, but if thou heedest me not inquire of her secretly. +Durga is old and a widow. We want no more childless ones in this +house--nor her sons, even if fate were kind; for look you, I hate +her--I hate her."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gopâl's faint protest died down before Parbutti's vehemence; if she +hated, she hated, and there was an end of it. No use in words, or for +the matter of that in deeds. He went moodily out into the bazaars for +comfort, telling himself he had been a fool to let his fancy for a +woman as old as he was fetter his future. He might have known it would +not last. That 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 the tie they imposed upon him. Durga was +his dead brother's widow, but what right had she to more consideration +than any other woman who had yielded to a man's promise? She was no +better than those others, would be no worse off than those others if +he-- Even Gopâl could not put the thought plainly before himself; so he +took refuge in a general sense of injury.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let be! Let be," he said angrily, the next time that Durga, with a +growing passion in her voice, demanded that he should admit the truth. +"And if thou sayest a word--I swear I will deny it. Nay! look not so, +Durga! I meant only if thou wilt not obey."</p> + +<p class="normal">She stood as if turned to stone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thou wouldst deny it? deny thy brother's child? Thou durst not, lest +the gods should slay thee for the infamy."</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave an embarrassed laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thou believest in the gods more than I, Durga; but I mean no harm to +thee. None shall say aught against thee if thou wilt have patience."</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>III.</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">"And see that thou cleanest them well; they may be wanted ere long."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was jeering malice in words, tone, and manner as Parbutti handed +over the tarnished silver ornaments; but Durga took them without a +word--that aggressive silence of hers seeming, as it always did, to +defy the ceaseless clang of the copper which, as usual, filled the +sunlit courtyard. And yet to a woman less restrained than she here was +an occasion for bitter outcry. The ornaments had been hers in those +past days of honoured wifehood; now they were Parbutti's to wear, or to +give, as she chose. But what did that matter? what did anything matter +if only Gopâl could be kept content--if only Gopâl 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 +painful in its intensity; and Parbutti, as she watched the widow begin +her task, smiled to herself at the certainty of its being well +performed; for Durga displayed a vast anxiety to please nowadays--a +most convenient state of affairs for the household generally. Parbutti +smiled again, thinking what Durga would say when she knew the +truth--that the ornaments were to go in the wedding baskets of the +virgin bride who was to be the reward of Gopâl's treachery.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They will need tamarinds to give them back their whiteness," thought +Durga, looking at the silver with experienced eyes. This interest in +the drudgery and detail of her life was not a conscious effort on her +part; of late a sort of dull comfort had come to her in the knowledge +that already, in a thousand ways, she was standing between the +household and that disregard of old ways which to her meant disgrace, +if not disaster. And so it was with a certain pride in her work that, +while Parbutti was sleeping, she watched the tamarind 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 bought more when next she wanted some. The thought +cheered her as, still with the same careful conservatism, she went on +to some other process, approved by old tradition, for the due cleansing +of tarnished silver. It was no light matter, that keeping of the +household ornaments as if they were fresh from the goldsmith's hands; +for did it not redound to the credit of the hearth? When she had worn +them, none could have told they were not newly-made out of new rupees; +but Parbutti thought only of wearing them in a becoming manner.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well! this time she should acknowledge that there was some good in +having Durga in the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was something infinitely pathetic in the slow workings of this +woman's mind, as she sat busy over the ornaments--something infinitely +pathetic in the pride with which, after the two or three days of +treatment prescribed, she showed them white and glistening to her +rival.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay!--they are as new--<i>Mai</i> Râdha will deem them so at any rate," said +Parbutti, with studied carelessness. The time had come for revenge. +Gopâl's passion 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 springing the mine upon Durga. There is nothing in +heaven or earth so cruel as a jealous woman even when her nature is +kindly, and Parbutti's was not.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Mai</i> Râdha! What hath she to do with them?" The quick anxiety of the +widow's tone was as balm to the other's ears.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What a mother hath to do with her daughter's trousseau for sure," she +answered lightly. "I meant to tell thee ere this, but Gopâl would not +have it, and 'tis true that widows are ill meddlers with marriage. He +weds the girl next month by my consent. The house needs a child."</p> + +<p class="normal">So far Durga had stood staring at her enemy incredulously. Now she +flung out her arms in sudden passion, letting the widow's shrouding +veil fall from her figure recklessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis a lie--an infamous lie! The house needs no stranger's child. Thou +knowest it! Yea, thou hast known it, and this is thy revenge. But it +shall not be. Gopâl shall speak! Gopâl, I say! Gopâl!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Parbutti's hands gripped her rival's as in a vice despite her +struggles.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So! is it that? And thou wouldst lay the burden of thy shame on Gopâl, +base walker of the bazaars, betrayer of thy dead lord! On Gopâl who +weds a virgin; let us see what he saith. Gopâl! I say, Gopâl!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It almost seemed as if their clamour must have pierced that of the +coppersmith's shop, for the latter ceased suddenly in the slow chiming +of five o'clock. Instinctively the women fell away from each other, +feeling that the crisis had come. Another minute would bring the man to +answer for himself. So they stood waiting for the well-known figure on +the threshold.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gopâl!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He recoiled from the sight of them, coward to the backbone.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Parbutti knew it--knew the man with whom she had to deal a thousand +times better than Durga knew him; so her shrill voice came first, +allowing 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 bride to the house, nor indeed under such circumstances +would <i>Mai</i> Râdha ever consent to her daughter's marriage. Let him take +his choice without delay.</p> + +<p class="normal">And Durga, still gauging him by the measure of her own nature, claimed +the truth also. Between the two Gopâl stood irresolute, divided between +fear and desire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis thy choice, O husband!" came Parbutti's shrill voice; "the widow +or the bride, thou canst not have both."</p> + +<p class="normal">He knew it perfectly. It was one or the other, and a sudden fierce +dislike leapt up against poor Durga.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a lie," he muttered, his eyes upon the ground; "I have naught to +do with her, naught."</p> + +<p class="normal">Durga fell back as if she had been struck, but Parbutti's laugh of +triumph failed before the sombre fire of those big blazing eyes. For an +instant it seemed as if the former would give herself up to vehement +upbraiding; then suddenly she passed 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 to find no foothold on which to recover her balance. He had +denied her, he had denied the hearth. Her tense fingers hung rigidly +without clasp or grip on anything, just as her mind seemed to have lost +hold on all her beliefs, all her knowledge.</p> + +<p class="normal">In a dim, half-dazed way she knew what would happen. By and by, when +opportunity occurred, Gopâl would creep out, as he had crept out many a +time before, and seek to soothe her. There need be no scandal, 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 that was not +shame, nor anger, nor horror, but sheer animal jealousy, leapt up +within her; for she had learnt to care, as women do learn, even when +they know that he for whom they care is not worth it.</p> + +<p class="normal">So Parbutti and this new woman were to have him, and she--</p> + +<p class="normal">When the brain is quick its owner may suffer more from the very variety +and complexity it gives to grief; but the grief for all that is less +absorbing. Durga was so lost in hers that she scarcely noticed Parbutti +coming in after a time to see about the supper. There was no call on +her for help this evening, no blame because the fires were slack and +nothing ready. To tell truth, even Parbutti did not care to drive the +stunned look from Durga's face, lest it should be replaced by seven +devils; so she was left alone. Yet even so, something made her start, +and for a second her hand moved as if she 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 break up the surface of her hot anger against Gopâl. What! was +she to save Parbutti from the consequences of her own ignorance and +negligence? There was no more than that in Durga's mind as she watched +the cooking; no more than that, and a dumb conviction that somehow the +future must be changed, utterly changed. It could not be as the past +had been; so much was certain. Yet as she sat, thinking not at all, +something must have been juggling with her brain, for Parbutti's first +words, when an hour or so afterwards she came bustling back into the +outer court, found their reply ready on Durga's lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is not well," she fussed. "Durga! thou art more learned in simples +than most. What shall I give to stay the burning 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 widow stood up mechanically, and her right +hand sought once more the crevices of the wall against which she was +leaning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I know not. Give him tamarind water an thou likest. 'Tis not my work, +but thine."</p> + +<p class="normal">Revenge had sprung full-fledged from her slow brain in familiar face +and welcome form. And it would not be her doing, but Parbutti's! A sort +of sensual delight in the idea surged through her, making her add--as +if to, give an edge to the sword of fate--"yet if the sickness be about +'twere well to have more skill than mine. I would not have it said I +killed him!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Once more the spite against the woman overbore all other feelings for +the time. That, and a dull recognition of the fact that if Gopâl died +he would 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, suddenly, those black eyes of hers blazed up fiercely. Yes! that +was the only possible end; as well now, when opportunity offered a +beginning, as later.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay! give him tamarind water--'tis best for such as he."</p> + +<p class="normal">Not a shadow of regret came to her as she watched Parbutti follow her +advice. It was as if since all time this thing had been ordained, as if +aught else were beyond her control. The curious calm with which the +Oriental regards death, even for himself, does not count for nothing in +such situations as this. We of the West, who 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, summoned from the <i>sahib-logue's</i> hospital beyond +the walls, to satisfy that curious streak of education in the sick +man's mind, said sooth in declaring it to be a case of cholera? or +whether the wise woman sent by <i>Mai</i> Râdha was right in hinting at the +evil eye? Was it, briefly, God's judgment, or man's? The uncertainty +oppressed her.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the dawn breaking over that unseen, unknown world beyond the house +of the coppersmith found three haggard faces within it. Found the same +thought in each heart: was it to be death, or death in life for one, or +for all? yet each awaited the answer with a strange indifference.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes! 'tis the great sickness; he grows blue and cold already," said +the neighbours in frank wisdom as they looked in. The air was cooler +then with the sudden freshness which seems to come with the sun's first +rays; a thin blue smoke began to rise over the awakening city; the +sparrows sat preening 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 passively to the brightening sky from +the low string bed; the other two bent on the ground as passively. A +vessel full of tamarind water stood by the sick man, but he had +scarcely touched it. Perhaps after all it was the great sickness. Durga +scarcely knew whether she were glad or sorry at the thought.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the sun climbed up until, with one clear distinct +"<i>tam-burr-urr-ur-r</i>," the daily clamour of the shop began. Maybe the +master would not die, maybe he would; either way work must be done, and +no one had said the workers nay--as yet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gopâl is still alive," commented the neighbours cheerfully as they +listened; "they will stop, likely, when they hear the death wail, and +'tis as well for him to end as he began with the ring of the metal in +his ears."</p> + +<p class="normal">The water-clock from the stairs where Gopâl used to sit chimed noon. +The heavens were as brass. A perfect blaze of light beat down on the +courtyard and those three faces. But one of them waited no longer, +though it still gazed passively into the pale sky from the ground where +it lay. And Parbutti, the new-made widow, glared in terrified hatred at +the face of that other widow who stood looking down at the dead man.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then suddenly the death wail rose loud and clear in a woman's voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Naked he came, naked has gone. This empty dwelling-place belongs +neither to you nor to me</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">The clangour ceased, ending in a faint vibration like a dying breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Listen!" said the policeman watching the waterclock; "there is death +in the coppersmith's house. I heard he was ill of the sickness. God +save him--he hath no son."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09">FAIZULLAH.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He was beating his wife--an occupation which annihilates time, +dissolves the crust of culture, and reduces humanity in both +hemispheres to a state of original sin. It is therefore immaterial what +Faizullah and Haiyat Bibi did or said during the actual chastisement, +for they behaved themselves as any other couple in the same +circumstances would have done, that is to say, after the manner of two +animals--one injured in his feelings, the other in her body.</p> + +<p class="normal">She screamed vociferously, but for all that took her punishment with +methodical endurance; indeed, there was a distinct air of duty on both +sides which went far towards disguising the actual violence. 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 sympathetic, carrying a <i>lotah</i> full +of water with which she administered comfort to the crushed victim. +Faizullah Khan watched the gradual subsidence of his wife's sobs with +evident satisfaction.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hast had enough for this time, O Haiyat?" he asked mildly. "Or shall I +catch thee peeping through the door at the men-folk again like a cat +after a mouse? True, 'tis the way thou caughtest me for a husband, +Light of mine Eyes; but I will have none of it with other men. 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 that none +will seek her; but not I, Faizullah Khan, Belooch of Birokzai. Did I +not marry thee, O Haiyat, Marrow of my Bones, because of thy fair face? +Then what good wouldst thou be to me without a nose? Therefore be wise, +my heart, or I shall have to kill thee some day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>sahibs</i> will hang thee in pigskin if thou dost," whimpered the +woman vindictively. "Yea, I would die gladly to see thee swing like the +wild beast thou art!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The sense of coercion was evidently passing away, nor were there +wanting signs that ere long tears would be dried at the flame of wrath +fast kindling in Haiyat's big black eyes. 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 +stretches and broken rocky distance to where a low line of serrated +blue mountains blocked the horizon. They were the Takt-i-Suleiman, and +beyond their peaks and passes lay Beloochistan.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are no <i>sahibs</i> yonder," he said, stretching his right hand +towards the hills; "no one to come between a man and his right of +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 keeps me +dawdling here a stranger in the house of mine ancient enemies. Why wilt +thou not come with me to the mountains, O Haiyat?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not a wild beast as thou art," she retorted, still with +speech checked by sobs. "I will stay here and get thee swung, for the +<i>sahib-logues</i> worship a woman away over the black water and do her +bidding. They will fill thy mouth with dirt, and burn thy body, and +curse thy soul to the nether--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nay! innermost Apple of mine Eye! do I not worship thee? And art thou +not a Belooch also by race, though thy people have dug the grave of +their courage with the plough, and tethered their freedom beside +their bullocks? They were not always dirt-eaters, mean-spirited, +big-bellied--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Hai! Hai!</i>" That was the beginning of the storm. What followed drove +big Faizullah into the court below, where the voices of the two women +ceased to be articulate; 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 right of subsequent abuse. So he smoked his pipe +placidly, and amused himself with polishing his well-beloved sword +which he kept in defiance of the Arms Act.</p> + +<p class="normal">The poorer women of the village nodded at each other as the shrill +clamour, floating over the high encircling wall, reached the well where +they came to draw water.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The stranger hath big hands," chuckled one; "yet are they smaller than +Haiyat's eye. That comes of being a widow so long."</p> + +<p class="normal">"There will be murder some day, mark my words!" muttered an old hag +with a toothless leer. "What else canst thou expect from a Belooch of +Birokzai? <i>Peace! Peace!</i> 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 blood enough to quench them +afterwards. But they are afraid of the <i>sahibs</i> and the pigskin; not so +Faizullah; he is of the old sort, knowing how to keep his wife."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He will not keep her for all that, <i>mai</i>," sneered a strapping girl, +who by the handsome water-vessels she carried showed herself to be a +servant in one of the richer houses. "We shall get her back some day, +despite her father-in-law's wickedness in letting her marry a +good-for-nothing soldier, just because of keeping a hold on her +jewels."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hold on their honour, O thou false tongue!" shrilled another of the +group. "The daughter of thy house would have brought shame on ours. She +needed a fierce one to keep her straight."</p> + +<p class="normal">"After the man--woman, thy house gave her first, O depraved tongue that +tasteth not the truth. Had thy people sent her back, our house would +have kept her safe enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And her jewels doubtless--"</p> + +<p class="normal">So the war of words, begun on the top story of Faizullah's house, +found its way into the narrow village street, and thence into many a +mud-walled courtyard where the women set down the pots of water and +rested themselves in wrangling. It even went further, for in not a few +of them, when the men came back from their day's work in the fields, +the subject of Haiyat Bibi's peeping eyes and covetous jewels gave rise +to slow, deliberate conversation over the evening pipe. Faizullah was +right to beat her, of course; on that point all were agreed. The rest +was open to argument, and had been so any time these last two years, +ever since the bold Belooch of Birokzai, on his way home from short +service in a frontier regiment, had halted in his retreat at the sight +of a pair of big black eyes behind the chink of a door. Long before +that, however, the question as to whether those jewels of Haiyat 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 felt their +sheet-anchor of reference would be gone did any serious crime occur to +throw discredit on the converted community. Despite this constant care, +the village might have been situated in the moon for all the +authorities knew of the pretty intrigues, the hopes and fears, which +formed the mainspring of its life. Even the ordinary human interests of +its inhabitants were all too low in tone and insignificant to secure +alien sympathy. So Haiyat Bibi's peeping eyes and her Delhi-made jewels +were disturbing elements unknown to those who signed the monthly +criminal reports with placid self-satisfaction at their own success in +securing virtue. Even when, egged on by the family, her best-looking +male cousin made bids for possession of both these charms in various +underhand ways, the consequent employment of Faizullah Khan's marital +discipline did not resound so far as the <i>hâkm's</i> ears.</p> + +<p class="normal">Therefore it was an unpleasant surprise when, some six weeks after the +original homily against peeping, the significant red envelope which +proclaims the shedding of blood found its way into the Deputy +Commissioner's mail-bag, and brought the news of Haiyat Bibi's murder +by her husband, and his subsequent flight to the hills. Furthermore, it +was reported by the sergeant of police, whose very writing showed signs +of trepidation, that the whole village was in an uproar, and he himself +quite unable to cope with the situation. As luck would have it, some +eighty miles of desert and alluvial land lay between the excited +village and the fountains of law and order; for when the red envelope +arrived, the responsible officials were in camp at the other end of the +district. Nearly a week passed ere they could arrive on the scene, and +by that time the villagers had sworn to renew a blood-feud which in +past days had thriven bravely between their clan and that of the +murderer. They were, in fact, on the point of turning their +ploughshares into swords--an example which is dangerously contagious +among the border tribes. Owing, therefore, to the necessity of +persuading the people to trust the far-reaching arm of the law 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 disappearance, were produced and +sworn to vociferously by all. Relics of this sort are apt to be +somewhat indefinite; this objection, however, was met by the subsequent +discovery of portions of Haiyat Bibi's clothing, and a golden ear-ring +which the murderer had evidently dropped in his flight. The latter +whetted the desire for revenge to a point, for, as the district-officer +sorrowfully admitted to himself, the old-fashioned wrath at injury to +their women, so conspicuous among these border clans, was now freely +intermixed with that greed of gold which civilisation brings in its +wake. Finally, since nothing else could be done, a reward of two +thousand rupees was put upon the capture of one Faizullah Khan, Belooch +of Birokzai, accused of murdering his wife and stealing her jewels, +value twelve hundred rupees. In addition, vague promises were made that +on the next punitive expedition into the mountains an eye would be kept +on the escaped criminal's particular village, and some indemnity +exacted. There the matter rested peacefully, and so, on the whole, did +the village, though the friction between the blood-relations of the +murdered woman and her connections by marriage remained a fruitful +source of petty disturbance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is something odd about that case," remarked a new magistrate +when some fresh complaint of quarrel came in for settlement. "It is +always more satisfactory to have a real, <i>whole</i> body; but when there +is neither corpse nor criminal it is useless depending on facts at +all." The police officer, however, declared, that having personally +conducted the inquiry no mistake in either facts or conclusions was +possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eighteen months passed by and early spring was melting the snows on +that great rampart of hills which, properly guarded, would make the +rich plains of India impregnable to a western foe. The border land was +astir, its officials 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 the district-officer sat in front of his +tent writing a rose-coloured report on the progress of education. It +was long overdue owing to the pressure of martial preparations, so he +was in a hurry and superlatives came fast.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A Belooch from beyond the border is seeking the Presence with +insistence," pleaded a deferential myrmidon.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let him come," was the prompt reply; and the pen, laid aside, rolled +over, blotting the last sentence. What matter? Reports have various +values, and the Belooch might bring information that would make force +more forcible.</p> + +<p class="normal">An old soldier, by the look of him, tall and well set up, with merry +brown eyes and a determined face. He brought himself to the salute +gravely. "May the life of the Presence be prolonged and may his +gracious ears bear with a question. Is it true that the armies of the +Lord of the Universe march against the village of one Faizullah of +Birokzai?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The armies of the Kaiser-i-Hind march against all thieves and +murderers, no matter who they are."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The words of the Presence are just altogether. Yet may the Protector +of the Poor bear with this dust-like one. Is it true that he who brings +Faizullah captive will receive two thousand rupees reward?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is true."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Wah illah!</i> The purse of the great Queen is big if the long tongue of +the Presence wags in it so freely. The sum is great."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The crime is great. He murdered his wife; besides, he stole twelve +hundred rupees' worth of jewels."</p> + +<p class="normal">The smile of contempt which had crept into the listener's face at the +first part of the sentence gave place to a frown at the sequel. "The +Presence says it; shall it not be true?" he remarked with deference +after a pause. "Nevertheless the sum exceeds the purchase. Does not the +price of the calf buy the cow also?<a name="div4Ref_24" href="#div4_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> +There is no wisdom in a bad +bargain."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Deputy Commissioner looked at the new comer sharply. "Doubtless; +yet none have given the man up, though all know we will keep our threat +of burning the village next month."</p> + +<p class="normal">The sudden clenching of the slender, nervous hands and quick inflation +of the nostrils convinced the Englishman that there was an envoy +prepared with concessions, but asking for some in return.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence hath said it, shall it not be true?" came the urbane +reply. "Yet we Beloochees do not give up our friends readily. Still +Faizullah is no friend of mine, so for twelve hundred rupees I will +bring him to the Presence, <i>dead or alive</i>, if his honour pleases."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Deputy Commissioner stared. "But the reward is two thousand; why do +you ask less?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The price of the calf is the price of the cow, <i>Huzoor!</i> I lack but +one thing, and the sum is enough for the purchase. Am I a pig of +<i>baniah</i> to fill my stomach with rupees I cannot digest? Nevertheless +the task is hard, and those who go near violence may suffer violence. +What good then would the money be to me if I were dead?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Like many of his race, he had a curiously round mellow voice that +seemed to linger over the slow, stately periods as he went on +deliberately. "Surely God will reward the Presence for his patience! +But a man's son is as himself. And I have a son, <i>Huzoor</i>, a babe in +his mother's arms--may the Lord bring him safe to man's estate! If the +great Purveyor of Justice would cause a writing to be made, setting +forth that my son 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 therefore guileful. It knows also that without the hope of +money naught but the stars in heaven will move; and if I say, 'Lo, I +will give, when I have it,' who will listen? But if I say, 'Lo! there +it is safe, do my bidding and take it,' 'tis a different matter. If, +therefore, the Presence will do this, his slave will bring Faizullah, +Belooch of Birokzai, to him <i>alive or dead</i>, and there will be no need +to burn the village."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the jewels?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Once more the frown came quick. "If I bring Faizullah to the Halls of +Justice alive, surely the mightiness of the Presence will make him +speak. If I bring him dead, can this slave follow him and find speech +in the silence of the grave? Say! is it a bargain? Yes or no?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The anxious brevity of the last question showed the sincerity of the +man more than all his measured words, and after some further parley, +the conditions were arranged. That is to say, the sum of twelve hundred +rupees was forthwith to be paid into the hands of a responsible third +party, and the informer was to bring Faizullah 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 utterances, firstly, that no one +would know if he gave a false one; secondly, that if he failed to keep +his promise he would prefer to remain in oblivion; thirdly, that if he +did succeed in bringing Faizullah to book, the Presence would be sure +to recognise his servant and slave. Thus he departed as he came, a +nameless stranger.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three days after an excited crowd rode pell-mell into the magistrate's +compound. "<i>Huzoor!</i> we have found him! we have found him!" rose a +dozen voices, as the more influential men of the party crushed into the +office room.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Faizullah the Belooch! Faizullah the murderer! The reward is ours, +praise be to God and to your honour's opulence. <i>Wah</i>, the glad day! +<i>Wah</i>, the great day!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Salaam alaikoum</i>, Friend of the Poor Man!" came an urbane voice from +their midst. "The dust-like slave of the Presence hath kept his word. +Behold! I bring to you Faizullah Khan, Belooch of Birokzai, alive, not +dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">A sudden hush fell on the jostling crew as the prisoner raised his +fettered hands in grave obeisance, and then solemnly, vigorously, spat +to right and left ere he began: "Snakes gorged to impotence by their +own greed! Bullocks with but one set of eyes to seven stomachs! Listen! +whilst I recount the tale of your infamies to the ear of this wise +judge. <i>Huzoor!</i> I am Faizullah, husband of the virtuous Haiyat, mother +of my son, dwelling content in the house of my father. Yea! it is true. +For her jewels' sake, her father-in-law bound me by promises, when he +found me caught in the meshes. So for her sake I stayed in a strange +land, and the fields and the jewels were as his. Then the old man +yonder, her uncle, wroth at the marriage, set his son to beguile her; +so I beat her till she had no heart to be beguiled. For all that they +would not cease from evil ways. Therefore said I to her father-in-law: +'Let me go, for surely if I stay thy daughter-in-law will have to die +some day, and then 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! +<i>Huzoor!</i> the <i>sahib-logues</i> 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 came next. When the paper concerning the +twelve hundred rupees had been writ, I knew that my house would have +her rights anyhow, even if the eyes of the Just Judge were blinded by +false oaths, or that I came dead into the Presence. So I said by +message to the carrion: 'Dispute no longer among yourselves. Let me buy +the jewels at the price ye have put on them. Let one take the money and +the other the land, or half-and-half. Only give me the jewels, and say +in the Court of Justice,--"Lo! we were mistaken! Faizullah hath not +killed his wife. He nursed her back to life, and she hath a right to +the jewels and her son after her. But the land is ours by agreement."' +And to this they said 'Yea' guilefully. But when I went to the village, +trusting them not at all, they seized me and brought me hither for the +reward, not knowing that the Presence had deigned to cast his gracious +eye on this poor man before, and that the reward was for me, or my son. +It is spoken. Let the Presence decide!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing is more surprising than the rapidity with which a got-up case +breaks down when once the judge is seen to have an inkling of the +truth. <i>Suave qui peut</i> is then the motto; especially when nothing more +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 +jewels, which were found carefully hidden away in the house of Haiyat +Bibi's female attendant, who had died of cholera the year before, an +ingenious incident productive of injured innocence to all the living.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It has not emptied the purse of the great Queen after all," said +Faizullah with a broad smile, as he stood beside the Deputy +Commissioner on the crest of a hill, and pointed to a terraced village +on the opposite side of the valley. "Nor hath the house of the poor +suffered; for the dwelling of this slave will not burn."</p> + +<p class="normal">The jewels were in a bundle under his arm, and he was taking leave of +the expedition he had accompanied so far. He turned to go, then +suddenly saluted in military fashion. "If this dust-like one might give +freedom to his tongue for a space, the wisdom of experience might reach +the ear of those above it. Yea, of a surety the patience of the +Presence is beyond praise! <i>Huzoor!</i> 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 oaths when once his own tongue +is stilled by death; and that even the justice of kings avails little +when the case has been decided already. Let this memory remain with the +<i>sahibs</i>, 'Peace bringeth Plenty, and Plenty bringeth Power.' So it +comes that false oaths are easy under the rule of the Presence."</p> + +<p class="normal">That was his farewell.</p> + +<p class="normal">The snow still lay low, but the orchards were ablaze with blossom as, +next morning, the little force led by white faces straggled peacefully +along the cobbled ledges of the steep village lane. On either side +strips of garden ground, where the heart-shaped leaves 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 arms. The Deputy Commissioner happening +to come last and alone, stopped to look at the child with kindly eyes. +As he did so a door above was set ajar, and through the chink he caught +a glimpse of a singularly beautiful pair of black eyes, and a flash of +jewels.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is my house, <i>Huzoor</i>," said Faizullah with rather a sheepish grin. +"I gave her leave to peep this time."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_10" href="#div1Ref_10">THE FOOTSTEP OF DEATH.</a></h2> +<br> +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">Godliness is great riches if a man be content with what he hath.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">These words invariably carry me back in the spirit to a certain avenue +of <i>shesham</i> trees I knew in India; an avenue six miles long, leading +through barren sandy levels to the river which divided civilisation +from the frontier wilds; an avenue like the aisle 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 shade and shine I have looked out sideways +on the yellow glare of noon beyond in grateful remembrance of the man +who,--Heaven knows when!--planted this refuge for unborn generations of +travellers. Not a bad monument to leave behind one among forgetful +humanity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The avenue itself, for all its contenting shade, had nothing to do with +the text which brings it to memory--that co-ordination being due to an +old <i>fakeer</i> who sat at the river end, where, without even a warning +brake, the aisle ended in a dazzling glare of sand-bank. This sudden +change no doubt accounted for the fact that on emerging from the shade +I always seemed to see a faint, half-hearted mirage of the still unseen +river beyond. An elusive mirage, distinct in the first surprise of its +discovery, vanishing when the attention sought for it. Altogether a +disturbing phenomenon, refusing to be verified; for the only man who +could have spoken positively on the subject was the old <i>fakeer</i>, 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 <i>fakeer</i>, cleaner than +most by reason of the reed broom at his side, which proclaimed him a +member of the sweeper, or lowest, caste; in other words, one of those +who at least gain from their degradation the possibility of living +cleanly without the aid of others. There are many striking points about +our Indian Empire; none perhaps more so, and yet less considered, than +the disabilities which caste brings in its train--the impossibility, +for instance, of having your floor swept unless Providence provides a +man made on purpose. My <i>fakeer</i>, however, was of those to whom +cleanliness and not godliness is the reason of existence.</p> + +<p class="normal">That was why his appeal for alms, while it took a religious turn as was +necessary, displayed also a truly catholic toleration. It consisted of +a single monotonous cry: "In the 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 fact +that the scavenger's god was not a name wherewith to conjure charity. +What then? The passer-by could give in the name of his particular deity +and let the minor prophets go.</p> + +<p class="normal">The plan seemed successful, for the wooden bowl, placed within the +clean-swept ring bordered by its edging of dust or mud, wherein he sat +winter and summer, was never empty, and his cry, if monotonous, was +cheerful. Not ten yards from his station beneath the last tree, the +road ended in a 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 the drivers took the short cut by the +plank serving as a footbridge. It served also as a warning to the blind +<i>fakeer</i>, without which many a possible contributor to the bowl might +have passed unheard and unsolicited over the soft sand. As it was, the +first creak of the plank provoked his cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not, however, till I had passed the old man many times in my +frequent journeyings across the river that I noticed two peculiarities +in his method. He never begged of me or any other European who 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 they had passed; but +the former seemed unaccountable; and one day when the red-funnelled +steam ferry-boat, which set its surroundings so utterly at defiance, +was late, I questioned him on the subject.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You lose custom, surely, by seeking the shade?" I began. "If you were +at the other side of the cut you would catch those who come from the +city. They are the richest."</p> + +<p class="normal">As he turned his closed eyes towards me with a grave obeisance which +did not match the jaunty content of his mask, he looked--sitting in the +centre of his swept circle--ludicrously like one of those penwipers +young ladies make for charity bazaars.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence mistakes," he replied. "Those who come from the town have +empty wallets. 'Tis those who come from the wilderness who give."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you never beg of me, whether I go or come. Why is that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I take no money, <i>Huzoor</i>; it is of no use to me. The <i>sahibs</i> carry +no food with them; not even tobacco, only cheroots."</p> + +<p class="normal">The evident regret in the latter half of his sentence amused me. "'Tis +you who mistake, <i>fakeer-ji</i>," I replied, taking out my pouch. "I am of +those who smoke pipes. And now tell me why you refuse money; most of +your kind are not so self-denying."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is easy to explain. Some cannot eat what is given; with me it is +the other way. As my lord knows, we dust-like ones eat most things your +God has made. But we cannot eat money, perhaps because He did not make +it--so the <i>padres</i> say."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah! you are learned; but you can always buy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Begging is easier. See! my bowl is full, and the munificent offering +of the Presence is enough for two pipes. What more do I want?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Viewed from his standpoint the question was a hard one to answer. The +sun warmed him, the leaves sheltered him, the passers-by nourished him, +all apparently to his utmost satisfaction. I felt instinctively that +the state of his mind was the only refuge for the upholders of +civilisation and a high standard of comfort. So I asked him what he +thought about all day long. His reply brought total eclipse to all my +lights.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i>" he said gravely, "I meditate on the Beauty of Holiness."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was then that the text already quoted became indissolubly mixed up +with the spreading <i>shesham</i> branches, the glare beyond, and that +life-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 +here?" I asked, after a time, during which he sat still as a graven +image with his closed eyes towards the uncertain mirage of the river.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Tis nigh on thirty years, my lord, since I have been waiting."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Waiting for what?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For the Footstep of Death--hark!" he paused suddenly, and a tremor +came to his closed eyelids as he gave the cry: "In the name of your +God!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The next instant a faint creak told me that the first passenger from +the newly-arrived ferry-boat had set foot on the bridge. "You have +quick ears, <i>fakeer-ji</i>," I remarked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I live on footsteps, my lord."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And when the Footstep of Death comes, you will die of one, I presume!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned his face towards me quickly; it gave me quite a shock to find +a pair of clear, light-brown eyes looking at, or rather beyond, me. +From his constantly closed lids I had imagined that--as is so often the +case 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 apparently as perfect as my own, and extraordinarily clear +and bright--so clear that it seemed to me as if they did not even hold +a shadow of the world around them. The surprise made me forget my first +question in another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i>" he replied, "I am quite blind. The Light came from the sky +one day and removed the Light I had before. It was a bad thunder-storm, +<i>Huzoor</i>; at least, 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-mannered, waiting for none. God knows +wherefore it should hurry so. The river remains always, and sooner or +later the screeching thing sticks on a sand-bank."</p> + +<p class="normal">"True enough," I replied, laughing. "Well, <i>salaam, fakeer-ji</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Salaam</i>, Shelter of the World. May the God of gods elevate your +honour to the post of Lieutenant-Governor without delay."</p> + +<p class="normal">After this I often stopped to say a few words to the old man and give +him a pipeful of tobacco. For the ferry-boat fulfilled his prophecy of +its future to a nicety, by acquiring intimate acquaintance with every +shallow in the river--a habit fatal to punctuality. It was an odd sight +lying out, so trim and smart, in the wastes of sand and water. Red +funnels standing up from among Beloochees and their camels, bullocks +scarred by the plough, <i>zenana</i>-women huddled in helpless white heaps, +wild frontiersmen squatted on the saddle-bags with which a sham +orientalism has filled our London drawing-rooms. Here and there a +dejected half-caste or a specimen of young India brimful of <i>The +Spectator</i>. Over all, on the bridge, Captain Ram Baksh struggling with +a double nature, represented 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 +"<i>ba-la-mar-do</i>" (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 <i>Pioneer</i>, 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 <i>fakeer-ji</i>. 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-places, seemed to me +well worth consideration. Imagine a man born of a long line of those +who have swept the way for princes--who have, as it were, prepared +God's earth for over-refined footsteps. That, briefly, had been +<i>fakeer-ji's</i> inheritance before he began to wait for the Footstep of +Death. Whatever it may do to the imagination of others, the position +appealed to mine strongly, the more so because, while speaking freely +enough about the family of decayed kings to whom he and his forebears +had belonged, and of the ruined palace they still possessed in the +oldest part of the city, he was singularly reticent as to the cause +which had turned him into a religious beggar. For the rest he waited in +godliness and contentment (or so he assured me) for the Footstep of +Death.</p> + +<p class="normal">The phrase grew to be quite a catch-word between us. "Not come yet, +<i>fakeer-ji?</i>" I would call as I trotted past after a few days' absence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i> I am still waiting. It will come some time."</p> + +<p class="normal">One night in the rains word came from a contractor over the water that +a new canal-dam of mine showed signs of giving, and, anxious to be on +the spot, I set off at once to catch the midnight ferryboat. I shall +not soon forget that ride through the <i>shesham</i> aisle. The floods 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 rustle of birds in +the branches overhead, and suddenly, causelessly, a snatch of song +hushed in its first notes, as if the singer found it too light for +sleep, too dark for song. The beat of my horse's feet seemed to keep +time with the stars twinkling through the leaves.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was met at the road's end by the unwelcome news that at least two +hours must elapse ere the <i>Pioneer</i> could be got off a newly-invented +mudbank which the river had maliciously, placed in a totally unexpected +place. Still more unwelcome was the discovery 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 +<i>fakeer</i>, who sat ghostlike in the moonlight with his bowl full to the +brim in front of him. "That snorting devil behaves worse every day," he +said fervently; "but if the Shelter of the Poor will tarry a twinkling +I will sweep him a spot suitable for his exalted presence."</p> + +<p class="normal">Blind as he was, his dexterous broom had traced another circle of +cleanliness in a trice, a new reed-mat, no bigger than a handkerchief, +was placed in the centre, and I was being invited to ornament just such +another penwiper as the <i>fakeer</i> 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," (even Shakespeare, it will be observed, yields at times to +platitude). "For see," he added solemnly, producing something from a +hollow in the root, "the Presence's own tobacco returns to the +Presence's pipe."</p> + +<p class="normal">Sure enough it was genuine Golden Cloud, and the relief overpowered me. +There I was after a space, half-lying, half-sitting in the clean warm +sand, my hands clasped at the back of my head as I looked up into the +shimmering light and shade of the leaves.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Upon my soul I envy you, <i>fakeer-ji</i>. We who go to bed at set times +and seasons don't know the world we live in."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Religion is its own reward," remarked the graven image beside me, for +he had gone back to his penwiper by this time. But I was talking more +to myself than to him, in the half-drowsy excitement of physical +pleasure, so I went on unheeding.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was there ever such a night since the one Jessica looked upon! and +what a scent there is in the air,--orange blossoms or something!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a tree farther up the water-cut, <i>Huzoor</i>, a hill tree. The +river may have brought the seed; it happens so sometimes. Or the birds +may have brought it from the city. There was a tree of the kind in a +garden there. A big tree with large white flowers; so large that you +can hear them fall."</p> + +<p class="normal">The graven image sat so still with its face to the river, that it +seemed to me as if the voice I heard could not belong to it. A dreamy +sense of unreality added to my drowsy enjoyment of the surroundings.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Magnolia," I murmured sleepily; "a flower to dream about--hullo! +what's that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">A faint footfall, as of some one passing down an echoing passage, loud, +louder, loudest, making me start up, wide awake, as the <i>fakeer's</i> cry +rose on the still air: "In the name of your God!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Some one was passing the bridge from the river, and after adding his +mite to the bowl, went on his way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is the echo, <i>Huzoor</i>" explained the old man, answering my start of +surprise. "The tree behind us is hollow and the cut is deep. Besides, +to-night the water runs deep and dark as Death because of the flood. +The step is always louder then."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No wonder you hear so quickly," I replied, sinking back again to my +comfort. "I thought it must be the Footstep of Death at least."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had turned towards me, and in the moonlight I could see those clear +eyes of his shining as if the light had come into them again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not yet, <i>Huzoor!</i> But it may be the next one for all we know."</p> + +<p class="normal">What a gruesome idea! Hark! There it was again; loud, louder, loudest, +and then silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That came from the city, <i>Huzoor</i>. It comes and goes often, for the +law-courts have it in grip. Perhaps that is worse than Death."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you recognise footsteps?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Surely. No two men walk the same; a footstep is as a face. Sometimes +after long years it comes back, and then you know it has passed +before."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do they generally come back?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Those from the city go back sooner or later unless Death takes them. +Those from the wilderness do not always return. The city holds them +fast, in the palace or in the gutter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Again the voice seemed to me not to belong to the still figure beside +me. "It makes a devilish noise, I admit," I said, half to myself; +"but--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps if the <i>Huzoor</i> listened for Death as I do he might keep +awake. Or perhaps if my lord pleases I might tell him a story of +footsteps to drive the idle dreams from his brain till the hour of that +snorting demon comes in due time?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go ahead," said I briefly, as I looked up at the stars.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he began. "It's a small story, <i>Huzoor</i>. A tale of footsteps from +beginning to end, for I am blind. Yet life was not always listening. +They used to say that Cheytu had the longest sight, the longest legs, +and the longest wind of any boy of his age. I was Cheytu." He paused, +and I watched a dancing shadow of a leaf till he went on. "The little +princess 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, +<i>Huzoor</i>, Cheytu the sweeper did not fan the flies from the little +princess herself; that was not his work. I belonged to her footsteps. I +was up before dawn sweeping the arcades of the old house ready for +them, and late at night it was my work to gather the dust of them and +the dead flowers she had played with, and bury them away in the garden +out of sight."</p> + +<p class="normal">A dim perception that this was strange talk for a sweeper made me +murmur sleepily, "That was very romantic of you, Cheytu." On the other +hand, it fitted my environment so admirably that the surprise passed +almost as it came.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She was a real princess, the daughter of kings who had been--God knows +when! It is written doubtless somewhere. Yes! a real princess, though +she could barely walk, and the track of her little feet was often +broken by handmarks in the dust. For naturally, <i>Huzoor</i>, the dust +might help 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 are, crept down while the child slept, to work evil to +mankind as women will. <i>Huzoor</i>, it was a bad storm. The red clouds had +hung over us all day long, joining the red dust from below so that it +came unawares at last, splitting the air and sending a great ladder of +light down the roof.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Aimna! Aimna!' cried some one. I was up first and had her in my arms; +for see you, <i>Huzoor</i>, it was life or death, and the dead belong to 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 light of a +thousand days in my eyes and on her face. It was the last thing I saw, +<i>Huzoor</i>--the very last thing Cheytu the sweeper ever saw.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I could hear. I could hear her calling, and I knew how her face +must be changing by the change in her voice. And then one day I found +myself sweeping the house against her wedding-feast; heard her crying +amongst her girl friends in the inner room. What then? Girls always cry +at their weddings. I went with her, of course, to the new life, because +I had swept the way for her ever since she could walk, and she needed +me more than ever in a strange house. It was a fine rich house, with +marble floors and a marble summer-house on the roof above her rooms. +People said she had made a good bargain with her beauty; perhaps, but +that child's face that I saw in the light was worth more than money, +<i>Huzoor</i>. She had ceased crying by this time, for she had plenty to +amuse her. Singers and players, and better story-tellers than Cheytu +the sweeper. It was but fair, 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, <i>Huzoor</i>, 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, starless night, and +then I first heard the footstep, if it was a footstep,--loud, louder, +loudest; then a silence save for the patter of the falling flowers. I +heard it often after that, and always when it had passed the flowers +fell. They fell about the summer-house too, and in the morning I used +to sweep them into a heap and fling them over the parapet. But one day, +<i>Huzoor</i>, they fell close at hand, and my groping fingers seeking the +cause found a plank placed bridge-wise amongst the branches. <i>Huzoor!</i> +was there any wonder the flowers fell all crushed and broken? That +night I listened again, and again the footsteps came amid a shower of +blossoms. What was to be done? Her women were as women are, and the +others were jealous already. Next day when I went to sweep I strewed +the fallen flowers thick, thick as a carpet round her bed; for she had +quick wits I knew.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Cheytu! Cheytu!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old call came as I knew it would, and thinking of that little +child's face in the light I went up to her boldly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'My princess,' I said in reply to her question as I bent over the +flowers, ''tis the footstep makes them fall so thick. If it is your +pleasure I will bid it cease. They may hurt your feet.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"I knew from her silence she understood. Suddenly she laughed; such a +girl's laugh.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Flowers are soft to tread upon, Cheytu. Go! you need sweep for me no +more.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"I laughed too as I went. Not sweep for her when she only knew God's +earth after I had made it ready for her feet! It was a woman's idle +word, but, woman-like, she would think and see wisdom for herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That night I listened once more. The footstep must come once I +knew--just once, and after that wisdom and safety. <i>Huzoor!</i> it came, +and the flowers fell softly. But wisdom was too late. I tried to get at +her to save her from their pitiless justice. I heard her cries, for +mercy; I heard her cry even for Cheytu the sweeper before they flung me +from the steps where the twinkling lights went up and down as if the +very stars 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. Such things are forgotten quickly, my lord, because the +revenge must be secret as the wrong; else it is shame, and shame must +not come nigh good families. But the blind do not forget easily; +perhaps they have less to remember. Could I forget the child's face in +the light? As I told the Presence, those who go from the city come back +to it sooner or later unless Death takes them first. So I wait for the +Footstep--hark!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Loud--louder--loudest: "In the name of your own God."</p> +<br> + +<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Did I wake with the cry? Or did I only open my eyes to see a glimmer of +dawn paling the sky, the birds shifting in the branches, the old man +seated bolt upright in his penwiper?</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was the first passenger, <i>Huzoor</i>," he said quietly. "The boat +has come. It is time your honour conferred dignity on ill manners by +joining it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the footstep! the princess! you were telling me just now--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What does a sweeper know of princesses, my lord? The Presence slept, +and doubtless he dreamed dreams. The tobacco--"</p> + +<p class="normal">He paused. "Well," said I, curiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i> this slave steeps his tobacco in the sleep-compeller. It +gives great contentment."</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked down at my pipe. It was but half smoked through. Was this +really the explanation?</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the echo?" I protested. "I heard it but now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of a truth there is an echo. That is not a dream. For the rest it is +well. The time has passed swiftly, the <i>Huzoor</i> is rested, his servant +has returned, the boat has come--all in contentment. The Shelter of the +World can proceed on his journey in peace, and return in peace."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Unless the Footstep of Death overtakes me meanwhile," said I, but half +satisfied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i> It never overtakes the just. Death and the righteous look at +each other in the face as friends. When the Footstep comes I will go to +meet it, and so will you. Hark! the demon screeches. Peace go with you, +my lord."</p> + +<p class="normal">About a year after this the daily police reports brought me the news +that my friend the old <i>fakeer</i> had been found dead in the water-cut. +An unusually heavy flood had undermined the banks and loosened the +bridge; it must have fallen while the old man was on it, for his 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 the doctor when, as +in duty bound, he went to the dead-house to examine the body. The +smiling mask was unchanged, but the eyes were open, and looked somehow +less empty dead than in the almost terrible clearness of life. The +right hand was fast clenched over something.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only a crushed magnolia blossom," said the doctor, gently unclasping +the dead fingers. "Poor beggar! it must have been floating in the +water--there's a tree up the cut; I've often smelt it from the road. +Drowning men--you know the rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">Did I? The coincidence was, to say the least of it, curious. It became +more curious still when, three weeks afterwards, the unrecognisable +body of a man was found half buried in the silt left in the alluvial +basin by the subsiding floods--a man of more than middle age, whose +right hand was clenched tight, over nothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the question remains. Did I dream that night, or did the Footstep of +Death bring revenge when it came over the bridge at last? I have never +been able to decide; and the only thing which remains sure is the +figure of the old <i>fakeer</i> with blind eyes, looking out on the +uncertain mirage of the river and waiting in godliness and +contentment,--for what?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_11" href="#div1Ref_11">HABITUAL CRIMINALS.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The very <i>mise-en-scčne</i> was indeterminate. A straight horizon meeting +the blue sky evenly, though not an inch of level ground lay far or near +in the pathless waste of yellow sand. Pathless, yet full of tracks. +Looking down at your feet, which, breaking through the rippling crust +of wind-waves on the surface, sank softly into the warm shifting sand +beneath, you could see the tracks crossing and re-crossing each other, +tracing a network over the world, each distinct, self-reliant, +self-contained. Yet such tiny tracks for the most part! That firm +zigzag, regular as a Gothic moulding, is 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 +upon a boy. He must have been ten years old, at least, by his size; any +age, judging by his face; stark naked save for a string and a scrap of +cloth. His head would have been an admirable advertisement to any hair +restorer, for it was thick and curly in patches, bald as a coot's in +others; briefly, like a well-kept poodle's. For the rest he was of +unusually dark complexion. He was sitting listless, yet alert, beside +some small holes in the sand, and when he saw me he smiled broadly, +showing a great gleam of white teeth. I asked him cheerfully who he +was, and he replied in the same tone,</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor! main Bowriah hone</i>." (I am a Bowriah.) It gave me a chill +somehow. So the lad was a Bowriah; in other words, one of that criminal +class which Western discipline keeps in 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 solemnly set down in black and write as an adult bad character. +The boy, however, seemed to have no misgivings, for he smiled still +more broadly when I asked him what he was doing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Catching lizards, <i>Huzoor!</i> They are fat at this time."</p> + +<p class="normal">My chill changed its cause incontinently. "You don't mean to say you +eat lizards?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at me more gravely. "Wherefore not, <i>Huzoor</i>? The Bowriahs +eat everything, except cats. Cats are heating to the blood, especially +in spring time."</p> + +<p class="normal">His air of well-defined wisdom tickled me; perhaps it touched me also, +for, ere riding off, I asked him his name, thinking I might inquire +more of him; for the sole reason of my tents being a few miles farther +in this sandy wilderness was the due inspection of a Bowriah village +which had been planted there, out of harm's way, by the authorities.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mungal, <i>Huzoor</i>" he replied. So I left him watching for the fat +lizards, and cantered on over the desert.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly I drew rein with a jerk. There he was again in front of me +sitting before another group of holes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hullo!" I cried, "how on earth did you manage to get here, Mungal?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy smiled his broad, white smile, "The <i>Huzoor</i> mistakes. I am +Bungal. Mungal is my brother over yonder." He stretched a thin dark arm +into the desert whence I had come. Mungal and Bungal! Twins, of course! +Even so the likeness was almost incredible. My memory could find no +dissimilarity of any sort or kind--no outward dissimilarity, at any +rate. The thought suggested an experiment, and I asked him what he was.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor! main Bowriah hone</i>," came instantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what are you doing?" I continued.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Catching lizards, <i>Huzoor!</i> They are fat at this time."</p> + +<p class="normal">Positively my chill returned, making me say quite naturally, "What! do +you eat lizards?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wherefore not, <i>Huzoor</i>? The Bowriahs eat everything, except cats. +Cats are heating to the blood, especially in, spring time."</p> + +<p class="normal">Identical so far. The quaintness of the idea prevented me from +disturbing it by further inquiry, so I rode on, dimly expectant of +finding a third habitual criminal--say Jungal this time--watching for +fat lizards at other holes. But I did not. They were twins only; 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 three months. By no means a +disagreeable occupation, for the Bowriahs have always a broad smile for +a sportsman. Indeed, several of the most suspicious characters had +promised me the best of <i>shikar</i> on the morrow; and what is more, they +kept their promise faithfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">As for Mungal and Bungal, even when seen together it was absolutely +impossible for me to detect any difference of any kind between the two +boys. Even their heads were shaven in the same tufts, and as they +invariably repeated each other, there was no differentiating them by +their words.</p> + +<p class="normal">Only their works remained as a means of knowledge, and with a view to +this I questioned the Deputy Inspector of Police, who was out with me, +as to the lads.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i>" he said, "they are of the Bowriah race. Their father and +mother are dead, but in life these were Bowriahs also. The boys, +however, not being adult, are not as yet on the Register; but they will +be. For the rest they are as Bowriahs. They eat jackals, wolves, and +such unclean things."</p> + +<p class="normal">I felt myself on the point of adding, "But not cats--cats, etc.;" +however I stopped myself in time, and asked instead if the boys stole, +or lied, or--</p> + +<p class="normal">The Deputy Inspector interrupted me respectfully, yet firmly. +"<i>Huzoor!</i> not being adult they are not on the Register. Therefore the +police have no cognizance of them--as yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then why do they make for the village now they hear the roll +beginning?" I persisted somewhat testily, as I saw Mungal and Bungal +racing along to the gateway in company with a number of boys about +their own age.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They do it to please themselves. It gives them dignity. Besides, in +youth one learns habits easily. Thus it is better, since the boys will +surely be on the Register if God spares them to adult age."</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked at the man sharply; there was positively not one atom of +expression of any kind whatever on his face. It is a great art.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the morrow Mungal and Bungal turned up again as part of the shooting +excursion, for even among their tribe of hunters they had already made +themselves a sporting reputation; perhaps because, being orphans, they +lived chiefly on their wits. It certainly was remarkable to see them on +a trail, turning and twisting and doubling on traces invisible 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 bush whence I +intended to fire, when a small dark hand clutched mine from behind, and +another pointed to something within an inch of where I had been about +to place my fingers. By everything unpleasant! a viper coiled in a true +lover's knot! "T--Tss-ss," came a sibilant whisper checking my start; +"the buck is there, <i>Huzoor</i>; the buck is there still."</p> + +<p class="normal">And he remained there, for my bullet went clean through his heart. It +was after the excitement of success was over that I turned to the boys, +and, somewhat thoughtlessly, held out a rupee.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Which of you two pointed out that <i>jelaibee?</i>" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i> I did," came both voices simultaneously. At first they +refused to budge from this simple statement, reserving the remainder of +their vocabulary for indignant abuse of each other. Nor could I from +their expression or tone glean the slightest corroborative evidence for +or against the truth of either. The greed in 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 <i>demi-volte</i> towards a new +position, and declared in one breath that they both did it, and +therefore that they both deserved a rupee. Certainly there had been two +hands, the one to clutch, the other to point, but I felt morally +certain that they had belonged to one body. However, to settle the +matter I gave each of the boys eight annas, and went back to my tents +convinced that either Mungal or Bungal was a liar. The question +was--which?</p> + +<p class="normal">That evening, when I was awaiting the appearance of my dinner with the +comfortable sense of a good appetite, I heard trouble in the cook-room +tent. It was followed by the violent irruption into mine of the whole +posse of servants gathered round my old <i>khânsâman</i> who, breathless but +triumphant, held Mungal and Bungal each by one ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was the <i>esh-starffit</i><a name="div4Ref_25" href="#div4_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> +quails, <i>Huzoor</i>, that I had prepared +for the Protector of the Poor; two for his Honour, seeing that he loves +the dish, and one for <i>Barker sahib</i>,<a name="div4Ref_26" href="#div4_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> +should God send a guest, so +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 +I am I fled after him, then remembering boys' ways, ran back round the +tent in time to see him, from fear, replacing it. Finally, with hue and +cry, we caught both escaping into the darkness of the desert."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Both of them!" I echoed; "but you said there was only one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The <i>Huzoor</i> mistakes," retorted the <i>khânsâman</i> quite huffily. +"Perchance there was one who stole, and one who gave back. This slave +had no time for trivial observation, these being undoubtedly 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 remarks, that being Bowriahs the +boys were necessarily thieves, and that in addition it was superfluous, +if not impious, to draw invidious distinctions where it had pleased +Providence to make none.</p> + +<p class="normal">But my curiosity had been aroused. "Mungal and Bungal," I said +solemnly, addressing the culprits who, with hands folded in front of +them like infant Samuels, stood cheerfully stolid, just as the adult +members of their tribe invariably did when brought before me as +habitual criminals, "do you by chance know what telling the truth +means?"</p> + +<p class="normal">As they assured me fervently that they did, I went on to explain that +my only desire in this case was to have the truth; that no one should +suffer by it; that contrariwise the tellers should receive +<i>bucksheesh</i>. 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 knew instinctively that +they were discounting my words by inherited experience of similar +promises. So it was with a prescience of what would follow that I put +the least formidable question--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Which of you replaced the quail?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The answer came double-barrelled, unhesitating, "I did, <i>Huzoor</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me give the boys five stripes each with the bamboo, <i>Huzoor!</i>" +suggested the Deputy Inspector with a stifled yawn, when I had wasted +much time and more unction, "it is good for boys at all times, and +these are but boys--as yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">It would have been the wisest plan, but I could not make up my mind to +it, so I went to bed that night certain of but one thing--either Mungal +or Bungal was a thief. The question was--which?</p> + +<p class="normal">It kept me awake until I made up my mind that somehow, by hook or by +crook, I would find out. Twenty-four hours was 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 boys with me I should have ample opportunity +of settling the question. Besides, they would be invaluable as +trackers.</p> + +<p class="normal">They proved themselves useful in many ways, and even the old khânsâman +grudgingly admitted their skill in the capture of chickens. The +spectacle of a half-plucked fowl defying all the resources of the camp +became a thing of the past, for Mungal or Bungal had it fast by the leg +in a trice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Sobhan ullah!</i>" (Power of the Lord) the old man would say piously. +"But there! they were made for such work from the beginning. We all +have our uses."</p> + +<p class="normal">My first desire was naturally to distinguish Mungal from Bungal. The +camp, it is true, had no such ambition. It was content to speak of them +as "<i>Yeh</i>" or "<i>Dusra</i>" (This or the Other), to which they answered +alternately. Thinking to effect my purpose, I gave one a necklace of +blue, the other a necklace of red beads; but they were evidently +suspicious of some plot, for I caught them exchanging decorations +several times. Evidently no reliance was to be placed on beads, so I +had a brass bangle riveted on the arm of one, and an iron bangle on the +arm of the other. That succeeded for a week. At least so I thought, +till I discovered that they had utilised my English files to cut +through the 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 stood, as usual when before me, in the attitude of the +praying Samuel, but I noticed their shoulders seemed glued to each +other, and that the whole balance of their lithe brown bodies was +towards each other. In truth the tie between them was strong indeed. By +day they and my big dog hunted together, and by night the trio slept in +each other's arms like puppies of one litter. When they pilfered, they +pilfered in pairs, and when they lied, they lied in pairs; still, +through it all, the idea clung to me that perhaps only one lied and +stole. But punishment of some sort being imperative, I gave in to the +impartial bamboo--for which, to say sooth, neither of them seemed to +care very much.</p> + +<p class="normal">In fact, the experiment appeared so successful, the boys so happy, that +the demon of self-complacency entered into me on my return to +headquarters, and I determined to send Mungal and Bungal to school, and +so differentiate them by their intellects. It was a disastrous +experiment, both to the clothes in which I had to dress them, and to +the peace of the compound; but it proved one thing, that neither Mungal +nor Bungal had any aptitude for learning the alphabet. Then, as the +recognised way of reclaiming the predatory tribes is to make them +tillers of the soil, I set my boys to work weeding in the garden. It +was a large garden, full of blossoming shrubs and shady fruiting trees, +where the squirrels loved to chatter, the birds to sing, and I to watch +them both. Within a fortnight neither fur nor feather was to be seen +anywhere. On the other hand, Mungal, Bungal, and Co. had killed five +cobras, two iguanas, and some dozens of cockroaches, rats, and +mice--all of which they had eaten. It was when, failing other game, a +pet parrot of the <i>khânsâman's</i> 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 <i>khitmutghâr</i> 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 them up without food for twenty-four hours, and begged me to +continue the like discipline whenever the offence was repeated. Hunger, +she said, had a gentle and humanising influence on all wild animals, +who might thus be brought to eat from the hand of authority. So it +seemed; for one night the lady's pet Persian kitten disappeared +mysteriously from her room. I tried to persuade myself it could not be +the boys, because "cat is heating to the blood," etc., etc.; but I knew +they had been hungry, and that game was scarce in both gardens. And, +sure enough, the police in searching their hut found some gnawed bones, +poor pussy's white skin neatly stretched on a board to dry, and, of +course, both the boys. They always were found together. This time they +attempted excuse, the one for the other. Mungal or Bungal had been +hungry; must have been hungry, or he would not have eaten cat, seeing +that cat, etc., etc. So they were sentenced judicially to so many +stripes apiece, and I resolved on sending them back to the walled +village as incurable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is a good word, indeed," said the old <i>khânsâman</i> pompously. "Thus +the <i>Huzoor's</i> compound will be free from all kinds of vermin; for, as +I live, the boy hath killed a snake in his Honour's henhouse every +night, save the last; and that, methinks, is because there are no more +to kill."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The boy? which boy?" I asked, suddenly curious. Then it came out that +every one in the place knew that either "Yeh" or "Dusra" had been +locked up in the hen-house from dusk till dawn every night for a +week or more, because some vermin was carrying off the chickens. Locked +up from daylight to daylight! without a possibility of cat<i>icide</i>. The +fact revived all my old curiosity, all my old determination to +differentiate these boys. I shall not easily forget the Deputy +Inspector's face of incredulous horror when I told him that +Mungal-Bungal was to remain for another trial. Even the Commissioner's +wife told me she thought it conceited on my part, seeing that female +influence had failed so signally.</p> + +<p class="normal">And, as a matter of fact, I gained nothing in the end by my +perseverance.</p> + +<p class="normal">The nights were growing warm, so I slept with the doors open; secure, +however, so I deemed, from fear of any kind by reason of the mastiff +which was 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, where I slept in order to enjoy the full current of air. +Hopelessly dark for the eyes as I woke one night to the touch of a +small flexible hand on mine.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hullo! who are you?" I cried in the half-drowsy alertness which comes +with a sudden decisive awakening.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor, main Bowriah hone</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">I seem to hear the answer as I write--confident, contented, cheerful. +And then my attention shifted absolutely to a streak of light +glimmering under the closed door of my office. Thieves! thieves in the +house! I was among them in an instant, getting a glimpse of dark +figures at my cash box before the light 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, "<i>Bowriah logue! +Bowriah logue</i>." And then, of course, in the centre of the posse of +indignant retainers I saw Mungal-Bungal led by the ears, caught +in the very act of running away in the rear of those adult members +of their tribe whose accomplices they had been; for the mastiff was +dead--brutally, skilfully strangled by some fiend of a friend whom the +poor dog had trusted to slip a noose round its neck.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of those two, of course; who else could it have been?</p> + +<p class="normal">But then that small warning hand on mine! That answer I knew so +well:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor! main Bowriah hone</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Great God! what a tragedy lay in these words!</p> + +<p class="normal">I was too sick at heart to question those infant Samuels again; I knew +the double-barrelled denial too well. However, as I had been roused in +time to prevent actual theft, I managed to hush the matter up by +promising the Deputy Inspector to send the boys back to their village +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 watched +Mungal-Bungal go from my gate in charge of the constable who was to +conduct it back to the hereditary place in life to which it had, +apparently, pleased God to call the firm, I knew that if one-half was +already a habitual criminal, the other half was an embryo saint.</p> + +<p class="normal">The question remains--which?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_12" href="#div1Ref_12">MUSSUMÂT KIRPO'S DOLL.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">They had gathered all the schools into the Mission House compound, and +set them out in companies on the bare ground like seedlings in a +bed,--a perfect garden of girls, from five to fifteen, arrayed in +rainbow hues; some of them in their wedding dresses of scarlet, most of +them bedecked with the family jewelry, and even the shabbiest boasting +a row or two of tinsel on bodice or veil.</p> + +<p class="normal">And down the walks, drawn with mathematical accuracy between these +hotbeds of learning, a few English ladies with eager, kindly faces, +trotting up and down, conferring excitedly with portly native Christian +Bible-women, and pausing occasionally to encourage some young offshoot +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, kindly foreign faces, +not confined here to one sex, but in fair proportion male and female; +yet, bearded like the pard or feminine to a fault, all with the same +expression, the same universal kindly benevolence towards the +horticultural exhibition spread out before their eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the table, pale or flushed with sheer good feeling, two or three of +the chief Mission ladies, and between them, with a mundane, married +look about her, contrasting strongly with her surroundings, the +Commissioner's wife, about to give away the prizes. A kindly face also, +despite its half-bewildered look, as one after another of the seedlings +comes up to receive the reward of merit. One after another solemnly, +for dotted 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, scholastic Hindustani with which her flushed, excited +countrywomen introduce each claimant to her notice. Still she smiles, +and says, "<i>Bohut uchcha</i>" (very good), and nods as if she did. In a +vague way she is relieved when the books are finished and she begins +upon the dolls. There is something familiar and cosmopolitan in the +gloating desire of the large dark eyes, and the possessive clutch of +the small hands over the treasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Standard I. Mussumât<a name="div4Ref_27" href="#div4_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> +Kirpo," reads out the secretary, and a tall +girl of about fifteen comes forward. A sort of annoyed surprise passes +among the ladies in quick whispers. 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 +school so irregularly, and really Julia Smith might have explained! +This the lady in question proceeds to do almost tearfully, until she is +cut short by superior decision.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, we must give it her now as there isn't anything else for her. +So, dear Mrs. Gordon, if you please! Of course, as a rule, we always +draw the line about dolls 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 emphasise our views on the +child-marriage question. But if you will be kind enough in this +case--just to avoid confusion--we will rectify the mistake to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mussumât Kirpo took her doll stolidly;--a sickly, stupid-looking girl, +limping as she walked dully, stolidly back to her place.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ari!</i>" giggled the women behind the bushes. "That's all she is likely +to get in that way. Lo! they made a bad bargain in brides in Gungo's +house, and no mistake. But 'twas ill luck, not ill management; for they +tell me Kirpo was straight and sound when she was betrothed. May the +gods keep my daughters-in-law healthy and handsome."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then they forgot the joke in tender delight over more suitable gifts to +the others; and so the great day passed to its ending.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do believe poor Kirpo's getting that doll was the only +<i>contretemps</i>," said the superintendent triumphantly, "and that, dear +Julia, you can easily remedy to-morrow, so don't fret about it."</p> + +<p class="normal">With this intention Julia Smith went down at the first opportunity to +her school in the slums of the city. A general air of slackness +pervaded the upstairs room, where only a row of little mites sat +whispering to each other, while their mistress, full of yawns and +stretchings, talked over the events of yesterday with her monitor. +Briefly, if the Miss-<i>sahib</i> thought she was going to slave as she had +done for the past year for a paltry eight yards of <i>sussi</i>-trousering, +which would not be enough to cut into the "fassen "--why, the +Miss-<i>sahib</i> was mistaken. And then with the well-known footfall on the +stairs came smiles and flattery. But Kirpo was not at school. Why +should she be, seeing that she was a paper-pupil and the prize giving +was over? If the Miss-<i>sahib</i> 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 glances +of longing on every house where she had not as yet found entrance. +Hence her reluctance to quarrel definitely with her pupil, or rather +her pupil's belongings, since poor Kirpo did not count for much in that +bustling Hindu household. But for the fact that she was useful at the +trade and as a general drudge, <i>Mai</i> Gungo would long ago have found +some excuse for sending the girl, who had so wofully disappointed all +expectations, back to her people,--those people who had taken the +wedding gifts and given a half-crippled, half-silly bride in exchange. +Unparalleled effrontery and wickedness, to be avenged on the only head +within reach.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She wants none of your dolls or your books," shrilled <i>Mai</i> Gungo, who +was in a bad temper; "they aren't worth anything, and I expected +nothing less than a suit of clothes, or a new veil at least, else would +I never have sent her from the comb-making to waste her time. Lo! +Miss-<i>sahib</i>," here the voice changed to a whine, "we are poor folk, +and she costs to feed--she who will never do her duty as a wife. Yet +must not Kuniya's son remain sonless; thus is there the expense of +another wife in the future."</p> + +<p class="normal">So the complaints went on, while Kirpo, in full hearing, sat filing +away at the combs without a flicker of expression on her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">But when Julia had settled the business with eight annas from her +private pocket, and was once more picking her way through the +drain-like alley, she heard limping steps behind her. It was Kirpo and +the Japanese doll.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Miss-<i>sahib</i> has forgotten it," she said stolidly. Julia Smith +stood in the sunlight, utterly unmindful of a turgid stream of +concentrated filth which at that moment came sweeping along the +gutter. Her gentle, womanly eyes saw something she recognised in the +child-like, yet unchild-like face looking into hers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would you like to keep it, dear?" she asked gently. Kirpo nodded her +head.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She needn't know," she explained. "I could keep it in the cow-shed, +and they will sell the book you left for me. They would sell this too. +That is why I brought it back."</p> + +<p class="normal">This admixture of cunning rather dashed poor Julia's pity; but in the +end Kirpo went back to her work with the Japanese doll carefully +concealed in her veil, and for the next year Julia Smith never caught +sight of it again. Things went on as if it had not been in that +straggling Hindu house, with its big courtyard and dark slips of rooms. +Perhaps Kirpo got up at night to play with it; perhaps she never played +with it at all, but, having wrapped it in a napkin and buried it away +somewhere, was content in its possession like the man with his one +talent; for this miserliness 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 <i>Mai</i> Gungo's claims grew intolerable, +and the Mission lady had found firm footing in less rapacious houses. +The latter, because to <i>Mai</i> Gungo's somewhat grudging relief her +daughter-in-law, after nearly four years of married life, seemed +disposed to save the family from the expense of another bride by +presenting it with a child. Nothing, of course, could alter the fact of +the girl's ugliness and stupidity and lameness; still, if she did her +duty in this one point <i>Mai</i> Gungo could put up with her, especially as +she really did very well at the combs. She was not worked quite so hard +now, since that might affect the future promise. Perhaps this gave +Kirpo more time to play with the Japanese doll, perhaps it did not. +Outwardly, at any rate, life went on in the courtyard as though no such +thing existed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She may die, the crippled ones often do," said the gossips, scarcely +lowering their voices; "but it will be a great saving, <i>Mai</i> Gungo, if +the grandson comes without another daughter-in-law; they quarrel so. +Besides, it is in God's hands. May He preserve both to you." <i>Mai</i> +Gungo echoed the wish, with the reservation that if the whole wish was +impossible, the child at least 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 shrill voice. It had +been much greater fun at the school; and as for the prize-giving days! +Kirpo had four of those red-letter glimpses of the world to recollect, +but she always gave the palm of pleasure to the last, when they had +laughed at her and the Japanese doll. Perhaps because she remembered it +best; for, as has been said, poor Kirpo's was not a brilliant +intellect.</p> + +<p class="normal">So just about the time when the Mission House was once more buying +large consignments of dolls and books, and laying in yards on yards of +<i>sussi</i>-trousering and Manchester veiling against another prize-giving, +the mistress of the little school-room up two pair of stairs said to +Julia Smith,</p> + +<p class="normal">"Kirpo had a son last week. <i>Mai</i> Gungo hath given offerings galore."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Kirpo herself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She ails, they say; but that is likely. The hour of danger is over."</p> + +<p class="normal">That same afternoon Julia Smith once more picked her way along the +gutters to the mud steps and closed door of Kuniya's house. Kirpo was +lying alone on a bed in the shadow of a grass thatch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And where is the baby?" asked Julia, cheerfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mother-in-law hath it. 'Tis a son--doubtless the Miss hath heard so." +There was the oddest mixture of pride and regret in the girl's dull +face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She will let thee have it when thou art stronger," said her visitor +quickly. "Thou must give me back the dolly, Kirpo, now thou hast a live +one of thine own."</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl's head shifted uneasily on the hard pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay! and the prize-giving day must be close, I have been thinking. If +the Miss-<i>sahib</i> will look behind the straw yonder she will find the +doll. It is not hurt. And the Miss can give it to some one else. I +don't want it any more. She might give it to a little girl this time. +She could play with it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Mai</i> Gungo!" said Julia severely, as, on her way out, she found the +mother-in-law surrounded by her gossips, exhibiting the baby to them +with great pride, "you must look to Kirpo; she thrives not. And give +her the baby--she pines after it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Miss doth not understand," flounced Gungo. "What can Kirpo do with +a baby? She is a fool; besides, a mother like that hath evil influences +till the time of purification hath passed."</p> + +<p class="normal">Ten days afterwards the mistress of the school told Julia that Kirpo +had the fever, and they did not think she would recover. It was never +safe for such as she to have sons, and nothing else was to be expected.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps it was not; for Julia found her on the bare ground of the +courtyard where she had been set to die. The oil lamps flared smokily +at her head and her feet, and <i>Mai</i> Gungo, with the fortnight-old baby +in her arms, cried "<i>Râm! Râm!</i>" lustily. But the girl lingered in +life, turning her head restlessly from side to side on Mother Earth's +bosom.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give her the baby--only for a minute," pleaded Julia with tears in her +eyes. <i>Mai</i> Gungo frowned; but a neighbour broke in hastily--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay! give it to her, gossip, lest in her evil ways she returns for it +when she is dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">So they laid the baby beside her; but the restless head went on turning +restlessly from side to side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My doll! my doll! I like my doll best."</p> + +<p class="normal">Before they could fetch it from the Mission compound Kirpo was dead.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_13" href="#div1Ref_13">"LONDON."</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The rains had fallen late, bringing unusual greenness to the stretches +of waste-land, and unusual promise of harvest to the bare, brown fields +where man and beast were hard at work, day and night, ploughing, +harrowing, 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 uninterested though it was; for surely no one who has seen a Jât +cultivator, tall, meagre, soft eyed, wandering amongst his green wheat, +waiting for Râm to send rain, can ever forget the incarnate tragedy of +the sight.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun was setting cloudless in a sea of light, that still flooded the +scene with the brightness of noon, though the shadows lengthened in +swift strides. I was sitting on a wide flight of steps leading down +into a small tank closed in on all sides by masonry. Viewed thus, with +the mass of brick work surrounding it, this square of placid water +reflecting back the lemon-coloured sky, the fringe of dull <i>farâsh</i> +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 woman in a saffron veil was filling her brass pot, and +on the trumpery stucco arcades of the temple-plinth were painted blue +elephants, gingerbread tigers, and spidery monkeys. Round and round the +central spire the iridescent breasts of the whirling pigeons glinted in +the level rays.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was peaceful, colourful, almost in its way beautiful, especially +after a long day's work in the office tent which rose a few hundred +yards away. Suddenly the clear-cut silence of the scene was marred by a +deprecatory voice behind me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence will not think it so fine as '<i>Ide Park</i>, doubtless?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"So fine as what?" I echoed carelessly, being accustomed to the +thousand and one interruptions of a district officer's life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So fine as your '<i>Ide Par-k</i> in the town of London."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hyde Park!--why! what the deuce do you know of Hyde Park?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Intense surprise had replaced my indifference, for there was nothing to +account for the strangeness of his words either in the face or figure +of the man who stood behind me leaning on a long staff over which +his hands were crossed. It was just such a face and figure as I saw +every day. A typical Jât--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 cotton +cloth suggesting the lean, bony frame beneath. A face well cut, but not +refined, marked, but not strong, in which the most noticeable features +were the large dreamy eyes like those of Botticelli's Moses in the +Sistine Chapel.</p> + +<p class="normal">Immovable from the knee downwards he squatted, as the Americans say, +"in his tracks," keeping his submissive face towards mine like a dog +awaiting his master's pleasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By the mercy of the Presence I have seen 'Ide Park. Yes, I have been +there--in the city of London--where the <i>sahibs</i> and the <i>mem-sahibs</i> +sit and walk."</p> + +<p class="normal">A vision of the figure before me planted out amongst flower-decked +mashers and powdery belles aroused such a sense of incongruity in my +mind that I could only echo feebly--</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you have been to London!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes!" he replied cheerfully, "I've been to London to see the great +Queen."</p> + +<p class="normal">For the life of me I could not help reverting to the sequence of +childish days: "<i>Pussy cat, pussy cat, what saw you there?</i>" and his +reply fitted in so neatly that my query lost its lightness and became +serious.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I saw the <i>Sikattar</i> (secretary) who sits in her chair."</p> + +<p class="normal">I laughed then; I could not help it, for I felt convinced that no other +words could have expressed the whole incident more truthfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I went to London, O Protector of the Poor!" continued the stranger +softly, "because I wanted, to get back the land. The Presence knows we +Jâts cannot live without our land."</p> + +<p class="normal">Involuntarily his eyes turned to a neighbouring field, where a couple +of plough bullocks were slowly scoring the levels into feeble furrows, +whilst the ploughman--just such a man as the one before me--held his +hookah in one hand, his goad in the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you did not get the land after all? How was that?" God knows I was +not always so ready of access to the native (as the departmental +pastorals put it), but then one does not meet a Jât who has been to +Hyde Park every day.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps if it had not been a <i>Sikattar</i>," replied the low soft +voice--"perhaps if it had been the great Queen herself--" Here the +plough bullocks he was watching turned too sharply, and his hand closed +mechanically on the stick he held between his knees, as if he were +responsible for the mistake. "If the Presence has not heard it all +before, I will tell it why Dewa Râm the Jât went to London."</p> + +<p class="normal">I give the story in his own words, for mine might fail to transmit the +perfection of his patience.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The land was my father's, and my father's father from Mahratta times. +In those days no one could sell the land or prevent the sons from +following the father's plough. To begin with, no one wanted to sell +good land, and then they could not if they would. That was before the +great Sirkâr--life and prosperity be with it always--came to lift the +hearts of the poor and set their heads high. There was much land, and +on some of it in olden days a mortgage had been put. The Presence will +know the kind of mortgage, where for a hundred rupees or so of loan +another man is allowed to till the soil worth thousands. Only if it is +wanted back, then the owner returns the hundred rupees. That is all. It +is done when a family is small and has too much land to till properly. +So the village accountant's people held the land because they were +relations by marriage. It was in my father's time that the great Sirkâr +came, and we began paying the dues to it instead of to the Maharajah. +Then, when my father fell into evil ways because of drugs, my mother +took her sons--we were twins, Sewa Râm and I--if the Presence pleases, +back to her people far away beyond Amritsar. For 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 Sirkâr 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 Sirkâr and say, 'Here is the hundred rupees, give us back the land +and write it in our names,' because, as I have said, Sewa Râm and I +were away beyond Amritsar, and our mother thought the land could not +run away. It was no wonder the Sirkâr was deceived, no wonder at all, +but when we came to claim the land even our names were not on the list. +They had written the wrong thing because the mortgage had been +foreclosed, and there were no heirs. After this one judge--may he +become the <i>Lât Sahib</i>--said he would put it right, but the accountant +was rich and made it into an appeal. The Presence knows what an appeal +is, doubtless, and how, when a little thing like this--just a mistake +in a map--gets up amongst the pleaders and the <i>Sikattars</i>, it is +sometimes too small for them to see. It would have been different if +the Sirkâr had seen two big noisy boys when it counted the village. +Then Sewa Râm was set free from the prison of life, and I was alone; +for the Presence knows a Jât cannot marry without land, or have sons +when there is no plough to keep the furrow of existence straight. So I +sold my mother's jewels and went to show the great Queen herself that +my father really had a son. Thus I came to 'Ide Park in London city, +and saw the <i>Sikattar</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you did not succeed?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence knows that the <i>vizier</i> is not as the <i>badshah</i>. He was +very kind, sending me back by ship P. and O. And writing! God knows how +many letters he wrote, and he bade me wait. That is two years gone, so +I am waiting still."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you a case in my Court?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He shook his head with a certain pride. "Oh no! it is in the big Court, +or with the Financial, or a <i>Sikattar</i> just now; but it will come to +the Presence sooner or later. That is why I journey with the Protector +of the Poor. When that day comes the Presence will remember how Dewa +Râm the Jât went to 'Ide Park."</p> + +<p class="normal">As I strolled back to the tent he followed at a discreet distance. +Afterwards, as I sat smoking outside, I saw him wandering in the fields +listlessly, his tall figure standing out against the sky as he paused +to look at the sprouting wheat. When I questioned my underlings as to +his story, they smiled obsequiously, as the native will smile before +the master's face. The case, it appeared, had grown to be quite a +standing joke in the office, nor was this the first cold weather that +Dewa Râm had haunted the camp of the Deputy Commissioner and waited for +news of his land. They hemmed and hawed, however, over the rights and +wrongs of his claim, until I asked them point blank what their own +impressions were; 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 bring the promised land within his reach. +He was very grateful. So condescending a Presence, he said, had never +before dwelt in the tents of the great Sirkâr; and often on Sunday +afternoons, when the camp was at rest, he would steal ostentatiously to +a spot about thirty yards from where I was sitting, and if opportunity +offered, enter into conversation--generally beginning by some +apologetic allusion to 'Ide Park, but ending with a vast amount of +information. He was a perfect mine of folk-lore, and many a half hour +did he beguile by old-world stories and traditions. One, in particular, +I will retail in his own words, because it seems to me to give insight +into the nature of the man and of his race.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had been having my Sunday cup of afternoon tea in the shade of a huge +banian tree, and was idly amusing myself by throwing crumbs to a +bright-eyed, bushy-tailed palm squirrel, that had crept down 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 nearer and nearer, its +tail in an aggressive pluff, its large eyes scanning my face knowingly. +A pause, a dart, and it was chirruping on the branch above my head with +the crumb in its deft fingers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence is a friend of Râm's," said "London" deferentially, "that +is why the heart of the Presence is so soft."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And why do you say I am a friend of Râm's?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because the Presence is a friend to Râm's friend. Has the <i>Huzoor</i> +never heard how the squirrel people come to have four black marks on +their golden backs? Then I will tell. It was in the old days when Râm's +parents fastened the silken bracelet on his wrist, and sent him out to +find Seeta his wife. The Presence will have heard of that, and how each +year our women folk tie the <i>râm rukkhi</i> to our wrists for luck. Well, +when Râm, 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 Râm was the Lord of the whole earth. Now the first to answer +his call was the squirrel. In those days it was all golden, like corn +in the sunlight, and light-hearted beyond all mortal things, as it is +now. It leapt on to Râm's sword and cried, 'Master! I am ready.' But +the great god's eyes grew soft as he saw the little thing's slender +beauty, and perceived that it had the bravest heart of all his +creatures. So he laid his hand on it in blessing, saying softly--</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Nay! tender little warrior! thou art too pretty for strife and death. +Live on, brave and careless for ever, so that weary men may see the +beauty of the life great Râm has given.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, lo! when he raised his hand the squirrel's shining coat bore the +shadow of Râm's tired fingers, for even golden life is dimmed by the +touch of care."</p> + +<p class="normal">This and many another tale he told to me, while the green pigeons +bustled about in the branches, and the squirrels lay yawning amongst +the mango flowers. For the winter had flown, the camping season was +at an end, and still "London" was waiting. He never complained; only +when rain fell, or when there was a heavy dew, or a good winnowing +wind,--anything, in short, calculated to gladden the heart of a +farmer,--he used to talk of 'Ide Park, and bewail the fact that +<i>Sikattar sahibs</i> had penetrated even there. The hot weather passed, as +usual, in a stagnation of mind and body more or less modified 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 "to be let" as they are in +England, and the State, though in reality owner, has no power to turn +out one man or his heirs in favour of another, or in any way to +manipulate the holdings of hereditary cultivators. Why, knowing this, +it could have delegated the power to the money lender, in giving the +right of alienation by sale or mortgage to the cultivator, is one of +those abstruse mysteries over the elucidation of which volumes have +been and are still to be written. A mystery, moreover, which is +responsible for half the growing poverty of those whose patient labour +is the bulwark of the State.</p> + +<p class="normal">The particular village in which I hoped to find a more or less +temporary outlet for poor "London's" hereditary instinct--which made +the sight of a plough have much the same effect on 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 direct Government control by confiscation, and as the +country settled down, had been leased, at fixed rentals, to the loyal +families, or in many cases to the heirs of the dead offenders.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of these, the son of a notorious mutineer, had just died childless, +and it was into his place that I determined, if possible, to put +"London." The case "Dewa Râm <i>versus</i> the Empress and others" had come +back to me for the third time, with a request for further inquiry and +evidence. There was none to give, for in a country where 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 Sirkâr +had been deceived by the foreclosed mortgage, and the lying man who +tilled the soil, joined to the newly-invented theory that the peasant +proprietor had a right to alienate the ancestral property of his +descendants. So, with the prospect of another cold weather camp before +me, I felt an almost morbid desire to get rid of "London," and those +patient eyes that seemed to me as if they were ever on the look-out for +the promised land.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was told afterwards by my superiors, in set terms, that my behaviour +was illegal and indiscreet, and that I should have gone round the +mutinous crew one by one, giving them the option of leasing the land, +before offering it to any one else, above all, before putting in a man +whose claim to other ground was "in course of settlement." I believe my +superiors to have been quite right theoretically, and I know that, +practically, my philanthropic experiment proved a 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, and the Jâts, once aroused from their +usual calm placidity, fight like devils with their long quarterstaves. +On this occasion they gave the truculent crew as good as they got, +until overpowered by numbers. When the incident occurred I was in a +very out of the way part of the district, and I well remember having to +send a special messenger thirty miles with an urgent telegram in order +to allay still more urgent inquiries as to the "serious agrarian riot +in B----."</p> + +<p class="normal">When I returned to head-quarters I found "London" convalescent and +distinctly cheerful. He was sitting on the hospital steps whittling a +new staff, and expressed his determination of going back to the village +as soon as possible with a larger supply of friends. I felt +constrained, however, to 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 "<i>en +masse</i>," so the matter had passed beyond my control. "London" was +sorrowful, but sympathetic, seeming to enjoy the idea that I too might +become a prey to <i>Sikattars</i> ere long. He took great pride in his +broken arm and new stick, and more than once suggested that if the +great Queen only knew how he had clouted the heads of the misbegotten, +unfaithful devils, she might believe that his father had indeed left a +son.</p> + +<p class="normal">After this I made several attempts to bring a plough handle within +"London's" reach, but my philanthropy was guarded, and my efforts +uniformly unsuccessful. Once, a small atom of land on which I had my +eye was taken up by a newly-made Municipal 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 of aniline dyes, occupied what they were pleased to call +the Industrial Department. In the reading room opposite an interesting +collection of seditious journalism lay on the table, and a chromo of +the "Kaiser-i-Hind" hung over the fireplace.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then once again, when I thought I had found a resting-place for those +dreamy eyes, the Military Department stepped between hope and fruition +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 +those who, living amongst the peasantry learn to admire them as they +deserve to be admired--came to put an end to all my plans for "London."</p> + +<p class="normal">He bore the tidings with gentle regret. The Presence, he said, had not +been well for some time; It would be the better of seeing 'Ide Park +again, and perhaps as It was to be away so long--a whole year he was +told--there would be a chance of seeing not only the <i>Sikattar</i>, but +the great Queen herself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if," he continued, standing up and leaning on his staff as I had +first seen him, whilst his eyes followed the ploughing for yet another +harvest,--"and if the Presence is so fortunate, perhaps It might find +time to remember that Dewa Râm the Jât is waiting for his land."</p> + +<p class="normal">The reason for my writing this absolutely true experience is one of +those distressing inconsistencies which are part and parcel of poor +humanity. 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 peasant life of which the rulers and governors know so little. But +it needed an unreality, a mere feverish fancy to supply the motive +power.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was in Hyde Park yesterday at the close of a bright afternoon. No +need to describe what I saw. To those who live in London the scene is +as familiar as their own faces, while those who do not, have at their +disposal a thousand descriptions 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 vast number of +sandwich men advertising lectures, meetings, and addresses on every +conceivable subject, struck me as favourable evidence of the growing +intelligence and sympathy of the many for things beyond the daily round +of English life.</p> + +<p class="normal">I sat down, and being a comparative stranger, amused myself, as many +have done before me, in listening to the scraps of conversation which +fell from the lips of the passers by--the flotsam-jetsam left by the +stream of humanity; and as usual my initial curiosity and interest died +down before the growing perception of some strange likeness underlying +all the atoms of thought and speech.</p> + +<p class="normal">Slowly, uncertainly, as the confused tints of a child's magic lantern +focus into some horrid monster, or as the ebbing tide discloses the +drowned face of a victim, the half-heard assertions, denials, +protestations of the pleasure-seeking crowd, 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. +Inevitable, no doubt, but depressing in the masks are men and women +claiming to be the cream of culture and civilisation. I wondered if, +when the best was said and done, the art of widening our vitality by +our sympathies had made much progress.</p> + +<p class="normal">A stir in the crowd, a murmur, a look of expectation roused me from +idle moralisings. A couple of outriders in red came down the drive, and +people paused to look.</p> + +<p class="normal">"By Jove! it's the Queen herself," said some one hurriedly, as a +brougham drove past giving a glimpse from behind closed windows of grey +hair and a widow's cap. The murmur swelled to a roar, almost a cheer. +Every hat was off, and some country cousins stood up in their chairs in +order to see better.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, what followed will, I know, be set down to the attack of Indian +fever which some ten minutes afterwards sent me home to shiver in bed. +Nevertheless, I am prepared to swear that there, amongst the +flower-decked mashers and the powdery belles, I saw the tall, gaunt +form of "London" leaning on his quarterstaff. 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 <i>Kaiser-i-Hind</i> +was being partially displayed to her faithful subjects. They were fixed +on me! On me, the tape-tied, sealing-waxed representative of a paternal +despotism in India. The myriad tongues resumed their civilised +shibboliths, but above them came a well-known cadence, "And if the +Presence is so fortunate, perhaps it might find time to remember that +Dewa Râm the Jât is waiting for his land."</p> + +<p class="normal">As I said before, I went home to bed. What else could I do? Perhaps if +other people could have seen what I saw, Dewa Râm and his kind would +not be so often in difficulties about their land.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_14" href="#div1Ref_14">LÂL.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Who was Lâl? What was he? This was a question I asked many times; and +though it was duly answered, Lâl remained, and remains still, an +unknown quantity--an abstraction, a name, and nothing more. L A L. The +same backwards and forwards, self-contained, self-sufficing.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first time I heard of Lâl was on a bright spring morning, one of +those mornings when the plains of Northern India glitter with +dew-drops; when a purple haze of cloud-mountain bounds the pale +wheat-fields to the north, and a golden glow strikes skywards from 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 law and bucklered +by foot-rules and maps, the Government of India, in the person of one +of its officers, came gravely and altered the proportion of land and +water on the surface of the globe, while the river gurgled and dimpled +as if it were laughing in its sleeve.</p> + +<p class="normal">Strange work, but pleasant too, with a charm of its own wrought by +infinite variety and sudden surprise. Sometimes watching the stream +sapping at a wheat-field, where the tender green spikes fringed the +edges of each crack and fissure in the fast-drying soil. A promise of +harvest,--and then, sheer down, the turbid water gnawing hungrily. +Every now and again a splash, 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 sagely over the +problem, and younger voices protest that it was not worth while to +enter such a flotsam-jetsam as a field. But the ruthless iron chain +would come into requisition, and another green spot be daubed on the +revenue map, for Governments ignore chance. And still the river dimpled +and gurgled with inward mirth; for if it gave the vetch, had it not +taken the wheat?</p> + +<p class="normal">So from one scene of loss or gain to another, while the sun shone in +the cloudless sky overhead. Past pools of shining water where +red-billed cranes stood huddled up on one leg, as if they felt cold in +the crisp morning air. Out on the bare stretches of sand where +glittering streams and flocks of white egrets combined to form a silver +embroidery on the brown expanse. Over the shallow ford where the +bottle-nosed alligators slipped silently 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 to another. +Back again to higher ground through thickets of tamarisk dripping with +dew. The bushes sparse below with their thin brown stems, so thick +above where the feathery pink-spiked branches interlaced. Riding +through it, the hands had to defend the face from the sharp switch of +the rosy flowers as they swung back disentangled; such tiny flowers, +too, no bigger than a mustard seed, and leaving a pink powder of pollen +behind them.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was after forcing my way through one of these tamarisk jungles that +I came out on an open patch of rudely ploughed land, where a mixed crop +of pulse and barley grew sturdily, outlining an irregular oval with a +pale green carpet glistening with dew. In the centre a shallow pool of +water still testified to past floods, and from it a purple heron winged +its flight, lazily craning its painted neck against the sky.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whole <i>posse comitatus</i> of the village following me broke by twos +and threes through the jungle, and gathered round me as I paused +watching the bird's flight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Take the bridle from his honour's pony," cried a venerable pantaloon +breathlessly. "Let the steed of the Lord of the Universe eat his fill. +Is not this the field of Lâl?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Twenty hands stretched out to do the old headman's bidding; twenty +voices re-echoed the sentiment in varying words. A minute more, and my +pony's nose was well down on the wet, sweet tufts of vetch, and I was +asking for the first time, "Who is Lâl?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Lâl, came the answer, why, Lâl was--Lâl. This was his field. Why should +not the pony of the Protector of the Poor have a bellyful? Was it not +more honourable than the parrot people and the squirrel people, and the +pig people who battened on the field of Lâl?</p> + +<p class="normal">It was early days yet for the flocks of green parrots to frequent the +crops, and the dainty squirrels were, I knew, still snugly a-bed +waiting for the sun to dry the dew; but at my feet sundry furrows and +scratches told that the pig had already been at work.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is Lâl here?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">A smile, such as greets a child's innocent ignorance, came to the +good-humoured faces around me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lâl, they explained, came when the crop was ripe, when the parrot, the +squirrel, and the pig people--and his honour's pony too--had had their +fill. Lâl was a good man, one who walked straight, and laboured truly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But where is he?" I insisted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Face looked at face half puzzled, half amused. Who could tell where Lâl +was? He might be miles away, or in the next jungle. Some one had seen +him at Sukkhur a week agone, but that was no reason why he should not +be at Bhukkur now, for Lâl followed the river, and like it was here +to-day, gone to-morrow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Baulked in my curiosity, I took refuge in business by inquiring what +revenue Lâl paid on his field. This was too much for the polite gravity +of my hearers. The idea of Lâl's paying revenue was evidently +irresistibly comic, and the venerable pantaloon actually choked himself +between a cough and a laugh, requiring to be held up and patted on the +back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But some one must pay the revenue," I remarked a little testily.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly! the Lord of the Universe was right. The village community +paid it. It was the village which lent Lâl the field, and the bullocks, +and the plough. It was the village which gave him the few handfuls of +seed-grain to scatter broadcast over the roughly-tilled soil. So much +they lent to Lâl. The sun and the good God gave him the rest. All, that +is to say, that was not wanted for the parrot, the pig, and the +squirrel people, and, of course, for the pony of the Lord of the +Universe.</p> + +<p class="normal">There are so many mysteries in Indian peasant life, safe hidden from +alien eyes, that I was lazily content to let Lâl and his field slip +into the limbo of things not thoroughly understood, and so, ere long, I +forgot all about him. Spring passed ripening the crops; summer came +bringing fresh floods to the river; and autumn watched the earth once +more make way against the water; but Lâl was to me as though he had not +been.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was only when another year found me once more in the strange land +which lies, as the natives say, "in the stomach of the river," that +memory awoke with the words, "This is the field of Lâl." There was, +however, no suggestion made about loosening my pony's bridle as on the +former occasion, the reason for such reticence being palpable. Lâl had +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 previous +gifts of rich alluvial soil--a trick which has given her a bad name, +the worst a woman can bear, because she gives and destroys with one +hand. Here and there, in patches, the sparse crop showed green; but for +the most part the ground lay bare, cracking into large fissures under +the noonday sun, and peeling at the top into shiny brown scales.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A bad lookout for Lâl," I remarked.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bad, they said, for the squirrel people and the parrot people, no +doubt; but for Lâl--that was another matter. L&I did not live by bread +alone. The river gave, the river took away; but to Lâl at any rate it +gave more than it stole.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What does it give?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">It gave crocodiles. Of all things in the world crocodiles! Not a +welcome gift to many, but Lâl, it seemed, was a hunter of crocodiles. +Not a mere slayer of alligators, like the men of the half-savage tribes +who frequent the river land; who array themselves in a plethora of blue +beads, and live by the creeks and <i>jheels</i> 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. Lâl was not of +these; he was of another temper. He hunted the crocodile in its native +element, stalked it through the quicksands, knife in hand, dived with +it into the swift stream, sped like a fish to the soft belly beneath, +and struck upwards with unerring hand, once, twice, thrice, while the +turbid orange water glowed crimson with the spouting blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">I heard this tale curiously, but incredulously. Why, I asked, should +Lâl run such risks? What good were crocodiles to him when they were +slain? There was not so much risk, after all, they replied, for it was +only the bottle-nosed ones that he hunted, and though, of course, the +snub-nosed ones lived in the river also--God destroy the horrid +monsters!--still they did not interfere in the fight. And Lâl was +careful, all the more careful, because he had but two possessions to +guard, his skin and his knife. As to what Lâl did with the crocodiles, +why, he ate them, of course. Not all; he spared some for his friends, +for those who were good to him, and gave him something in return. Had +the Presence never heard that the poor ate crocodile flesh? They +themselves, of course, did not touch the unclean animal; and their +gifts to Lâl 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 Lâl 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 Lâl had left for the poor. It was dry? Oh, +yes! Lâl cut the great beasts into strips, and laid them in the sun on +the dry sand, sitting beside them to scare away the carrion birds. +Sometimes there would be a crowd of vultures, and Lâl with his knife +sitting in the midst. "He will have to sell some of his jerked +crocodile to pay his revenue this year," I remarked, just to amuse +them. Again the idea was comic; evidently Lâl and money were +incompatible, and the very idea of his owning any caused them to +chuckle unrestrainedly amongst themselves. Then, growing grave, they +explained at length how Lâl had nothing in the world but his knife. All +the rest--the sun, the river, the crocodiles, the field, the bullocks, +the plough, and the seed-grain--were lent to him by them and the good +God; lent to him and to the other people who ate of the field of Lâl.</p> + +<p class="normal">As I rode away a brace of black partridges rose from one of the green +patches, and close to the tamarisk shelter a brown rat sat balancing a +half-dried stalk of barley. The river gleamed in the distance, a +wedge-shaped flight of <i>coolin</i> cleft the sky. All that day, when the +shadow-like crocodiles slipped into the sliding water, I thought of Lâl +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 Lâl yonder where the vultures ringed a sand-bank far on the +western side? Why not? None knew whence he came or whither he went, +what he hoped, or what he feared; only his field bare witness to one +human frailty--hunger; and that he shared with the pig, and the parrot, +and the squirrel people. But though my thoughts were full of Lâl for a +day or two, the memory of him passed as I left the river land, and once +more spring, summer, and autumn brought forgetfulness.</p> + +<p class="normal">There were busy times for all the revenue officers next year. The +fitful river had chosen to desert its eastern bank altogether, and +concentrate its force upon the western; so while yard after yard of +ancestral land was giving 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 sight of the river land failed to awake any +memory of Lâl. It was not until I was re-entering the outskirts of the +village at sundown that something jogged my brain, making me turn to +the <i>posse comitatus</i> behind me and ask,--</p> + +<p class="normal">"And where, this year, is the field of Lâl?"</p> + +<p class="normal">We were passing over an open space baked almost to whiteness by the +constant sun,--a hard resonant place set round with gnarled <i>jhand</i> +trees, and dotted over with innumerable little mud mounds.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There," wheezed the venerable pantaloon, pressing forward and pointing +to one newer than the rest. "That is the field of Lâl."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I saw that we were in the village burial-ground. I looked up +inquiringly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i>" repeated a younger man, "that is Lâl's field. It is his own +this time; but for all that the Sirkâr will not charge him revenue." +The grim joke, and the idea of Lâl's having six feet of earth of his +own at last, once more roused their sense of humour.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And the other people who ate of the field of Lâl?" I asked, half in +earnest, for somehow my heart was sad.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The good God will look after them, as He has after the crocodiles."</p> + +<p class="normal">Since then, strangely enough, the memory of Lâl has remained with me, +and I often ask myself if he really existed, and if he really died. +Does he still 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 other people have had their fill? I cannot say; +but whenever I see a particularly fat squirrel I say to myself, "It has +been feeding in the field of Lâl."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_15" href="#div1Ref_15">A DEBT OF HONOUR.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A flood of yellow sunshine on yellow sand, and a horse at the gallop. A +horse guided by an English boy, in blue spectacles, sitting squarely +enough, but somewhat stiffly, in his saddle, as if too independent to +give 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 other words, one appointed to administer justice to the +ignorant heathen--those ignorant heathen who seemed to have such odd +ideas of life, and to require such immediate regeneration--at the hands +of English boys.</p> + +<p class="normal">In front, across the foreground, the glaring white high road for which +he was steering; to the left centre a gnarled, knotted old <i>jhand</i> tree +hung with coloured threads and patches, proclaiming it to be still +sacred to some effete modern form of serpent-worship--one of 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 but +incomprehensive eye of superiority. A not uncommon feeling of +contemptuous interest came over him, which prolonged itself even when +the cause changed into a wonder why the brute he was riding would not +keep its head at the proper angle. Then darkness, and silence!</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones's horse had put its foot into a rat-hole and given him a +bad fall, about as bad a fall as could well have been, short of those +curious plunges over the edge of one world into the next. 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 and his thoughts that it must +be seen and told; therefore until he began to gain consciousness the +scene remained, as it were, a blank, despite the fact that there were +other actors on the stage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Most people when coming to themselves (to use a popular, but confusing +phrase) meet first of all with a sound of slow, storm-spent breakers +rolling in on some unknown shore. Is it the one they are leaving, or +the one to which they seek return? Who knows--for the vague wonder is +stilled by a whispering <i>hush!</i> growing louder and louder as if both +worlds were waiting, finger on lip, for a decision. Then, as a rule, +comes a kindly, familiar voice or touch to settle the question in +favour of this earth; perhaps some day it may come to summon us to +another. Again, who knows?</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones, however, felt something so distinctly unfamiliar that he +opened his eyes in a fright, relieved to find himself in that +unmistakable flood of sunshine which does not exist out of India. +Briefly he felt, or thought he felt, a kiss upon his lips. Now +Smith-Jones, like most well-trained, unemotional English boys, had a +strong dislike to kisses. He lumped them, with many other things, under +the generic term <i>bosh</i>, 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 +while Robin the gardener hoisted the brand-new cabin-trunk on to the +fly, which from the large white placards on the luggage was evidently +destined to carry Smith-Jones part of the way to Bombay, he had only +got as far as a kiss on the cheek, despite a choke in his throat, and a +distinct inclination to cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now? It was startling in the extreme!</p> + +<p class="normal">Lying on his back, a prey to somewhat alarmed surprise, he became aware +through his nose of a pleasant scent, and through his eyes, of the +pendant mistletoe-like twigs of the <i>jhand</i> tree. Mistletoe,--yes, that +might account for the kiss; but what about the perfume of roses? There +it was again, in company with an old peacock's feather fan which looked +as if it were half through a severe moulting. Some one was fanning him, +positively fanning him! for the feathers swooped again and again just +above his face in composed curves suggestive of leisure and perpetual +motion. 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. Then, being still confused out of speech, +he tried to arrest the arm by catching hold of it; but either he had +not yet recovered a just estimate of distance, or it eluded his grasp, +for the even monotony of the curve continued. And, on the whole, it was +pleasant enough to lie on one's back in the yellow sand and be fanned +sleepily, gracefully. An enjoyment, however, which could not be allowed +long continuance when there was a horse to be caught, a camp to be +reached, a judgment to be written; the whole burden of a world, in +short, on Smith-Jones's young shoulders.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could get up now, if you would remove that fan," he said at last, +weakly surprised at his own difficulty in stringing two words together +in a foreign tongue.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no hurry, <i>Huzoor</i>," came in immediate reply. "The Protector +of the Poor being so very young, there is naturally plenty of time for +all things ere he has to leave life; yea, plenty of time."</p> + +<p class="normal">What a remarkable voice! Soft as the cooing of the doves in the <i>jhand</i> +tree, and no louder; the far-away echo of a voice, toneless, yet +mellow. But then the whole experience was remarkable, and he lay trying +to piece common-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 <i>bosh</i> made him sit up suddenly, unsteadily, one hand +supporting himself, the other averting the sweep of the fan. There was +no doubt as to the place; yonder was the white road, there the +responsible hole, the wallow in the sand where his horse had rolled, +the <i>jhand</i> tree gay in its shreds and patches.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what was that to one side of him? Some one, either half-fledged +girl or shrunken old woman, seated in one of those flat baskets which +packmen use for carrying their burdens. It was, in effect, a +pack-basket, since cords attached it to one end of a <i>banghy</i>, or yoke, +which was resting against a net-full of small earthern pots fastened to +the other extremity of the pliant lever. The sight of a human being in +a pack-basket was unusual, but Smith-Jones during the last six months +(that is to say, during his service in India) had seen so many strange +things that he set it down as yet another eccentricity of an eccentric +people. The occupant of the basket, however, disturbed him more; he +even thought (with a certain sense of shame, which would have been +wanting had he been 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 fancied kiss still haunting his brain, +looked at her without a shudder. She was dressed in a way which even +his ignorance of the gala costumes of respectable females told him was +unusual. A very full red silk petticoat bordered with gay colours was +half tucked into the basket, half displayed over the edge in coquettish +quillings and frillings of the bright embroidery. A loose sacque of the +same stuff, many times too large for the bones it covered, lay in +wrinkles on arms and bust with here and there a glint of tarnished +tinsel, while a veil of like material, faded to a purplish tint, its +heavy gold thread tracings torn, frayed, or wanting, hid all but the +tiny hand and arm swaying the fan, and a shrunken, waxen face whence a +pair of bright black eyes looked at him wisely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence would do well to repose once more," came the worn-out +voice. "He is not to die this time. He has broken nought save his blue +spectacles, and that is well. Spectacles are not for the young; and, as +this slave said but now, my Lord 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 +gorge in a <i>gram</i> field. But I, being Dittu's relation, can affirm that +he will of a surety return ere long; therefore rest is within reach, +and if the Presence will lie down again I will keep the fly-people from +settling on the Presence's face."</p> + +<p class="normal">To tell the truth, the effort to rise had made Smith-Jones feel +decidedly queer, so without more ado he lay back on the pillow which +the strange watcher had evidently improvised from the coarse outside +veil she had worn over her finery. He guessed this by the lingering +smell of roses which clung to the fabric.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You might tell me how I came to fall off, and who you are," said he +after a pause, a little fretfully, for he was unused to inaction, and +impatient at things he did not understand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor!</i> rat-holes are very simple things. Or perhaps it was a +snake-hole. If my Lord had gone a pace farther from the tree, he would +not have been on sacred ground, and then the serpent might not have +revenged himself."</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones gave a little wriggle. "What bosh!" he muttered; adding +aloud, as if to change the subject, "And who are you, mother?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"If my Lord dislikes old wives' tales," came the cooing voice, +"he will not care for mine. He is so young. If the Presence's +great-grandfather--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What do you know about my great-grandfather?" he interrupted hotly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nothing, except that the Protector of the Poor must have had one. That +is all. Nevertheless, if the Presence's great-grandfather (Heaven cool +his grave!) had been in Jodhnagar when he was young he might have heard +Gulâbi<a name="div4Ref_28" href="#div4_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> sing. I am +Gulâbi, <i>Huzoor</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">The peacock's feather fan, with its scent of dead roses, swung +backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, in that even rhythmical +sweep which only those accustomed to the task from childhood can +maintain for long without break or flaw. It was particularly soothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was singer to the great Mâharâni at the Pearl Palace," went on the +voice, "I had to sing her to sleep whilst I fanned her as I am fanning +the Pillar of Justice even now, I used to sing also before the 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 in those days for gold +and jewels. Sometimes also for love; not for justice, as my Lord comes +now. Nor did they wear blue spectacles; but then they were young, and +I, who am so old now, I was young also."</p> + +<p class="normal">The melancholy cadence of her words was quite lost on Smith-Jones, who +was fast recovering himself, and beginning once more to take a rational +view of life, and an interest in the situation, as a 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 tempting. "You must know a lot of old +songs, mother," he said in superior tones. "Sing me one while we are +waiting for Dittu. Or if you can't sing it, you know, just say it; I +only want the words."</p> + +<p class="normal">Was it a faint chuckle he heard, as he lay prone on his back, or only a +louder gurgle of those ceaseless doves in the <i>jhand</i> tree? The old +lady's voice, imperturbably toneless, arrested his wonder. "Why should +I not sing, <i>Huzoor</i>, seeing I am of a family of bards? We sing both of +the old and the new order. My father and my father's father sang of +them before me; yet I have no son to sing them after me. So the songs I +sing die with me. When I am dead no one will hear them any more."</p> + +<p class="normal">All the more reason why he should hear them now, thought Smith-Jones, +feeling surreptitiously in his pocket for a note-book.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence need not trouble himself. He must close his eyes or I +shall forget my song. My singing is for sleep and dreams, and this song +has been waiting to be sung so long that it is well-nigh forgotten +already. Listen and dream, <i>Huzoor!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">She began in the usual low chant, varied by occasional sudden turns +modulating the tone into a higher or a lower key in accordance with the +spirit of the story. From a musical point of view there was nothing +remarkable in the performance, save the absolute want of vibration in +the worn-out voice, whose even softness became all the more remarkable +when contrasted by the passion in the words. Yet Smith-Jones 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 clung close to the original, +and that her song swept on untrammelled by more rhyme or rhythm than +what seemed to come to it spontaneously through the chant. She sang, in +fact, as the native bards sing, with every now and again an interlude +of refrain or exclamation serving as a pause during which the singer +grasps a fresh idea, a new measure. And this, according to Smith-Jones, +was the song that she sang.</p> +<br> +<div style="font-size:90%"> + +<p style="margin-left:15%">Listen, Pillar of Justice! Listen.</p> + +<p class="normal">Roses smell sweet, but they are silent when the sun kisses them. I sing +of a rose who sang, yet rose-like was silent of kisses. Heart of my +heart? why should I sing of a kiss which never came, of the kiss owed +to the rose, not by the dead but the living!</p> + +<p class="normal">For what is a dead man's kiss to lips that are like the rose? He was so +fair and young, he came from far over the seas. Was it jewels or gold +he was seeking? No matter! 'twas love that he found.</p> + +<p class="normal">His hair was golder than gold, his eyes, full of laughter, were +blue--blue as the sapphires he sought whilst love was seeking for him. +Yea, the black sought for love in the blue. Oh, cold were his eyes! +cold as the snows in the north when the rose began singing</p> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:15%"> +<p class="t0"><i>Hai</i>, golden sun! <i>Hai</i>, cold blue skies!<br> +Grant me but this, a look, a kiss.</p> +<p class="t8"><i>Hai! Hai! Hai!</i></p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Right to the inner court of marbles and jewels, 'mid peacocks' fans +waving and tinkling sutaras, he came when the stars came and talked to +my mistress--talked of love and of jewels, 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 +sought her for love and for kisses, who sought not her mistress. And +one, a snake of a man, sought both without shame; he was high in the +Court and a noble, the Rani's known lover.</p> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:15%"> +<p class="t0"><i>Hai</i>, the snake! <i>Hai</i>, venomous thing,<br> +Dead of your own poisoning!</p> +<p class="t9"><i>Hai! Hai!</i></p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="normal">But what is a snake to a rose when the gold sun may kiss her? So she +sang sweeter and sweeter till blue eyes grew kinder. "What is your +price for a song, Singing-Rose?" he asked softly. "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 whispered of love and of jewels. "I owe her a gift of a +surety," he said the last night to my mistress. "Give her gold," she +replied with a sneer. "What more would you give to a slave?"</p> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:15%"> +<p class="t0"><i>Hai!</i> Gold, nothing but gold!<br> +The heart of the Rose turned cold.</p> +<p class="t5">She sought for love!</p> +<p class="t7">Listen! listen!</p> +<p class="t0">Oh, the ways of love are bold,<br> +And the guiles of love are old.</p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The coins were wrapped in a paper; it had a voice of its own. +"To-night, when the gong chimes one, the seeker will find a kiss, in +the twelve-doored marble summer-house bowered in roses." 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 dies; for the Rani sought love, and he gave +her but words. What are words in exchange for the jewels she gave as a +bride? The jewels he steals from the Queen when he leaves us +to-morrow."</p> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:15%"> +<p class="t0">Lies, lies! nothing but lies from the snake!<br> +The sun gives gold he does not take.</p> +<p class="t8">Lies! lies!</p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Heart of my heart! what are words and tears to a snake? And the sun +far, far from the rose; too far for a warning. Listen! the rose has +thorns to protect her blossoms; a woman has guiles and smiles to +protect her lover. "What matters a kiss at one?" said I. "Take yours at +<i>eleven</i>, in the twelve-doored marble summer-house bowered in roses."</p> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:15%"> +<p class="t0"><i>Hai!</i> the greed and lust in his look.<br> +The greed at the baited hook!<br> +He saw not the thorn.</p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="normal">But the Rose saw his lying soul; she knew he would take his kiss, and +betray her when it was over. She knew that with venomous snakes there +is no safety but death. <i>One</i> and <i>eleven</i> when figured on paper show +little of change. A stroke, a scratch of a thorn! No need for more than +a scratch, ere the paper was lost by the maiden and found by her +mistress. Lost by the guile of one woman, found in the path of another.</p> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:15%"> +<p class="t0">Oh, heart! waiting 'mid the flowers,<br> +Counting out the hours<br> +Till the snake's kiss!</p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="normal"><i>One--two--three--four--five--six--seven--eight--nine--ten--eleven!</i></p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The clasp of a snake is cold, but the clasp of death is colder; and +coldest of all, the warm clinging clasp of a rose, holding him tighter +and 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 staining her bosom as she waited for death in her turn. Then +lights and an uproar, and, lo! instead of the stranger the Rani's own +lover was dead.</p> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:15%"> +<p class="t0">Dead! who grieves when a snake is dead?<br> +Men are glad that its power has fled.<br> +They laugh in their sleeve.</p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Yet was there crying and shouting, and noise bringing warning to all, +reaching the moon in the heavens, the sun in its rising,--hastening its +flight from the east, to its home in the arms of the west. Is not that +the course of the sun? Leaving the cast with a smile; leaving the rose +and the nightingale? Yea! 'tis the course of the sun.</p> +<br> +<div style="margin-left:15%"> +<p class="t0"><i>Hai</i>, for the Rose, the Singing-Rose!<br> +<i>Hai</i>, for the nightingale.</p> +</div> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Yet who kills his own pleasure? Who kills the bulbul in the rose? No! +they cut its wings, they prison it, they bid it sing; sing with a +blood-stained heart when the sun shines on other roses. So it sang, +waiting always for the kiss which never came. Pillar of Justice, from +the land of the western sun, say! did the Rose deserve the kiss which +never came? Hath she not waited long enough for the promised kiss?</p> +</div> +<br> +<p class="normal">The song ceased as abruptly as it began, and Smith-Jones, distinctly +disappointed at its want of historical value, thanked the old lady +politely. It appeared 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 chiming of the hours pointed conclusively +to the swallowing up of darkness by light, and <i>vice-versâ</i>. And--by +Jove, that must be Dittu returning with the horse!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was; Dittu, the horse, a bundle of green wheat, and a very broad +grin--all of which common objects relieved Smith-Jones, who, to say +sooth, felt out of his element lying on his back and being fanned by an +old mummy. 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, which with a courteously intended grunt he +tendered to the old woman. She might have been a graven image for all +the notice she took of him or his coin. The hand holding the fan rested +on her lap, her eyes were half-closed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence wastes time. He had better give the <i>bucksheesh</i> to me," +remarked Dittu, grinning again. "The old mother is nigh stone-deaf and +blind. She sits so all day, never saying a word save her prayers. She +is a real pious one. <i>Hai, Hai</i>, what misfortune! The stirrup of the +Protector of the Poor is broken. God send the iron may be lying in the +sand where the base-born beast fell!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones's puzzled, perturbed look, as he watched Dittu on his knees +searching for the missing stirrup-iron, may have been due to anxiety +lest he should have to walk six miles into camp. On the other hand, he +may have been wondering if the fall had seriously injured his brain; +anyhow there was an unusual air of doubt 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'en cover up the old mother again with the veil he had taken from her. +It was more decent like; and she was a decent old creature, despite the +fancy she had to wear those gay garments of her youth. So the white +veil was wound about the faded finery, leaving nothing visible but the +waxen face with its half-closed eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are you carrying her about for?" asked Smith-Jones jerkily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is so old, <i>Huzoor</i>, and we, her belongings, thought she might +like to end her long life peacefully in holy Ganges. So as I had the +dead ancestors of the village to carry (they are in those little pots +on the other side of the yoke, <i>Huzoor</i>) we just put her to make a +balance in the basket."</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones's blue eyes (they really were fine eyes now the spectacles +were away) grew big with surprise. "You mean that those little pots +contain your dead ancestors?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Their ashes, <i>Huzoor</i>; the ashes of the village for the year. Some one +always takes them at pilgrimage-time, and as I was strong I brought the +old lady too. She doesn't seem able to die up there amongst us all, and +she will have to be brought along some time. She is mostly bones, as it +is, no heavier than the ashes yonder."</p> + +<p class="normal">He nodded his head at the net-full of pots and went on twining the +thread. Smith-Jones's face grew more and more troubled. He had read in +books of old people being brought thus to end their days devoutly in +the sacred stream, and it had seemed to him an interesting and curious +habit. That was all. It seemed different now.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Presence is surprised at the ways of the dust-like ones," +continued Dittu cheerfully; "but old Gulâbi is accustomed to being +carried about in a basket. When 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 cut off for something she +did. I have heard my grandmother say she was a gay one; but it must +have been so long ago that we may forget it in her present decency."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Both her feet cut off!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Huzoor</i>, the feet of young people lead them into mischief. She was a +singer, and she got into trouble, so I have heard old folk say. If the +Presence will cause forgiveness to be awarded to the speaker, it may be +said that the trouble was an Englishman. One of the no-account +wanderers who used to come before the Great Company Bahâdur threw the +mantle of protection over the poor. I know not the story rightly; +perhaps even old Gulâbi 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 for her art. That they could not +spare. What tyrant kills the bulbul in his garden? So they cut her feet +off to keep her in the paths of virtue. It is an excellent plan for +those who walk lightly. See! the stirrup is ready for the foot of the +Presence and will support him safely on his road."</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones stood irresolute before the mummylike figure in the basket. +"Did she ever tell you the story herself?" he asked at length.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dittu's tongue clucked emphatic denial from the roof of his mouth. +"<i>Huzoor</i>, she became decent before my day. Besides, grandmother said +even when she was young Gulâbi 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 feet, and she expected her deserts some +day. <i>Hai! Hai!</i> a bold saying for carnal sinners, but holy Ganges will +choke the wickedness from her for ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you will take her--to--to Hurdwâr--and--and leave her there." +Smith-Jones had a difficulty with this euphemism for the strange and +barbarous custom he had read about in books. He seemed to see the old +creature seated in her flat basket in the stream, a prey to exposure +and cold.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It would scarcely be worth while her coming back," suggested Dittu +humbly. "My grannie (she is over there, <i>Huzoor</i>," nodding his head +towards the earthern pots) "was the last person who knew her ere she +ceased singing. Now she is gone, wherefore should Gulâbi wait longer? +She hath waited over long as it is. To-night, when the moon rises, we +will travel onwards to her rest. I must get back to the village by +harvest-time."</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones gave Dittu the rupee. He rode into camp sedately; he wrote +his judgment still more sedately; then he ate his dinner and sat down +sedately to read, one book after another--the <i>Asiatic Antiquary</i>, a +sermon by his father on the relative guilt of the heathen--which +in its day had fluttered the fold of Muddleton-on-the-Fens by its +laxity--Herbert Spencer's <i>Sociology</i>, finally <i>The Whole Duty of Man</i>, +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 leafage of the banyan-tree, the white road +shining like a straight broad path to heaven--or elsewhere. Sitting +beside the reading lamp he could see past the furled <i>chicks</i> of the +door, right away to east and west: west to Rajputana and the Pearl +Palace; east to holy Ganges and the golden gates of the great +Rest-House.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Chink-a-chink-a-chink</i> came the brass jingles of a <i>banghy</i>, making +Smith-Jones lay down <i>The Whole Duty of Man</i> restlessly, and move +towards the door. Along that broad white shining path from west to east +came a strange sight,--an old mummy of a 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 at either end look as if they were alive. Shuffle, shuffle, +shuffle, bob, bob, bob, came Dittu and his burden. <i>Hurri Gunga! Hurri +Gunga! Hurri Gunga!</i><a name="div4Ref_29" href="#div4_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> +Just a little guttural grunting, like a pig's, +to keep the shuffle and the bob together.</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones stood staring into the moonlight, the picture of +irresolution. The shadow of the banyan-tree lay right across the road +in a solid mass of darkness, 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 <i>banghy</i>, propped the lever into position with his +packman's stick, and made sideways for an interlude of tobacco among +the camp-followers at the watchfires across the road.</p> + +<p class="normal">Smith-Jones and the <i>banghy</i> were alone. He could scarcely see it in +the darkness, though a wayward gleam of moonlight glittered on the +brass jingles and lit up the peacock'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 clothes to the +faded finery within, and through that again to something which had not +faded despite the long, long years. To something which was waiting +still for its reward.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then a strange thing happened. Smith-Jones forgot everything he had +been taught. He forgot his father's sermon, he forgot sociology, +folklore, and the whole duty of man. He forgot the sun-myth and the +great fight between darkness and dawn which never ceases. He even +forgot himself, as he stepped into the shadowy gulf, stooped, and paid +another man's debt of honour with a kiss.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He told me the tale years after, when we were sitting over our toddy +round a camp fire. It was a moonlight night, and the shadow of a great +banyan-tree lay like a gulf across a white road; perhaps that awoke the +memory. He was then a married man, with a charming 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 took off his spectacles, for though he had +given up wearing blue ones years before, his kind eyes had become a +little dim, perhaps with the sympathy they bestowed on all sorts and +conditions of men; he took off his spectacles, I say, and wiped them +furtively.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_16" href="#div1Ref_16">THE VILLAGE LEGACY.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"The case of Mussumât<a name="div4Ref_30" href="#div4_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> +Nuttia being without heirs," droned the +Court-Inspector.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bring her in."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is already in the Presence. If the Protector of the Poor will rise +somewhat,--at the other side of the table, <i>Huzoor!</i>--beside the +yellow-trousered legs of the guardian of peace,--that is Mussumât +Nuttia."</p> + +<p class="normal">A child some three years of age, with a string of big blue beads round +her neck,--a child who had evidently had a very satisfying meal, and +who was even now preserving its contour by half-a-yard of sugar-cane, +stared gravely back at the Assistant Magistrate's grave face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She has no heirs of any kind?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"None, <i>Huzoor!</i> Her mother was of the Harni tribe, working harvests in +Bhâmaniwallah-khurd. There the misfortune of being eaten by a snake +came upon her by the grace of God. Mussumât Nuttia therefore +remains,--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Guardian of the Poor!" said two voices in unison, as two tall +bearded figures swathed in whitish-brown draperies pressed a step +forward with outstretched petitioning hands. They had been awaiting +this crisis all day long with that mixture of tenacity and indifference +which is seen on most faces in an Indian Court.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Give her in charge of the head-men of the village; they are +responsible."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Shelter of the world! 'tis falsely represented. The woman was a +vagrant, a loose walker, a--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is the order, written? Then bring the next case."</p> + +<p class="normal">One flourish of a pen, and Mussumât Nuttia became a village-legacy; +the only immediate result being that having sucked one end of her +sugar-cane dry, she began methodically on the other. Half-an-hour +afterwards, mounted on a white pony, with pink eyes and nose, and a +dyed pink tail to match, she was on her way back to the cluster of reed +huts dignified by the name of Bhâmaniwallah-khurd, or Little +Bhâmaniwallah. Big Bhâmaniwallah 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 +Bhâmaniwallah lay in the lap of the river, and so Bahâdur, and Boota, +and Jodha, and all the grave big-bearded Dogas who fed their herds of +cattle on the low ground, and speculated in the cultivation of +sandbanks, lived with their loins girded ready to shift house with the +shifting of the river. That was why the huts were made of reeds; that +was why the women of the village clanked about in solid silver jewelry, +thus turning their persons into a secure savings-bank.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mussumât Jewun, Bahâdur the head-man's wife, wore bracelets like +manacles, and a perfect yoke of a necklet, as she patted out the dough +cakes and expostulated shrilly at the introduction of a new mouth into +the family, when Nuttia, fast asleep, was lifted from the pony and put +down in the warm sand by the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She belongs to the village," replied the elders, wagging their beards. +"God knows what my Lords desire with the Harni brat, but if they ask +for her, she must be forthcoming; ay! and fat. They like people to grow +fat, even in their jail-<i>khanas</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">So Nuttia grew fat; she would have grown fat even had the fear of my +Lords not been before the simple villagers' eyes, for despite her +tender years, she was eminently fitted to take care of herself. She had +an instinct as to the houses where good things were being prepared, and +her chubby little hand, imperiously stretched out for a portion, was +seldom sent away empty. Indeed, to tell the sober truth, Nuttia was not +to be gainsaid as to her own hunger. "My stomach is bigger than <i>that</i>, +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 again after every rebuff, till she felt herself in a +condition to seek some warm sunny corner, and curl round to sleep. She +lived for the most part with the yelping, slouching village dogs, +following them, as the nights grew chill, to the smouldering +brick-kilns, where she fed the little dust-coloured puppies with +anything above, or beneath, her own appetite.</p> + +<p class="normal">As she outgrew childhood's vestment of curves and dimples, some one +gave her an old rag of a petticoat. Perhaps the acquisition of clothes +followed, as in ancient days, a fall from grace; certain it was that +Nuttia in a garment 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 prize off on the world as a various and +complete wardrobe, and dishonesty flagrant and unabashed; for once +provided with a convenient receptacle for acquired trifles, Nuttia took +to stealing as naturally as a puppy steals bones.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, once having recognised the pleasures of possession, she fought +furiously against any infringement of her rights. A boy twice her size +went yelling home to his parents on her first resort to brute force +consequent on the discovery of a potsherd tied to her favourite puppy's +tail. This victory proving unfortunate for the peace of the village, +the head-men awoke to the necessity for training up their Legacy in the +paths of virtue. So persistent pummelling was resorted to with the +happiest effect. Nuttia stole and fought no more; she retired with +dignity 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 hunched themselves together to doze away digestion, or a +snub-nosed alligator took a slimy snooze on the extreme edge. If you +wished to watch the birds, or the palm-squirrels, or the jerboa rats, +you had to face northwards and skirt the high bank. So much of Dame +Nature's ways, and a vast deal more, Mussumât Nuttia learnt ere the +setting sun and hunger drove her back to the brick-kilns, and the +never-failing meal of scraps--never-failing, because the Lords of the +Universe liked people to be fat, and the head-men were responsible for +their Legacy's condition.</p> + +<p class="normal">So when an Assistant Magistrate--indefinite because of the constant +changes which apparently form part of Western policy--included the +Bhâmaniwallahs in his winter tour of inspection, a <i>punchaiyut</i>, or +Council of Five, decided that it was the duty of the village to 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 delight for the first five +minutes was exhilarating, and sent the head-men back to other duties +with a glow of self-satisfaction on their solemn faces. Then she folded +the veil up quite square, sat down on it, and meditated on the various +uses to which it could be put.</p> + +<p class="normal">The result may be told briefly. Two days afterwards the Assistant +Magistrate, being a keen sportsman, was crawling on his stomach to a +certain long low pool much frequented by teal and mallard. In the rear, +gleaming white through the caper bushes, showed the 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 <i>Huzoor</i> sent them forward, prodigal of apology; but +the sight that met their eyes dried up the fountain of excuse. Nuttia, +stark naked, stood knee-deep in the very centre of the pool, catching +small fry with a bag-net ingeniously constructed out of the Manchester +veil.</p> + +<p class="normal">The <i>punchaiyut</i> sat again to agree that a child who could not only +destroy the sport of the Guardian of the Poor, but could also drag the +village honour through the mud, despite munificent inducements toward +decency, must be possessed 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 be unkind to children, +and so, when the function was over, Mussumât Jewun and the other +deep-chested, shrill-voiced women comforted the victim with sweetmeats +and the assurance that she would be ever so much better behaved in +future.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nuttia eyed them suspiciously, but ate her sweetmeats. This incident +did not increase her confidence in humanity; on the other hand, the +attitude of the brute creation was a sore disappointment to her. She +might have had a heart instinct with greed of 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 in the sunshiny sand; then in a rage, she would fling +the crumbs at the timid creatures, and go home to the dogs and the +buffaloes. They at least were not afraid of her; but then they were +afraid of nobody, and Nuttia wanted something of her very own.</p> + +<p class="normal">One day she found it. It was only an old bed-leg, but to the eye of +faith an incarnation. For the leg of an Indian bed is not unlike a huge +ninepin, and even a Western imagination can detect the embryo likeness +between a ninepin and the human form divine. Man has a head, so has a +ninepin; and if humanity is to wear petticoats one solid leg is quite +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 few hours afterwards something comically, yet pitifully, +like the Legacy herself stared back at her from that humble studio +among the dirt-heaps--a shag of goat's hair glued on with prickly-pear +juice, two lovely black eyes drawn with Mussumât Jewun's <i>khol</i> pencil, +a few blue beads, a scanty petticoat and veil filched from the child's +own garments.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nuttia, inspired by the recollection of a tinsel-decorated bride in Big +Bhâmaniwallah, called her creature Sirdar Begum on the spot. Then she +hid her away in a tussock of tiger-grass beyond the thorn enclosures, +and strove to go her evening rounds as though nothing had happened. Yet +it was as if an angel from heaven had stepped down to take her by the +hand. Henceforward she was never to be alone. All through the silent +sunny days, as she watched the big black buffaloes grazing on the muddy +flats--for Nuttia was advanced to the dignity of a herd-girl by this +time--Sirdar Begum was with her as guide, counsellor, 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 butter she managed to twirl out of +the sour curds satisfied even Mussumât Jewun's demands; whereupon the +other herds looked at her askance, and muttered an Indian equivalent of +seven devils. Then the necessity for amusing the doll led Nuttia into +lingering round the little knots of story-tellers who sat far on into +the night, discoursing of <i>jins</i> and <i>ghouls</i>, of faithful lovers, +virtuous maidens, and the beauties of holiness. Down on the edge of the +big stream, with the water sliding by, Nuttia rehearsed all these +wonders to her adored bed-leg until, falling in love with +righteousness, she took to telling the truth.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a fatal mistake in a cattle-lifting district, and +Bhâmaniwallah-khurd lay in the very centre of that maze of tamarisk +jungle, quicksand, and stream, which forms the cattle-thief's best +refuge. So Bahâdur, and Jodha, and Boota, together with many another +honest man, made a steady income by levying black-mail on those who +sought safety within their boundaries; and this without in any way +endangering their own reputations. All that had to be done was to +obliterate strange tracks by sending their own droves in the right +direction and thereafter to keep silence. And every baby in both +Bhâmaniwallahs 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 Luckimpura island maybe, to reach which she +had to hold on to the biggest buffalo's tail, and thus, with Sirdar +Begum tied securely to its horns, and her own little black head bobbing +up and down in its wake, cross the narrow stream; after which the three +would spread themselves out to dry on the hot sand. Nuttia took a great +fancy to the island, and many a time when she might have driven the +herds to nearer pastures, preferred the long low stretches of +Luckimpura where a flush of green lingered even in the droughts of +April.</p> + +<p class="normal">But even there on one very hot day scarcely a blade was to be found, +and Nuttia, careful of her beasts, and noting the lowness of the river, +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 +beyond. To her surprise they stood knee-deep in the water immovable, +impassive, noses in air, with long curled horns lying on their necks.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Legacy shaded her eyes to see more clearly. Nothing was to be seen +but the swift shallow stream, the level sand, and gleams of water +stretching away to the horizon. Something had frightened them--but +what? She gave up the puzzle, and with Sirdar Begum bolt upright before +her sat on a snag, dangling her feet over the stream for the sake of +the cool air which seemed to rise from the river.</p> + +<p class="normal">The buffaloes roamed restlessly about, disturbed doubtless by the cloud +of flies. The sun beat down ineffectually on the doll's fuzzy head, but +it pierced Nuttia's thick pate, making her nod drowsily. Her voice +recounting the thrilling adventures of brave Bhopalutchi died away into +a sigh of sleep. So there was nothing left but the doll's wide +unwinking eyes to keep watch over the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was that? Something cold, icy-cold! Nuttia woke with a start. One +brown heel had touched the water; she looked down at it, then swiftly +around her. The buffaloes huddled by the ford had ceased to graze, and +a quiver of light greeted her glance at the purple horizon. She sprang +to her feet, and breaking off a root from the snag, held it to the +dimpling water. The next instant a scared face looked at the horizon +once more. The river was rising fast, rising as she had never seen it +rise before. Yet in past years she had witnessed many a flood--floods +that had swept away much of the arable land, and driven the villagers +to till new soil thrown up nearer the high bank. Ay! and driven many of +them to seek new homes beside the new fields, until Bhâmaniwallah-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 Mussumât 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 herd rose on the hot air, and with Sirdar Begum close clasped in +her veil she drove the big buffalo Moti into the stream. How cold the +water was--cold as the snows from which it came! The Legacy had not +lived in the lap of the river for so long without learning somewhat of +its ways. She knew of the frost-bound sources whence it flowed and of +the disastrous floods which follow, beneath a cloudless sky, on unusual +heat or unusual rain in those mountain fastnesses. The coming storm +whose arch of cloud, shimmering with sheet-lightning had crept beyond +the line of purple haze, was nothing; that was not the nightmare of the +river-folk.</p> + +<p class="normal">She stood for a moment when dry land was reached, hesitating whether to +strike straight for the high bank or make for the village lying a mile +distant. Some vague instinct of showing Sirdar Begum she was not +afraid, made her choose the latter course, though most of the herd +refused to follow her 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 <i>nullah</i> between the reed +huts and the rising ground were to fill? What if the low levels between +that rising ground and the high bank were to flood? And every one +beyond in the yellow corn, except <i>Mai</i> Jewun and people who did not +count,--babies, and old women, and the crippled girl in the far hut! +Only herself and Sirdar Begum to be brave, for <i>Mai</i> Jewun was sick.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wake up! Wake up! <i>Mai</i> Jewun! the floods are out!" broke in on the +new-born baby's wail as Nuttia's broad, scared face shut out the +sunlight from the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Go away, unlucky daughter of a bad mother," grumbled Jewun drowsily. +"Dost wish to cast thy evil eye on my heart's delight? Go, I say."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yea! go!" grumbled the old nurse, cracking her fingers. "Sure some +devil possesseth thee to tell truth or lies at thy own pleasure."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the crippled girl spinning in the far hut had heard the flying +feet, caught the excited cry, and now, crawling on her knees to the +door, threw up her hands and shrieked aloud. The water stood ankle-deep +among the tamarisk roots, and from its still pool tiny tongues licked +their way along the dry sand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The flood! the flood!" The unavailing cry rang out as the women +huddled together helplessly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Mai</i> Jewun! there is time," came the Legacy's eager voice. "Put the +baby down, and help. I saw them do it at Luckimpura that time they took +the cattle over the deep stream, and Bahâdur beat me for seeing it. +Quick! quick!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Simple enough, yet in its very simplicity lay their only chance of +escape. A string-woven bed buoyed up with the bundles of reeds cut +ready for re-thatching, and on this frail raft four people--nay five! +for first of all with jealous care Nuttia placed her beloved Sirdar +Begum in safety, wrapping her up in the clothes she discarded in favour +of free nakedness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Quick! Quick! if the rising ground is to be gained and the levels +beyond forded ere the water is too deep! Moti and a companion yoked by +plough-ropes to the bed, wade knee-deep, hock-deep, into the stream, +and now with the old, cheerful cry Nuttia, clinging to their tails and +so guiding them, urges the beasts deeper still. The stream 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 end is near,--when another frantic +struggle leaves Moti alone to her task. The high childish voice calling +on her favourite's courage rises again and again; but the others, cowed +into silence, clutch together with hid faces, till a fresh plunge +loosens their tongues once more. It is Moti finding foothold, and they +are safe--so far.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quick! <i>Mai</i> Jewun," cries Nuttia, as her companions stand looking +fearfully over the waste of shallows before them. She knows from the +narrowness of the ridge they have reached that time is precious. "We +must wade while we can, saving Moti for the streams. Take up the baby, +and I--"</p> + +<p class="normal">Her hands, busy on the bed, stilled themselves,--her face grew +grey,--she turned on them like a fury. "Sirdar Begum! I put her +there--where is Sirdar Begum?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"That bed-leg!" shrilled the mother, tucking up her petticoats for +greater freedom. "There was no room, and Heart's Delight was cold. Bah! +wood floats."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Hull-lal-lal-a lalla la!</i>" The herdsman's cry was the only answer. +Moti has faced the flood again, but this time with a light load, for +the baby nestling amid Nuttia's clothes is the only occupant of the +frail raft.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My son! My son! Light of mine eyes! Core of my heart! Come back! Come +back!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But the little black head drifting down stream behind the big one never +turned from its set purpose. Wood floated, and so might babies. Why +not?</p> + +<p class="normal">Why not, indeed! But, as a matter of fact, <i>Mai</i> Jewun was right. A +dilapidated bed-leg was picked up on a sand-bank miles away when the +floods subsided; and Moti joined the herd next day to chew the cud of +her reflections contentedly. But the village Legacy and Heart's Delight +remained somewhere seeking for something,--that something, doubtless, +which had turned the bed-leg into Sirdar Begum.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_01" href="#div4Ref_01"> 1</a>: Head of a +religious community.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_02" href="#div4Ref_02">Footnote 2</a>: Name of +Vishnu.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_03" href="#div4Ref_03">Footnote 3</a>: Runjeet +Singh never enlisted a man who, in counting up to +thirty, said <i>puch-is</i> for five and twenty, but those who said +<i>punj-is</i> were passed. In other words, the <i>patois</i> was made a test of +whether the recruit belonged to the Trans-Sutlej tribes or the +Cis-Sutlej.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_04" href="#div4Ref_04">Footnote 4</a>: <i>Bunniah</i>, +a merchant. <i>Bunniah-ji</i> signifies, as +Shakespeare would have said, Sir Merchant.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_05" href="#div4Ref_05">Footnote 5</a>: <i> +Zemindar-ji</i>, Sir Squire.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_06" href="#div4Ref_06">Footnote 6</a>: <i>Baba</i>, +as a term of familiarity, is applied indifferently +to young and old.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_07" href="#div4Ref_07">Footnote 7</a>: <i>Purohit</i>, +a spiritual teacher, a sage, answering in some +respects to the Red Indian's medicine-man.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_08" href="#div4Ref_08">Footnote 8</a>: Snakes are +said to be attracted by the scent of blood, as +they are undoubtedly by that of milk.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_09" href="#div4Ref_09">Footnote 9</a>: With +faith.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_10" href="#div4Ref_10">Footnote 10</a>: Priest.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_11" href="#div4Ref_11">Footnote 11</a>: Lit. +Father. Baba is constantly used to a religious +teacher.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_12" href="#div4Ref_12">Footnote 12</a>: Lit. <i> +rice and lentil</i>. A catchword for native food.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_13" href="#div4Ref_13">Footnote 13</a>: A fact.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_14" href="#div4Ref_14">Footnote 14</a>: The Sikh +bible.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_15" href="#div4Ref_15">Footnote 15</a>: Lit. +stick-bearer, but applied always to wandering +devotees who tramp the country living on alms.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_16" href="#div4Ref_16">Footnote 16</a>: Roast +chicken.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_17" href="#div4Ref_17">Footnote 17</a>: The Sikh +Commonwealth.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_18" href="#div4Ref_18">Footnote 18</a>: A +Mohammedan preacher.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_19" href="#div4Ref_19">Footnote 19</a>: "God +Almighty and his prophet Mohammed;" a brief +confession of faith.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_20" href="#div4Ref_20">Footnote 20</a>: The veil +worn by secluded women.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_21" href="#div4Ref_21">Footnote 21</a>: +Unleavened cakes and mince-meat balls.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_22" href="#div4Ref_22">Footnote 22</a>: The +Creed.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_23" href="#div4Ref_23">Footnote 23</a>: The Hindu +Venus; Durga in another form.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_24" href="#div4Ref_24">Footnote 24</a>: In India +the cow will not give milk if separated from her +calf.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_25" href="#div4Ref_25">Footnote 25</a>: Stuffed.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_26" href="#div4Ref_26">Footnote 26</a>: Literally <i> +bâkee</i>, or extra; but <i>Barker sahib</i> is a +perennial jest with both master and man, answering to the English Mr. +Manners.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_27" href="#div4Ref_27">Footnote 27</a>: Title of +honour equivalent to our "mistress."</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_28" href="#div4Ref_28">Footnote 28</a>: Rose.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_29" href="#div4Ref_29">Footnote 29</a>: The usual +pilgrim's cry.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_30" href="#div4Ref_30">Footnote 30</a>: A title +of courtesy equivalent to our mistress.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>END.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Flower of Forgiveness, by Flora Annie Steel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS *** + +***** This file should be named 39987-h.htm or 39987-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/9/8/39987/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (Harvard University) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Flower of Forgiveness + +Author: Flora Annie Steel + +Release Date: June 13, 2012 [EBook #39987] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (Harvard University) + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://books.google.com/books?id=XqMYAAAAYAAJ + (Harvard University) + + + + + + + THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS + + + + + + + THE + + + FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS + + + + + BY + + FLORA ANNIE STEEL + + Author of "Miss Stuart's Legacy," Etc. + + + + + + + New York + MACMILLAN AND CO. + AND LONDON + 1894 + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + + + Copyright, 1894, + By MACMILLAN AND CO. + + + + + + Norwood Press: + J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith + Boston, Mass. U.S.A. + + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + The Flower of Forgiveness. + + Harvest. + + For the Faith. + + The Bhut-Baby. + + Ramchunderji. + + Heera Nund. + + Feroza. + + In the House of a Coppersmith. + + Faizullah. + + The Footstep of Death. + + Habitual Criminals. + + Mussumat Kirpo's Doll. + + "London." + + Lal. + + A Debt of Honour. + + The Village Legacy. + + + + + THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS. + + +"Surely this is very rare?" I remarked, as looking through a herbarium +of Himalayan plants belonging to a friend of mine, I came upon a small +anemone which, contrary to the custom of that most delicate of flowers, +had preserved its colour in all its first freshness. Indeed, the +scarlet petals, each bearing a distinct, heart-shaped blotch of white +in the centre, could scarcely have glowed more brilliantly in life than +they did in death. + +"Very rare," returned the owner after a pause; "I have reason to +believe it unique--so far as collections go, at any rate." + +"I see you have called it _Remissionensis_. What induced you to give it +such an odd name?" + +He smiled. "Dog Latin, I acknowledge. As for the reason--can you not +guess?" + +"Well," I replied, looking closer at the white and red flowers, "I have +not your vivid imagination, but I presume it was in allusion to sins as +scarlet, and hearts white as wool. Ah! it was found, I see, near the +Cave of Amar-nath; that accounts for the connection of ideas." + +"No doubt," he said quietly, "that accounts for the connection in a +measure; not entirely. The fact is, a very odd story--the oddest story +I ever came into personally--is connected with that flower. You +remember Taylor, surgeon of the 101st, who died of pyaemia contracted in +some of his cholera experiments? Well, just after I joined we chummed +together in Cashmere, where he was making the herbarium at which you +have been looking. He was a most charming 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 amount of +information utterly undreamed of by most Englishmen. For instance, his +first acquaintance with the existence of this anemone grew out of a +chance conversation with an old ruffian besmeared with filth from head +to foot, and it was his consequent desire to add the rarity to his +collection, joined to my fancy for seeing a real pilgrimage, which +brought us to Islamabad about the end of July, about the time, that is +to say, of the annual festival. + +"The sacred spring where the pilgrimage is inaugurated by a solemn +feeding of the holy fish is some way from the town, so we pitched our +tents under a plane-tree close to the temples, in order to see the +whole show. And a queer show it was. Brummagem umbrellas stuck like +mushrooms over green stretches of grass, and giving shelter to a motley +crew; _jogis_, or wandering mendicants, meditating on the mystic word +Om, and thereafter lighting sacred fires with Swedish _taendstickors_; +Government clerks, bereft of raiment, forgetting reports and averages +in a return to primitive humanity. Taylor never tired of pointing out +these strange contrasts, and over his evening pipe read me many a long +lecture on the putting of new wine into old bottles. For myself, it +interested me immensely. I liked to think of the young 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 ridiculously like _Il Re Galant 'uomo_, that +we nicknamed him Victor Emanuel on the spot), that Taylor had first +heard of the Flower of Forgiveness, as the man styled it. He and the +doctor grew quite hot over the possible remission of sins; but the +subsequent gift of one rupee sterling sent him away asseverating that +none could filch from him the first-fruits of pilgrimage--namely, the +opportunity of meeting a Protector of the Poor so virtuous, so +generous, so full of the hoarded wisdom of ages. I recognised the old +humbug in the crowd as we made our way to a sort of latticed gallery +belonging to the Maharajah's guest-house, which gave on the tank where +the fish are fed. He salaamed profoundly, and, with a grin, expressed +his delight that, after all, the great doctor _sahib_ should be seeking +forgiveness. + +"'I seek the flower only, Pious One,' replied Taylor, with a shrug of +the shoulders. + +"'Perhaps 'tis the same thing,' replied Victor Emanuel with another +salaam. + +"The square tank was edged by humanity in the white and saffron robes +of pilgrimage. Brimming up to the stone step, worn smooth by +generations of sinners, the waters of the spring lapped lazily, stirred +by the myriads of small fish which, in their eagerness for the coming +feast, flashed hither 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 attendant Brahmans stood with +high-heaped baskets of grain awaiting the sacrificial words about to be +spoken by an old man, who, with one foot on the bank, spread his arms +skywards--an old man of insignificant height, but with an indescribable +dignity, on which I remarked to my companion. + +"'It is indescribable,' he assented, 'because it is compounded of +factors not only wide as the poles asunder from you and me, but also +from each other. Pride of twice-born trebly-distilled ancestry bringing +a conviction of inherited worthiness; pride in hardly-acquired devotion +giving birth to a sense of personal frailty. _That_ is the Brahman whom +we lump into a third-class railway carriage with the ruck of humanity, +and then wonder--hush! he is going to begin.' + +"'Thou art Light! Thou art Immortal Life!' The voice, with a tremor of +emotion in it, pierced the stillness for a second before it was +shattered by a hoarse, strident cry--'Silence!' + +"Taylor leaned forward, suddenly interested. 'You're in luck,' he +whispered, 'I believe there is going to be a row of some sort.' + +"Once more the cry rose harsher than before: 'Silence, Sukya! Thou art +impure.' + +"A stir in the crowd, and a visible straightening of the old man's back +were the only results. + +"'Thou art the Holiest Sacrifice! We adore Thee, adorable Sun!' + +"'Silence!' + +"This time the interruption took shape in a _jogi_, who, forcing his +way through the dense ranks, emerged on the platform to stand pointing +with denunciatory finger at the old Brahman. Naked, save for the cable +of grass round his loins and the smearing of white ashes, 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 reception seemed +to rouse the old man's wrath, for after one scornful glance at the +new-comer he was about to continue his invocation to the sun, when the +_jogi_, striding forward, flourished his mendicant's staff so close to +the other's face that he perforce fell back. + +"Before the crowd had grasped the deadly earnest of the scene, a lad of +about sixteen, clad in the black antelope skin which marks a religious +disciple, had leaped, quivering with rage, between the old man and his +assailant. + +"'By George,' muttered Taylor, 'what a splendid young fellow!' + +"He was indeed. Extraordinarily fair, even for the fairest race in +India, he might have served as model for a young Perseus as he stood +there, the antelope skin falling from his right shoulder, leaving the +sacred cord of the Brahman visible on his left, while his smooth, round +limbs showed in all their naked, vigorous young beauty. + +"'Stand off, Amra! who bade thee interfere?' cried the old man sternly. +The bond between them was manifest by the alacrity with which the boy +obeyed the command; 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 the expected almsgiving, hurried +forward. Luckily the crowd kept the silence which characterises +gregarious humanity in the East, so we could follow what was said. + +"'Wilt remove yonder drunken fanatic, or shall the worship of the +Shining Ones be profaned?' asked the old Brahman savagely; and at a +sign from their chief the attendants stepped forward. + +"But the _jogi_ facing the crowd, appealed direct to that fear of +defilement which haunts the Hindu's heart. 'Impure! Impure! Touch him +not! Hear him not! Look not on him!' The vast concourse swayed and +stirred, as 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 speech, and finding silence! But now speech is given by +the same Spirit. That man, Sukya, anchorite of Setanagar, is unclean, +false to his race, to his vows, to the Shining Ones! I, Gopi the +_bikshu_, will prove it.' + +"Once again a murmur rose like the wind presaging a storm, and as the +crowd surged closer to the temple, a young girl in the saffron drapery +of a pilgrim took advantage of the movement 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, whispered something in her ear. She smiled up at him; +and so they stood, hand in hand, eager but confident, as the Brahman's +voice, clear with certainty, dominated the confusion. + +"'Ay! Prove it! Prove that I, Sukya, taught of the great Swami, +twice-born Brahman, faithful disciple, blameless householder and pious +anchorite in due turn, as the faith demands, have failed once in the +law without repentance and atonement! Lo! I swear by the Shining Ones +that I stand before ye to-day, body and soul, holy to the uttermost.' + +"'God gie us a gude conceit o' oursels,' muttered Taylor. + +"The remark jarred on me painfully, for the spiritual exaltation in the +man's face had nothing personal in it; nothing more selfish than the +rapt confidence which glorified the young disciple's whole bearing, as +he gazed on his master with the sort of blind adoration one sees in the +eyes of a dog. + +"'Think! I am Sukya!' went on the high-pitched voice. 'Would Sukya come +between his brethren and the Shining Ones? I, chosen for the oblation +by reason of virtue and learning; I, Sukya, journeying to holy +Amar-nath not for my own sake,--for I fear no judgment,--but for the +sake of the disciple, yonder boy Amra, betrothed to the daughter of my +daughter, and vowed to the pilgrimage from birth.' + +"A yell of crackling laughter came from the _jogi_ as he leapt to the +bastion of the bathing-place, and so, raised within sight of all, +struck 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 +Sukya, to be an outcast. A Sudra of Sudras! seeing that his mother, +being twice-born, defiled her race with scum from beyond the seas.' + +"'By George!' muttered Taylor again, 'this is getting lively--for the +scum.' + +"'Perhaps the Presence is becoming tired of this vulgar scene,' +suggested an obsequious _chuprassi_, who had been devoted to our +service by order of the Cashmere officials; but the Presences were +deeply 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 +girl, moved by the unreasoning habit of race, having dropped his hand +at the first word and crept to her grandfather's side. I can see that +young face still, awful in its terror, piteous in its entreaty. + +"'Thou liest, Gopi!' cried the Brahman, gasping with passion; and at +the words a gleam of hope crept to those hunted eyes. 'Prove it, I say; +for I appeal to the Shining Ones whom I have served.' + +"'I accept the challenge,' yelled the _jogi_ with frantic gestures, +while a perfect roar of assent, cries of devotion, and prayers for +guidance, rose from the crowd. + +"Taylor looked round at me quickly. 'You are in luck. There is going to +be a miracle. I saw that Gopi at Hurdwar once; he is a rare hand at +them.' He must have understood my resentment at being thus recalled to +the nineteenth century, for he added half to himself, ''Tis tragedy for +all that,--to the boy.' + +"An appeal for silence enabled us to hear that both parties had agreed +to refer the question of birth to the sacred cord, with which every +male of the three twice-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 of anything pointing to the +despised Sudra would make him _anathema maranatha_, and render his +master impure, and therefore unfit to lead the devotions of others. + +"I cannot attempt to describe the scene which followed; for even now, +the confusion inseparable from finding yourself in surroundings which +require explanation before 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 wild cries, '_Hurri! +Gunga-ji! Dhurm! Dhurm!_' (Hurri![2] Ganges! the Faith! the Faith!) +Then suddenly a roar--'Gopi! a miracle! a miracle! Praise be to the +Shining Ones!' + +"It seemed but a moment ere the enthusiastic crowd had swept the _jogi_ +from his pedestal, and, crowned with jasmin chaplets, he was being +borne high on men's shoulders to make a round of the various temples; +while the keepers of the shrine swelled the tumult judiciously by cries +of 'Oblations! offerings! The Shining Ones are present to-day!' + +"In my excitement at the scene itself I had forgotten its cause, and +was regretting the all too sudden ending of the spectacle, when Taylor +touched me on the arm. 'The tragedy is about to begin! Look!' + +"Following his eyes I saw, indeed, tragedy enough to make me forget +what had gone before; yet I knew well that I did not, could not, fathom +its depth or measure its breadth. Still, in a dim way I realised that +the boy, standing as if turned to stone, had passed in those few +moments from life as 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 from hands whose touch was to +his Brahmanised soul worse than death. For him there was no future. For +the old man who, burdened by the weeping girl, stood opposite him, +there was no past. Nothing but a hell of defilement; of daily, hourly +impurity for twelve long years. The thought was damnation. + +"'Come, Premi! come!' he muttered, turning suddenly to leave the +platform. 'This is no place for us now. Quick! we must cleanse +ourselves from deadly sin--from deadly, deadly sin.' + +"They had reached the steps leading down to the tank when the boy, with +a sob like that of a wounded animal, flung himself in agonised entreaty +at his master's feet. 'Oh, cleanse me, even me also, oh my father!' + +"The old man shrank back instinctively; yet there was no anger, only a +merciless decision in his face. 'Ask not the impossible! Thou art not +alone impure; thou art uncleansable from birth--yea! for ever and ever. +Come, Premi, come, my child.' + +"I shall never forget the cry which echoed over the water, startling +the pigeons from their evening rest amid the encircling trees. +'Uncleansable for ever and ever!' Then in wild appeal from earth to +heaven he threw his arms skyward. 'Oh, Shining Ones! say I am the same +Amra, the twice-born Amra, thy servant!' + +"'Peace! blasphemer!' interrupted the Brahman sternly. 'There are no +Shining Ones for such as thou. Go! lest they strike thee dead in +wrath.' + +"A momentary glimpse of a young face distraught by despair, of an old +one firm in repudiation, and the platform lay empty of the passions +which had played their parts on it as on a stage. Only from the +distance came the discordant triumph of the _jogi's_ procession. + +"I besieged Taylor's superior knowledge by vain questions, to most of +which he shook his head. 'How can I tell?' he said somewhat fretfully. +'The cord was manipulated in some way, of course. For 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 know more, I'll send for Victor +Emanuel. Five rupees will fetch some slight fraction of truth from the +bottom of his well, and that, as a rule, is all we aliens can expect in +these incidents.' + +"So the old ruffian came and sat ostentatiously far from our +contaminating influences in the attitude of a bronze Buddha, his +mustaches curled to his eyebrows, his large lips wreathed in 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 marking the Brahman came the +hempen thread of the Kshatriya, inside again the woollen strand of the +Vaisya; all three twice-born. But last of all, a strip of cowskin +defiling the whole.' + +"'Why cow-skin?' I asked in my ignorance. 'I always thought you held a +cow sacred.' + +"Victor Emanuel beamed approval. 'The little Presence is young, but +intelligent. He will doubtless learn much if he questions the right +people judiciously. He will 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 misfortune of the cow is _anathema_. +Yea, 'twas a divine miracle. The money of the pious will flow to make +the holy fat; at least that is what the doctor _sahib_ is thinking.' + +"'Don't set up for occult power on the strength of guessing palpable +truths,' replied Taylor; 'that sort of thing does not amuse me; but the +little _sahib_ wants to know how much truth there was in Gopi's story.' + +"'Gopi knows,' retorted our friend with a grin. 'The Brahman saith the +boy was gifted to him by a pious woman after the custom of +thanksgiving. Gone five years old, wearing the sacred thread, versed in +simple lore, intelligent, well-formed, as the ritual demands. Gopi +saith the mother, his wife, 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 fulfilled her life, but not +the name of the anchorite she deceived. So Gopi, knowing from the +mother's babbling of this mongrel's blasphemous name, and the vow of +pilgrimage for the expiation of sins, hath come hither, led by the +Spirit, every year. It is a tale of great virtue and edification.' + +"'But the boy! the wretched boy?' I asked eagerly. Taylor raised his +eyebrows and watched my reception of the _jog's_ answer with a +half-pitying smile. + +"'Perhaps he will die; perhaps not. What does it matter? One born of +such parents is dead to virtue from the beginning, and life without +virtue is not life.' + +"'He might try Amar-nath and the remission of sins you believe in so +firmly,' remarked Taylor, with another look at me. + +"Victor Emanuel spat freely. 'There is no Amar-nath for such as he, and +the Presence knows that as well as I do. No remission at all, even if +he found the Flower of Forgiveness, as the doctor _sahib_ hopes to do.' + +"'Upon my soul,' retorted Taylor impatiently, 'I believe the existence +of the one is about as credible as the other. I shall have to swallow +both if I chance upon either.' + +"'That may be; but not for the boy Amra. He will die and be damned in +due course.' + +"That seemed to settle the question for others, but I was haunted by +the boy's look when he heard the words, 'Thou art uncleansable for ever +and ever.' + +"'After all 'tis only a concentrated form of the feeling we all have at +times,' remarked Taylor drily; 'even I should like to do away with a +portion of my past. Besides, all religions claim more or less a +monopoly of repentance. They are no worse here than at home.' + +"We journeyed slowly to Amar-nath, watching the pilgrims pass us by on +the road, but catching them up again each evening after long rambles +over the hills in search of rare plants. It is three days' march, by +rights, to Shisha Nag, or the Leaden Lake, where the pilgrimage begins +in real earnest by the pilgrims, men, women, and children, divesting +themselves of every stitch of raiment, and journeying stark naked +through the snow and ice 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 the cold extremely, +and was in consequence seldom sober, and extremely loquacious. I +thought I had never seen such a dreary place as Shisha Nag, though the +sun shone brilliantly on its cliffs and glaciers. I think it must have +been the irresponsiveness of the lake itself which deadened its +beauties, for the water, surcharged with gypsum, lay in pale green +stretches, refusing a single reflection of the hills which held it so +carefully. + +"The next march was awful; and in more than one place, half hidden by +the flowers forcing their way through the snow, lay the corpses of +pilgrims who had succumbed to the cold and the exposure. + +"'Pneumonia in five out of six cases,' remarked Taylor casually. 'If it +were not for the _churrus_ (concoction of hemp) they drink, the +mortality would be fearful. I wonder what Exeter Hall would say to +getting drunk for purposes of devotion?' + +"At Punjtarni we met the returning pilgrims; among others Victor, very +sick and sorry for himself physically, but of intolerable moral +strength. He told us, between the intervals of petitions for pills and +potions, that the remaining fourteen miles to the Cave were unusually +difficult, and had been singularly fatal that year. On hearing this, +Taylor, knowing my dislike to 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 much drunkenness or +so much devotion as I saw that evening at Punjtarni. It was hard indeed +to tell where the one began and the other ended; for excitement, +danger, and privation lent their aid to drugs, and a sense of relief to +both. The very cliffs and glaciers resounded with enthusiasm, and I saw +Sukya and Premi taking their part with the rest as if nothing had +happened. + +"Taylor and I started alone next morning. We were to make a long round +in search of the Flower of Forgiveness, and come back upon the Cave +towards afternoon. The path, if path it could 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. Yet not a trace did we find of the anemone. Taylor grew +fretful, and when we reached the snow slope leading to the Cave, he +declared it would be sheer waste of time for him to go up. + +"'Get rid of your sins, if you want to, by all means,' he said; 'I've +seen photographs of the place, and it's a wretched imposture 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 cliffs on your return; and +don't be long, for the going before us is difficult.' So I left him +poking into every crack and cranny. + +"I could scarcely make up my mind if I was impressed or disappointed +with the Cave. Its extreme insignificance was, it is true, almost +ludicrous. Save for a patch of red paint and a shockingly bad attempt +at a stone image of Siva's bull, there was nothing to distinguish this +hollow in the rock from a thousand similar ones all over the Himalayas. +But this very insignificance gave mystery to the fact that hundreds of +thousands of the conscience-stricken had 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; but ere long the usual difficulties of short cuts cropped up, and +I had eventually to limp back to the slope with a badly cut ankle, +which bled profusely despite my rough efforts at bandaging. The loss of +blood was sufficient to make me feel quite sick and faint, so that it +startled me to come suddenly on Taylor sooner than I expected. He was +half kneeling, half sitting on the snow; his coat was off, and his face +bent over something propped against his arm. + +"'It's that boy,' he said shortly, as I came up. 'I found him just +after you left, lying here--to rest, he says. It seems he has been +making his way to the Cave ever since that day, without bite or sup, by +the hills,--God knows how,--to avoid being turned back by the others. +And now he is dying, and there's an end of it.' + +"'The boy--not Amra!' I cried, bending in my turn. + +"Sure enough, on Taylor's arm, with Taylor's coat over his wasted body, +lay the young disciple. His great, luminous eyes looked out of a face +whence even death could not drive the beauty, and his breath came in +laboured gasps. + +"'Brandy! I have some here,' I suggested in hot haste, moved to the +idiotic suggestion by that horror of standing helpless which besets us +all in presence of the Destroyer. + +"Taylor looked at the boy with a grave smile and shook his head. 'To +begin with, he wouldn't touch it; besides, he is past all that sort of +thing. No one could help him now.' He paused, shifting the weight a +little on his arm. + +"'The Presence will grow tired holding me,' gasped the young voice +feebly. 'If the _sahib_ will put a stone under my head and cover me +with some snow, I will be able to crawl on by and by when I am rested. +For it is close--quite close.' + +"'Very close,' muttered the doctor under his breath. Suddenly he looked +up at me, saying in a half-apologetic way, 'I was wondering if you and +I couldn't get him up there--to Amar-nath I mean. Life has been hard on +him; he deserves an easy death.' + +"'Of course we can,' I cried in a rush of content at the suggestion, as +I hobbled round to get to the other side, and so help the lad to his +legs. + +"'Hollo,' asked Taylor, with a quick professional glance, 'what have +you done to your ankle? Sit down and let me overhaul it.' + +"In vain I made light of it, in vain I appealed to him. He peremptorily +forbade my stirring for another hour, asserting that I had injured a +small artery, and without caution might find difficulty in reaching the +tents, as it would be impossible for him to help me much on the sort of +ground over which we had to travel. + +"'But the boy, Taylor!--the boy!' I pleaded. 'It would be awful to +leave him here.' + +"'Who said he was to be left?' retorted the doctor crossly. 'I'm going +to carry him up as soon as I've finished bandaging your leg. Don't be +in such a blessed hurry.' + +"'Carry him! You can't do it up that slope, strong as you are, +Taylor--I know you can't.' + +"'Can't?' he echoed, as he stood up from his labours. 'Look at him and +say can't again--if you can.' + +"I looked and saw that the boy, but half conscious, yet restored to the +memory of his object by the touch of the snow on which Taylor had laid +him while engaged in bandaging my foot, had raised himself painfully on +his hands and knees, and was struggling upwards, blindly, doggedly. + +"'Damn it all,' continued the doctor fiercely, 'isn't that sight enough +to haunt a man if he doesn't try? Besides, I may find that precious +flower,--who knows?' + +"As he spoke he stooped with the gentleness, not so much of sympathy, +as of long practice in suffering, over the figure which, exhausted by +its brief effort, already lay prostrate on the snow. + +"'What is--the Presence--going--to do?' moaned Amra doubtfully, as he +felt the strong arms close round him. + +"'You and I are going to find the remission of sins together at +Amar-nath,' replied the Presence with a bitter laugh. + +"The boy's head fell back on the doctor's shoulder as if accustomed to +the resting-place. 'Amar-nath!' he murmured. 'Yes! I am Amar-nath.' + +"So I sat there helpless, and watched them up the slope. Every slip, +every stumble, seemed as if it were my own. I clenched my hands and 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 to +think. It was the longest hour I ever spent before Taylor's voice +holloing from the cliff above roused me to the certainty of success. + +"'And the boy?' I asked eagerly. + +"'Dead by this time, I expect,' replied the doctor shortly. 'Come +on,--there's a good fellow,--we haven't a moment to lose. I must look +again for the flower to-morrow.' + +"But letters awaiting our return to camp recalled him to duty on +account of cholera in the regiment; so there was an end of anemone +hunting. The 101st suffered terribly, and Taylor was in consequence +hotter than ever over experiments. The result you know." + +"Yes, poor fellow! but the anemone? I don't understand how it came +here." + +My friend paused. "That is the odd thing. I was looking after the +funeral and all that, for Taylor and I were great friends--he left me +that herbarium in memory of our time in Cashmere. Well, when 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 said, by a young +Brahman, who assured him that it contained something which the great +doctor _sahib_ had been very anxious to possess, and which was now sent +by some one to whom he had been very kind. + +"'You told him the _sahib_ was dead, I suppose?' I asked. + +"'This slave informed him that the master had gained freedom, but he +replied it was no matter, as all his task was this.' On opening the +basket I found a gourd such as the disciples carry round for alms, and +in it, planted among gypsum debris, was that anemone; or rather that is +a part of it, for I put some in Taylor's coffin." + +"Ah! I presume the _gosain_--Victor Emanuel, I think you called +him--sent the plant; he knew of the doctor's desire?" + +"Perhaps. The bearer said the Brahman was a very handsome boy, very +fair, dressed in the usual black antelope skin of the disciple. It is a +queer story anyhow--is it not?" + + + + + HARVEST. + +[Respectfully dedicated to our law-makers in India, who, by giving to +the soldier-peasants of the Punjab the novel right of alienating their +ancestral holdings, are fast throwing the land, and with it the balance +of power, into the hands of money-grubbers; thus reducing those who +stood by us in our time of trouble to the position of serfs.] + + +"_Ai!_ Daughter of thy grandmother," muttered old Jaimul gently, as one +of his yoke wavered, making the handle waver also. The offender was a +barren buffalo doomed temporarily to the plough, in the hopes of +inducing her to look more favourably on the first duty of the female +sex, so she started beneath the unaccustomed goad. + +"_Ari!_ sister, fret not," muttered Jaimul again, turning from obscure +abuse to palpable flattery, as being more likely to gain his object; +and once more the tilted soil glided between his feet, traced straight +by his steady hand. In that vast expanse of bare brown field left by or +waiting for the plough, each new furrow seemed a fresh diameter of the +earth-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 +sometime if the blue was kind. That was all Jaimul knew or cared. The +empire beyond, hanging on the hope of harvest, lay far from his simple +imaginings; and yet he, the old peasant with his steady hand of patient +control, held the reins of government over how many million square +miles? That is the province of the Blue Book, and Jaimul's blue book +was the sky. + + + "Bitter blue sky with no fleck of a cloud, + Ho! brother ox! make the plough speed. + [_Ai! soorin!_ straight, I say!] + 'Tis the usurers' bellies wax fat and proud + When poor folk are in need." + + +The rude guttural chant following these silent, earth-deadened +footsteps was the only sound breaking the stillness of the wide plain. + + + "Sky dappled grey like a partridge's breast, + Ho! brother ox! drive the plough deep. + [Steady, my sister, steady!] + The peasants work, but the usurers rest + Till harvest's ripe to reap." + + +So on and on interminably, the chant and the furrow, the furrow and the +chant, both bringing the same refrain of flattery and abuse, the same +antithesis--the peasant and the usurer face to face in conflict, and +above them both the fateful sky, changeless or changeful as it chooses. + +The sun climbed up and up till the blue hardened into brass, and the +mere thought of rain seemed lost in the blaze of light. Yet Jaimul, as +he finally unhitched his plough, chanted away in serene confidence-- + + + "Merry drops slanting from west to east, + Ho! brother ox! drive home the wain; + 'Tis the usurer's belly that gets the least + When Ram sends poor folk rain." + + +The home whither he drove the lagging yoke was but a whitish-brown +mound on the bare earth-circle, not far removed from an ant-hill to +alien eyes; for all that, home to the uttermost. Civilisation, +education, culture could produce none better. A home bright with the +welcome of women, the laughter of children. Old Kishnu, mother of them +all, 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 +scientific or unscientific frontier, while she reared up, in the +ancestral home, a tribe of sturdy youngsters to follow in his +footsteps. Fighting and ploughing, ploughing and fighting; here was +life epitomised for these long-limbed, grave-eyed peasants whose +tongues never faltered over the shibboleth which showed their claim to +courage.[3] + +The home itself lay bare for the most part to the blue sky; only a few +shallow outhouses, half room, half verandah, giving shelter from +noon-day heat or winter frosts. The rest was courtyard, serving amply +for all the needs of the household. In one corner a pile of golden +chaff, ready for the milch kine which came in to be fed from the mud +mangers ranged against the wall; in another a heap of fuel, and the +tall, beehive-like mud receptacles for grain. On every side stores of +something brought into existence 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 flings a +handful to the pigeons sidling on the wall. A fluttering of white +wings, a glint of sunlight on opaline necks, while the children cease +playing to watch their favourites tumble and strut over the feast. Even +old Kishnu looks up from her preparation of curds without a word of +warning against waste; for to be short of grain is beyond her +experience. Wherefore was the usurer brought into the world save to +supply grain in advance when the blue sky sided with capital against +labour for a dry year or two? + +"The land is ready," said old Jaimul over his pipe. "'Tis time for the +seed, therefore I will seek Anunt Ram at sunset and set my seal to the +paper." + +That was how the transaction presented itself to his accustomed eyes. +Seed grain in exchange for yet another seal to be set in the long row +which he and his forbears had planted regularly, year by year, 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 any time if the blue sky +was kind. He knew nothing of Statutes of Limitation or judgments of the +Chief Court, and his inherited wisdom drew a broad line of demarcation +between paper and plain facts. + +Anunt Ram, the usurer, however, was of another school. A comparatively +young man, he had brought into his father's ancestral business the +modern selfishness which laughs to scorn all considerations save that +for Number One. He and his forbears had made much out of Jaimul and his +fellows; but was that any reason against making more, if more was to be +made? + +And more _was_ indubitably to be made if Jaimul and his kind were +reduced to the level of labourers. That handful of grain, for instance, +thrown so recklessly 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 soldiers--idle young scamps who thrashed the +usurer's boys as diligently during play-time as they were beaten by +those clever, weedy lads during school-hours. + +"Seed grain," he echoed sulkily to the old peasant's calm demand. "Sure +last harvest I left thee more wheat than most men in my place would +have done; for the account grows, O Jaimul! and the land is mortgaged +to the uttermost." + +"Mayhap! but it must be sown for all that, else _thou_ wilt suffer as +much as I. So quit idle words, and give the seed as thou hast since +time began. What do I know of accounts who can neither read nor write? +'Tis thy business, not mine." + +"'Tis not my business to give ought for nought--" + +"For nought," broke in Jaimul, with the hoarse chuckle of the peasant +availing himself of a time-worn joke. "Thou canst add that nought to +thy figures, O _bunniah-ji!_[4] So bring the paper and have done with +words. If Ram sends rain--and the omens are auspicious--thou canst take +all but food and jewels for the women." + +"Report saith thy house is rich enough in them already," suggested the +usurer after a pause. + +Jaimul's big white eyebrows met over his broad nose. "What then, +_bunniah-ji?_" he asked haughtily. + +Anunt Ram made haste to change the subject, whereat Jaimul, smiling +softly, told the usurer that maybe more jewels would be needed with +next seed grain, since if the auguries were once more propitious, the +women purposed bringing home his grandson's bride ere another year had +sped. The usurer smiled an evil smile. + +"Set thy seal to this also," he said, when the seed grain had been +measured; "the rules demand it. A plague, say I, on all these +new-fangled papers the _sahib-logue_ ask of us. Look you! how I have to +pay for the stamps and fees; and then you old ones say we new ones are +extortionate. We must live, O _zemindar-ji!_[5] even as thou livest." + +"Live!" retorted the old man with another chuckle. "Wherefore not! The +land is good enough for you and for me. There is no fault in the land!" + +"Ay! it is good enough for me and for you," echoed the usurer slowly. +He inverted the pronouns--that was all. + +So Jaimul, as he had done ever since he could remember, walked over the +bare plain with noiseless feet, and watched the sun flash on the golden +grain as it flew from his thin brown fingers. And once again the +guttural chant kept time to his silent steps. + + + "Wheat grains grow to wheat, + And the seed of a tare to tare; + Who knows if man's soul will meet + Man's body to wear. + + Great Ram, grant me life + From the grain of a golden deed; + Sink not my soul in the strife + To wake as a weed." + + +After that his work in the fields was over. Only at sunrise and sunset +his tall, gaunt figure stood out against the circling sky as he +wandered through the sprouting wheat waiting for the rain which never +came. Not for the first time in his long life of waiting, so he took +the want calmly, soberly. + +"It is a bad year," he said, "the next will be better. For the sake of +the boy's marriage I would it had been otherwise; but Anunt Ram must +advance the money. It is his business." + +Whereat Jodha, the youngest son, better versed than his father +in new ways, shook his head doubtfully. "Have a care of Anunt, O +_baba-ji_,"[6] he suggested with diffidence. "Folk say he is sharper +than ever his father was." + +"'Tis a trick sons have, or think they have, nowadays," retorted old +Jaimul wrathfully. "Anunt can wait for payment as his fathers waited. +God knows the interest is enough to stand a dry season or two." + +In truth fifty per cent, and payment in kind at the lowest harvest +rates, with a free hand in regard to the cooking of accounts, should +have satisfied even a usurer'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 of dibbled-in seals dotting the +unending scroll of accounts began to sprout and bear fruit. Drought +gave them life, while it brought death to many a better seed. + +"Not give the money for the boy's wedding!" shrilled old Kishnu six +months after in high displeasure. "Is the man mad? When the fields are +the best in all the country side." + +"True enough, O wife! but he says the value under these new rules the +_sahib-logue_ make is gone already. That he must wait another harvest, +or have a new seal of me." + +"Is that all, O Jaimul Singh! and thou causing my liver to melt with +fear? A seal--what is a seal or two more against the son of thy son's +marriage?" + +"'Tis a new seal," muttered Jaimul uneasily, "and I like not new +things. Perhaps 'twere better to wait the harvest." + +"Wait the harvest and lose the auspicious time the _purohit_[7] hath +found written in the stars? _Ai_, Taradevi! _Ai!_ Pertabi! there is to +be no marriage, hark you! The boy's strength is to go for nought, and +the bride is to languish alone because the father of his father is +afraid of a usurer! _Hae, Hae!_" + +The women wept the easy tears of their race, mingled with half-real, +half-pretended fears lest the Great Ones might resent such disregard of +their good omens--the old man sitting silent meanwhile, for there is no +tyranny like the tyranny of those we love. Despite all this his native +shrewdness 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 postponing the marriage. The usurer's face +fell. To be so near the seal which would make it possible for him to +foreclose the mortgages, and yet to fail! He had counted on this +marriage for years; the blue sky itself had fought for him so far, and +now--what if the coming harvest were a bumper? + +"But I will seal for the seed grain," said old Jaimul; "I have done +that before, and I will do it again--we know that bargain of old." + +Anunt Ram closed his pen-tray with a snap. "There is no seed grain for +you, _baba-ji_, this year either," he replied calmly. + +Ten days afterwards, Kishnu, Pertabi, and Taradevi were bustling about +the courtyard with the untiring energy which fills the Indian woman +over the mere thought of a wedding, and Jaimul, out in the fields, was +chanting as he scattered the grain into the furrows-- + + + "Wrinkles and seams and sears + On the face of our mother earth; + There are ever sorrows and tears + At the gates of birth." + + +The mere thought of the land lying fallow had been too much for him; so +safe in the usurer's strong-box lay a deed with the old man's seal +sitting cheek by jowl beside Anunt 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 wandered +oftener than ever over the brown expanse of field where a flush of +green showed that Mother Earth had done her part, and was waiting for +Heaven to take up the task. + +The wedding fire-balloons rose from the courtyard, and drifted away to +form constellations in the cloudless sky; the sound of wedding drums +and pipes disturbed the stillness of the starlit nights, and still day +by day the green shoots grew lighter and lighter in colour because the +rain came not. Then suddenly, like a man's hand, a little 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 solid purple and the +solid brown, what joy to pick a dry-shod way along the boundary ridges +and see the promise of harvest doubled by the reflection of each tender +green spikelet in the flooded fields! The night settled down dark, +heavenly dark, with a fine spray of steady rain in the old, +weather-beaten face, as it set itself towards home. + +The blue sky was on the side of labour this time, and, during the next +month or so, Taradevi's young soldiers made mud pies, and crowed more +lustily than ever over the _bunniah's_ boys. + +Then the silvery beard began to show in the wheat, and old Jaimul +laughed aloud in the fulness of his heart. + +"That is an end of the new seal," he said boastfully, as he smoked his +pipe in the village square. "It is a poor man's harvest, and no +mistake." + +But Anunt Ram was silent. The April sun had given some of its sunshine +to the yellowing crops before he spoke. + +"I can wait no longer for my money, O _baba-ji!_" he said; "the three +years are nigh over, and I must defend myself." + +"What three years?" asked Jaimul, in perplexity. + +"The three years during which I can claim my own according to the +_sahib-logue's_ rule. You must pay, or I must sue." + +"Pay before harvest! What are these fool's words? Of course I will pay +in due time; hath not great Ram sent me rain to wash out the old +writing?" + +"But what of the new one, _baba-ji?_--the cash lent on permission to +foreclose the mortgages?" + +"If the harvest failed--if it failed," protested Jaimul quickly. "And I +knew it could not fail. The stars said so, and great Ram would not have +it so." + +"That is old-world talk!" sneered Anunt. "We do not put that sort of +thing in the bond. You sealed it, and I must sue." + +"What good to sue ere harvest? What money have I? But I will pay good +grain when it comes, and the paper can grow as before." + +Anunt Ram sniggered. + +"What good, O _baba-ji?_ Why, the land will be mine, and I can take, +not what you give me, but what I choose. For the labourer his hire, and +the rest for me." + +"Thou art mad!" cried Jaimul, but he went back to his fields with a +great fear at his heart--a fear which sent him again to the usurer's +ere many days were over. + +"Here are my house's jewels," he said briefly, "and the mare thou hast +coveted these two years. Take them, and write off my debt till +harvest." + +Anunt Ram smiled again. + +"It shall be part payment of the acknowledged claim," he said; "let the +Courts decide on the rest." + +"After the harvest?" + +"Ay, after the harvest; in consideration of the jewels." + +Anunt Ram kept his word, and the fields were shorn of their crop ere +the summons to attend the District Court was brought to the old +peasant. + +"By the Great Spirit who judges all it is a lie!" That was all he could +say as the long, carefully-woven tissue of fraud and cunning blinded +even the eyes of a justice 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 need to detail the +strands which formed the net. The long array of seals had borne fruit +at last, fiftyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold--a goodly harvest for the +usurer. + +"Look not so glum, friend," smiled Anunt Ram, as they pushed old Jaimul +from the Court at last, dazed, but still vehemently protesting. "Thou +and Jodha thy son shall till the land as ever, seeing thou art skilled +in such work, but there shall be no idlers; and the land, mark you, is +_mine_, not thine." + +A sudden gleam of furious hate sprang to the strong old face, but died +away as quickly as it came. + +"Thou liest," said Jaimul; "I will appeal. The land is mine. It hath +been mine and my fathers' under the king's pleasure since time began. +Kings, ay, and queens, for that matter, are not fools, to give good +land to the _bunniah's_ belly. Can a _bunniah_ plough?" + +Yet as he sat all day about the court-house steps awaiting some legal +detail or other, doubt even of his own incredulity came over him. He +had often heard of similar misfortunes to his fellows, but somehow the +possibility of such evil appearing in his own life had never entered +his brain. And what would Kishnu say--after all these years, these long +years of content? + +The moon gathering light as the sun set shone full on the road, as the +old man, with downcast head, made his way across the level plain to the +mud hovel which had been a true home to him and his for 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 scarce discernible hamlets +here and there. Not a soul in sight, but every now and again a glimmer +of light showing where some one was watching the heaps of new threshed +grain upon the threshing-floors. + +And then a straighter thread of path leading right upon his own fields +and the village beyond. What was that? A man riding before him. The +blood leapt through the old veins, and the old 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 with long, swinging stride on the figure +ahead. A white figure on a white horse like death; or was the avenger +behind beneath the lank folds of drapery which fluttered round the +walker? + +The land! No! He should never have the land. How could he? The very +idea was absurd. Jaimul, thinking thus, held his head erect and his +hands relaxed their grip. He was close on the rider now; and just +before him, clear in the moonlight, rose the boundary mark of his +fields--a loose pile of sunbaked clods, hardened 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, a silent white group in the moonlight; then the figure +on the horse slipped to the ground and moved a step forward. Only one +step, but that was within the boundary. Then, above the even wheeze of +the thirsty beast, rose a low chuckle as the usurer stooped for a +handful of soil and let it glide through his fingers. + +"It is good ground! Ay, ay--none better." They were his last words. In +fierce passion of love, hate, jealousy, and protection, old Jaimul +closed on his enemy, and found something to grip with his steady old +hands. Not the plough-handle this time, but a throat, a warm, living +throat where you could feel the blood swelling in the veins beneath +your fingers. Down almost without a struggle, the old face above the +young one, the lank knee upon the broad body. And now, quick! for +something to slay withal, ere age tired 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 +fields. They were at least free from that _thing_ at his feet; for what +part in this world's harvest could belong to the ghastly figure with +its face beaten to a jelly, which lay staring up into the over-arching +sky? So far, at any rate, the business was settled for ever, and in so +short a time that the mare had scarcely slaked her thirst, and still +stood with head down, the water dripping from her muzzle. The _thing_ +would never ride her again either. Half-involuntarily he stepped to her +side and loosened the girth. + +"_Ari!_ sister," he said aloud, "thou hast had enough. Go home." + +The docile beast obeyed his well-known voice, and as her echoing amble +died away Jaimul looked at his blood-stained hands and then at the +formless face at his feet. There was no home for him, and yet he was +not sorry, or ashamed, or frightened--only dazed at the hurry of his +own act. Such things had to be done sometimes when folk were unjust. +They would hang him for it, of course, 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 +indeed! Some one lay asleep upon the biggest pile; and his stern old +face relaxed into a smile as, stooping over the careless sentinel, he +found it was his grandson. The boy would watch better as he grew older, +thought Jaimul, as he drew his cotton plaid gently over the smooth +round limbs outlined among the yielding grain, lest the envious moon +might covet their promise of beauty. + +"Son of my son! Son of my son!" he murmured over and over again, as he +sat down to watch out the night beside his corn for the last time. Yes, +for the last time. At dawn the deed would be discovered; 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 blood upon his hands. He +looked at them with a curious smile before he lay back among the corn. +Many a night he had watched the slow stars wheeling to meet the morn, +but never by a fairer harvest than this. + +The boy at his side stirred in his sleep. "Son of my son! Son of my +son!" came the low murmur again. Ay! and his son after him again, if +the woman said true. It had always been so. Father and son, father and +son, father--and son--for ever--and ever--and ever. + +So, lulled by the familiar thought, the old man fell asleep beside the +boy, and the whole bare expanse of earth and sky seemed empty save for +them. No! there was something else surely. Down on the hard white +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 bearing +steadily towards the sleepers; past the boy, making him shift uneasily +as the cold coil touched his arms; swifter now as it drew nearer the +scent, till it found what it sought upon the old man's hands.[8] + +"_Ari_, sister! straight, I say, straight!" murmured the old ploughman +in his sleep, as his grip strengthened over something that wavered in +his steady clasp. Was that the prick of the goad? Sure if it bit so +deep upon the sister's hide no wonder she started. He must keep his +grip for men's throats when sleep was over--when this great sleep was +over. + +The slow stars wheeled, and when the morn brought Justice, it found old +Jaimul dead among his corn and left him there. But the women washed the +stains of blood and sweat mingled with soil and seed grains from his +hands before the wreath of smoke from his funeral pyre rose up to make +a white cloud no bigger than a man's hand upon the bitter blue sky--a +cloud that brought gladness to no heart. + +The usurer's boys, it is true, forced the utmost from the land, and +sent all save bare sustenance across the seas; but the home guided by +Jaimul's unswerving hand 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 the country in return for the +red Indian wheat more than paid for these trivial losses. Perhaps it +did not. That is a question which the next Mutiny must settle. + + + + + FOR THE FAITH. + + I. + +An old man dreaming of a past day and night as he sat waiting, and +these were his dreams. + + + * * * * * + + +Darkness, save for the light of the stars in the sky and the flare of +blazing roof-trees on earth. Two shadowy figures out in the open, and +through the parched silence of the May night a man's voice feeble, yet +strenuous in appeal. + +"Dhurm Singh?" + +"_Huzoor!_" + +The kneeling figure bent closer over the other, waiting. + +"The _mem sahiba_, Dhurm Singh." + +"_Huzoor--dhurm nal_."[9] + +Then silence, broken only by the long howl of jackals gathering before +their time round that scene of mutiny and murder. + + + * * * * * + + +Darkness once more. The darkness of daylight shut out by prisoning +walls. The sweltering heat of July oozing through the shot-cracked +walls; the horrors of starvation, and siege, and sickness round two dim +figures. And once again a strenuous voice--this time a woman's. + +"Dhurm Singh!" + +"_Huzoor_." + +The answer came as before--broad, soft, guttural, in the accent of the +north-- + +"Sonny _baba_, Dhurm Singh!" + +"_Huzoor--dhurm nal_." + +Then silence, broken only by the _whist-ch-t_ of a wandering bullet +against the wall of the crumbling fort, where one more victim had found +peace. + + + * * * * * + + +Both the May night and the July day were in old Dhurm Singh's thoughts +as he sat on his heels looking out from the Apollo Bunder at Bombay +across the Black Water, waiting, after long years, for Sonny _baba's_ +ship to loom over the level horizon. A stranger figure among the +slight, smooth 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 like a white streak between the open brown forehead and +the open brown eyes. A faded red tunic, empty of the left arm, a +solitary medal on the breast, and above the unseen coils of white +hair--long as a woman's--the high wound turban bearing the sacred steel +quoit of the Sikh devotee. + +Such was Dhurm Singh, _Akali_; in other words, Lion of the Faith and +member of the Church Militant. Pensioner to boot for an anna or so a +day to a Government which he had also served _dhurm nal_ as he had +served his dead captain, his dead mistress, and, last of all, Sonny +_baba!_ + +Twenty years ago. Yes! twenty years since he had answered those +strenuous appeals by his favourite word-play on his own name. He had +used it for many another promise during those long years; as a rule, +truthfully. For Dhurm Singh, as a rule, did things _dhurm nal_--partly +because a slow, invincible tenacity of purpose made all chopping and +changing distasteful, 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_ to come sailing over the edge +of his world again, the broad simple face expanded into smiles at the +memory. He passed by all the stress and strains of that unforgotten +flight in favour of a little yellow head nestling back in alarm against +the bloodstains on the old tunic, when the white _mems_ in the big +cantonment of refuge had held out their arms to the child. + +Sonny _baba_ had known his friends in those days; ay! and he had +remembered them all these years: he and the _mem's_ sister, who had +taken charge of the boy in the foreign land across the Black Waters +whence the masters came--a gracious Miss who wrote regularly once a +year to ex-_duffadar_ Dhurm Singh, giving him the last news of Sonny +_baba_ and as regularly urging her correspondent to safeguard himself +against certain damnation by becoming an infidel. For this, briefly, +crudely, was the recipient's view of the matter as he sat staring at +the little picture texts and tracts in the Punjabi character which +invariably accompanied the letters. They puzzled him, those picture +cards in the sacred characters which were printed so beautifully in the +far off land by people who knew nothing of him or his people, and who +yet wrote better than any _mohunt_.[10] Puzzled him in more ways than +one, since duty and desire divided as to the method of their disposal. +Respect for 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 old swash-buckler it was infinitely more amusing, even in these +degenerate days when _Akali-dom_ had lost half its power, to go +swaggering about from fair to festival, from festival to fair, +representing the Church Militant, than to lounge about the village +watching the agricultural members of the family cultivate the ancestral +lands. They did it admirably without his help, as they had done it +always; so Dhurm Singh, at a loose end now legitimate strife was over, +took to cultivating his hair with baths of buttermilk instead, adopted +the quoit and the bracelets, and used the most pious of Sikh oaths as +he watched the wrestlers wrestle, or played singlestick for the honour +of God and the old regiment. And there were other advantages in the +profession. A man might take a more than reasonable amount of opium +occasionally without laying himself open to a heavier accusation than +that of religious enthusiasm; since opium is part of the _Akali's_ +stock in trade. + +As he sat among the tarred ropes with his back against a consignment of +beer and rum for the British soldier, he broke off quite a large corner +of the big black lump he kept in the same pocket with the tracts, and +swallowed it whole. Sonny _baba's_ ship was not due, they told him, for +some hours to come, so there would be time for quiet dreams both of +past and future. The latter somewhat 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 of the Church Militant now that younger men began to beat him at +singlestick--had returned to the old allegiance and made his way down +country, like many another old servant, to meet his master's son and +take service with him. You see them often, these old, anxious-looking +retainers, waiting on the Apollo Bunder, or coming aboard in the steam +launches with wistful, expectant faces. + +And some beardless youth, fresh from Eton or Harrow, says with a laugh, +"By George! are you old Munnoo or Bunnoo? Here! look after my traps, +will you?" And the traps are duly looked after, while the Philosophical +Radical on the rampage is taking the opportunity 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 both rulers and ruled may be glad to get rid of +him on the approach of the hot weather. Mosquitoes are troublesome, and +cholera is disconcerting, but they are bearable beside the man who +invariably knows the answers to his own questions before he asks them. + +Dhurm Singh's dreams, however, if confused, were pleasant; full of +strong meats and drinks, and men in buckram. He could not, of course, +serve the Sirkar again with the chance of _batta_ and _loot_, but he +could serve the _chota sahib_ and wear a badge. After all, a +badge-wearer had his opportunities of hectoring. 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 +horses clattered up and down, the Royal Yacht Club pennant flew out +against the blue sky, a match was being played on the links hard by, +and the very coolies, as they hauled and heaved, used a polyglot of +sailors' slang. Only the palm-trees on the point over the bay gave an +Oriental touch to the scene. + + + * * * * * + + +"Dhurm Singh! my dear, dear old friend! Look, comrades, this is the man +who carried me to safety in his arms even as the Good Shepherd carries +His lambs." + +The speech had that unreal sound which is the curse of the +premeditated, except in the mouth of a born actor, which Sonny _baba_ +was not. And yet the young curves of 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 the +Salvation Army was on parade, and bound to keep up his character. +Nevertheless there was no lack of warmth in the grip he got of the old +man's reluctant hand. + +"_Huzoor_," faltered Dhurm Singh, taken aback at this condescension, +and letting the sword he was about to present fall back on its belt +with a clatter. The fact being that the said sword had been an occasion +of much mental distress; as an actual ex-_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 strange; and what did that squad of _mem sahibs_ mean? Their +dress did not seem so strange to the old _Akali_, since in those palmy +days before the Mutiny the fashions were not so far removed from the +costume of a Salvation lass; but the tambourines! + +"Come and speak to the General," said Sonny _baba_ somewhat hurriedly. +He spoke in English; but just as the formula, "Look after my traps" is +"understanded of the common people" at once, so the word "General" +brought a relieved comprehension to the old Sikh's face. There were +blessed frogs on this one's coat also, which, like the word +Mesopotamia, were charged with consolation. + +The General looked at him with that curious philanthropic smile which, +while it welcomes the object, has a kind of circumambient beam of +mutual congratulation for all spectators of the benevolence. + +"You have seen service, my good old friend," he exclaimed in fluent +Urdu, as he pointed with a declamatory wave of his hand to the solitary +medal, "but it was poor service to what we offer you now. Come to us, +be our first-fruit, and help to carry the colours of the Great Army in +the van of the fight." + +A speech meant palpably for the gallery. + +Dhurm Singh, however, took it at attention, and saluted-- + +"Pension-_wallah_, _Huzoor_, unfit for duty," he replied with modest +brevity, indicating his empty sleeve. + +The General caught at the occasion for even greater unction with a +complacency which could not be concealed. + +"The Great Army is recruited from those who are unfit for duty, from +those who are sinners. Is it not so, comrades? Are we not all maimed, +halt, blind, yet entering into life?" + +"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" cried the company, bursting into the refrain +of a hymn, in which Sonny _baba_ joined with an angelic voice. The +voice, in fact, was largely 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 sure, of his dead father, +who had been the pride of the regiment. Nevertheless the effervescence +of song left the old man still deprecating and fumbling in his tunic. + +"The General-_sahib_ mistakes; these are my _pinson_ papers." + +That proved a climax. When, just as you are setting foot on a country +which you have sworn to conquer, an old warrior comes aboard and +produces a bundle of Scripture texts and Salvation hymns out of his +innermost breast pocket, naturally nothing is left but to _enthuse_. +What followed Dhurm Singh only dimly understood, but he stuck manfully +to his intention of following Sonny _baba_ to the death if needs be. +The result being that 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 complexion; so had Dhurm Singh, as he sat in the lock-up, +vastly contented with his black eye and an ugly cut on the nose, which +he explained gleefully to Sonny _baba_ put him in mind of old times. +The latter, through the medium of a fellow-passenger who knew Punjabi, +was meanwhile trying to make the old sinner understand that he had got +the whole army into trouble, and that personally he must stand his +trial for a breach of the peace. + +"And tell him, please," said Sonny _baba_ with grieved diffidence, +"that we all think he must have been drunk." + +An odd smile struggled with the gravity of Dr. Taylor's interpretation +of the reply. + +"He says, of course he was drunk, as you all were. In fact, he bought a +bottle of rum instead of taking his opium, so that the effects might be +uniform--I'm telling you the sober truth, my 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 can when they go down or come up to the sea in +ships. Perhaps it's the connection between reeling to and fro, you +know. I beg your pardon; no offence--but really, what with the +tambourines--" + +Dr. Taylor paused with his bright eyes on the boy's face. They had been +cabin companions, and despite an absolute antagonism of thought, chums. +It is so sometimes, and as a rule such friendships last. + +"Did you tell him the General was greatly displeased? It is such a +terrible beginning to our campaign; so unscriptural," mourned Sonny +_baba_ evasively. + +"I don't know about that; wasn't there some one who smote off some one +else's ear? and that, I believe, is what the old man is accused of +doing. I beg your pardon again, but the coincidence is remarkable." + +"And what is he saying now?" put in the other hurriedly. + +Dr. Taylor paused. + +"He is calling down the blessing of the one true God upon your head, +now and for all eternity," he answered slowly, and there was a sort of +hush in his voice. + +Sonny _baba's_ eyes grew suspiciously moist, but he shook his head +dutifully. "How--how sad," he began. + +"Very sad that you can't understand what he says," interrupted Dr. +Taylor curtly, "because as I've only just time to catch my train I must +be off. Salaam, _Akali sahib!_" + +Dhurm Singh, standing to salute, detained the doctor for a minute with +eager questioning. + +"What is it?" asked Sonny _baba_ again. "What is it he wants to know?" + +Dr. Taylor gave a short laugh. "He wants to know who the General's papa +and mamma were, because he isn't a gentleman. You needn't stare so, my +dear fellow. That is the first thing they find out about 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 appreciate their lives +before you try to change them. And look here! don't go taking an +_Akali_ about in a religious procession with drums and banners. It +isn't safe, especially if you are going to Bengal." + +"Why Bengal more than other places?" + +"Accustomed to lick them, that's all--hereditary instinct. Well, +good-bye again, and take my advice and come north. The old +swash-buckler might be of some use to you there. He'll be in the way +down country." + + + II. + +Some eighteen months afterwards, the doctor, being busy over that great +hunt for the comma-shaped _bacillus_, which, as is told elsewhere, +ended in a full stop for the seeker, saw a man come into his verandah +with a note. + +"The old swash-buckler, by all that's sinful," he said to himself. +"Now, what can he want?" According to the superscription of the letter, +it was a "Civil Surgeon"; according to a few almost illegible words +inside, help for a suspected case of cholera in the European room of +the _serai_. + +Dr. Taylor, with grave doubts as to being able to supply either of +these desires, went into the verandah. + +"Is it Sonny _baba?_" he asked. + +Dhurm Singh's delight was boundless; since a _sahib_ to whom you have +once spoken is not as other _sahibs_; just as a _sahib_ whom you have +once served becomes a demi-god--transfigured, immortal. Undoubtedly it +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 master's +son? Undoubtedly also he was ill, though, in the poor opinion of the +dustlike one, it was not cholera--at least it need not have been if the +_Baba-sahib_ had only taken the remedy proposed to him. + +"Opium? hey!" asked Taylor, who in a huge pith hat which made him look +like an animated mushroom, was by this time walking over to the +_serai_, which was but a few hundred yards off. + +The old _Akali_ grinned from ear to ear, the massive curves of his lips +stretching like india-rubber. "The _Huzoor_ knows the great gift of God +in the bad places of mind and body. But the _Baba-sahib_ will not have +it so. He understands not many things through being so young. But he +learns, he learns!" + +There was a cheerful content in the apology, suggestive of the +possibility that Dhurm Singh had something to do with the teaching. If +so, he had been an unsafe guide in one point; for it was cholera; +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 renewing a +friendship which, like the majority of those struck up on board ship, +would have been forgotten but for an accident--the accident of his +doing civil duty for a colleague during ten days' leave. + +"Civil Surgeon, indeed!" he would say, as he sat on the edge of the bed +amusing Sonny _baba_ when the latter began to pull round. "Deuce take +me if I could be that to save my life! One of my patients the other day +said I was the most uncivil person calling himself a gentleman she ever +came across, just because I told her she couldn't expect her liver to +act if she lived the life of a Strasburg goose. 'Liver!' she cried, +'why, doctor, it's all heart that is the matter with me.' Now, 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; but what the +devil have you done with your muscle, my dear fellow? Oh, I know! you +have been doing the _dal-bhat_[12] trick, in order to show your +sympathy with the people, and to assimilate your wants to theirs, so +that in some occult way they are to assimilate their religious beliefs +to yours. Lordy, Lordy, what an odd creature man is! But you didn't get +old Dhurm Singh to give up his kid _pullao_, I'll go bail. Now, he +looks fit--more like your Church Militant business than you do." + +"I've--I've given up the Army," said Sonny _baba_ after an embarrassed +pause. + +And Dr. Taylor actually refrained from asking why, or from saying he +was glad to hear it; for there was a puzzled, pained look in his +patient's face, which, 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 turban off and his long white hair coiled +round the high wooden comb like any woman's, was putting an extra fine +polish to his sword to while away the time. + +"_Huzoor!_ it is true. It did not suit us. I told the _Baba-sahib_ so +from the beginning. They were not of his caste. As the Protector may +see, I did all in my power. 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, praise be to the Lord, we have +taken '_pinson_' again, and the Baba is to serve the Big _Lat-padre_ +(bishop) according to _hukm_ (orders), as all the _padre sahibs_ do." + +As he drove home, the doctor decided that he would gladly give a +month's pay to know the history of the past year and a half. The very +imagination of it made him smile. Yet there must have been more than +mere laughter in his thoughts, 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 faith were strong +in him as ever, though the angelic voice now busied itself with Hymns +Ancient and Modern; especially the Ancient. For, face to face with the +Rig-Vedas, the advantages of unquestioned authority had begun to show +themselves. + +There is no need to repeat the arguments on either side; they are +easily imagined, given the characters of the arguers. Nor is it +difficult to imagine the grip of hands when they parted. One of them, +no doubt, said something about 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 wilderness +again. The former to itinerate from village to village, learning the +language and lives of the people he hoped by and by to convert; the +latter, presumably, to complete the education he had begun. They were +an odd couple. + +"Ten to one on the swash-buckler," thought the doctor; "he is a fine +old chap." + +Christmas had come and gone ere Sonny _baba_ reappeared in civilised +society. When he did so he looked weather-beaten and yet spruce--the +natural result on a healthy young Englishman of combined exposure to +sunshine and a good washerman. + +"Hullo!" cried the doctor cheerily, "back again in boiled shirts, I +see! Find 'em a bit stiff, I expect, after _kurtas_ and _dhotees_. The +natives know how to dress comfortably at any rate." + +Sonny _baba_ blushed under his bronze and hesitated. "The fact is," he +said with an effort, "I did not, after all, adopt native costume as I +intended, or perhaps"--here a faint smile obtruded itself--"I might 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 sleeping in +public places--_serai's_ and _dhurmsalas_--or out in the open--somehow +my day clothes were always being stolen. As soon as ever I got a new +outfit it disappeared, until at last Dhurm Singh said,--" + +"Yes! what did Dhurm Singh say?" + +"That it was very peculiar, and that as the thieves didn't seem to +fancy my English clothes it might be--more economical--" Here a +half-embarrassed laugh finally interrupted the sentence. "I don't +think I was sorry," went on the speaker hastily; "I found out +afterwards 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 +I see of these people, the more necessary it seems to me that we should +be ourselves armed at all points before beginning the attack. And then +their poverty, their patience, the insanitary conditions--the needless +suffering! Surely before we can touch their minds--" + +"I know," broke in the doctor cynically. "Medical missions, _et +cetera_; so it has come to that already, has it, old chap?" + +"I don't know what you mean by its having come to that," retorted Sonny +at a white heat; "but if you think it right to live in the lap of +luxury while these brothers and sisters of ours--" + +So the arguments began again, more fiercely than ever, for the two +fought at closer quarters--so close that ofttimes the doctor had to +retreat from his own position and seek another, because Sonny _baba_ +had already entrenched himself therein; the which is a direful offence, +rousing determined resistance in a real argufier. + +Despite this, Sonny _baba_ rented a room in the doctor's house, and +shared the doctor's dinners and library and hospital after the easy +Indian fashion, while Dhurm Singh swaggered about among the dispensary +badge-wearers, explaining at full length why he did not wear a badge +like the rest of them. His _sahib_ had not yet settled which branch of +the public service he 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 _doctore_ department, but in his, +Dhurm Singh's opinion, that was not much either. Personally he would +just as soon wear no badge, as one of those with "Charitable +Dispensary" on it. But only God knew where the _Baba-sahib_ might end; +at Simla, as "_burra Lat sahib_," no doubt. Till then it was more +dignified to refrain from ignoble badges of which afterwards one might +be ashamed. + +And while he talked in this fashion he sat in the sunshine combing his +long hair, and piously wondering how folk could defile their insides +with tobacco. Then he would stroll off into the shadow and bring out +the black lump of dreams. Yet if Sonny _baba_ came out into the +verandah calling after the Indian fashion for some one, the broad +northern accent was always ready with its "_Huzoor!_" + +So the months passed in preparations, and the angelic voice might have +been heard to sing "Lead, kindly Light" more often than any other hymn +in the book. About this time, 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 +stripes--a speech which roused the doctor to vigorous retort. He had +observed, he said, that the remark held good about most honest, healthy +men who could play singlestick. + +The fact being, however, that Sonny _baba_ was beginning to get +obstinate, as is only natural when a man passes five and twenty. It was +time, he felt, to begin work in earnest; for the enthusiasm and the +faith and the fervour were as hot as ever in him still. Looking back on +the last three years he hardly understood why he had done so little. + +"There seems so much to learn before one can even begin on the +problem," he sighed, "and then, dear as the old man is, I really think +Dhurm Singh is a drawback. I hoped when we left the Army--but indeed, +Taylor, I think even you will allow that he is hardly the sort of man +for a missionary's servant." + +"Well, I don't know that I should classify him under that head; but +then," he paused, thinking, perhaps, that when all was said and done +the master was no more fit for the place than the servant. + +"I'm glad you agree with me," put in Sonny eagerly, "for I've quite +made up my mind to a change. You have no idea how the old fellow +hectors over getting me a pint of milk or a couple of eggs. You would +think 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 habit +of eating opium. It does not seem to hurt him, I own; but that again is +not what it ought to be. It is bad enough to belong to a race who, +while they go about with words of condemnation on their lips--" + +"Pardon me," murmured the doctor, "I pass--" + +"--on their lips, are at the same time battening on the proceeds of an +infamous monopoly of a drug dealing death and disease to a whole +continent." + +"One-third of one per cent of the total population," murmured the +doctor again. + +"You forget the opium grown in China," put in Sonny with great heat. + +"My dear fellow, isn't there a story somewhere about the Emperor of +China's clothes? If I remember right he forgot to put 'em on, and then +every one was afraid 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 afraid to say so. If we can prevent our +subjects from growing poppy except under supervision, why can't he? It +isn't Jonah's gourd, but a three month crop." + +Sonny _baba_ began to walk up and down the room excitedly. "It is +perfectly inexplicable to me how a man like you--" + +"Excuse me," interrupted the doctor. "I'll explain. I'm forty-four +years of age. Two and twenty years of that I lived in a parish in +Scotland where every decent, respectable body would have thought shame +to himself if he didn't have more whisky than he could carry on market +days. The other 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 seriously from the effects of opium.[13] But it is a +subject which it is quite useless to discuss. It turns on a question of +heredity, like most things. The Indo-Germanic races never have taken +and never will take to narcotics, so naturally they abuse them--and +drink instead. _Chacun a son gout_." + +"And mine is to give poor old Dhurm Singh an extra pension when I go +itinerating, and send him back to end his days in peace in his +village." + +The doctor whistled. "Don't you wish you may get him to do it?" + +"He must if he is a hindrance to the work--" + +"And if your work is a hindrance to him? That's what it comes to all +round. He was put in charge of you, and mark my words, Dhurm Singh will +do it _dhurm nal_ until he goes to settle the vexed question." + +"What vexed question?" + +"Whether his work or yours was the better." + + + III. + +"Dhurm Singh?" + +"_Huzoor_." + +After five and twenty years the same appeal--the same reply. But on +that May night and July day neither the man nor the woman had any doubt +as to what was to come next; the universe held no possibility save "the +_mem sahib_" or "Sonny _baba_ But the latter, now it came to his turn, +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, +self-respecting conversations overheard at home sprang to memory +obtrusively. "Then, Mary Ann, it had better be this day month." "Yes, +ma'am, this day month, if you please; and if you please, ma'am, +Wednesdays and Saturdays from eleven till one, if convenient, for a +character." + +But things were different somehow in this heathen country, which was so +backward in education, so ignorant of liberty, equality, and--ahem! + +"Dhurm Singh," began Sonny once more rather hurriedly. + +"_Huzoor_." + +"I--I am going to make a complete change of plan, Dhurm Singh. I--I am +going to begin work on a new principle. I--I am going to start in +another part of the country where I shall not require--er--many things +I have hitherto required." He paused, well satisfied at his plunge _in +medias res_. + +Dhurm Singh, standing attention at the door, smiled approvingly. "It is +a good word, _Huzoor_. So said the _Gurus_ also. When do we start?" + +Half an hour afterwards Sonny _baba_ in rather a shamefaced manner, +told the doctor that, after all, he had come to the conclusion it would +be better not to dismiss Dhurm Singh. To begin with, the village +children delighted in his tales, and then--it was a triviality, 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. In addition, +Dhurm Singh had promised to amend his ways generally; to spend his days +in compounding pills and potions instead of hectoring about. Finally, +he had agreed to an allowance of opium, swearing _dhurm nal_ to take no +more than was served out by the master. + +"Of course," said Sonny _baba_ at this juncture, with a considerate +superiority which raised every atom of the doctor's original sin, "I +shall be careful, I shall not dock it too much at once; but in the +course of a year or two I hope to break him entirely of this most +pernicious habit." + +"Which has never done him or his surroundings the least harm," growled +Taylor savagely. "Upon my soul, I begin to wish I were five and twenty +again, if only that I might be as cock-sure of being right about +everything as you are. As it is, even the _bacillus_--" He wrinkled his +eyes over the microscope once more, and did not finish his sentence. + +After this Dhurm Singh might have been seen any day of the week in the +dispensary verandah grinding away vigorously with pestle and mortar at +unsavoury medicaments, rolling pills under his flexible brown fingers, +or polishing up surgical instruments with all the fervour bestowed of +yore on the old sword. + +"Lo! if the _Baba-sahib_ cares not for being a big _Hakm_ (magistrate, +ruler), sure the next best thing is to be a big _Hakeem_ (doctor)," he +would say, smiling simply at his own wit. "And doth not the _Guru_ say, +'Fight with 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 is ever the first step towards dream-getting. Thus +in all ways, I, Dhurm Singh, Sikh, ex-_duffadar_, _pinson-wallah_, and +_Akali_, am consoled. But there! God is good to the Sikh. Know you that +He never made an ugly one yet?" + +This was a favourite boast of the old man's, backed always, should +doubts be expressed, by a modest appeal to his own looks, joined to an +assertion--which, by the way, was perfectly true--that he was the +meanest looking of ten brothers. + +So, in due season, the doctor once more watched the odd couple pass out +together into the wilderness; and this time, noticing the change in +Sonny _baba_ and remembering the raw lad who had been his cabin +companion, he, so to speak, put his whole pile on Dhurm Singh--unless +the boy killed him with philanthropy. + +The rains, after an unusually heavy fall, had ceased early, the result +being an epidemic of autumnal fever. Now the cholera may kill its +thousands, but year by year, with every now and again a sort of jubilee +over its own strength, malaria kills its tens of thousands quietly, +unostentatiously; so quietly, that it is only when the officer in +charge of a district finds himself during his cold weather camp +deciding the rival claims to hereditary offices day after day in +village 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 at +the same time with cautions not to be over generous except in genuine +cases. Let him stick to the country medicines as prophylactics. Opium +and aconite were to be had for the buying; and if he did wander into +the low jungles close to the hills, and if he could be tolerant and +learn not to despise old wisdom, let him prescribe the former in +preference to the latter--though perhaps that was too much to expect +from a five-and-twenty-year old who was cock-sure he knew best. + +"I know nothing of myself," replied Sonny in all seriousness. "The +Eternal Right decides. There lies the difference between you and +me--pardon me if I say between the Christian and the Unbeliever. You +trust to your finite mind, I to Something which is and was, which +cannot err." + +And Dhurm Singh, gleefully employed in turning a cash transport mule +with its fixings into a perambulating dispensary, was keeping up his +character of devotee by repeating verses from the _Adhee Grunt'h_[14] +in sing-song; his round, mellow voice echoing out through the +sunshine-- + + + "Remember, oh man, the primal truth--the Truth ere the + world began. + The Truth which is and the Truth which must remain. + How can this Truth be told, save by doing the will of the + Lord?" + + +"Listen!" said Taylor, and Sonny _baba_ moved uneasily in his chair. + +When these same preparations were complete, the old man's delight was +huge; and he drove the mule forth to the wilderness before him with +much futile waving of the stick which had replaced the sword. Even over +that abnegation he was cheerful. + +"Lo! I am turned a _dhundi-wallah_[15] in mine old age, as becomes the +pious-minded. _Ari!_ thou misbegotten offspring of a mixed race doomed +to childless extinction, wilt stray from the beaten path! Wouldst steal +the corn of others, when thy master is a _missen sahib_, and thy tender +a devotee? May the uttermost--" + +Then to Sonny's pained reproof he would reply, cheerfully as ever, that +he had understood the refraining of his tongue from abuse was to be +towards those born of Adam; and this was not even a God-created thing, +but a nondescript invented by the _sahib-logue_. + +Cheerful always; even when, as time went on, his daily pills of opium +were mixed with quinine. He sat and compounded them himself _dhurm +nal_, keeping no grain of the beloved dream-giver from the sacrilegious +mixture, and telling the full tale of the "_fiat pillulae_" into the +master's locked medicine chest, whence they were doled out daily. + +For the first month or more, everything went smoothly. Never before had +Sonny _baba_ had such attentive listeners to the great truths he +expounded as a preliminary to his other work; never before had he felt +that he was really on the right 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 excellent creature +with sheer, unalloyed delight. She told all her circle of friends that +her nephew had fulfilled her dearest wishes in going in for the medical +mission, which was undoubtedly the only way of getting at the poor, +dear natives. + +And Sonny, in less emotional fashion, felt this to be so true that he +worked as he had never worked before. A sort of feverish desire to +utilise every opportunity, to lose no occasion for preaching the great +Gospel of Peace came over him, and he spared himself not at all, after +the manner of his kind. + +So that sometimes returning tired out in evening from some long tramp, +it was a relief to find the old swash-buckler ready with kid _pullao_ +or "_rose chikken_,"[16] and to see the tea-kettle swinging over a fire +of twigs. Sometimes 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 keeping an eye on roast pork, and at +the same time utilising the flame-light in giving a suspicious clean to +the biggest surgical knife--a queer picture seen by the fire, leaping +and dancing up into the shadows of a mango grove. + +But one evening Sonny came home with no appetite for dinner, and half +an hour afterwards he was blue and shivering in the cold fit of ague. + +"If the _Huzoor_ would take some of my pills," said Dhurm Singh +wistfully; "look at me! nothing touches me, and, lo! am I not three +times as near the grave as the _Baba-sahib_?" + +There is no need to describe the scorn which this suggestion met. As +for the pills, where would the old sinner be but for the quinine +contained therein? This was nothing but a chill, an isolated attack. He +would take an extra dose of the specific and be done with it. + +But the third day, suddenly, in the very middle of an eloquent appeal +he felt goose skin going in thrills down his back, and five minutes +after the only sound he could make was the chattering of his teeth. + +"If the _Huzoor_," began Dhurm Singh, but was checked by the frown on +the master's face; for the lad had grit and fire in him. + +Neither of these, however, avail much against a tertian ague, and it +was not long before Sonny _baba_ in the half-querulous, half-hysterical +stage before the hot fit merges into perspiration, confided with tears +to the old swash-buckler that it was no use. He was 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 often as not, it struck the +listener, to be referred to his own share in the business. To the +speaker it was otherwise. He was not fit for the work; he was of no +account, and now when at long last the time had come, when he felt that +his hand was on the plough-- + +"It is time the _Baba-sahib_ took his quinine," remarked Dhurm Singh +sagely, unsympathetically. "If the _Huzoor_ will give the keys of the +chest, this dust-like one will bring the medicine--_dhurm nal_." 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 pills in +the burning hand before passing his one arm under the burning body, +"but the _Huzoor_ must have faith. Without it medicine is but a bad +taste in the mouth. He who believes shall be saved." + +Perhaps Sonny _baba_ took his advice yet once again, perhaps the +quinine got a fair hold of the enemy at last. Certain it is that from +the time Dhurm Singh commenced 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 sun was setting +red over the thick brakes of sugar-cane, the old man sat pounding +diligently with pestle and mortar while he intoned away at the _Adhee +Grunt'h_-- + + + "God asks no man of his birth, + He asks him what he has done, + Since all are the seed of God, + Lo! what is the world but clay, + Tho' the pots are of many moulds." + + +And Sonny _baba_ lying out in the shade blissfully conscious that he +was getting better, nay, that he was better, raised himself on one arm +and looked over with moist eyes to the old man. + +"What are you doing, Dhurm Singh?" + +"This slave makes pills. The _Huzoor_ hath eaten so many, and those of +the dust-like one have given out also. Lo! I fill the bottles against +the return of the _Baba-sahib_ to his medicine chest." + +"But, I say! are you sure you have made them right?" + +"The _Huzoor_ may rest satisfied. Five grains of the blessed medicine +for the master, and the other as before. It is _dhurm nal, Huzoor_." + +"So you call it a blessed medicine now, Dhurm Singh?" + +"Wherefore not, since the master is better?" + +"Well! the addition of that small quantity of ipecacuanha which I +began--let me see--that day when I was so bad, certainly had a +marvellous effect. I shall write and tell Taylor about it; he was +inclined to sneer at the idea just because he didn't suggest it. +Doctors are awfully jealous of each other. That's the worst of them." + +These remarks were made mostly for his own benefit, as he lay +comfortably watching the stars come out one by one as the daylight +died. + +It was that same night that Dhurm Singh had his first go of ague. It +shook him as a sharp attack of malarious fever does shake a native past +his prime, and Sonny _baba_ amid his regrets, could not avoid a certain +elation. + +"So much for opium," he said, and yet in his heart of hearts a fear +gained ground that perhaps he might have been over rapid in diminishing +the dose. Now that the old man was actually ill, it seemed unkind to +deny him comfort; so an addition was made to the number of pills, thus +increasing the amount both of opium and quinine. + +It was more than a month later that a small procession of two men +carrying a string bed on their heads, and one man driving a pack mule, +turned into the dispensary compound. + +"It is the old man," said Sonny _baba_ to the doctor, "and I'm +afraid--" he paused before the break in his own voice. "It was that +_terai_ land. I was as bad as could be, and thought I should have to +give up; but, under Providence, quinine and ipec. pulled me round to do +the best work I have ever done in my 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 impression would +not have been so good. Still--it came upon me quite by surprise three +days ago--and--and I've brought him in by forced marches. You--" The +voice failed again. Indeed, there was no need for more, the doctor +being already on his knees by the bed, making his examination. Suddenly +he looked up. + +"Why the devil did you stop his opium, you young fool? Here, Boota +Mull, the syringe and a disc of morphia--sharp. But, after all, what +does anything matter so long as you save your own soul alive!" + +Sonny _baba_ looking very white, drew himself up into dignity. "We can +discuss that question by and by, Dr. Taylor. In the mean time, let me +warn you, that the man has already had ten grains of opium in the last +twenty-four hours." + +The doctor's quick hands were at the closed eyelids. "Ten grains--bosh! +But, as you say, those questions can be settled by and by--when he is +dead, if you like." + +Sonny _baba's_ face had grown whiter still. "I tell you he has had the +opium--I gave it to him myself--I was afraid--" he paused abruptly, and +the doctor looking up shot a rapid glance of negation towards him. + +"There's a mistake, or else-- It doesn't matter now, at any rate. The +thing is done." + +But Sonny _baba_ did not hear the latter words; he was beside the mule, +fumbling hastily in the travelling dispensary, of which the old man had +been so proud, for 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 hands busy over the morphia, heard an +odd sound--something between a gasp and a cry--behind him. Then some +one came and knelt down at the other side of the bed. + +"Dhurm Singh!" + +But there was no answer. + +"Dhurm Singh, you can tell them it was _dhurm nal_, and that I killed +you." + + + * * * * * + +"Killed him--fudge! Though, upon my soul, it would serve you right if +you had. So the old sinner changed the pills, and it wasn't the ipec. +after all. Most reprehensible practice, and, upon my soul, it would +serve him right if he did die. Now--don't be a fool, man! I tell you he +shan't die--I won't let him die. Besides, he can't die--it's +impossible--absolutely impossible." + +Despite his despair and dejection, the young man gave a wan smile at +the other's vehemence. + +"And why?" + +"Because of you, naturally. You don't suppose that you're fit to be +trusted alone with a medicine chest, do you? Boota Mull, if you don't +hurry up with that turpentine and the brandy mixture I'll report you. +So it wasn't the ipec. after all! I'm glad of that." + +In after years the young fellow used to deny strenuously that it had +been the opium either. Plainly and palpably he had been cured of his +fever "by faith." And as for Dhurm Singh? What the doctor said was +true; he could not be spared as yet. How could he be spared when even +now from the verandah came a woman's voice, soft, confident-- + +"Dhurm Singh, Sonny _baba_." + +"_Huzoor! dhurm nal_." + +And any one looking out might have seen a very old man, gorgeous in +scarlet raiment, decked with golden lace and golden curls, as a child's +head nestled up against a solitary arm, and a child's fingers played +with the solitary medal, or tugged unavailingly at the hilt of the old +sword. + +"The _Huzoor_ is too young," would come the broad, arrogant voice, "but +he will learn--he will learn. Even a Sikh is made, not born. He must +wait till the years bring the Sacred Steel. Let the _Huzoor_ rest +awhile peacefully, and old Dhurm will sing to him." + +Then there would be a surreptitious swallowing of a pill before the +drowsy chant began. + + + "He is of the _Khalsa_[17] + Who combats in the van, + Who gives in charity, + Who loves the Poor. + + He is of the _Khalsa_ + Whose mind is set on God, + Who never fears though often overcome, + Knowing all men created of one God. + + He is of the _Khalsa_ + Who lives in arms, + Who combats with the wrong, + Who keeps--the--faith--" + + +So there would be a silence broken only by the even breathing of the +old man and the child. + +For Sonny _baba_ and his wife, watching the scene from within, only +looked into each other's eyes and said nothing. + + + + + THE BHUT-BABY. + + +"According to established precedent it is reported, under section so +and so, that one Buddha Singh of Kidderjana having died, his rightful +heirs inherit." The court-reader's voice hurried the liquid Urdu +syllables into long, sleepy cadences like the drone of a humble-bee +entangled in the swaying punkah overhead. Backwards and forwards, +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 furlough, and stand once +more on that big boulder at the foot of the One-stone pool waiting for +a new ring of light to show on the dark eddy by the far side--a ring +with a swirl and a gleam of silver scales in the centre, a tightening +line under the finger, till the reel went whirr-rr-rr-rr! It was a +lovely dream while it lasted. + +"According to established precedent, the canal-officer reports, under +section so-and-so, that certain rebellious persons in Chori-pani have +opened the sluices of the cut, and taken water that did not belong to +them." The heather-sweet breeze off the One-stone pool ceased to blow, +and I was back, with the punkah, 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 +within reach? Even a juicy apple on a hot day is irresistible, despite +Farmer Smith's big dog watching from below, while you sit on the lower +branch, and Jerry sits on the upper, eating all the ripe fruit just to +pass the time, and thanking Providence meanwhile for making you +Christian children in a cider-country! + +"According to established precedent it is reported, under section +so-and-so, that the devil was born three days ago in village +Hairan-wallah. Orders are requested. 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; +but my alertness merely produced a respectful iteration of the +paragraph, which showed all too clearly my subordinate's explanation of +the sudden display of attention. + +The suspicion of sleep is always irritating. "_Sarishtadar!_" [clerk of +the Court] I began in English, "what, the devil?" + +"Nossir," interrupted the reader suavely in the same language, "pardon +the suggestion, sir, but the devil is somewhat free translation, sir. +In Dictionary _bhut_ (the word used, sir,) equals an _indefinite_ +devil, thus _a_ devil, _a_ fiend, _a_ imp--pardon the indiscretion, +sir! an imp." + +A glow of proud humility at his own quick detection of these trivial +errors filled up the pause which followed, while the punkah went on +swinging, and I sat wondering if I were 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 waiting for orders. A sudden curiosity as to what his +self-complacent brain, surcharged with Western culture, would do with +the situation made me reply curtly, "The usual orders." + +I managed to forbear laughing in the grave face raised to mine in +deprecating apology. "I am unable, sir," he said after a pause, "to +recall, at the present moment, any section, penal 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-thought, "it is political job." Then, I regret to say, I +went off into yells of unseemly mirth, as most Englishmen have to do at +times over the portentous solemnity of the Aryan brother. + +There was a stir in the verandah, a sudden waking to renewed effort on +the part of the punkah coolie, resulting in a general breeziness. Or +was it that Terence O'Reilly, our young Irish doctor, as he came into +the darkened Court, brought with him a thought 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 look at him. His face sympathised promptly +with the unknown joke. "Whwhat the divvle are ye laughing at--me?" he +asked in a rich brogue as he seated himself astride a chair, in which +equestrian position his dandy costume for polo showed to great +advantage. + +Nero fiddling over the flames of Rome is sympathy itself compared to +the indifference with which we often speak the first lines of a coming +tragedy in every-day life. So it was with a jest that I introduced +Terence O'Reilly to the existence of the _bhut_-baby, and 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 his mind. "'Twill be +one of those poor little craytures that come into this worrld God knows +why," he said with an infinite tenderness of voice. "Ten to wan 'tis +better it should die, fifty to wan I can do nothing to help it, but +I'll ride over and see annyhow." + +The _sarishtadar_ laid aside his pen somewhat mournfully, the practical +being out of his line; while I, smitten by admiration into immediate +regret at my own indifference, murmured something about having thought +of going over next morning. + +"There's no time loike the present, my dear fellow," he replied +buoyantly. "The pony's at the door, and sure I'm got up for riding +annyhow;" and as he spoke he stretched out his long legs, and surveyed +their immaculate boots and breeches critically. + +"And what will your team do without their best forward?" I asked, +feeling a certain captiousness at his prompt decision. + +"Get along with your blarney! Sure it's practising, and you can take my +place at that anny day; indeed 'twas to fetch you I ventured into the +dock, for whin I caught a glimpse of your face at the jail this morning +I said to meself, 'Terence, me bhoy, that's a case of polo, or blue +pill, for by the powers his liver's not acting.' So 'twas to hound you +into exercise I came annyhow." + +A feverish desire to amend and excuse my own lukewarmness shot up +through the loophole his words afforded. "To tell the truth, I _was_ +feeling a bit slack; but if you'll wait five minutes while I slip over +to the bungalow and change my clothes, I'll ride with you to +Hairan-wallah. It will be better for me than polo; I might get +over-heated, you know." + +"'Tis over-_eating_, not over-_heating_ that's the matter with you, me +bhoy," he replied coolly; "but I'm proud,--and by the powers!" he +added, starting 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 send me _syce_ round for the Lily of Killarney. I've a +bet on her at the _gymkhana_ next Monday, and we'll try her on the +quiet against the stable." + +Half an hour afterwards I was enjoying plenteous exercise, and it +seemed to me, far behind, as if the Lily--a great black beast without a +single 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 came back to me, however, after a time, as fresh as paint; but the +mare, with head down and heaving flanks, appeared to have had enough of +it. + +"'Tis a pity the faymale sex is so narvous," he said casually. "Ye +can't hold 'em responsible for annything; but if it wasn't for hysteria +they'd be angels entirely. She has the paces of wan, annyhow." + +Fourteen miles of constant canal cuts, that were a perpetual joy to the +doctor and a terror to me, brought us to Hairan-wallah, a large village +standing among irrigated fields. Here cautious inquiries for the devil +led us to a cluster of mud huts beyond the pale, where the low-caste +servants of the community dwelt apart. Before reaching it we were +joined by the head-men and their followers, all anxious to explain and +excuse the calamity which had befallen their reputation; but as the +fear of evil eye had prevented any of them from personally inspecting +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 women were +huddled up dejectedly in one corner. So far the crowd followed us; but +when some of the reputed relations showed us into a dark out-house +at the further end, even curiosity failed to prevent a visible +hanging-back. Blinded by the change from the glare outside, I could at +first see nothing but my companion's tall form bending over a bundle of +rags on a low stool, beside which a half-naked hag sat chanting a +guttural charm; and before I regained clearer sight his voice rang out +in tones of evident relief, "By the powers! 'tis only a black albino." + +The bull was perfect, seeing that it conveyed succinctly a very +accurate description. The _bhut_-baby was a black, a very black albino, +for the abnormal colouring was confined to its hair, which was unusally +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 startling. For the rest, it +was as fine a man-child as ever came to gladden a mother's heart. I +deemed it asleep till I saw the doctor bend closer, and then raise the +eyelid in keen professional scrutiny. + +"Where's the mother?" he cried, turning like lightning on the nearest +male relative, and seizing him by the scruff of the neck in order 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 rapidly in +English, "and it's nigh dead of neglect. You're a magistrate! Make them +bring the devil of a mother here at once, or it will die." + +But they met my commands and remonstrances with frightened obstinacy, +asserting after some hesitation that the mother was dead, had died +virtuously of shame at bringing such disgrace to her people. I had +every reason to believe this statement was a lie, but no means of +proving it to be one, for of course the whole village favoured it. + +Then there came to Terence O'Reilly's face a look that was good to see, +but not to endure. "And if the poor little creature has lost its own +mother," he cried in that strong, round voice of his, "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 frightened of? 'Tis as fine a +babe as a woman could bear. Only the white hair of it, and God knows we +shall all come to that if we are spared. Look at it, I say! Handle it, +and see for yourselves!" + +Suiting the action to the word, he lifted the infant in his arms and +carried it out to the lingering light of day, among the crowd which +fell back in alarm from him and his burden. He did, indeed, look +somewhat of an avenging angel with his face ablaze with 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 shrieks brought Terence back to earth; +and ceasing to hold the child at arm's length, as if offering it for +acceptance, he turned to me once more. "At least your magistracy can +make them bring me milk. If ye can't even do that, then God help the +British rule!" + +Stung by the sarcasm, I exerted myself to such an extent, that three +separate head-men arrived breathless at the same moment with large +_lotahs_ full of nourishment for the devil, or any one else on whom the +Presence was foolish enough to bestow it. So much lay within their +conceptions of duty. + +The scene which followed will linger in my memory until memory itself +ceases to be. Terence in polo-costume seated on a string bed under the +darkening skies with the devil 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, with, thank God, +sufficient vitality left for admiration. And round about a cloud of +awestruck witnesses, wondering at his audacity, doubtful of its effect +on the future. + +"Sure 'tis the firrst toime I ever did dhry-nurse," he remarked after a +long silence, during which I became absorbingly interested in the +little imp's growing desire for life. "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 think it's time you stepped in as ripresentative of the +_Kaiser-i-Hind_, and took things in hand a bit? Ah, it's after having +dill-water ye are now, is it? Whist, whist, whist now!" + +He walked up and down, the crowd swaying from him, as he dandled the +infant with what seemed to me marvellous skill, while I did my best to +argue sense into the dull brains of the villagers. I was quite +unsuccessful, of course, and after many 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 +the cause of not drinking milk properly," which figures so largely in +the records of infant mortality in India; the former for choice, since, +as Terence remarked, "It would save trouble to kill it at the beginning +instead of the end of its life." + +"So the magistracy can do nothing," he said at last; "thin I will. +_Chowkidar!_ take this baby to the headquarters' hospital. I'm master +there, annyhow, and I'll make it anny case I please, and dye its hair, +an' no man shall say me nay!" + +So the _chowkidar_ was ordered to carry the devil to hospital to be +cured of its devilry, and we rode home in frantic haste, because +Terence was engaged to sing "_Killaloe_" that evening in barracks. Some +of the relations ran about a mile after us yelling out blessings for +having removed the curse from them. + +Six weeks after I saw an atrocious hag nursing a white-haired infant in +the doctor's own compound, and questioned him on the subject. "The 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 it betrayed +the cloven hoof. And dye wouldn't stick on; so I've hired a harridan on +two rupees a month to look after it under my own eye." + +There was, no doubt, something of combativeness in this particular +instance of Terence O'Reilly's charity; but the _bhut_-baby was +by no means the only pensioner on his bounty. The row of mud houses +beyond the cook-room was filled with the halt, the maimed, and the +blind--especially the latter, for the fame of his infinite skill and +patience as an eye-doctor 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, had, on recovery, made his +way straight from hospital to the doctor's house, and announced his +intention of serving him till death. "What are hands, and feet, or +brain," he answered calmly to all objections, "if they have not eyes to +guide them? Therefore are they all predestined since all time to be +servants to my Lord the Light-bringer for ever and ever." + +Treated at first as a joke, Shivdeo's determination had outlived +opposition, and at the time of the _bhut_-baby's advent he had achieved +his intention of becoming trusted personal attendant to the "Light of +the World," for without some such allusion to the benefit he had +received at his hands he never spoke of his master. The introduction of +a baby, pariah to begin with and devil to follow, brought about a +temporary disturbance of his office; for he was haughty, with all the +pride of his race, and superstitious beyond belief. But after a week of +dismissal consequent on failing to provide the harridan with proper +milk for the bottle, Shivdeo, almost blind again with fruitless tears, +crept back to the Light-giver's feet and swore a big oath to feed the +low-caste demon himself if thereby he might return to the only life he +could live. He kept his promise of strict neutrality to the 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 articulate sound +whatever; but once or twice when we tired of it and forgot its +presence, I have heard a purring noise like a cat, and looking down, +found that the little creature was curled up with its silver curls +resting on the doctor's foot in perfect content. He spent many hours in +demonstrating its full possession of all five senses, and always +declared it would speak in time; certainly if speech went by +intelligence it would have been the most eloquent of babies. As it was, +its unusual silence undoubtedly added to its uncanny appearance, and +helped to strengthen the still lingering belief in its devilish origin. +As long, however, as Terence O'Reilly's voice gave the orders for its +well-being, not a soul in his compound or elsewhere would have dreamt +of disobedience. Indeed, it often struck me that poor little Boots +lived by virtue of his exuberant vitality, and by nothing else. + +I remember one evening we had been screaming with laughter over the +comical little creature's mimicry of Shivdeo's stately, short-sighted +way of bringing in whisky and soda-water. The applause seemed to get +into the baby's brain, and it took us off one after the other with such +deadly truth that we nearly rolled off our chairs. Then some one +suggested that we should ask it to imitate Terence, who happened to be +absent; and when it failed to respond, a young subaltern, thinking it +had not understood, came out with a fair copy of the doctor's round, +rich brogue. We were all startled at the result; 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 with a rapid insistence that left me wondering. So, +when the man brought me my parting cheroot, I questioned him on his +interference. He looked startled for a moment; then replied gravely +that it was not meet for the Light of the Universe to bear a sweeper's +child in his bosom. "Nor is it meet for a Brahman either," I returned, +feeling sure he had some other reason. The man's eyes flashed before +they dropped submissively: "Nor is it meet for a Brahman to serve; but +the Presence knows that this slave cares not if he wakes as a dog so +that the Lord of Light remains to give sight to the blind." + +Shortly after this Boots sickened for some childish complaint, in the +course of which pneumonia developed, making it hover for a day or two +between this world and the next. Once more 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 for its benefit. Indeed the doctor looked quite +worn out when I met him one morning, going, as he said, to give himself +a freshener by taking the Lily round the steeple-chase course. + +"You're over-working, Terence," said I, noting his fine-drawn clearness +of feature; "up all night after Boots (I'm glad to hear the little +fellow's better, by the way), and Blue Pill waiting for you day after +day till after dark at the hospital gates, to say nothing of +_gymkhanas_. It won't do for long; I'm serious about it, old chap." + +"Are you? Well, it's kind of you to be that," he laughed; "though +mayhap 'twould be more of a change for your friends if you were the +t'other thing. 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; but I think he's well through. And d'ye know! the +little beggar wouldn't touch a thing unless I gave it him. 'Tis a queer +place this worrld, annyhow." + +His voice had a suspicion of a break in it, and his eyes were brighter +than ever; whence I augured that he felt worse than he cared to +confess. Next day he sent a note asking me to inspect the jail for him, +as he was going to try conclusions with his liver; the day after I +found him in bed, but lively. Then the deadly fever which kills so many +fine young fellows in India laid fast hold on him, and for three long +weeks we, who loved him, watched the struggle for life, helpless to do +aught save keep up his strength as best we might against the coming +crisis. 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 pillar, whence my slightest sign would rouse him. For I +assumed the office of head-nurse after Terence, full of gratitude for +the kindly offers of help showered upon him, had said with a wistful +gleam of the old mischief, "But I loike your sober face best, old man; +it makes me feel so pious." I sent in for leave that morning and never +left him again. It was the twenty-sixth day, about ten o'clock in the +evening, that the doctor in charge shook his head over my patient +sorrowfully. "He is terribly weak, but while there's life-- We shall +know by dawn." + +The old formula fell on my ears--though I had been waiting for it--with +a sense of sickening failure, and unable to reply, I turned away from +the figure which lay so still and lifeless despite all my care. As I +did so I noticed Shivdeo listening with eyes and ears at the door. For +the last three days the man had been strangely restless, and more than +once I had discovered odd things disposed about the room, and even on +poor Terence's pillow--things used as talismans to keep away the evil +eye, such as I had seen in Hairan-wallah when the _bhut_-baby was born; +and I had smiled--good heavens, how ignorant we are in India!--smiled +at the silly superstition which evidently 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 service his desire to avoid any disturbance. It was just +upon twelve o'clock when, with Shivdeo's help, I gave Terence, who was +quite unconscious, a few drops of stimulant before sitting down with a +sinking heart to my anxious watch. It was early April, and the doors, +set wide open to let in the cool air, showed a stretch of moonlit grass +where shadows from the unseen trees above quivered and shifted as the +night-wind stirred the leaves. In the breathless silence I could hear +even the faint respiration of the sick man, and found myself counting +its rise and fall, until the last thing I remembered was Shivdeo's +immovable figure with the moonlight streaming full in his face. + +When I awoke the rapid Eastern dawn had come. The sparrows were +twittering in the verandah, and Shivdeo stood by his master's bed +holding his finger to his lips. "Hush!" he whispered, as my eyes met +his; "the light has brought life to the Giver of Light." + +It must have been the sound of wheels which woke me, for ere I had time +to reply the doctor entered the room, and after a glance at his patient +shook me silently by the hand. "I believe 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. Hullo! what's that?" It was only a tiny spot of blood on +the forehead just where the trident of Shiva is painted by his +worshippers, but it showed vividly against the pallor of the skin. + +"There is a little spot by the Light-giver's feet also," remarked +Shivdeo quietly. "I noticed it yesterday just after the Presence cut +his hand with the soda-water bottle." And sure enough there was one. + +"I can't think how I came to fall asleep," I said to him after the +doctor had gone; "just at the critical time, too, when I was most +wanted." + +The man smiled. "We do not always guess aright when we are wanted, +_Huzoor_. You slept and the Light-giver got better. It is God's way; He +has refreshed you both." + +"Refreshed!" I retorted crossly. "I feel as if I had been pounded in a +mortar. I had the most frightful dreams, but I can't recall what they +were." + +"It is not well to try," replied Shivdeo, with rather an odd look. "If +I were the Presence I would forget them. There is enough evil to come +without recalling what is past and over for ever." + +Perhaps involuntarily I followed his suggestion, for, though I chased +the fleeting memory more than once through my brain, I never overtook +it. + +Terence O'Reilly made a quick recovery; but in view of the fast +approaching hot weather, the doctors put him on board ship as soon as +it could be done with safety. Hurry was the order of the day, so it was +not until my return from seeing him to Bombay that I found time for +outside affairs. Then it was that Shivdeo informed me of poor little +Boots' death in the interval. 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 doctor who had seen +it, he had kept the death secret at first, from fear of the news +delaying his master's recovery. I made every inquiry, but found nothing +of any kind to give rise to suspicion of foul play. The native doctor +had sent medicine three days running as for bronchitis, and on the +fourth he had seen the child's dead body. It had died, he thought, of +croup. + +"You will write and tell the Light-bringer?" asked Shivdeo, when the +inquiry was over. "And you will say that I did my best, my very best, +for my lord's interest?" + +"Certainly," I replied; "but he will be sorry, the child was so fond of +him." + +"When people are beautiful as Krishna, like the Lord of Light, it is +easy to be fond of them." + +I did not see Shivdeo again for over three months; and the bungalow in +the Civil Lines, which he kept swept and garnished against his master's +return, gradually assumed the soulless, empty appearance peculiar to +the dwelling-places of those who make holiday at the other side of the +world. Then a message came to say that he was ill, and wished to see me +on business. I found 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 when it ceases to beat? Men +cannot live without the light, and it is night for me now. Perhaps that +is it, who knows? Yonder old man is my father come to see me die; yet +ere the last 'Ram-Ram' sounds in mine ears I want the Presence to +understand something, else would I not have vexed his quiet. It will be +hard for the _Huzoor_ to understand, because he is not of our race." + +He paused so long that I asked what he wished me to understand, +thinking that in his weakness he had drifted away from his desire. +"Something 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 used to +do, because old memories return in the old places, making us see and +remember things that are past or forgotten. Is it not so?" + +Truly enough, as I humoured him by occupying the familiar chair, ready +placed half-way between the bed and the window, it seemed to me as if I +were once more watching Terence pass through the valley of the shadow. + +"The Presence once slept in that chair," continued the weak voice, "and +he dreamed a dream. Let him recall it now, if he can." + +How or wherefore I know not, but as he spoke a sudden certainty as to +what he wished me to know rushed in on me. "Great God," I cried, +starting up and seizing him roughly by the shoulder, "you killed poor +little Boots! You brought the child here! You killed it before his very +eyes and mine! I know it! I think--I think I saw it done!" + +He set my hand aside with unexpected force and a strange dignity. "I am +the prisoner of Death, _Huzoor!_ There is no need to hold me; I cannot +escape him. For the rest, if I killed the child, what then? The Lord of +Light lives, and that is enough for me. What is a Sudra or two more or +less to the Brahman? But what if it was a devil sucking his heart's +blood because of his beauty? Shall I not have honour for saving him? +Thus both ways I am absolved; but not from my oath, the false oath +which I swore to my lord for my own sake. When I wander through the +shades waiting for Vishnu's decree, it will lead my blind steps to the +body of a foul thing. So I speak that the Presence may judge and say if +I were not justified, and confess that we people of the old knowledge +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, men +with such tenderness for life that they bid God speed to the flea which +keeps them wakeful; but they all said, 'Yea! one of the two must die.' +Did I stop to ask which? Not I. So I fasted, and prayed, and made clean +my heart, and waited patiently for the moment of fate; for so they bid +me. Even then, _Huzoor_, the holy men would do naught by chance or +without proof. It was a bright moonlight night, and the Presence slept +by reason of our arts and drugs; and so we put the accursed creature we +had brought from the sweeper's hut down at the gate, yonder by the +flowering oleanders, and hiding ourselves among them, watched it. +Straight, straight as a hawk or a bustard, until we found it there in +the old place! Devil of Hell! we made it vomit back the blood, we--" + +My hand was on his mouth, my one thought to stop the horrible words +that somehow conjured up the still more horrible sight before my eyes. +"I know,--there is no need for more,--I cannot bear it." + +And indeed, the vision of poor dumb little Boots in their relentless +hold froze my blood. As my hands fell away from him in sudden, +shrinking horror, he looked at me compassionately. "The Presence does +not understand aright. Let him remember the strange doctor's face when +he came in the dawn, thinking to find hope had fled. One of the two had +to die. If the Presence had thought as I did, as I _knew_, what would +he have done?" + +I was silent. + +His face, which had remained calm enough so far, assumed a look of +agonised entreaty, as with an effort painful to see he dragged himself +to my feet and clung to them. "What would you have done, _Huzoor_, in +my place? What would you have done?" + +Then a fearful fit of coughing seized him, and his lips were tinged +with blood. Water lay close at hand, yet I knew that this murderer +would sooner have died than accept it from my defiling 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 as he did so, Shivdeo, looking at the faint stains +on the cloth, smiled an unearthly smile, and whispered, "I did not suck +my lord's blood, for all that. It comes from my own heart." + +I am not ashamed to say that my brain was in such a whirl that I turned +to escape from a situation where I felt utterly 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 to the parched lips; but it was arrested by +the dying hand, and the dying eyes looked wistfully up into his +father's. + +"Did I do well, O my father?" he asked. + +"You did well, my son; drink in peace." + +When I reached home, the English mail was in. It brought a letter from +Terence. He was in Dublin and engaged to be married; considering that +he was an Irishman, no more need be said. He wrote the 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 how the love of a good woman can +make existence seem a sacred trust. He ended by these words: "And sure, +old man, if it be true that all happiness is bought, some one must have +paid dear for mine!" + +I could not sleep that night--the war of conflicting thoughts waged too +fiercely; but it was nearly dawn before I found it impossible to +withstand the memory of Shivdeo's cry: "If the Presence had thought as +I did, what would he have done?" + +He was dead before I reached the house, but surely if he knows +anything, he must know that I, for one, cast no stone. + + + + + RAMCHUNDERJI. + + +"But the tenth _avatar_ of the Lord Vishnu is yet to come." + +"Exactly so, pundit-_ji_," I replied, looking at my watch. "It is yet +to come, seeing that time's up. Half-past eight; so not another stroke +of work to-day. No, not for twice a thousand rupees!" + +A thousand rupees being the sum with which the Government of India +rewards what they are pleased to call "high proficiency" in languages, +I, having regard to its literature, 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, and prosed away over the +doings of the Hindoo pantheon until I came to the conclusion that my +Lord Vishnu had been rather extravagant in the matter of incarnations. + +The pundit, however, to whom would be due a hundred rupees of the +thousand if I succeeded, smiled blandly. "The tenth _avatar_ will +doubtless await his Honour's leisure; the tenth, and last." + +"Last!" I echoed with scorn. "How do you know? Some authorities hold +there are twenty-four, and upon my soul I don't see why there should +not be twenty-four thousand. 'Tis the same old story all through; +devils and demigods, _rakshas_ and _rishies_, Noah's ark and Excalibur. +That sort of thing might go on for ever." + +Now, Pundit Narayan Das was a very learned man. He had taken a Calcutta +degree, and was accustomed to educate the rising generation on a +mixture of the _Rig-Veda_ and _The Spectator_. So he smiled again, +saying in English, "'History repeats itself.'" + +Thereupon he left me, and I, going into the verandah with my cigar, +came straight upon Ramchunderji and his wife Seeta. At least I think +so. + +They were the oddest little couple. He, at a stretch, might have +touched a decade of life, she, something more than half such distance +of time. That is, taking them by size: in mind and manners, and in +their grave, careworn faces, they were centuries old. His sole garment +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 which, at the time, I +failed to catch. Afterwards I remembered the effigies in Indra's +celestial court as represented by some Parsee actors I had once seen. +Seeta was simply a bundle, owing to her being huddled and cuddled up in +a veil ample enough for an ample woman. + +"I am Ramchunderji, and this is my wife Seeta," said the boy gravely. +"If the Presence pleases, I will beguile time by singing." + +"What will you sing?" I asked, preparing to idle away ten minutes +comfortably in a lounge-chair which lay convenient. + +"I sing what I sing. Give me the _vina_, woman." + +The veil gave up such a very large instrument that the smallness of the +remaining wife became oppressive. So large indeed was it, that one +gourd over-filled the boy's lap, while the other acted as a prop to the +high twined turban. Even the connecting bamboo, slender though it was, +seemed all too wide for those small fingers on the frets. + +"Is the permission of the Presence bestowed?" suggested Ramchunderji, +with the utmost solemnity. + +Twang, twang, twangle! Heavens, what a _vina_ and what a voice! I +nearly stopped both at the first bar; then patience prevailing, I lay +back and closed my eyes. Twang, twangle! A sudden difference in the +tone made me open them again, only 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 shadows, the flash of +shining swords, the twang of golden bows bent on ten-headed many-handed +monsters. Bah! Pundit Narayan Das, prosing over those epic poems of +his, had made me drowsy. "What have you been singing?" I asked, rousing +myself. + +Ramchunderji spread his hands thumbs outwards, and the three wrinkles +on his high forehead deepened: "God knows! It is what they sang before +the great flood came. 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 the heart hath none left, +and the nine-_lakh_ necklace is worth no more than a mouthful. If the +Presence could see into my heart now, he would find no greed there." + +This delicate allusion to an inward craving produced a four-anna bit +from my pocket, and sent Ramchunderji away to the sweet-meat sellers in +order to appease his hunger; for sweet-stuff is cheap in the East, +especially when it is stale. Seeta and the _vina_, mysteriously +intertwined beneath the veil, followed duteously behind. + +The next day they were back again, and the twang of that infernal +instrument broke in on the pundit's impassioned regrets over the heroic +days of his favourite poems. "By 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 went out to +listen. They were sitting under a trellised arch covered with jasmin +and roses, and a great Gloire de Dijon had sent a shower of blown +petals over Seeta's veil. + +"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," quoted Narayan Das +sententiously, after listening a while. "It is Ramayana, the immortal +poem your honour reads even now; but debase, illiterate. You say wrong, +boy! it is thus." + +Ramchunderji waited till the pompous periods ceased; then he shook his +head gravely. "We did not sing it so in the days before the great flood +came." + +His words gave me a curious thrill; but there is no more matter-of-fact +being in the world than a Calcutta Bachelor of Arts; so the pundit at +once began a cross-examination that would have done credit to a Queen's +counsel. "What flood? who were 'we'?" These and many other questions +put with brutal bluntness met with a patient reply. + +It had been a very big flood, somewhere, God knows how far, in the +south country. One, two, three years ago? Oh, more than that! but he +could not say how much more. The bard who sang and the woman who +carried the _vina_ had disappeared, 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 old) people had not +cared to listen, and since the great flood nothing could be got without +money. Seeta? Oh, yes! she was his wife. They had been married ever so +long; he could not remember the time when they had not been married. + +It was Narayan Das's opportunity for shaking his head. These infant +marriages were subversive of due education. Here was a boy, who should +be in Standard II. doing the compound rules, idling about in ignorance. +It struck me, however, that Ramchunderji must be pretty well on to +vulgar 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 annas +would fill their stomachs (which were not big) for many days. They had +not come for alms, only to make music for the Presence out of +gratitude. Thinking that music out of an ill-tuned _vina_ was hardly +the same thing, I forced another four-anna bit on the boy and sent him +away. + +Nearly a month passed ere I saw him again, though Narayan Das and I +used, as the days grew warmer, to sit out in the trellised arch, within +sight of the road. My knowledge of Sanskrit increased as I read of +Ramchunderji's long exile, shared by Seeta, his wife; of how he killed +the 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 pointing out the beauties of a poem which held such hold on the +minds of the people that their commonest names were derived from it, I +never seemed to get into the spirit of the time as I had done when I +listened with closed eyes to the boy's debased, illiterate rendering of +the _s'lokas_. + +It was after the school vacation had sent Narayan Das to see his +relatives at Benares that the odd little couple turned up again. +Ramchunderji's face looked more pinched and careworn than ever, and as +he held the _vina_ across his knees, Seeta, losing its contours, seemed +more than ever inadequate to her veil. + +"Perhaps one of the many devils which beset the virtuous has entered +into the instrument," he said despondently; "but when I play, folk +listen not at all. So greed remaineth in the stomach, and the heart is +empty." + +I offered him another four-anna bit, and when he demurred at taking it +before beguiling the time with music, I laid it on the flat skin top of +one of the gourds, hoping thus to ensure silence. + +The wrinkles on his forehead seemed to go right up into his turban, and +his voice took a perplexed tone. "It used not to be so. Before the +flood Seeta and I had no thought of money; but now--" He began +fingering the strings softly, and as they thrilled, the four-anna bit +vibrated and jigged in a murmur of money that fitted strangely to the +sort of rude chant in which he went on. + + + "Money is in the hands, the head, the heart; + Give! give, give, before we give again; + Money hath ten heads to think out evil-doing; + Money hath twenty hands to mete out pain. + Money! money! money! money! + Money steals the heart's love from our life. + Money I have not--say! art thou hungry, wife?" + + +If anything was possessed of a devil it was that four-anna bit. It +buzzed, and hummed, and jigged infernally, as the boy's finger on the +strings struck more firmly. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Ramchunderji," said I uneasily, "that _vina_ +is enough to ruin Orpheus. As you don't care for my money, I'll give +you another instrument instead. I have one inside which is easier to +play, and more your style in every way." + +So I brought out a _ravanastron_, such as professional beggars use, a +thing with two strings and a gourd covered with snake-skin. To my +surprise the boy's face lost its impassive melancholy in palpable +anger. + +"The Presence does not understand," he said quite hotly. "We do not +beg; Seeta and I fill ourselves with songs. That thing whines for +money, money, money, like the devil who made it. Rather 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 the _vina_ must find a home first. Therefore I +came to the Presence, hearing that he collected such things. Perhaps he +will keep it in exchange for one rupee. It is worth one rupee, surely." + +His wistful look as he handed me the instrument made me feel inclined +to offer a hundred; but in good sooth the _vina_ was worth five, and I +told him so, adding, as I looked at some curious tracery round the +gourds, that it appeared to be very old indeed. + +"The Presence saith truly; it is very old," echoed Ramchunderji +drearily. "That is why folk will not listen. It is too old; too old to +be worth money." + +Nevertheless he cheered up at the sight of his rupee; for he would not +take more, saying he had every intention of returning to claim the +_vina_ ere long, and that five rupees would be beyond his hopes of +gain. + +A fortnight after I came home from my early morning ride by the police +office, which stood outside the native town, close to a brick-stepped +tank shaded by _peepul_-trees, my object being to check the tally of +poisonous snakes brought in for the reward given by Government for +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 habit +inures one, and I walked along the thin grey fringe of certain death +spread out on the first step of the tank with an air of stolid +business, only stopping before an unusually large specimen to ask the +captor, who sat behind awaiting his pence, where he had come across it. + +"Six hundred and seventy in all, _Huzoor_" remarked the Deputy +Inspector of Police, following me, resplendent in silver trappings and +white cotton gloves. "That is owing to the floods, and the season, +since this is the sixth of _Bhadron_ (August) the month of snakes. Yet +the outlay is excessive to the Government, and perhaps with justice the +price of small ones, such as these, might be reduced one-half." + +I looked up, and behind a fringe of diminutive vipers sat Ramchunderji +and the bundle he called Seeta. On his bare right arm he wore a much +betasselled floss silk bracelet bound with tinsel. + +"I am glad to see the greed is in your heart again," said I, pointing +to the ornament. + +"The _Ram-rucki_ is not bought, but given, as in the days before the +flood," replied the boy. "Every one wears the _Ram-rucki_ still, every +one!" + +The Deputy Inspector pulled down the cuff of his uniform hastily, but +against the gleam of his white gloves I caught a glimpse of bright +colours. The _Ram-rucki_, he explained evasively, was the bracelet of +luck given to Ramchunderji in old days before his search 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 favour on the proposal for reducing the +rewards? Perhaps it was Ramchunderji's eager, wistful face hinting at +the way promises were kept before the flood, which made me reply that I +considered no one but the Viceroy in Council had power to reduce the +price of snakes. + +Several times after this I found the odd little couple disposed behind +their tally of small vipers; then the season of serpents ceased, and +one by one the _habitues_ of the tank steps dropped off to pursue other +professions. The fringe broke into isolated tassels, and finally the +worn, ruddy steps lay bare of all save the flickering light and shade +of the leaves above. + +November had chilled the welcome cool weather to cold, when a report +came in the usual course that a boy calling himself Ramchunderji, and a +girl said to be his wife, had been found in a jasmin garden outside the +city, half dead of exhaustion and without any ostensible means of +livelihood. They had been taken up as vagrants and sent to hospital, +pending Government orders. Now the Jubilee year was coming to a close, +leaving behind it a legacy of new charities throughout the length and +breadth of India. Of some the foundation stone only had been laid by +direct telegram to the Queen-Empress; others had sprung to life in a +manner suggestive of workmen's tenements. Among the latter 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. A real live, genuine, +Hindu female orphan going a begging! Preposterous! Sacrilegious! The +Chairman of the Orphanage Committee almost wept as he pictured the +emptiness of those white walls, and actually shed tears over the +building estimates which he produced in order to strengthen his claim +to poor little Seeta. Was it fair, he asked, that such a total of +munificent charity should not have a single orphan to show the +Commissioner-_sahib_ when he came on tour? His distress touched me. +Then winter, hard on the poor even in sunlit India, was on us; besides, +Narayan Das tempted me further, with suggestions of a Jubilee +Scholarship at the district school for Ramchunderji himself. + +I broke it very gently to the boy as he lay on a mat in the sun, slowly +absorbing warmth and nourishment. He was too weak to contest 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 whispering +confidences to Mother Earth respecting that happy time before the +flood, and I slunk away as though I had been whipped. + +Now, if in telling this veracious history I seem too intermittent, I +can but offer as an excuse the fact that an official's work in India is +like that of a Jacquard loom. A thread slips forward, shows for a +second, and disappears; a pause, and there it is again. Sometimes not +until the pattern is complete is it possible to realise that the series +of trivial incidents has combined to weave an indelible record on the +warp and woof. So it was early January before the Ramchunderji shuttle +stirred again. Narayan 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 gymnastics, the medium +ones engaged on marbles, but in a sunny corner backed by warm brick +walls sat Ramchunderji surrounded by a circle of Standard I. Small as +he was, he was still so much larger than the average of the class, +that, as he leant his high yellow turban against the wall, with +half-closed eyes, and hands upon his knees, the memory of India's Court +came back to me once more. He was reciting something in a low voice, +and as the children munched popcorn or sucked sweeties their eyes never +left his face. + +"Look!" said Narayan Das in a whisper from our spying-ground behind the +master's window. The song came to an end, a stir circled through the +audience, and one by one the 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 stuff, +and as they did so each said in turn, "Salaam, Ramchunderji!" "No +wonder the boy has grown fat," I whispered, dropping the reed screen +round which I had been peeping. + +Narayan Das shook his head. "If it were only comestibles," he replied +gravely, "I could arrange; but when they are devoid of victuals they +give their 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 it is subversive of discipline, and +parents object to pay. Besides, the _in forma-pauperis_ pupils come on +contingent with great expense to Government." + +I looked through the screen again with a growing respect for +Ramchunderji. "Does he eat them too?" I asked. + +The head-master smiled the sickly smile of one who is not quite sure if +his superior officer intends a joke, and fell back as usual on +quotation, "The ostrich is supposed by some to digest nails, but--" + +I laughed aloud, and being discovered, went out and spoke seriously to +the offender. His calm was not in the least disturbed. "I do not ask, +or beg," he replied; "they give of their hearts and their abundance, as +in old days before the flood. Is it my fault if they possess +slate-pencils, and ink-pots, and First-Lesson books?" + +I must confess that this argument seemed to me unanswerable, but I +advised him, seeing that the flood _had_ come, to return such offerings +in future to the store. He did not take my advice, and, about a week +after, being 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 scholarship forfeited for absence without +leave, and the arrears absorbed in refunds for slate-pencils and +ink-pots. So that was an end of Ramchunderji's schooling, and Standard +I. once more became amenable to the Code. + +Winter was warming to spring, the first bronze vine leaves were +budding, and the young wheat shooting to silvery ears, before the +Commissioner, coming his rounds, was taken in pomp to visit the +Orphanage and its occupants. I remember it so well. The Committee and +the Commissioner, and I, and every one interested in female orphans and +female education, on one side of a red baize table 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 satisfactory than the general behaviour and +moral tone of the inmates, except in one point. And this was the +feeding of the monkeys, which, as every one knew, infested the town. +The result being that the _bunder-log_ had become bold even to the +dropping down of stones into the court--quite large stones, such as the +one placed as a stepping-stone over the runnel of water from the well. + +Here I unguardedly suggested an air-gun; whereupon Narayan Das, who +always attended these functions as an educational authority, reminded +me reproachfully that monkeys were sacred to the god Hanuman, who, if I +remembered, had finally rescued Seeta from the ten-headed, many-armed +monster Ravana, the inventor of the _ravanastron_ or beggar's fiddle. + +It was at this juncture that I suddenly became aware that the Jacquard +loom of Fate was weaving a pattern; Ramchunderji! Seeta! the exile! the +killing of the wild beasts! the ten-headed, many-handed monster Ravana! +Yet I could tell you almost every word of the Commissioner'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 snatching the female orphan of +India from unmerited misfortune, and educating her to be an example to +the nineteenth century." Every one was highly delighted, and the +Committee approached me with a view of adding the Commissioner's name +as a second title to the school. + +But I awaited the completion of the pattern. It was on the eleventh of +April, that is to say, on the High Festival of Spring, at the fair held +beside the tank where humanity in thousands was washing away the old +year, and putting on the new in the shape of gay-coloured clothing, +that my attention was attracted by a small, dense crowd whence came +hearty guffaws of laughter. + +"'Tis a performing monkey," said a bearded villager in response to my +question as to what was amusing them so hugely. "The boy makes him do +tricks worthy of Hanuman; yet he saith he taught him yonder down by the +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 to interfere with the shuttle again. As I turned away, another roar +of laughter and a general feeling in pockets and turbans told me that +the final tip had succeeded, and that collection was going on +satisfactorily. + +A few days later the Chairman of the Committee came to me in excited +despair. The real, genuine female Hindu orphan was not to be found, and +the stucco walls were once more 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 was +not going to aid Ravana, or prevent the due course of incarnation, if +it _was_ an incarnation. That great city of men, women, and monkeys +should give the trio fair play. + +Last year, when I was in Simla, I overheard a traveller giving his +impressions of India to a lady who was longing all the time to find out +from a gentleman with a mustache when the polo-match was to begin at +Annandale next day. + +"The performing troupes are certainly above the European average," he +said. "At Benares, especially, I remember seeing a monkey; he, his +master, and a girl, did quite a variety of scenes out of the Ramayana, +and really, considering who they were, I--" + +"Excuse me,--but--oh! Captain Smith, is it half-past eleven or twelve?" + +The _vina_ still hangs in my collection next the _ravanastron_. +Sometimes I take it down and sound the strings. But the waving palms, +the odorous thickets, and the shadowy, immortal forms have got mixed up +somehow with that infernal humming and bumming of the four-anna bit. So +I get no help in trying to decide the question,--"Who was Ramchunderji?" + + + + + HEERA NUND. + + +He stood in the verandah, salaaming with both hands, in each of which +he held a bouquet--round-topped, compressed, prim little posies, with +fat bundles of stalk bound spirally with date-fibre; altogether more +like ninepins than bouquets, for the time of flowers was not yet, and +only a few ill-conditioned rosebuds, suggestive of worms, and a +dejected _champak_ or two, showed amongst the green. + +The holder was hardly more decorative than the posies. Bandy, hairy +brown legs, with toes set wide open by big brass rings--a sight +bringing discomfort within one's own slippers from sheer sympathy; a +squat body, tightly buttoned into a sleeveless white coat; a face of +mild ugliness overshadowed by an immaculately white turban. From the +coral and gold necklace round 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 before masterful +men from the West had jotted down their trivial boundary pillars to +divide light from darkness, the black man from the white, cantonments +from the rest of God's earth. One of these little white pillars stood +in a corner of my garden, and beyond it lay an illimitable stretch of +bare brown plain, waiting till the young wheat came to clothe its +nakedness. + +I did not inquire, however; few people do in India. Perhaps they are +intimidated by the extreme antiquity of all things, and dread letting +loose the floodgates of garrulous memory. Be that as it may, I was +content to accept the fact that Heera Nund, whether representing +ancestral proprietors or not, had come to congratulate me, a stranger, +on having taken, not only the house, but the garden also. The _sahibs_, +he said, went home so often nowadays that they had ceased to care for +gardens. This one having been in a contractor's hands for years had +become, as it were, a miserable low-degree 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 aegis 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, +consisting of a flat basket decorated with a few coarse vegetables. A +bunch of rank-smelling turnips, half-a-dozen blue radishes running two +to the pound, various heaps of native greens, a bit off an overblown +cauliflower proclaiming its bazaar origin by the turmeric powder +adhering to it in patches, a leaf-cup of mint ornamented by two glowing +chillies. He laid the whole at my feet with a profound obeisance. "This +dust-like offering," he said gravely, "is all that the good God +(_Khuda_) can give to the _sahib_. Let the Presence (_Huzoor_) wait a +few months and see what Heera Nund can do for him." + +I shall not soon forget the ludicrous solemnity of voice and gesture, +or the simple self-importance overlaying the ugly face with the smile +of a cat licking cream. + +I did not see him again for some days, for accession to a new office +curtails leisure. When, however, I found time for a stroll round my new +domain I discovered Heera Nund hard at work. His coatee hung on a bush; +his bare, brown back glistened in the sunshine as he stooped down to +deepen a watercourse 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 holding. The well-wheel +creaked in recurring discords, every now and again giving out a note or +two as if it were going to begin a tune. The red evening sun shone +through the mango-trees, where the green parrots hung like unripe +fruit. The bullocks circled round and round; the water dripped and +gurgled. + +"How about the seeds I sent you?" I asked, when Heera Nund drew his wet +feet from the stream, and composing himself for the effort, produced an +elaborate salaam. + +He left humility behind him as he stalked over to a narrow strip of +ground on the other side of the well, a long strip portioned out into +squares and circles like a doll's garden, with tiny one-span walks +between. + +"Behold!" he said, "his Honour will observe that the cabbage caste have +life already." + +Truly enough the half-covered seeds showed gussets of white in their +brown jackets. "But where are the tickets? I sent word specially that +you were to be sure and stick the labels on each bed. How am I to know +which is which?" + +"The Presence can see that the sticks are there," he answered with a +superior smile; "but there are others beside the _sahibs_ who love +tickets." + +He pointed to the tree above us, where on a branch sat a peculiarly +bushy-tailed squirrel, as happy as a king over the brussels-sprouts' +wrapper, which he was crumpling into a ball with deft hands and sharp +teeth. How I came to know it was this particular wrapper happened thus: +I threw my cap at the offender, and in his flight he dropped the paper +on my bald head; it was hard, and had points. + +"They are mis-begotten devils," remarked Heera cheerfully; "but they +are building nests, _sahib_, and like to paper the inside. +Notwithstanding, the Presence need fear no confusion; his slave has +many names in his head. This is _arly walkrin_ (Early 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 stood next to a sturdy crop of broadcast radishes. +Only a few panes of glass remained intact, but the vacancies had been +neatly supplied by coarse muslin. The gardener's face, always simple in +expression, became quite homogeneous with pure content. + +"_Huzoor!_ It is the _malin_ (female gardener)!" + +"The _malin!_ What on earth do you mean?" + +Have you ever watched the face of a general servant when she takes the +covers off the Christmas dinner? Have you ever seen a very young +conjurer lift his father's hat to show you that the handkerchief (which +he has palpably secreted 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 a flourish, thus +disclosing to view a fat and remarkably black baby asleep on a bed of +leaves. It was attired in a pair of silver bangles, and a Maw's +feeding-bottle grew, like some new kind of root-crop, from the ground +beside it. + +"My daughter, _Huzoor_--little Dhropudi the _malin_." + +His voice thrilled even my bachelor ears as he squatted down and began +mechanically to fan the swift-gathering flies from the sleeping child. + +"You seem to be very fond of her," I remarked after a pause. "It is +only a girl after all. Have you no son?" + +He shook his head. + +"She is the only one, and I waited for her ten years--ten long years; +so I was glad even to get a malin. Dhropudi grows as fast as a boy, +almost as fast as the _Huzoor's_ cabbages. Only the other day she was +no bigger than my hand." + +"Your wife is dead, I suppose?" The question was, perhaps, a little +brutal, but it was so unusual to see a man doing dry nurse to a baby +girl, 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 simplicity left it, and in place thereof came a curious +anxiety such as a child might show with the dawning conviction that it +has lost itself. + +"She is not at all dead, _Huzoor_; on the contrary, she is very young. +Children cry sometimes, and my house does not like crying. You see, +when people are young they require more sleep; when she is old as I am +she will be able to keep awake." + +His tone was argumentative, as if he were reasoning the matter out for +his own edification. "Not that Dhropudi keeps me awake often," he +added, in hasty apology to that infant's reputation; "considering how +young a person she is, her ways are very straight-walking and meek." + +"If she cries you can always stop her with the watering-pot, I +suppose." + +He looked shocked at the suggestion. + +"_Huzoor!_ it is not difficult to stop them; such a very little thing +pleases a baby. Sometimes it is the sunshine--sometimes it 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 always the milk in its +stomach. Dhropudi's goat is yonder; it lives on your Honour's weeds. +You are her father and her mother." + +However much I might repudiate the relationship, I soon became quite +accustomed to finding Dhropudi in the most unexpected places in my +garden. For, soon after my first introduction to her, the claims of an +early crop of lettuces to protection from the squirrels led Heera Nund +to transfer the hand-light from one of his charges to another. +Dhropudi, he said, could grow nicely without it now; the black ants +could not carry her off, and the squirrels had quite begun to recognise +that she 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 water channel, and, forgetting which one +it was, turn the shallow stream that way. Then there would be a +momentary outcry at the cold bath; but the next, she would be pacified +with a flower, and sit in the sun to dry, for to say sooth, no more +good-tempered child ever existed than Dhropudi. In this, at any rate, +she was like her father, though I could trace no resemblance in other +ways. "She is like my house," he would say, when I noticed the fact. +"She is young, and I am old--quite old." + +Indeed, as time passed I saw that Heera Nund was older than I thought +at first. Before the barber came in the morning there was quite a +silver stubble on his bronze cheek, and his bright, restless eyes +were haggard and anxious. Despite his almost comic jauntiness and +self-importance, he struck me as having 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 her new accomplishment of crawling, to the detriment of a bed of +_sootullians_ (Sweet Williams) in which he took special pride, was +quite pathetic. I found him simply howling between regret for the +plants and fear lest I should order punishment to the offender. His +gratitude when I laughed was unbounded. + +After this Dhropudi used to be set in a twelve-inch pot, half sunk in +the ground, where she would stay contentedly for hours, drumming the +sides with a carrot, while Heera weeded and dibbled. + +"She grows," he would say, snatching her up fiercely in his arms; "she +grows as all my plants grow. See my _sootullians!_ They will blossom +soon, and then all the _sahibs_ will come and say, 'See the +_sootullians_ which Heera Nund and Dhropudi have grown for the +_Huzoor_.'" + +Yet with all this blazoning of content the man was curiously +restless--almost like a child in his desire for action and vivid +interest in trivialities. "See the misbegotten creature I have found +eating the honourable _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 dead. Nothing escapes me. Have I not fought +wire-worms since the beginning of all things, I and my fathers? We kill +all creeping, crawling things, except the holy snake that brings fruit +and blossom to the garden." + +One night I was disturbed by unseemly noises, coming apparently from +the servants' quarters; but my remonstrances next morning were met by +my bearer, with swift denial. "It is Heera. He, poor man, has to beat +his wife almost every night now. I wonder the Presence has not heard +her before; she screams very loud." + +I stood aghast. + +"He should let her go, or kill her," continued the bearer placidly. +"She is not worth the trouble of beating; but he is a fool, because she +is Dhropudi's mother. Yes, he is a fool; he beats her when he finds her +lover there. He should beat her well before the man comes. That is the +best way with women." + +It was an old story, it seemed, dating before Dhropudi's appearance on +the scene. It occurred to me that perhaps a deeper tragedy than I had +thought for was ripening in my garden 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 hide the truth away forever in the bottom of that well where +Heera often held the child to smile at her own reflection, far down +where the water showed like a huge round dewdrop. + +So time went on, until the _sootullians_ showed blossom buds, and +Dhropudi cut her first tooth on one and the same day. Perhaps the +excitement of the double event was too much for Heera's nerves; perhaps +what happened was due anyhow; but as I strolled through 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 flower-pot. Even with the knowledge of all +that came after, the remembrance provokes a smile,--the rhythmic +bobbing up and down of the uncouth figure, the cowlike kicks of the +bandy legs, the preternaturally grave face above, the crushed +_sootullians_ below. + +I sent him in charge of two sepoys to the Dispensary, and there he +remained for two months, more or less. When he came back he was very +quiet, very thin, and there were the marks of several blisters 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 her mother--were to be +found spending their days together in amicable companionship; his only +regrets being, apparently, that the _sootullians_ had blossomed and +Dhropudi learnt to walk in his absence. + +But for one or two little eccentricities I might have been tempted to +forget that _can-can_ among the flowers; indeed, I always met his +inquiries as to the _sootullians_ with the remark that they had done as +well as could be expected in the circumstances. The eccentricities, +however, if few, were striking. One was his exaggerated gratitude for +the blisters on the back of 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 separate occasions +she formed part of the daily basket of vegetables which he brought in +to me, and very quaint the little black morsel looked sitting +surrounded by tomatoes and melons. But though he treated the matter as +an elaborate joke when I remarked on it, there was a dazed, uncertain +look in his eyes as if he were not quite sure as to the right end of +the stick. + +Nevertheless peace and contentment reigned apparently in his house. +When I sat out in the dark, hot evenings, a glow of flickering +firelight from within showed the mysterious mud-walled enclosure by the +wall, decorous and conventional. The winking stars looking down into it +knew more 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 who had taken my warning so sullenly had +learnt more craft; perhaps the languor which creeps over all things in +May had sucked the vigour even from passion. Who could say? Those +crumbling mud walls hid it all, and Heera seemed to have begun a new +life with the hot-weather vegetables. + +So matters stood when an old enemy laid hold of me. Ten days after I +found myself racing Death with a determination to reach the sea, and +feel the salt west 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 the exile is over; the doctor's +verdict, the swift packing of a trunk or two, the hope, the fear, the +mad longing at least to see the dear faces once more. + +They packed me and a half hundred pillows into a _palki ghari_ one +afternoon. The servants stood, white clad, in a row beside the white +pillars, dazzling in the slanting sunlight. I drove through the flower +garden dusty and scorched. At the gate stood Heera Nund, one arm +occupied 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 ninepin +bouquets as he had carried on our first introduction. "Take them, +_sahib!_" he cried. "Take them for luck! and come back soon to the +_madli_ and the _malin_." As the _ghari_ turned sharp down the road I +saw him standing amidst the ruins of the basket with Dhropudi in his +arms. + +Six months passed before I set foot on Indian soil again, and then fate +and a restless Government sent me to a new station. When my servants +arrived with my baggage from the old one, I naturally fell to asking +questions. "And how is Heera Nund?" was one. My bearer smiled benignly. +"_Huzoor_, he is well--in the month of July he was hanged." + +"Bearer!" + +"Without doubt; it was in the month of July. He killed his wife with an +axe. Dhropudi was bitten by a snake while she slept one day when Heera +had to leave her with her mother; and that night he killed his wife as +_she_ slept also. It was a mistake to be so revengeful, for every one +knew Dhropudi was not really his daughter." + +"Do you think that Heera knew?" + +"She told him when the child died, in order to stop his grief; but it +did not. She was very kind to him,--after the other one went to prison +for lurking about." + +"And did no one tell about it all?" + +"About what, _Huzoor?_" + +"About the vegetables, and Dhropudi, and the _sootullians_, and the +blisters on the back of his head! Did no one say the man was mad?" + +"There was a new assistant at the Dispensary, _sahib_, and her people +were very rich; besides, Heera was not mad at all. He did it on +purpose. He was a bad man, and the Sirkar did right to hang him--in +July." + +But as I turned away I could think of nothing but that _can-can_ among +the _sootullians_, with little Dhropudi beating time with a carrot. + + + + + FEROZA. + + +Two hen sparrows quarrelling over a feather, while a girl watched them +listlessly; for the rest, sunshine imprisoned by blank walls, save +where at one end a row of scalloped arches gave on two shallow, shadowy +verandah-rooms, and at the other a low doorway led to the world beyond. +But even this was veiled by a brick screen, 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 letter from which the London post-mark stared up into the +brazen Indian sky. She was waiting to have it read to her--waiting with +a dull, almost sullen patience, for the afternoon was still young. It +was old enough, however, to make a sheeted figure in the shadow sit up +on its string bed and yawn because siesta time was past. + +"Still thinking of thy letter, Feroz? _Bismillah!_ I'm glad my man +doesn't live in a country where the women go about half naked." + +"Who told thee so, Kareem? The Meer _sahib_ said naught." + +A light laugh seemed prisoned in the echoing walls. "_Wah!_ How canst +tell? 'Tis father-in-law reads thy letters. Inaiyut saith so. He saw +them at Delhi dancing like bad ones with--" + +"Peace, Kareema! Hast no decency?" + +"Enough for my years, whilst thou art more like a grandam than a +scarce-wed girl. Why should not Inaiyut be a man? A husband is none the +worse for knowing a pretty woman when he sees one." + +She settled the veil on her sleek black head and laughed again. Feroza +Begum's small brown face hardened into scorn. "Inaiyut hath experience +and practice in the art doubtless, as he hath in cockfighting and +dicing." + +"Now, don't gibe at him for that. Sure 'tis the younger son's portion +amongst us Moguls. Do I sneer at thy Meer amusing himself over the +black water amongst the _mems?_" + +"The Meer is not amusing himself. He is learning to be a barrister." + +Kareema swung her legs to the ground with another giggle. "_Wah!_ Men +are men all the world over, and so are women. Yea! 'tis true." She +looked like some gay butterfly as she flashed out into the sunlight, +and began with outstretched arms and floating veil to imitate the +sidelong graces of a dancing girl. + +"_Hai! Hai!_ Bad one!" cried a quavering voice behind her, as an old +woman clutching for scant covering at a dirty white sheet shambled +forward. "Can I not close an eye but thou must bring iniquity to +respectable houses? 'Tis all thy scapegrace husband; for when I brought +thee hither thou wast meek-spirited and--" + +"Deck me not out with lies, nurse," laughed Kareema. "Sure I was ever +to behaviour as a babe to walking--unsteady on its legs. So wast thou +as a bride; so are all women." She seized the withered old arms as she +spoke, and threw them up in an attitude. "Dance, Mytaben! dance! 'Tis +the best way." + +The forced frown faded hopelessly before the young, dimpling face. +"Kareema! Why will'st not be decent like little Feroz yonder?" + +"Why? Because my man thinks I'm pretty! Because I've fine clothes! +Feroza hath old green trousers and her man is learning to be '_wise_,' +forsooth! amongst the _mems_. So she is jealous--" + +"I'm not jealous," interrupted the other hotly. + +"Peace, peace, little doves!" expostulated the old nurse. "Feroz is no +fool to be jealous of a _mem_. Holy Prophet, Kareem! hadst thou seen +them at Delhi as I have--" + +"Inaiyut hath seen them too. He saith they are as _houris_ in silk and +satins with bare breasts and arms--" + +Mytaben's bony fingers crackled in a shake of horrified denial. +"Silence! shameless one! I tell thee they have no beauty, no +clothes--" + +"There! I said they had no clothes," pouted Kareema. + +The duenna folded her sheet round her with great dignity. "Thy +wit is sharp, Kareema! 'Tis as well; for thou wilt need it to +protect thy nose! The _mems_ 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 spectacles serving as veils. Not +that they need them, for they are virtuous and keep their eyes from men +truck. Not like bad bold hussies who dance--" + +"'Tis not true," cried Kareema shrilly. "Thou sayest it to please +Feroza. Inaiyut holds they are _houris_ for beauty, and he knows." + +In the wrangle which ensued the London postmark revolved between earth +and heaven as the letter turned over and over in Feroza's listless +fingers. + +"I wish I knew," she muttered with a frown puckering her forehead. "He +saith they are so wise, and yet--" + +Mytaben paused in the war of words and laid her wrinkled old fingers on +the girl's head. "Plague on new-fangled ways!" she grumbled half to +herself. "Have no fear, heart's life! they are uncomely. But for all +that, 'tis a shame of the Meer to leave thee pining." + +A hand was on her mouth. "Hush, Mytaben! 'Tis a wife's duty to wait her +lord's pleasure to stay or come." + +There is a dignity in submission, but Kareema laughed again, and even +old Mytab looked at the girl compassionately. "For all that, heart's +life, 'tis well to be sure. Certainty soothes the liver more than hope. +So thou shalt see a _mem_. For lo! the book-readers have come to this +town, and one passeth the door every eve at sundown." + +"Oh, Mytab! why didn't you tell us before?" cried both the girls in a +breath. + +"Because 'tis enough as it is, to keep two married girls straight, with +never a mother-in-law to make them dance to her tune," grumbled the +nurse evasively. "_Hai_, Kareema! I will tell thy father-in-law the +Moulvie,[18] and then 'twill be bread and water." + +"Bread and water is not good for brides," retorted Kareema with a +giggle. "And I will see the _mems_ too, or I will cry, and then--" She +nodded her head maliciously. + +That evening at sundown the two girls sat huddled up by the latticed +window of the outer vestibule, while Mytab watched at the door of the +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 +they could see up and down a narrow alley where a central drain, full +of black sewage, usurped the larger half of the rough brick pavement. + +"Look, Feroza! look!" cried Kareema in a choked voice. A white +umbrella lined with green, a huge pith hat tied round with a blue veil, +a gingham dress, a bag of books, white stockings, and tan shoes,--that +was all. They watched the strange apparition breathlessly till it came +abreast of them. + +Then Kareema's pent-up mirth burst forth in peals of laughter so +distinctly audible through the open lattice that the cause stopped in +surprise. + +Feroza started to her feet. "For shame, Kareem, for shame! He says +they are so good." And before they guessed what she would be at, the +wicket-gate was open, and she was on the bare, indecent doorstep. + +"_Salaam! mem sahib, salaam!_" rang her high-pitched, girlish voice. +"I, Feroza Begum of the house of Meer Ahmed Ali, barrister-at-law, am +glad to see you." + +Before Kareema, by hanging on to Mytab's scanty attire, lent weight +enough to drag the offender back to seclusion, the English lady raised +her veil, and Feroza Begum, Moguli, caught her first glimpse of a pair +of mild blue eyes. She never forgot the introduction to Miss Julia +Smith, spinster of Clapham. Perhaps she had reason to remember it. + +"I might have believed it of Kareem," whimpered the duenna over a +consolatory pipe, "but Feroz! To stand out in the world yelling like a +hawker. _Ai, Ai!_ Give me your quiet ones for wickedness. _Phut!_ in a +moment, like water from the skin-bag, spoiling everything." + +"'Twas Kareem's laugh burst the _mashk_, nursie," laughed Feroza. She +and her sister-in-law seemed to have changed places for the time, and +she was flitting about gay as a wren, while the former sulked moodily +on her bed. + +Yet as the days passed a new jealousy came like seven devils to possess +poor Feroza utterly. + +What was this wisdom which inspired so many well-turned periods in the +Meer's somewhat prosy letters? Beauty was beyond her, but women even of +her race had been wise; passionate Nurjehan, and even pious 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. And all the time the +girl's heart was singing paeans of praise over the ease with which she +remembered the long strings of meaningless words. Buoyed up by hope she +confided her heart's desire to Kareema. + +"Eat more butter and grow fat," replied that little coquette. "Dress in +bright colours and redden thy lips. And thou mightest use that powder +the _mems_ have to make their skins fair. Inaiyut saith he will buy me +some in the bazaar. That is true wisdom; the other is for wrinkles." + +Despite this cold water, the very next London post-mark brought matters +to a crisis. + +"Is that all?" asked Feroza dismally, when her father-in-law, the +Moulvie, had duly intoned her husband's letter. "It looks, oh! it looks +ever so much more on paper." + +The old Mohammedan stared through his big horn-rimmed spectacles at her +reluctant finger feeling its way along the crabbed writing. + +"Quite enough for a good wife, daughter-in-law," he replied. "Bring my +pipe, and thank God he is well." + +As she sat fanning the old man duteously, her mind was full of +suspicion. Could _she_ have compressed the desire and love of her heart +into a few well-turned sentences? Ah! if she could only learn to read +for herself. The thought found utterance in a tentative remark that it +would save the Moulvie trouble if she were a scholar. + +"'Tis not much trouble," said the old man courteously; "the letters are +not long." + +The effect of these words surprised him into taking off his spectacles, +as if this new departure of quiet Feroza's could be better seen by the +naked eye. + +"So thou thinkest to learn all the Meer has learnt?" he asked +scornfully, when her eloquence abated. "_Wah illah!_ What? Euclidus and +Algebra, Political Economy and Justinian?" + +The desire of the girl's heart was not this, but jealousy and shame +combined prevented her declaring the real standard of her aims, so she +replied defiantly, "Why not? I can learn the Koran fast--oh, ever so +fast." + +It was an unfortunate speech, since it brought down on her the +inevitable reply that such knowledge was enough for those who, at best, +must enter Paradise at a man's coat-tails. Driven into a corner, she +felt the hopelessness of the struggle, until, flushed by success, the +Moulvie forgot caution, and declaimed against his son's stupidity in +desiring more. + +Feroza seized on this slip swiftly. If it was as she feared, if her +husband's wishes were kept from her ignorance, she must, she would +learn. If she could not go to school, the _mems_ would come and teach +her at home. They did such work at 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 +comparison with her future happiness. Therefore her disappointment when +Mytaben brought back a peremptory refusal from the mission-ladies to +teach on such condition was very keen. Her piteous, surprised tears +roused Kareema's scornful wonder. + +"I can't think why thou shouldst weep; it thickens the nose, and thine +is over-broad as it is. Inaiyut offered once to teach me, but when I +asked him if learning would make him love me better, he kissed me with +a laugh. So I let it alone." + +"Thou dost not understand," sobbed Feroza; "no one does. The Meer is +wise, and I am different." + +"_Wah!_ Thou art but a woman at best, and life is over for us with the +first wrinkle, no matter what we learn. Ah, Feroz! let's enjoy youth +whilst we have it. See! I have a rare bit of fun for thee if thou wilt +not blab to Mytaben. Promise!" + +Three days afterwards Feroza, escaping from the turmoil of a great +marriage in a relative's house, found herself, much to her own surprise +and bewilderment, forming one of a merry party of young women disguised +in boy's clothes, and bound for an hour or so of high jinks in one of +the walled 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 taken up their abode close by. So she had +allowed her doubts and fears to be allayed; though inwardly she failed +to see the vast difference on which her sister-in-law insisted, between +the iniquity of standing on doorsteps in the full light of day, and +sneaking out at night on the quiet. + +"Verily," said Kareema in a pet, "thou art a real noodle, Feroz! I tell +thee all the good-style women do thus, and my sister will be there with +her boys. _Wah!_ were it not for my handsome Inaiyut, I should die in +this dull old house where folk wish to be better than God made them." + +So it came to pass that while Miss Julia Smith, spinster of Clapham, +sat with her fellow-workers in the verandah resting after their +labours, a boyish figure with a beating heart was creeping towards her +as the goal of every hope. + +The English mail was in; an event which by accentuating the severance +from home ties is apt to raise the enthusiasm of the mission-house +beyond normal. + +"How very, very interesting it is about the young man Ahmed Ali," +remarked Julia, in a voice tuned to superlatives. "Dearest Mrs. +Cranston writes that he spoke so sweetly about his ignorant child-wife. +As she says, there is something so--so--so comforting, you know, in the +thought of work coming to us, as if--well, I can't quite express it, +you know,--but from our own homes,--from dear, dear, old England!" + +There was a large amount of confused good feeling in Julia Smith. A +kindly soul she was, if a little over-sentimental. Perhaps a broken +sixpence, stored side by side with a decayed vegetable in her desk, +formed a creditable explanation of the latter weakness. Such things +account for much in the lives of most women. + +"I suppose," she continued, "we were right to refuse without hymns; but +I shall never forget the sweet child's face as she popped from her +prison. I am making up the incident for our magazine; it will be most +touching. But now that dearest Mrs. Cranston has written, it seems like +the finger of Providence--" + +"A boy wanting a Miss," interrupted the nondescript familiar, +inseparable from philanthropy in India. "The one with an umbrella, a +big hat, and a bag of books." + +A very womanly laugh with an undercurrent of militant pleasure, ran +round the company. The description fitted one and all, and they were +proud of the fact. + +The moon shone bright behind the arches, the scent of orange blossoms +drifted over the high garden wall, and every now and again a burst of +laughter close at hand overbore the more distant noise of wedding drums +and pipes. + +"What do you want, my son?" + +The soft voice with its strange inflections took away the last vestige +of Feroza's courage. She stood dizzy with absolute fear, her tongue +cleaving to her mouth. A 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; then, suddenly, +inheritance broke through her terror. She flung her hands up to heaven, +and her young voice rose in the traditional cry for justice. "_Dohai! +Dohai!_" + +"We do not keep justice here," was the soft answer. "You must go to the +Courts for that. We are but women--" + +"And I too am a woman! Listen!" The words which had lagged a moment +before now crowded to her lips, and as she stepped closer her raised +arm 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; and when I also ask for learning, you say, 'You must sing.' What +is singing when I am sad? Surely God will hear my tears and not your +songs!" + +Her passion swayed her so that but for Julia Smith's supporting arm she +would have fallen. "I don't understand," said the Englishwoman kindly. +"What have we done? Who are you?" + +"I am the wife of Meer Ahmed Ali, barrister-at-law, and I want to be +taught Euclidus, and Justinian, and the--the other things. You shall +not take him away for always. Justice! I say, justice!" + +"My dears! My dears!" cried Julia Smith, "didn't I tell you it was the +finger of Providence--" + +Half-an-hour afterwards little Feroza, flying back to rejoin her +companions, felt as if Paradise had been opened to her by a promise. +But if Paradise 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 her. All was still and silent save for the +creak of the well-wheel and a soft rustle from the burnished leaves +where the moonlight glistened white. + +"Kareem! let me in! for pity sake let me in!" + +Then a wild, uncontrollable fear at finding herself alone in an unknown +world claimed her body and soul, and she fled like a hare to the only +refuge she knew. The _mems_ must protect her; for were they not the +cause of her venturing forth at all? But for them, or their like, would +she not have been well content at home? Yea! well content. + +The verandah was empty, and from within came a monotonous voice. She +peered into the dimly lit room to see a circle of kneeling figures, and +hear her own name 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 seized and baptised against their +will leapt to her memory. She covered her eyes as if to shut out the +horrid sight and fled; whither she neither knew nor cared. + +"_Hai!_ have I found thee at last, graceless! scandalous!" scolded some +one into whose arms she ran at full tilt. + +"Mytab! oh, dear Mytab!" she cried, clinging frantically to the +familiar figure. "Take me home, oh, please take me home! I will never +go out again, no, never!" + +That was the determination of ignorance. Eighteen months after wisdom +had altered it and many other things, for during that time Julia Smith +had sung hymns on the doorstep three days a week. Sometimes she had +quite a large audience, and sometimes Feroza herself would listen at +the lattice. On these occasions the thin voice had a ring in it; for, +despite the fact that her pupil was taught all the truths of religion +in prose and monotone, poor Julia used to wonder if this relegating of +hymns to the doorstep 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 in his wife. And meanwhile +time brought other changes to the quiet courtyard. Handsome, dissipated +Inaiyut died of cholera, and over him, and the boy-baby she lost, +Kareema shed tears which did not dim her beauty. Three months after she +was once more making the bare walls ring with her inconsequent +laughter. She jeered at Feroza's diligence with increased scorn. No +man, she said, was worth the losing of looks in books, and if the Meer +really spoke of return, a course of cosmetics would be more advisable. + +Even Julia shook her head over Feroza's thin face. "You work too hard, +dear," she sighed. "Ah! if it were the one thing needful; but I have +failed to teach you that." + +"Dear Miss! don't look sad; think of the difference you have wrought. +Oh, do not cry," she went on passionately, for the mild blue eyes were +filling with tears. "Come, we will talk of his return, full of 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 unkind +person had poisoned Julia's peace with remarks of the mixing of unknown +chemicals. After all, what did she know of this absent husband, save +that dear Mrs. Cranston had met him at a conversazione? + +"I suppose the Meer is really an enlightened man?" she asked dubiously. + +The gingham dress gave up a scared face. "Dear Miss! why, he is a +barrister-at-law!" + +Her teacher coughed. "But are you sure, dear, that he wanted you to +learn?" + +"Not everything; because he did not think I could; but he spoke of many +things. I have learnt all,--except--" + +"Except what?" + +Feroza hesitated. "I was not sure,--Inaiyut said he would teach it, but +he died-- 'Tis only a game called whist." + +"Whist!" + +"Do I not say it right? W-h-i-s-t--_wist_. Oh, Miss! is it a wicked +game? Is it not fit? Ought I not to learn it?" + +The fire of questions reduced Julia Smith's confusion to simple tears. +"I don't know," she moaned, "that is the worst! I thought it was the +finger of Providence, and--ah, Feroza! If I have done you harm!" + +"You have done me no harm," said Feroza, with a kind smile. "You have +harmed yourself with cinnamon tea and greasy fritters in the other +zenanas, and you shall have some, English fashion, to take away your +headache." + +So grumbling Mytab brought an afternoon tea-tray duly supplied with a +plate of thin bread-and-butter from within, and Feroza's small brown +face beamed over Julia Smith's surprise. "He will think himself back +amongst the _mems!_ won't he?" she asked with a happy laugh. + +Would he? As she jolted home in her palanquin Julia's head whirled. Old +and new, ignorance and wisdom!--here was a jumble. A stronger brain +than hers might well have felt confusion. For it was sunset in that +heathen 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 another, if only by a perfunctory performance of some rite, +testified that day to the fact that religion formed a part of his daily +round, his common task. And on the other side of the world, whence the +missions come?-- + +Meanwhile Kareema, bewailing the useless cards, found herself backed up +by old Mytaben. Such knowledge, the old woman said, would have 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 scented +soaps like a bad one, and living luxurious? Sheets and towels, +forsooth! Why, Shah-jehan himself never dreamed of such expenses. + +"I like them, for all that," cried Kareema gaily; "and I think the +_mems_ are wise to have big looking-glasses. It is hateful only seeing +a little bit of one's self at a time. And Feroza and I are going out to +be admired like the _mems_, aren't we, Feroza?" + +"If the Meer wishes it," replied her sister-in-law gravely. + +Mytab looked from one to the other. "Have a care, players with fire!" +she said shrilly. "Have a care! Is the world changed because it reads +books and washes? Lo! the customs of the fathers bind the children." + +"Mytab hath been mysterious of late," remarked Kareema, giving a queer +look, as the old lady moved away in wrath. "Ah me! if I had but my +handsome Inaiyut dicing in the vestibule 'twould be better for all of +us, maybe." + +Feroza laid her soft hand gently on the other's shoulder. "I am so +sorry for thee, dear! but we will love thee always and be a sister and +brother--" + +Kareema's look was queerer than ever, and she laughed hysterically. + +The day came at last when Feroza sat in the sunlit courtyard holding +another unopened letter in her hand, knowing that ere a week was over +the writer would be prisoned in her kind arms, surrounded by friendly +faces, caught in the meshes of familiar custom. She was not afraid, +even though his letters gave her small clue to the man himself. Her own +convictions 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 on a chair now, and her white stockings and +patent-leather shoes twisted themselves tortuously about its legs. She +thought mostly of the childish time when she, their cousin, had played +with Ahmed Ali and Inaiyut; it seemed somehow nearer than those other +days, when the studious lad's departure for college had been prefaced +by that strange, unreal marriage. + +And Kareema watched her furtively from the far corner where she and +Mytab were making preserves. + +Suddenly a loud call, fiercely imperative, made them come sheepishly +forward to where Feroza stood at bay, one hand at her throat, the other +crushing her husband's letter. "What is this? What have you all been +keeping from me? What does he mean?--this talk of duty and custom. +Ah-h-h--!" + +Her voice, steady till then, broke into a ringing cry as a trivial +detail in Kareema's reluctant figure caught her eye. The palms and +nails of those delicate hands were 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 accusing palms to +heaven, while a tempest of sheer animal jealousy beat the wretched girl +down from each new-won foothold, down, down, to the inherited nature +underneath. + +"Then it is true," she gasped. "I see! I know! Holy Prophet! what +infamy to talk of duty. He is to marry,--and I who have slaved--He is +mine, mine, I say! Thou shalt not have him!" + +Mytab's chill old hand fell on the girl's straining arm like the touch +of Death. "_Allah akhbar wa Mohammed rasul!_[19] Hast forgotten the +faith, Feroza Begum, Moguli? Thine? Since when has the wife a right to +claim all? Since when hast thou become a _mem?_" + +The girl glared at her with wild passion, and Kareema gave a whimper as +the grip bit into her tender wrists. "Don't; you hurt me!" + +Feroza flung them from her in contemptuous loathing. "Fool! coward! as +if he would touch you. I will tell him all. He will know--Ah God! my +head! my head!--" She was in the dust at their feet stunned by her own +passion. + +"I warned the Moulvie to break it by degrees," grumbled Mytab, dragging +the girl to some matting; "but he said 'twould make no more to her than +to the Meer. Books don't seem to change a man, but women are +different." + +"It's not my fault," whimpered Kareema. "I don't want to marry the +Meer; he was ever a noodle. Prating of its being a duty, forsooth!" + +"So it is! a bounden duty. Never hath childless widow had to leave this +house, and never shall, till God makes us pigs of unbelievers." + +"I wish my handsome Inaiyut had lived for all that," muttered the girl, +as Feroza showed signs of recovery. She resisted all attempts at +explanation or comfort, however, and made her way alone, a solitary +resolute figure, to her windowless room, where, when she shut the door, +all was dark. There she lay tearless while the others, sitting in the +sunlight, talked in whispers as if the dead were within. + +"The Moulvie must bid her repeat the creed," was old Mytab's ultimatum. +"God send the Miss has not made a Christian of her, with all those +soapings and washings!" She had no spark of pity. Such was woman's lot, +and to rebel was sacrilege. + +"Don't make sure of my consent," pouted Kareema, her pretty face +swollen with easy tears. "If he is really the noodle Feroza deems, I'd +rather be a religious. 'Twould be just as amusing." + +Mytab laughed derisively. "Thou a religious! The gossips would have +tired tongues. Besides, choice is over. Had the child lived, perhaps; +but now the Moulvie hath a right to see Inaiyut's children on his +knee." + +The sunshine had given place to shadow before Feroza appeared. + +"Bring me a _burka_;[20] I am going to see the Miss. Follow if thou +wilt," she said; and though her voice had lost its ring, the tone +warned Mytab 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 passion blotted out by the formless white domino she wore. +"I could kill you for being pretty," she said in a hard whisper, as she +turned away. + +She had never been to the mission-house since that eventful night, and +the sight of its familiar unfamiliarity renewed the sense of injury +with which she had last seen it. "Miss _Eshsmitt sahib_," they told +her, was ill; but she would 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 beauty odds enough, +that she must fight also against this undreamed-of comfort? She flung +up her arms with the old cry, "_Dohai! Dohai!_" The fever-flushed face +on the frilled pillows turned fearfully. "What is it, Feroza? Oh! what +is it?" + +The question was hard to solve even in the calm sessions of thought, +well-nigh impossible here. Why had she been lured from the old life in +some ways and not in all? Was their boasted influence all words? Then +why had they prated of higher things? Why had they _lied_ to her? + +Poor Julia buried her face in a pocket-handkerchief drenched in +_eau-de-Cologne_, and sobbed, "Ah, take her away! Please take her +away!" + +So they led her gently to the text-hung drawing-room with a cottage +piano in one corner, and shook their heads over her passionate appeals. +They could do nothing, they said,--nothing at all,--unless she cast in +her lot with them absolutely; so she turned and left them with a sombre +fire in her eyes. + +She never knew how the days passed until, as she watched the sunlight +creep up the eastern wall of the court, it came home to her that on the +next evening Meer Ahmed Ali would watch it also. She seemed not to have +thought, and it was Kareema, and not she, who had 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 thyself to care. God knows he +may not look at either, through being enamoured of the _mems_. And oh, +Feroza," she added, her sympathy overborne by curiosity, "think you he +will wear the strange dress of the Miss _sahib's_ sun-pictures? If so I +shall laugh of a surety." + +A gleam of consolation shot through poor Feroza's brain. Men disliked +ridicule. "Of course the Meer dresses Europe-fashion," she replied +stiffly. "Thou seemest to forget that my husband is a man of culture." + +A man of culture! undoubtedly, if by culture we mean dutiful +self-improvement. That had been Meer Ahmed Ali's occupation for years, +and his gentle, high-bred face bore unmistakably the look of one +stowing away knowledge for future use. He was really an excellent young +man; and, during his three years at a boarding-house in Notting Hill, +had behaved himself as few young men do when first turned loose in +London. He spoke English perfectly, and it would be difficult to say +what he had not learnt that could be learnt by 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 that he was more actuated by a sense of duty than by any hope +of greater happiness for himself. The natural suggestion that he should +marry his brother's widow he looked on merely as a further development +of previous bondage; and he told himself again that, not having swerved +a hair's breadth from his faith, he was bound to set his own views +aside in favour of a custom desired by those chiefly concerned. +Besides, in the atmosphere of surprised sympathy in which he lived it +was hard, indeed, not to pose as a victim. + +And so, just as poor Feroza was confidently asserting his culture, he, +having given his English fellow-passengers the slip, was once more +putting on the clothes of an orthodox Mohammedan. Feroza, 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 hair and clustering jewels +degrades the veil to an unnecessary wrap; the propriety of the bodice +intensifies its shapelessness; the very face suffers by the unconcealed +holes in ears and nose. + +Kareema stared with a smile akin to tears. "There is time," she +pleaded. "Come! I can make you look twice as well." + +Their eyes met with something of the old affection, but Feroza shook +her head. "I must find out--" + +"If he is a noodle?" The interrupting giggle was almost a whimper. "You +mean if he is blind! Ah, Feroza! look at me." + +No need to say that; the puzzled eyes had taken in the sight already. +Gleams of jewelled hair under the gold threaded veil; a figure revealed +by the net bodice worn over a scantier one of flowered muslin; bare +feet tucked away in shells of shoes; long gauze draperies showing a +shadow of silk-clad limbs; above it all that dimpling, smiling face. +She shook her head again. + +In the long minutes of waiting she lost herself in counting the bricks +on the familiar wall until the sight of a tall man at the door dressed +as a Mohammedan startled her into drawing the veil to her face in fear +of intrusion. + +As the man withdrew quickly Kareema's laugh rang out. "To think, +Feroza! thou shouldest be _purdah_ to him after all thy big talk." + +"The Meer! Was that the Meer?" faltered Feroza. "I did not--the +dress--" + +"Bah! I knew the likeness to my poor Inaiyut. See! yonder he comes +again ushered by father-in-law. Now, quick, Feroza!" + +The voice quavering over the prepared phrases of thanks to the Great +Giver of home-coming was infinitely pathetic; and yet, as Ahmed Ali +took the outstretched hand, he was conscious above all things of a +regret, almost a sense of outrage; 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 have naught worthy his +acceptance save the memory of kinship. My sister and I greet you, _as +sisters_. Nay, more," she added lightly; "I too shake hands +English-fashion, and if I do it wrong forgive us both, since learned +Feroza is teacher." + +"You make me very happy," answered the Meer heartily. "How well you are +all looking!" + +No need to say where his eyes were. + +"You mistake, Meer _sahib_," cried Kareema swiftly, "Feroza looks ill. +'Tis your blame, since she worked over-hard to please you." + +The forbidden frown came too late to prevent Ahmed Ali's glance finding +it on his wife's face. It was not becoming. "Was it so hard to learn?" +he asked with a patronising smile. "But your handwriting improved +immensely of late." + +The tips of Feroza's fingers showed bloodless under their nervous +clasp, but she said nothing. Indeed, she scarcely opened her lips as +they sat talking over 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 eyes and ears, and not till the sun +tipping over the high walls glared down on them did she lose patience +enough to ask, vaguely, what he thought about it all. + +"_Wah illah_," cried the Moulvie, "Feroza hits the mark! What thinkest +thou, my son? But I fear not, for thou hast the faithful air, and canst +doubtless repeat thy creed purely." + +The young man looked round the familiar scene, every detail of which +fitted so closely to memory that no room remained for the seven years' +absence. A rush of glad recognition surged to heart and brain, making +him stand up and give the _Kalma_.[22] + +"I am content, oh, my father!" he cried in ringing tones, as the +sonorous echoes died away to silence. "I am content to come back to the +old life, to the old duties." + +"The sun makes my head ache," said Feroza, rising abruptly, "I will go +into the dark and rest." + +"Don't go, Feroza! Thou hast not told the Meer about thyself," pleaded +Kareema, rising in her turn. "She hath worked so hard," she added +petulantly to the young man. "No one is worth it, no one." + +The Meer looked from one to the other. "Learning is hard for women," he +began. Then something in his wife's face roused the new man in him, +making him say in a totally different tone and manner, "I am afraid I +hardly understand." + +"That is what Kareema says of me," replied Feroza icily. + +Her cousin, as she sat down once more to listen, shrugged her +shoulders. "And she counted herself as something better than a woman," +was her inward comment amid her smiles. + +Feroza saw nothing of her husband for the rest of the day. The men's +court was crowded with visitors, and she herself had to bear the brunt +of many feminine congratulations. Only at sunset, before starting to +attend a feast given in his honour, he 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 made her heart bound, and a distinct pause brought her to his +side with wistful eyes, only to see Kareema nodding and smiling to him +from the roof, whither she had gone for fresher air. "What is it?" he +asked kindly, though his looks were elsewhere. + +"Nothing," she answered, "nothing at all. Go in peace!" + +The moon, rising ere the sun set, stole the twilight. So she sat gazing +at the hard square outlines of the walls till far on into the night, +her mind filled with but one thought. The thought that by and by Ahmed +Ali, flushed with content at things 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 lattice +whence she had had her first glimpse of wisdom. Even on that brilliant +night the vestibule itself was dark; but through the door she could see +the empty arcades of the men's court surrounding the well where she and +her cousins used to play. + +A rustle in the alley made her peer through the fret-work, for the +veriest trifle swayed her; but it was only a dog seeking garbage in the +gutter. Then 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, she might have waited his return calmly +enough. Footsteps now! She cowered to the shadow at the sight of +Kareema followed by Mytab bearing something. + +"He mayn't be back till late," came the familiar giggle; "and a soft +pillow will please him." + +The pair were back again before she recovered her surprise, and Kareema +paused ere re-entering the women's door. "Poor Feroza! She will get +accustomed to it, I suppose." + +"Of what hath she to complain?" retorted the old voice; "he is a +properer man than I deemed. Say, heart's desire, what said he when I +saw thee--?" + +"Mytab! thou mean spy! Bah! he told me he would change a letter and +call me Carina, since it meant dearest in some heathen tongue. They +begin thus over the black water likely; 'tis not bad, and new at any +rate." + +Feroza scarcely waited for distance to deaden the answering giggle. She +was on her feet, pacing to and fro like a mad creature. Ah! to get away +from it all--from that name, from the look he must 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 cool damp stones, her eyes rested +themselves on the faint glimmer far down--ever, oh, ever so far away! +Hark! some one in the alley. If it were he? Ah! then she must go away, +ever so far away-- + + +Meer Ahmed Ali found his pillow comfortable, and only woke in the dawn +to see Mytab standing beside him. + +"Feroza!" she cried. "Where is Feroza?" + +A dull remorse came to his drowsy brain. "It was so late--I--" + +"Holy Prophet, she is not here! Thou hast not seen her! Then she hath +gone to the _Missen_ to be baptised. Why didst turn her brain with +books? Fool! Idiot!" + +"The Mission!" Meer Ahmed Ali was awake now, and the peaceful party, +gathered in the verandah for early tea, stared as the young man burst +in on it with imperious demands for his wife. Then his surroundings +recalled his acquired courtesy, and he stammered an apologetic +explanation. + +"She has gone away?" cried Julia, with a queer catch in her breath. +"Oh, Meer _sahib!_ what a mistake we have all made. It was too late to +write, and then I got ill; but, indeed! I was going down this very +morning to try and make you understand." + +"Understand what?" asked the Meer, helplessly confused, adding +hurriedly, "but I can't stay now. She must be found. I will not have +her run away. I will have her back--yes! I _will_ have her back." + +Half-an-hour later Julia Smith, driven to the Moulvie's house by +remorseful anxiety, found the wicket-gate ajar. She entered silently +upon a scene framed like a picture by the dark doorway of the men's +court. + +Feroza had come back to those familiar walls. She lay beside the well, +and the water from her clinging garments crept in dark stains through +the dust. She had wrapped her veil round her to stifle useless cries, +and so the dead face, as in life, was decently hidden from the eyes of +men. 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. Julia Smith saw it all with her bodily eyes; yet nothing +seemed worth seeing save that veiled figure in the dust. She knelt +beside it and took the slender cold hand in hers. "My dear, my dear!" +she whispered through her sobs. "Surely you need not have gone so far, +so very far--for help." + +But the dead face was hidden even from her tears. + + + + + IN THE HOUSE OF A COPPERSMITH. + + + I. + +The clangour of metal upon metal filling the low, dark workshop, +pulsating out into the hot sunshine of the courtyards behind, and the +hot shadow of the narrow street in front. Pulsating musically, yet with +an undercurrent of jarring vibration like a north-country burr on a +woman's tongue. The whole best described, perchance, in the native name +for the copper which the workmen were hammering and welding into pots +and pans--_tambur_. + +_Tam bur, tam-burr-urr-ur_. + +Thus endlessly through afternoon sunshine and afternoon shade, as the +shine fell full on a woman who was sitting silently beside a row of mud +cooking-places in the first courtyard. So still, so silent; it seemed +as if the waves of sound must break baffled upon the carven folds of +the coarse, whitey brown veil which, covering her almost from head to +foot, was drawn tight over the forehead to conceal the hair, and wound +tight under the chin so as to hide all save the oval face barred by +level black brows, and the brown curves of a wide mouth. Only about her +feet a voluminous petticoat showed its dingy red and green borderings +like a frill. The typical dress of a widow in Northern India, and the +face matched it. More indifferent than sad; the lack of 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 husband's younger +brother's wife--bound by every principle of religion and decency to +obey? Durga-dei's black brows grew straighter at the thought of the +change one short year had wrought. And Gopal, Parbutti's husband, was +the master now. A pretty master for all his good looks, for all his +learning! yet what else could one expect, seeing he had spent his youth +over books at the Municipal School, while his elder brother, despite +his crippled condition, had kept the ancestral business a-going? Yes! +on that point the dead husband had been weak; and yet how proud he had +been of the handsome lad who was to bring sons to the ancestral hearth! +But he had not even done so much, though to be sure, for that Parbutti +was to blame; a jealous wife, too selfish-- + +"Durga! Durga-dei! The broom, quick! Am I to sit in the dust like a +lone widow because thou art lazy? The broom, I say!" + +The voice which overbore one clamour by another was not pleasant; but +it was so in comparison with Durga's face as she rose reluctantly. A +thousand times more so than that same 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 +figure, despite its shroud, as it leant despondently against the +lintel, while the black eyes shifted in a sort of helpless indifference +over the blank walls imprisoning them. + +A year ago; only a year ago! + +Her unpractised brain attempted no other complaint; but this +unformulated sense of injury possessed her utterly, and everything in +heaven and earth became an outrage on that capable past when she had +held the reins of government. Of a truth, in that small kingdom of hers +behind the coppersmith's shop naught had been wanting that she could +compass. Naught save children; for that Parbutti, feckless Parbutti, +with youth and health and strength on both sides, was far more +responsible than she. If the curse had been hers, would she not gladly +have given a handmaiden to her lord? But they had waited for the +brother's child which would be as their own, and in that hope had +refused to adopt a son while yet there was time. Even now--the small +supple hands sought the crevices beyond the door lintel against which +they had been resting slackly--sought them as if intent 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 family; since she would then have the right +to keep handsome, lazy Gopal and his work together for the sake of the +son who might be born to the old trade. She was of the stern old +school; but those two were not; and so, between the hearth and that +calm perpetuity in which lay its only chance of success, stood a strong +woman's jealousy and a weak man's cunning. For Gopal knew well that +sooner or later even the most indecent of barren wives must give her +lord a child-bringer. And in such case, without being bad to the +heart's core, a handsome fellow like Gopal might well speculate on a +youthful bride in the future, rather than take a widow in the present, +since Parbutti would never allow both. So, on the whole, he was not so +much to blame. Men were men when all was said and done. They loved +beauty. Yet she had been beautiful--surely she had been beautiful. + +The clangour ceased suddenly, leaving, as it were, an echo in the chime +of the police office gong at the nearest gate striking the hour--five +o'clock. Durga, as she counted the strokes, smiled contemptuously. As +usual Gopal was seizing on 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 implements +put aside, or guard against the prentice trick of concealing a handful +or two of snippings and filings; for there was his lithe figure at the +door, about to cross to the inner courtyard--to ease and indolence--to +his supper--to--to Parbutti! + +A flash of intense vitality came to Durga's face: despite its silence, +its absolute stillness, her whole figure was instinct with life as she +stood looking at the man opposite her. He was about her own age, and +the scanty clothing of the artisan clashes left the strength and beauty +of his limbs unconcealed. The face was handsome also, and pleasant in +its beardless contours, surrounded by the fringe of silky black hair +showing beneath the artisan's round calico cap. Both figure and +features displaying at their best the characteristics of that curious +guild which for thousands of years has defied the Sudra origin imputed +to it by the Brahmans, and worn the sacred thread of the twice-born in +the smithy, the mason's yard, and the carpenter's shop. It curved now +like a piece of whipcord 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 heredity. A curious anomaly; +one which has to be taken into account by the master builders of the +Great Imperial Institute when they count the cost of progress. And yet +as he paused, arrested by the glow on Durga's face, his thoughts defied +his education. For it came home to him suddenly, causelessly, that this +woman, the widow of his dead brother, was beautiful, and that he had a +right to her--if he chose. Yes! she was beautiful--far more beautiful, +despite her widowhood, than the jealous wife awaiting him within; and +she was his by right--if he chose. Why should he not choose? These +thoughts were crowding culture from his brain, as he crossed the +courtyard without a word; for convention so far held him fast. Only as +she stepped aside from the door to let him pass, their eyes met. + +When he had gone, and the sound of Parbutti's shrill welcoming rose +over the high partition wall, Durga crouched down beside the fireplace, +and blew softly at the smouldering embers under the pot of lentils. It +was woman's work to fan a flame if--if it were not fierce enough to do +its duty to the hearth. Easy work also: a woman could do it with no +more exertion than would make the bosom rise and fall a trifle quicker, +or send a tremble through the arm supporting the bowed 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 still Durga sat waiting, +her eyes upon the fire. The sunlight left the wall to dull shadow, the +flames died down, but no one called; perhaps they had eaten everything, +and she must stave off her whole day's hunger with a handful of parched +grain. Well! 'twould count as a virtue, not for herself, but for the +dead husband who had gone down to death sonless; not by her fault, +though--not by her fault! The old vague sense of injury returned, +lulling her to a sort of resignation. + +"Durga! Durga-dei!" + +She started from a half doze to see Parbutti pausing on her way to the +outer door, in order to exclaim at laziness--exclaiming all the louder +because Gopal, also on his way to the world beyond those four walls, +stood by listening both to the scolding and the silence. Suddenly he +moved impatiently to the door. + +"Come, wife! There is no time for such things nowadays. Stay wrangling +if thou wilt. I hate it all. Holy Lukshmi! it hath been so since the +world began, and I am tired of it!" + +He scarcely knew his own meaning; only this was clear--the old customs, +the old conventional ways were an annoyance. Yet, as he walked moodily +down the narrow street towards the police station, his mind circled +round one thought--he had a right by immemorial usage to claim Durga if +he chose. A queer medley altogether was Gopal, the coppersmith, seated +in the growing darkness on a certain flight of steps leading at one and +the same time to a small Hindu temple and the back door of a native +printing-office. Just over the way a yellow-trousered constable was +pacing up and down in front of the police and octroi station, between a +patent Birmingham-made weighing machine, warranted all the latest +improvements, and a primitive water-clock; thus as it were keeping +watch over the due measurement of the two great staples of +civilisation--Time and Money, and looking with equal impartiality at +the rising beam registering its burden accurately, and the copper +bowl--made no doubt by a forebear of Gopal's--sinking lower and lower +as the water filtered through the hole in its bottom, until it marked +the whereabouts 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 composedly to the courtyard where Durga-dei still crouched by +the ashes of the fire, and, sidling into her accustomed corner, lowed +for her supper. The woman rose and brought it mechanically. The cow at +any rate must not fast. As she mixed the portion of parched grain with +the fodder it smelt appetising, but she did not taste it. The hunger +that was on her was not to be stayed by food. She did not envy Parbutti +away at the wedding festivities at a neighbour's house--those +festivities whence the ill-omened widow's face was barred; she did not +envy Gopal sitting on the steps watching the current of life slip into +the old and the new channels, but in a vague way she envied Motiya, the +milk-giver, her honoured place by the hearthstone. She envied her the +calf which the milker on his rounds loosed from its tether in the dark +shed, and an answering quiver seemed to run through her limbs as she +saw the mother yield to the first rough touch of the sucking tongue. +When that was over, she crouched down again to brood over the empty +house. Parbutti would not be back till all hours, and Gopal--what of +Gopal? + +The night settled down. There was no moon, only a spangled star or two +showing in the narrow slip of sky above her. The noise of the city +without seemed lost in the stillness of the courtyard, where, through +the darkness, you could hear the sound of Motiya chewing the cud of +content. + +That in one corner; in the other something different, and yet-- + +"Durga! Durga-dei!" + +It was Gopal's voice through the darkness. + + + II. + +The dark nights had yielded to light ones, and drawn back into darkness +again more than once, before the second act of the drama began. Such 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 where the +dead ashes of the past day's flame showed white. Through the stillness +and the moonshine a man's voice petulant, almost peevish. + +"Lo! I told thee from the beginning it must be so. There is time yet. +Have patience awhile, Durga; when there is no escape Parbutti will +yield--that is woman's way. Thou knowest that I love thee; were it not +so why should I have sought thee?" Durga's clasped hands fell from +their hold upon his arm listlessly. + +"Yea! thou didst love me; that is true. And I? Knowest thou, Gopal, why +my heart sinks now as it never did when first I yielded to thy plan for +peace? Then it seemed naught to keep it secret awhile--no harm--no +blame; but now--Gopal! knowest thou it comes upon me even as if I were +a shameless one--since--since I have learnt to care--" + +Her voice died away to a whisper, her dark eyes sought his with a +passionate gloom in them before which his shifted uneasily. + +"A wife should love her husband, surely? so say the Scriptures--and +thou lovest old sayings, O Durga! Yea! and she should obey him also. So +let the question be awhile. When due time comes Parbutti shall be told +that the old custom hath prevailed, and that the child is of the +hearth. She is quick-witted, and will see that after all 'tis better +for _her_ than a stranger wife." + +A certain aggressiveness of accent provoked a sharp, half-questioning +protest. + +"And for thee also, Gopal; surely 'tis best for thee--if as thou sayest +I am dear unto thee?" + +"For me also, if thou desirest it so, though we men ask first that our +women live in peace. But see, the moon climbs high; Parbutti will be +returning, and she must not suspect yet awhile. Look not so troubled, +Durga! Sure I love thee, else wherefore should I have sought thee?" + +The repetition of this argument seemed as much for his own conviction +as for hers, and there was something of the same motive in the +half-hearted kiss he stooped to bestow upon her. To his surprise she +shrank from it, and the unexpected rebuff bringing 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 shouldest be thanking thy namesake,[23] _Mai_ Bhavani, for +sending pleasure in the path of duty. Afraid lest folk should blame +thee, when, woman-like, thou shouldest be praying the gods Parbutti +might return even now to see thee preferred before her." + +The words were spoken lightly, and the speaker's eyes smiled into the +earnest ones raised to his. So neither saw a muffled form at the +entrance behind them--a form which showed itself for a second, then +shrank back behind the strip of wall, built like a screen, across the +outer door. + +"If she came, Gopal, wouldst thou tell her the truth?" + +The night was so still that every word of the passionate whisper was +audible to that unseen listener. + +"Sure would I, sweetheart, if only to prevent her claws from +scratching. For look you, once 'tis known that you and I have settled +it, she can do naught--save quarrel. That is why I say wait till the +last. There will be no time then for words--or wiles. Now, Durga, I +must go--I would not she had the knowledge secretly--that were an evil +chance." + +The night was so still that a keen listener might have heard a light +footfall behind the screen, as if some one were stealing away from it. +But those two only heard their own soft breathing as their lips met. + +"Durga! Durga! asleep as usual, and I bade thee keep the fire aglow +lest I should need aught." + +The familiar fault-finding rang through the courtyard, and not even a +tremble in Parbutti's voice betrayed knowledge of that unseen listener, +who, five minutes before, had hid behind the screen. Gopal was right; +her wits were quick to seize on what was to her own advantage. Anger +and reproach were desirable, doubtless, but what if they left her +helpless? Besides, there was time to spare for such things 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 which had come so unexpectedly +to complicate the situation. So much for the women's thoughts; as for +the man's, as he sat in the dawning light eating his morning meal, they +might have been inferred from a certain irritation towards both the +women who, in one way or another, were engaged in ministering to his +comfort. For polygamy is not altogether tragic; it is often comic--at +times almost farcical. + +The clangour of metal upon metal rose with the sun, and all through the +long hot day the beat and the burr filled the courtyards where those +two women went about their daily tasks. When evening came it brought +Gopal an unusual display of platters at supper time--an unusual +sweetness both in the viands and in Parbutti's voice. + +"Lo! 'tis like a wedding feast, wife," he said, well pleased. + +She gave an odd little hysterical laugh. "Perhaps 'tis time there was a +wedding, O Gopal!" Then she grew grave. "Thy people say so, and mine +also. Even last night _Mai_ Radha spoke to me of her daughter. And +perhaps 'twere better so. Thou wouldst not cease to love me, O Gopal! +because I brought thee fair sons; ay! and a fair wife too." + +Her face was turned away; she spoke softly, regretfully, dutifully, as +a good Hindu wife should under the circumstances, and her husband could +hardly believe his ears. Parbutti--jealous Parbutti--suggesting a wife +of her own choice! Here indeed would have been a chance of peace, were +it 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 much taken aback for real assent or denial, and murmured +something incoherently about there being no need for hurry, no need to +bring a strange woman to the house--as yet. Parbutti's conventional +decorum gave way before even this faint allusion to realities, and she +turned upon him sharply. + +"Wherefore no stranger, Gopal? Sure it must be so, seeing thou wouldst +not mock me by thinking of a widow--a childless widow. 'Tis not as if +thou didst set store by foolish old ways. 'Tis not as though thou wast +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 seen her, but if thou heedest me not inquire of her secretly. +Durga is old and a widow. We want no more childless ones in this +house--nor her sons, even if fate were kind; for look you, I hate +her--I hate her." + +Gopal's faint protest died down before Parbutti's vehemence; if she +hated, she hated, and there was an end of it. No use in words, or for +the matter of that in deeds. He went moodily out into the bazaars for +comfort, telling himself he had been a fool to let his fancy for a +woman as old as he was fetter his future. He might have known it would +not last. That 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 the tie they imposed upon him. Durga was +his dead brother's widow, but what right had she to more consideration +than any other woman who had yielded to a man's promise? She was no +better than those others, would be no worse off than those others if +he-- Even Gopal could not put the thought plainly before himself; so he +took refuge in a general sense of injury. + +"Let be! Let be," he said angrily, the next time that Durga, with a +growing passion in her voice, demanded that he should admit the truth. +"And if thou sayest a word--I swear I will deny it. Nay! look not so, +Durga! I meant only if thou wilt not obey." + +She stood as if turned to stone. + +"Thou wouldst deny it? deny thy brother's child? Thou durst not, lest +the gods should slay thee for the infamy." + +He gave an embarrassed laugh. + +"Thou believest in the gods more than I, Durga; but I mean no harm to +thee. None shall say aught against thee if thou wilt have patience." + + + III. + +"And see that thou cleanest them well; they may be wanted ere long." + +There was jeering malice in words, tone, and manner as Parbutti handed +over the tarnished silver ornaments; but Durga took them without a +word--that aggressive silence of hers seeming, as it always did, to +defy the ceaseless clang of the copper which, as usual, filled the +sunlit courtyard. And yet to a woman less restrained than she here was +an occasion for bitter outcry. The ornaments had been hers in those +past days of honoured wifehood; now they were 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 +painful in its intensity; and Parbutti, as she watched the widow begin +her task, smiled to herself at the certainty of its being well +performed; for Durga displayed a vast anxiety to please nowadays--a +most convenient state of affairs for the household generally. Parbutti +smiled again, thinking what Durga would say when she knew the +truth--that the ornaments were to go in the wedding baskets of the +virgin bride who was to be the reward of Gopal's treachery. + +"They will need tamarinds to give them back their whiteness," thought +Durga, looking at the silver with experienced eyes. This interest in +the drudgery and detail of her life was not a conscious effort on her +part; of late a sort of dull comfort had come to her in the knowledge +that already, in a thousand ways, she was standing between the +household and that disregard of old ways which to her meant disgrace, +if not disaster. And so it was with a certain pride in her work that, +while Parbutti was sleeping, she watched the tamarind 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 bought more when next she wanted some. The thought +cheered her as, still with the same careful conservatism, she went on +to some other process, approved by old tradition, for the due cleansing +of tarnished silver. It was no light matter, that keeping of the +household ornaments as if they were fresh from the goldsmith's hands; +for did it not redound to the credit of the hearth? When she had worn +them, none could have told they were not newly-made out of new rupees; +but Parbutti thought only of wearing them in a becoming manner. + +Well! this time she should acknowledge that there was some good in +having Durga in the house. + +There was something infinitely pathetic in the slow workings of this +woman's mind, as she sat busy over the ornaments--something infinitely +pathetic in the pride with which, after the two or three days of +treatment prescribed, she showed them white and glistening to her +rival. + +"Ay!--they are as new--_Mai_ Radha will deem them so at any rate," said +Parbutti, with studied carelessness. The time had come for revenge. +Gopal's passion 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 springing the mine upon Durga. There is nothing in +heaven or earth so cruel as a jealous woman even when her nature is +kindly, and Parbutti's was not. + +"_Mai_ Radha! What hath she to do with them?" The quick anxiety of the +widow's tone was as balm to the other's ears. + +"What a mother hath to do with her daughter's trousseau for sure," she +answered lightly. "I meant to tell thee ere this, but Gopal would not +have it, and 'tis true that widows are ill meddlers with marriage. He +weds the girl next month by my consent. The house needs a child." + +So far Durga had stood staring at her enemy incredulously. Now she +flung out her arms in sudden passion, letting the widow's shrouding +veil fall from her figure recklessly. + +"'Tis a lie--an infamous lie! The house needs no stranger's child. Thou +knowest it! Yea, thou hast known it, and this is thy revenge. But it +shall not be. Gopal shall speak! Gopal, I say! Gopal!" + +Parbutti's hands gripped her rival's as in a vice despite her +struggles. + +"So! is it that? And thou wouldst lay the burden of thy shame on Gopal, +base walker of the bazaars, betrayer of thy dead lord! On Gopal who +weds a virgin; let us see what he saith. Gopal! I say, Gopal!" + +It almost seemed as if their clamour must have pierced that of the +coppersmith's shop, for the latter ceased suddenly in the slow chiming +of five o'clock. Instinctively the women fell away from each other, +feeling that the crisis had come. Another minute would bring the man to +answer for himself. So they stood waiting for the well-known figure on +the threshold. + +"Gopal!" + +He recoiled from the sight of them, coward to the backbone. + +And Parbutti knew it--knew the man with whom she had to deal a thousand +times better than Durga knew him; so her shrill voice came first, +allowing 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 bride to the house, nor indeed under such circumstances +would _Mai_ Radha ever consent to her daughter's marriage. Let him take +his choice without delay. + +And Durga, still gauging him by the measure of her own nature, claimed +the truth also. Between the two Gopal stood irresolute, divided between +fear and desire. + +"'Tis thy choice, O husband!" came Parbutti's shrill voice; "the widow +or the bride, thou canst not have both." + +He knew it perfectly. It was one or the other, and a sudden fierce +dislike leapt up against poor Durga. + +"It is a lie," he muttered, his eyes upon the ground; "I have naught to +do with her, naught." + +Durga fell back as if she had been struck, but Parbutti's laugh of +triumph failed before the sombre fire of those big blazing eyes. For an +instant it seemed as if the former would give herself up to vehement +upbraiding; then suddenly she passed 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 to find no foothold on which to recover her balance. He had +denied her, he had denied the hearth. Her tense fingers hung rigidly +without clasp or grip on anything, just as her mind seemed to have lost +hold on all her beliefs, all her knowledge. + +In a dim, half-dazed way she knew what would happen. By and by, when +opportunity occurred, Gopal would creep out, as he had crept out many a +time before, and seek to soothe her. There need be no scandal, 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 that was not +shame, nor anger, nor horror, but sheer animal jealousy, leapt up +within her; for she had learnt to care, as women do learn, even when +they know that he for whom they care is not worth it. + +So Parbutti and this new woman were to have him, and she-- + +When the brain is quick its owner may suffer more from the very variety +and complexity it gives to grief; but the grief for all that is less +absorbing. Durga was so lost in hers that she scarcely noticed Parbutti +coming in after a time to see about the supper. There was no call on +her for help this evening, no blame because the fires were slack and +nothing ready. To tell truth, even Parbutti did not care to drive the +stunned look from Durga's face, lest it should be replaced by seven +devils; so she was left alone. Yet even so, something made her start, +and for a second her hand moved as if she 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 break up the surface of her hot anger against Gopal. What! was +she to save Parbutti from the consequences of her own ignorance and +negligence? There was no more than that in Durga's mind as she watched +the cooking; no more than that, and a dumb conviction that somehow the +future must be changed, utterly changed. It could not be as the past +had been; so much was certain. Yet as she sat, thinking not at all, +something must have been juggling with her brain, for Parbutti's first +words, when an hour or so afterwards she came bustling back into the +outer court, found their reply ready on Durga's lips. + +"He is not well," she fussed. "Durga! thou art more learned in simples +than most. What shall I give to stay the burning 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 widow stood up mechanically, and her right +hand sought once more the crevices of the wall against which she was +leaning. + +"I know not. Give him tamarind water an thou likest. 'Tis not my work, +but thine." + +Revenge had sprung full-fledged from her slow brain in familiar face +and welcome form. And it would not be her doing, but Parbutti's! A sort +of sensual delight in the idea surged through her, making her add--as +if to, give an edge to the sword of fate--"yet if the sickness be about +'twere well to have more skill than mine. I would not have it said I +killed him!" + +Once more the spite against the woman overbore all other feelings for +the time. That, and a dull recognition of the fact that if Gopal died +he would 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, suddenly, those black eyes of hers blazed up fiercely. Yes! that +was the only possible end; as well now, when opportunity offered a +beginning, as later. + +"Ay! give him tamarind water--'tis best for such as he." + +Not a shadow of regret came to her as she watched Parbutti follow her +advice. It was as if since all time this thing had been ordained, as if +aught else were beyond her control. The curious calm with which the +Oriental regards death, even for himself, does not count for nothing in +such situations as this. We of the West, who 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, summoned from the _sahib-logue's_ hospital beyond +the walls, to satisfy that curious streak of education in the sick +man's mind, said sooth in declaring it to be a case of cholera? or +whether the wise woman sent by _Mai_ Radha was right in hinting at the +evil eye? Was it, briefly, God's judgment, or man's? The uncertainty +oppressed her. + +So the dawn breaking over that unseen, unknown world beyond the house +of the coppersmith found three haggard faces within it. Found the same +thought in each heart: was it to be death, or death in life for one, or +for all? yet each awaited the answer with a strange indifference. + +"Yes! 'tis the great sickness; he grows blue and cold already," said +the neighbours in frank wisdom as they looked in. The air was cooler +then with the sudden freshness which seems to come with the sun's first +rays; a thin blue smoke began to rise over the awakening city; the +sparrows sat preening 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 passively to the brightening sky from +the low string bed; the other two bent on the ground as passively. A +vessel full of tamarind water stood by the sick man, but he had +scarcely touched it. Perhaps after all it was the great sickness. Durga +scarcely knew whether she were glad or sorry at the thought. + +So the sun climbed up until, with one clear distinct +"_tam-burr-urr-ur-r_," the daily clamour of the shop began. Maybe the +master would not die, maybe he would; either way work must be done, and +no one had said the workers nay--as yet. + +"Gopal is still alive," commented the neighbours cheerfully as they +listened; "they will stop, likely, when they hear the death wail, and +'tis as well for him to end as he began with the ring of the metal in +his ears." + +The water-clock from the stairs where Gopal used to sit chimed noon. +The heavens were as brass. A perfect blaze of light beat down on the +courtyard and those three faces. But one of them waited no longer, +though it still gazed passively into the pale sky from the ground where +it lay. And Parbutti, the new-made widow, glared in terrified hatred at +the face of that other widow who stood looking down at the dead man. + +Then suddenly the death wail rose loud and clear in a woman's voice. + +"_Naked he came, naked has gone. This empty dwelling-place belongs +neither to you nor to me_." + +The clangour ceased, ending in a faint vibration like a dying breath. + +"Listen!" said the policeman watching the waterclock; "there is death +in the coppersmith's house. I heard he was ill of the sickness. God +save him--he hath no son." + + + + + FAIZULLAH. + + +He was beating his wife--an occupation which annihilates time, +dissolves the crust of culture, and reduces humanity in both +hemispheres to a state of original sin. It is therefore immaterial what +Faizullah and Haiyat Bibi did or said during the actual chastisement, +for they behaved themselves as any other couple in the same +circumstances would have done, that is to say, after the manner of two +animals--one injured in his feelings, the other in her body. + +She screamed vociferously, but for all that took her punishment with +methodical endurance; indeed, there was a distinct air of duty on both +sides which went far towards disguising the actual violence. 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 sympathetic, carrying a _lotah_ full +of water with which she administered comfort to the crushed victim. +Faizullah Khan watched the gradual subsidence of his wife's sobs with +evident satisfaction. + +"Hast had enough for this time, O Haiyat?" he asked mildly. "Or shall I +catch thee peeping through the door at the men-folk again like a cat +after a mouse? True, 'tis the way thou caughtest me for a husband, +Light of mine Eyes; but I will have none of it with other men. 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 that none +will seek her; but not I, Faizullah Khan, Belooch of Birokzai. Did I +not marry thee, O Haiyat, Marrow of my Bones, because of thy fair face? +Then what good wouldst thou be to me without a nose? Therefore be wise, +my heart, or I shall have to kill thee some day." + +"The _sahibs_ will hang thee in pigskin if thou dost," whimpered the +woman vindictively. "Yea, I would die gladly to see thee swing like the +wild beast thou art!" + +The sense of coercion was evidently passing away, nor were there +wanting signs that ere long tears would be dried at the flame of wrath +fast kindling in Haiyat's big black eyes. 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 +stretches and broken rocky distance to where a low line of serrated +blue mountains blocked the horizon. They were the Takt-i-Suleiman, and +beyond their peaks and passes lay Beloochistan. + +"There are no _sahibs_ yonder," he said, stretching his right hand +towards the hills; "no one to come between a man and his right of +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 keeps me +dawdling here a stranger in the house of mine ancient enemies. Why wilt +thou not come with me to the mountains, O Haiyat?" + +"I am not a wild beast as thou art," she retorted, still with +speech checked by sobs. "I will stay here and get thee swung, for the +_sahib-logues_ worship a woman away over the black water and do her +bidding. They will fill thy mouth with dirt, and burn thy body, and +curse thy soul to the nether--" + +"Nay! innermost Apple of mine Eye! do I not worship thee? And art thou +not a Belooch also by race, though thy people have dug the grave of +their courage with the plough, and tethered their freedom beside +their bullocks? They were not always dirt-eaters, mean-spirited, +big-bellied--" + +"_Hai! Hai!_" That was the beginning of the storm. What followed drove +big Faizullah into the court below, where the voices of the two women +ceased to be articulate; 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 right of subsequent abuse. So he smoked his pipe +placidly, and amused himself with polishing his well-beloved sword +which he kept in defiance of the Arms Act. + +The poorer women of the village nodded at each other as the shrill +clamour, floating over the high encircling wall, reached the well where +they came to draw water. + +"The stranger hath big hands," chuckled one; "yet are they smaller than +Haiyat's eye. That comes of being a widow so long." + +"There will be murder some day, mark my words!" muttered an old hag +with a toothless leer. "What else canst thou expect from a Belooch of +Birokzai? _Peace! Peace!_ 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 blood enough to quench them +afterwards. But they are afraid of the _sahibs_ and the pigskin; not so +Faizullah; he is of the old sort, knowing how to keep his wife." + +"He will not keep her for all that, _mai_," sneered a strapping girl, +who by the handsome water-vessels she carried showed herself to be a +servant in one of the richer houses. "We shall get her back some day, +despite her father-in-law's wickedness in letting her marry a +good-for-nothing soldier, just because of keeping a hold on her +jewels." + +"Hold on their honour, O thou false tongue!" shrilled another of the +group. "The daughter of thy house would have brought shame on ours. She +needed a fierce one to keep her straight." + +"After the man--woman, thy house gave her first, O depraved tongue that +tasteth not the truth. Had thy people sent her back, our house would +have kept her safe enough." + +"And her jewels doubtless--" + +So the war of words, begun on the top story of Faizullah's house, +found its way into the narrow village street, and thence into many a +mud-walled courtyard where the women set down the pots of water and +rested themselves in wrangling. It even went further, for in not a few +of them, when the men came back from their day's work in the fields, +the subject of Haiyat Bibi's peeping eyes and covetous jewels gave rise +to slow, deliberate conversation over the evening pipe. Faizullah was +right to beat her, of course; on that point all were agreed. The rest +was open to argument, and had been so any time these last two years, +ever since the bold Belooch of Birokzai, on his way home from short +service in a frontier regiment, had halted in his retreat at the sight +of a pair of big black eyes behind the chink of a door. Long before +that, however, the question as to whether those jewels of Haiyat 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 felt their +sheet-anchor of reference would be gone did any serious crime occur to +throw discredit on the converted community. Despite this constant care, +the village might have been situated in the moon for all the +authorities knew of the pretty intrigues, the hopes and fears, which +formed the mainspring of its life. Even the ordinary human interests of +its inhabitants were all too low in tone and insignificant to secure +alien sympathy. So Haiyat Bibi's peeping eyes and her Delhi-made jewels +were disturbing elements unknown to those who signed the monthly +criminal reports with placid self-satisfaction at their own success in +securing virtue. Even when, egged on by the family, her best-looking +male cousin made bids for possession of both these charms in various +underhand ways, the consequent employment of Faizullah Khan's marital +discipline did not resound so far as the _hakm's_ ears. + +Therefore it was an unpleasant surprise when, some six weeks after the +original homily against peeping, the significant red envelope which +proclaims the shedding of blood found its way into the Deputy +Commissioner's mail-bag, and brought the news of Haiyat Bibi's murder +by her husband, and his subsequent flight to the hills. Furthermore, it +was reported by the sergeant of police, whose very writing showed signs +of trepidation, that the whole village was in an uproar, and he himself +quite unable to cope with the situation. As luck would have it, some +eighty miles of desert and alluvial land lay between the excited +village and the fountains of law and order; for when the red envelope +arrived, the responsible officials were in camp at the other end of the +district. Nearly a week passed ere they could arrive on the scene, and +by that time the villagers had sworn to renew a blood-feud which in +past days had thriven bravely between their clan and that of the +murderer. They were, in fact, on the point of turning their +ploughshares into swords--an example which is dangerously contagious +among the border tribes. Owing, therefore, to the necessity of +persuading the people to trust the far-reaching arm of the law 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 disappearance, were produced and +sworn to vociferously by all. Relics of this sort are apt to be +somewhat indefinite; this objection, however, was met by the subsequent +discovery of portions of Haiyat Bibi's clothing, and a golden ear-ring +which the murderer had evidently dropped in his flight. The latter +whetted the desire for revenge to a point, for, as the district-officer +sorrowfully admitted to himself, the old-fashioned wrath at injury to +their women, so conspicuous among these border clans, was now freely +intermixed with that greed of gold which civilisation brings in its +wake. Finally, since nothing else could be done, a reward of two +thousand rupees was put upon the capture of one Faizullah Khan, Belooch +of Birokzai, accused of murdering his wife and stealing her jewels, +value twelve hundred rupees. In addition, vague promises were made that +on the next punitive expedition into the mountains an eye would be kept +on the escaped criminal's particular village, and some indemnity +exacted. There the matter rested peacefully, and so, on the whole, did +the village, though the friction between the blood-relations of the +murdered woman and her connections by marriage remained a fruitful +source of petty disturbance. + +"There is something odd about that case," remarked a new magistrate +when some fresh complaint of quarrel came in for settlement. "It is +always more satisfactory to have a real, _whole_ body; but when there +is neither corpse nor criminal it is useless depending on facts at +all." The police officer, however, declared, that having personally +conducted the inquiry no mistake in either facts or conclusions was +possible. + +Eighteen months passed by and early spring was melting the snows on +that great rampart of hills which, properly guarded, would make the +rich plains of India impregnable to a western foe. The border land was +astir, its officials 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 the district-officer sat in front of his +tent writing a rose-coloured report on the progress of education. It +was long overdue owing to the pressure of martial preparations, so he +was in a hurry and superlatives came fast. + +"A Belooch from beyond the border is seeking the Presence with +insistence," pleaded a deferential myrmidon. + +"Let him come," was the prompt reply; and the pen, laid aside, rolled +over, blotting the last sentence. What matter? Reports have various +values, and the Belooch might bring information that would make force +more forcible. + +An old soldier, by the look of him, tall and well set up, with merry +brown eyes and a determined face. He brought himself to the salute +gravely. "May the life of the Presence be prolonged and may his +gracious ears bear with a question. Is it true that the armies of the +Lord of the Universe march against the village of one Faizullah of +Birokzai?" + +"The armies of the Kaiser-i-Hind march against all thieves and +murderers, no matter who they are." + +"The words of the Presence are just altogether. Yet may the Protector +of the Poor bear with this dust-like one. Is it true that he who brings +Faizullah captive will receive two thousand rupees reward?" + +"It is true." + +"_Wah illah!_ The purse of the great Queen is big if the long tongue of +the Presence wags in it so freely. The sum is great." + +"The crime is great. He murdered his wife; besides, he stole twelve +hundred rupees' worth of jewels." + +The smile of contempt which had crept into the listener's face at the +first part of the sentence gave place to a frown at the sequel. "The +Presence says it; shall it not be true?" he remarked with deference +after a pause. "Nevertheless the sum exceeds the purchase. Does not the +price of the calf buy the cow also?[24] There is no wisdom in a bad +bargain." + +The Deputy Commissioner looked at the new comer sharply. "Doubtless; +yet none have given the man up, though all know we will keep our threat +of burning the village next month." + +The sudden clenching of the slender, nervous hands and quick inflation +of the nostrils convinced the Englishman that there was an envoy +prepared with concessions, but asking for some in return. + +"The Presence hath said it, shall it not be true?" came the urbane +reply. "Yet we Beloochees do not give up our friends readily. Still +Faizullah is no friend of mine, so for twelve hundred rupees I will +bring him to the Presence, _dead or alive_, if his honour pleases." + +The Deputy Commissioner stared. "But the reward is two thousand; why do +you ask less?" + +"The price of the calf is the price of the cow, _Huzoor!_ I lack but +one thing, and the sum is enough for the purchase. Am I a pig of +_baniah_ to fill my stomach with rupees I cannot digest? Nevertheless +the task is hard, and those who go near violence may suffer violence. +What good then would the money be to me if I were dead?" + +Like many of his race, he had a curiously round mellow voice that +seemed to linger over the slow, stately periods as he went on +deliberately. "Surely God will reward the Presence for his patience! +But a man's son is as himself. And I have a son, _Huzoor_, a babe in +his mother's arms--may the Lord bring him safe to man's estate! If the +great Purveyor of Justice would cause a writing to be made, setting +forth that my son 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 therefore guileful. It knows also that without the hope of +money naught but the stars in heaven will move; and if I say, 'Lo, I +will give, when I have it,' who will listen? But if I say, 'Lo! there +it is safe, do my bidding and take it,' 'tis a different matter. If, +therefore, the Presence will do this, his slave will bring Faizullah, +Belooch of Birokzai, to him _alive or dead_, and there will be no need +to burn the village." + +"And the jewels?" + +Once more the frown came quick. "If I bring Faizullah to the Halls of +Justice alive, surely the mightiness of the Presence will make him +speak. If I bring him dead, can this slave follow him and find speech +in the silence of the grave? Say! is it a bargain? Yes or no?" + +The anxious brevity of the last question showed the sincerity of the +man more than all his measured words, and after some further parley, +the conditions were arranged. That is to say, the sum of twelve hundred +rupees was forthwith to be paid into the hands of a responsible third +party, and the informer was to bring Faizullah 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 utterances, firstly, that no one +would know if he gave a false one; secondly, that if he failed to keep +his promise he would prefer to remain in oblivion; thirdly, that if he +did succeed in bringing Faizullah to book, the Presence would be sure +to recognise his servant and slave. Thus he departed as he came, a +nameless stranger. + +Three days after an excited crowd rode pell-mell into the magistrate's +compound. "_Huzoor!_ we have found him! we have found him!" rose a +dozen voices, as the more influential men of the party crushed into the +office room. + +"Who?" + +"Faizullah the Belooch! Faizullah the murderer! The reward is ours, +praise be to God and to your honour's opulence. _Wah_, the glad day! +_Wah_, the great day!" + +"_Salaam alaikoum_, Friend of the Poor Man!" came an urbane voice from +their midst. "The dust-like slave of the Presence hath kept his word. +Behold! I bring to you Faizullah Khan, Belooch of Birokzai, alive, not +dead." + +A sudden hush fell on the jostling crew as the prisoner raised his +fettered hands in grave obeisance, and then solemnly, vigorously, spat +to right and left ere he began: "Snakes gorged to impotence by their +own greed! Bullocks with but one set of eyes to seven stomachs! Listen! +whilst I recount the tale of your infamies to the ear of this wise +judge. _Huzoor!_ I am Faizullah, husband of the virtuous Haiyat, mother +of my son, dwelling content in the house of my father. Yea! it is true. +For her jewels' sake, her father-in-law bound me by promises, when he +found me caught in the meshes. So for her sake I stayed in a strange +land, and the fields and the jewels were as his. Then the old man +yonder, her uncle, wroth at the marriage, set his son to beguile her; +so I beat her till she had no heart to be beguiled. For all that they +would not cease from evil ways. Therefore said I to her father-in-law: +'Let me go, for surely if I stay thy daughter-in-law will have to die +some day, and then 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 came next. When the paper concerning the +twelve hundred rupees had been writ, I knew that my house would have +her rights anyhow, even if the eyes of the Just Judge were blinded by +false oaths, or that I came dead into the Presence. So I said by +message to the carrion: 'Dispute no longer among yourselves. Let me buy +the jewels at the price ye have put on them. Let one take the money and +the other the land, or half-and-half. Only give me the jewels, and say +in the Court of Justice,--"Lo! we were mistaken! Faizullah hath not +killed his wife. He nursed her back to life, and she hath a right to +the jewels and her son after her. But the land is ours by agreement."' +And to this they said 'Yea' guilefully. But when I went to the village, +trusting them not at all, they seized me and brought me hither for the +reward, not knowing that the Presence had deigned to cast his gracious +eye on this poor man before, and that the reward was for me, or my son. +It is spoken. Let the Presence decide!" + +Nothing is more surprising than the rapidity with which a got-up case +breaks down when once the judge is seen to have an inkling of the +truth. _Suave qui peut_ is then the motto; especially when nothing more +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 +jewels, which were found carefully hidden away in the house of Haiyat +Bibi's female attendant, who had died of cholera the year before, an +ingenious incident productive of injured innocence to all the living. + +"It has not emptied the purse of the great Queen after all," said +Faizullah with a broad smile, as he stood beside the Deputy +Commissioner on the crest of a hill, and pointed to a terraced village +on the opposite side of the valley. "Nor hath the house of the poor +suffered; for the dwelling of this slave will not burn." + +The jewels were in a bundle under his arm, and he was taking leave of +the expedition he had accompanied so far. He turned to go, then +suddenly saluted in military fashion. "If this dust-like one might give +freedom to his tongue for a space, the wisdom of experience might reach +the ear of those above 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 oaths when once his own tongue +is stilled by death; and that even the justice of kings avails little +when the case has been decided already. Let this memory remain with the +_sahibs_, 'Peace bringeth Plenty, and Plenty bringeth Power.' So it +comes that false oaths are easy under the rule of the Presence." + +That was his farewell. + +The snow still lay low, but the orchards were ablaze with blossom as, +next morning, the little force led by white faces straggled peacefully +along the cobbled ledges of the steep village lane. On either side +strips of garden ground, where the heart-shaped leaves 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 arms. The Deputy Commissioner happening +to come last and alone, stopped to look at the child with kindly eyes. +As he did so a door above was set ajar, and through the chink he caught +a glimpse of a singularly beautiful pair of black eyes, and a flash of +jewels. + +"It is my house, _Huzoor_," said Faizullah with rather a sheepish grin. +"I gave her leave to peep this time." + + + + + THE FOOTSTEP OF DEATH. + +Godliness is great riches if a man be content with what he hath. + + +These words invariably carry me back in the spirit to a certain avenue +of _shesham_ trees I knew in India; an avenue six miles long, leading +through barren sandy levels to the river which divided civilisation +from the frontier wilds; an avenue like the aisle 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 shade and shine I have looked out sideways +on the yellow glare of noon beyond in grateful remembrance of the man +who,--Heaven knows when!--planted this refuge for unborn generations of +travellers. Not a bad monument to leave behind one among forgetful +humanity. + +The avenue itself, for all its contenting shade, had nothing to do with +the text which brings it to memory--that co-ordination being due to an +old _fakeer_ who sat at the river end, where, without even a warning +brake, the aisle ended in a dazzling glare of sand-bank. This sudden +change no doubt accounted for the fact that on emerging from the shade +I always seemed to see a faint, half-hearted mirage of the still unseen +river beyond. An elusive mirage, distinct in the first surprise of its +discovery, vanishing when the attention sought for it. Altogether a +disturbing 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 at his side, which proclaimed him a +member of the sweeper, or lowest, caste; in other words, one of those +who at least gain from their degradation the possibility of living +cleanly without the aid of others. There are many striking points about +our Indian Empire; none perhaps more so, and yet less considered, than +the disabilities which caste brings in its train--the impossibility, +for instance, of having your floor swept unless Providence provides a +man made on purpose. My _fakeer_, however, was of those to whom +cleanliness and not godliness is the reason of existence. + +That was why his appeal for alms, while it took a religious turn as was +necessary, displayed also a truly catholic toleration. It consisted of +a single monotonous cry: "In the 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 fact +that the scavenger's god was not a name wherewith to conjure charity. +What then? The passer-by could give in the name of his particular deity +and let the minor prophets go. + +The plan seemed successful, for the wooden bowl, placed within the +clean-swept ring bordered by its edging of dust or mud, wherein he sat +winter and summer, was never empty, and his cry, if monotonous, was +cheerful. Not ten yards from his station beneath the last tree, the +road ended in a 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 the drivers took the short cut by the +plank serving as a footbridge. It served also as a warning to the blind +_fakeer_, without which many a possible contributor to the bowl might +have passed unheard and unsolicited over the soft sand. As it was, the +first creak of the plank provoked his cry. + +It was not, however, till I had passed the old man many times in my +frequent journeyings across the river that I noticed two peculiarities +in his method. He never begged of me or any other European who 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 they had passed; but +the former seemed unaccountable; and one day when the red-funnelled +steam ferry-boat, which set its surroundings so utterly at defiance, +was late, I questioned him on the subject. + +"You lose custom, surely, by seeking the shade?" I began. "If you were +at the other side of the cut you would catch those who come from the +city. They are the richest." + +As he turned his closed eyes towards me with a grave obeisance which +did not match the jaunty content of his mask, he looked--sitting in the +centre of his swept circle--ludicrously like one of those penwipers +young ladies make for charity bazaars. + +"The Presence mistakes," he replied. "Those who come from the town have +empty wallets. 'Tis those who come from the wilderness who give." + +"But you never beg of me, whether I go or come. Why is that?" + +"I take no money, _Huzoor_; it is of no use to me. The _sahibs_ carry +no food with them; not even tobacco, only cheroots." + +The evident regret in the latter half of his sentence amused me. "'Tis +you who mistake, _fakeer-ji_," I replied, taking out my pouch. "I am of +those who smoke pipes. And now tell me why you refuse money; most of +your kind are not so self-denying." + +"That is easy to explain. Some cannot eat what is given; with me it is +the other way. As my lord knows, we dust-like ones eat most things your +God has made. But we cannot eat money, perhaps because He did not make +it--so the _padres_ say." + +"Ah! you are learned; but you can always buy." + +"Begging is easier. See! my bowl is full, and the munificent offering +of the Presence is enough for two pipes. What more do I want?" + +Viewed from his standpoint the question was a hard one to answer. The +sun warmed him, the leaves sheltered him, the passers-by nourished him, +all apparently to his utmost satisfaction. I felt instinctively that +the state of his mind was the only refuge for the upholders of +civilisation and a high standard of comfort. So I asked him what he +thought about all day long. His reply brought total eclipse to all my +lights. + +"_Huzoor!_" he said gravely, "I meditate on the Beauty of Holiness." + +It was then that the text already quoted became indissolubly mixed up +with the spreading _shesham_ branches, the glare beyond, and that +life-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 +here?" I asked, after a time, during which he sat still as a graven +image with his closed eyes towards the uncertain mirage of the river. + +"'Tis nigh on thirty years, my lord, since I have been waiting." + +"Waiting for what?" + +"For the Footstep of Death--hark!" he paused suddenly, and a tremor +came to his closed eyelids as he gave the cry: "In the name of your +God!" + +The next instant a faint creak told me that the first passenger from +the newly-arrived ferry-boat had set foot on the bridge. "You have +quick ears, _fakeer-ji_," I remarked. + +"I live on footsteps, my lord." + +"And when the Footstep of Death comes, you will die of one, I presume!" + +He turned his face towards me quickly; it gave me quite a shock to find +a pair of clear, light-brown eyes looking at, or rather beyond, me. +From his constantly closed lids I had imagined that--as is so often the +case 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 apparently as perfect as my own, and extraordinarily clear +and bright--so clear that it seemed to me as if they did not even hold +a shadow of the world around them. The surprise made me forget my first +question in another. + +"_Huzoor!_" he replied, "I am quite blind. The Light came from the sky +one day and removed the Light I had before. It was a bad thunder-storm, +_Huzoor_; at least, 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-mannered, waiting for none. God knows +wherefore it should hurry so. The river remains always, and sooner or +later the screeching thing sticks on a sand-bank." + +"True enough," I replied, laughing. "Well, _salaam, fakeer-ji_." + +"_Salaam_, Shelter of the World. May the God of gods elevate your +honour to the post of Lieutenant-Governor without delay." + +After this I often stopped to say a few words to the old man and give +him a pipeful of tobacco. For the ferry-boat fulfilled his prophecy of +its future to a nicety, by acquiring intimate acquaintance with every +shallow in the river--a habit fatal to punctuality. It was an odd sight +lying out, so trim and smart, in the wastes of sand and water. Red +funnels standing up from among Beloochees and their camels, bullocks +scarred by the plough, _zenana_-women huddled in helpless white heaps, +wild frontiersmen squatted on the saddle-bags with which a sham +orientalism has filled our London drawing-rooms. Here and there a +dejected half-caste or a specimen of young India brimful of _The +Spectator_. Over all, on the bridge, Captain Ram Baksh struggling with +a double nature, represented 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-places, seemed to me +well worth consideration. Imagine a man born of a long line of those +who have swept the way for princes--who have, as it were, prepared +God's earth for over-refined footsteps. That, briefly, had been +_fakeer-ji's_ inheritance before he began to wait for the Footstep of +Death. Whatever it may do to the imagination of others, the position +appealed to mine strongly, the more so because, while speaking freely +enough about the family of decayed kings to whom he and his forebears +had belonged, and of the ruined palace they still possessed in the +oldest part of the city, he was singularly reticent as to the cause +which had turned him into a religious beggar. For the rest he waited in +godliness and contentment (or so he assured me) for the Footstep of +Death. + +The phrase grew to be quite a catch-word between us. "Not come yet, +_fakeer-ji?_" I would call as I trotted past after a few days' absence. + +"_Huzoor!_ I am still waiting. It will come some time." + +One night in the rains word came from a contractor over the water that +a new canal-dam of mine showed signs of giving, and, anxious to be on +the spot, I set off at once to catch the midnight ferryboat. I shall +not soon forget that ride through the _shesham_ aisle. The floods 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 rustle of birds in +the branches overhead, and suddenly, causelessly, a snatch of song +hushed in its first notes, as if the singer found it too light for +sleep, too dark for song. The beat of my horse's feet seemed to keep +time with the stars twinkling through the leaves. + +I was met at the road's end by the unwelcome news that at least two +hours must elapse ere the _Pioneer_ could be got off a newly-invented +mudbank which the river had maliciously, placed in a totally unexpected +place. Still more unwelcome was the discovery 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 ghostlike in the moonlight with his bowl full to the +brim in front of him. "That snorting devil behaves worse every day," he +said fervently; "but if the Shelter of the Poor will tarry a twinkling +I will sweep him a spot suitable for his exalted presence." + +Blind as he was, his dexterous broom had traced another circle of +cleanliness in a trice, a new reed-mat, no bigger than a handkerchief, +was placed in the centre, and I was being invited to ornament just such +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," (even Shakespeare, it will be observed, yields at times to +platitude). "For see," he added solemnly, producing something from a +hollow in the root, "the Presence's own tobacco returns to the +Presence's pipe." + +Sure enough it was genuine Golden Cloud, and the relief overpowered me. +There I was after a space, half-lying, half-sitting in the clean warm +sand, my hands clasped at the back of my head as I looked up into the +shimmering light and shade of the leaves. + +"Upon my soul I envy you, _fakeer-ji_. We who go to bed at set times +and seasons don't know the world we live in." + +"Religion is its own reward," remarked the graven image beside me, for +he had gone back to his penwiper by this time. But I was talking more +to myself than to him, in the half-drowsy excitement of physical +pleasure, so I went on unheeding. + +"Was there ever such a night since the one Jessica looked upon! and +what a scent there is in the air,--orange blossoms or something!" + +"It is a tree farther up the water-cut, _Huzoor_, a hill tree. The +river may have brought the seed; it happens so sometimes. Or the birds +may have brought it from the city. There was a tree of the kind in a +garden there. A big tree with large white flowers; so large that you +can hear them fall." + +The graven image sat so still with its face to the river, that it +seemed to me as if the voice I heard could not belong to it. A dreamy +sense of unreality added to my drowsy enjoyment of the surroundings. + +"Magnolia," I murmured sleepily; "a flower to dream about--hullo! +what's that?" + +A faint footfall, as of some one passing down an echoing passage, loud, +louder, loudest, making me start up, wide awake, as the _fakeer's_ cry +rose on the still air: "In the name of your God!" + +Some one was passing the bridge from the river, and after adding his +mite to the bowl, went on his way. + +"It is the echo, _Huzoor_" explained the old man, answering my start of +surprise. "The tree behind us is hollow and the cut is deep. Besides, +to-night the water runs deep and dark as Death because of the flood. +The step is always louder then." + +"No wonder you hear so quickly," I replied, sinking back again to my +comfort. "I thought it must be the Footstep of Death at least." + +He had turned towards me, and in the moonlight I could see those clear +eyes of his shining as if the light had come into them again. + +"Not yet, _Huzoor!_ But it may be the next one for all we know." + +What a gruesome idea! Hark! There it was again; loud, louder, loudest, +and then silence. + +"That came from the city, _Huzoor_. It comes and goes often, for the +law-courts have it in grip. Perhaps that is worse than Death." + +"Then you recognise footsteps?" + +"Surely. No two men walk the same; a footstep is as a face. Sometimes +after long years it comes back, and then you know it has passed +before." + +"Do they generally come back?" + +"Those from the city go back sooner or later unless Death takes them. +Those from the wilderness do not always return. The city holds them +fast, in the palace or in the gutter." + +Again the voice seemed to me not to belong to the still figure beside +me. "It makes a devilish noise, I admit," I said, half to myself; +"but--" + +"Perhaps if the _Huzoor_ listened for Death as I do he might keep +awake. Or perhaps if my lord pleases I might tell him a story of +footsteps to drive the idle dreams from his brain till the hour of that +snorting demon comes in due time?" + +"Go ahead," said I briefly, as I looked up at the stars. + +So he began. "It's a small story, _Huzoor_. A tale of footsteps from +beginning to end, for I am blind. Yet life was not always listening. +They used to say that Cheytu had the longest sight, the longest legs, +and the longest wind of any boy of his age. I was Cheytu." He paused, +and I watched a dancing shadow of a leaf till he went on. "The little +princess 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_, Cheytu the sweeper did not fan the flies from the little +princess herself; that was not his work. I belonged to her footsteps. I +was up before dawn sweeping the arcades of the old house ready for +them, and late at night it was my work to gather the dust of them and +the dead flowers she had played with, and bury them away in the garden +out of sight." + +A dim perception that this was strange talk for a sweeper made me +murmur sleepily, "That was very romantic of you, Cheytu." On the other +hand, it fitted my environment so admirably that the surprise passed +almost as it came. + +"She was a real princess, the daughter of kings who had been--God knows +when! It is written doubtless somewhere. Yes! a real princess, though +she could barely walk, and the track of her little feet was often +broken by handmarks in the dust. For naturally, _Huzoor_, the dust +might help 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 are, crept down while the child slept, to work evil to +mankind as women will. _Huzoor_, it was a bad storm. The red clouds had +hung over us all day long, joining the red dust from below so that it +came unawares at last, splitting the air and sending a great ladder of +light down the roof. + +"'Aimna! Aimna!' cried some one. I was up first and had her in my arms; +for see you, _Huzoor_, it was life or death, and the dead belong to 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 light of a +thousand days in my eyes and on her face. It was the last thing I saw, +_Huzoor_--the very last thing Cheytu the sweeper ever saw. + +"But I could hear. I could hear her calling, and I knew how her face +must be changing by the change in her voice. And then one day I found +myself sweeping the house against her wedding-feast; heard her crying +amongst her girl friends in the inner room. What then? Girls always cry +at their weddings. I went with her, of course, to the new life, because +I had swept the way for her ever since she could walk, and she needed +me more than ever in a strange house. It was a fine rich house, with +marble floors and a marble summer-house on the roof above her rooms. +People said she had made a good bargain with her beauty; perhaps, but +that child's face that I saw in the light was worth more than money, +_Huzoor_. She had ceased crying by this time, for she had plenty to +amuse her. Singers and players, and better story-tellers than Cheytu +the sweeper. It was but fair, 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, starless night, and +then I first heard the footstep, if it was a footstep,--loud, louder, +loudest; then a silence save for the patter of the falling flowers. I +heard it often after that, and always when it had passed the flowers +fell. They fell about the summer-house too, and in the morning I used +to sweep them into a heap and fling them over the parapet. But one day, +_Huzoor_, they fell close at hand, and my groping fingers seeking the +cause found a plank placed bridge-wise amongst the branches. _Huzoor!_ +was there any wonder the flowers fell all crushed and broken? That +night I listened again, and again the footsteps came amid a shower of +blossoms. What was to be done? Her women were as women are, and the +others were jealous already. Next day when I went to sweep I strewed +the fallen flowers thick, thick as a carpet round her bed; for she had +quick wits I knew. + +"'Cheytu! Cheytu!' + +"The old call came as I knew it would, and thinking of that little +child's face in the light I went up to her boldly. + +"'My princess,' I said in reply to her question as I bent over the +flowers, ''tis the footstep makes them fall so thick. If it is your +pleasure I will bid it cease. They may hurt your feet.' + +"I knew from her silence she understood. Suddenly she laughed; such a +girl's laugh. + +"'Flowers are soft to tread upon, Cheytu. Go! you need sweep for me no +more.' + +"I laughed too as I went. Not sweep for her when she only knew God's +earth after I had made it ready for her feet! It was a woman's idle +word, but, woman-like, she would think and see wisdom for herself. + +"That night I listened once more. The footstep must come once I +knew--just once, and after that wisdom and safety. _Huzoor!_ it came, +and the flowers fell softly. But wisdom was too late. I tried to get at +her to save her from their pitiless justice. I heard her cries, for +mercy; I heard her cry even for Cheytu the sweeper before they flung me +from the steps where the twinkling lights went up and down as if the +very stars 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. Such things are forgotten quickly, my lord, because the +revenge must be secret as the wrong; else it is shame, and shame must +not come nigh good families. But the blind do not forget easily; +perhaps they have less to remember. Could I forget the child's face in +the light? As I told the Presence, those who go from the city come back +to it sooner or later unless Death takes them first. So I wait for the +Footstep--hark!" + +Loud--louder--loudest: "In the name of your own God." + + + * * * * * + + +Did I wake with the cry? Or did I only open my eyes to see a glimmer of +dawn paling the sky, the birds shifting in the branches, the old man +seated bolt upright in his penwiper? + +"That was the first passenger, _Huzoor_," he said quietly. "The boat +has come. It is time your honour conferred dignity on ill manners by +joining it." + +"But the footstep! the princess! you were telling me just now--" + +"What does a sweeper know of princesses, my lord? The Presence slept, +and doubtless he dreamed dreams. The tobacco--" + +He paused. "Well," said I, curiously. + +"_Huzoor!_ this slave steeps his tobacco in the sleep-compeller. It +gives great contentment." + +I looked down at my pipe. It was but half smoked through. Was this +really the explanation? + +"But the echo?" I protested. "I heard it but now." + +"Of a truth there is an echo. That is not a dream. For the rest it is +well. The time has passed swiftly, the _Huzoor_ is rested, his servant +has returned, the boat has come--all in contentment. The Shelter of the +World can proceed on his journey in peace, and return in peace." + +"Unless the Footstep of Death overtakes me meanwhile," said I, but half +satisfied. + +"_Huzoor!_ It never overtakes the just. Death and the righteous look at +each other in the face as friends. When the Footstep comes I will go to +meet it, and so will you. Hark! the demon screeches. Peace go with you, +my lord." + +About a year after this the daily police reports brought me the news +that my friend the old _fakeer_ had been found dead in the water-cut. +An unusually heavy flood had undermined the banks and loosened the +bridge; it must have fallen while the old man was on it, for his 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 the doctor when, as +in duty bound, he went to the dead-house to examine the body. The +smiling mask was unchanged, but the eyes were open, and looked somehow +less empty dead than in the almost terrible clearness of life. The +right hand was fast clenched over something. + +"Only a crushed magnolia blossom," said the doctor, gently unclasping +the dead fingers. "Poor beggar! it must have been floating in the +water--there's a tree up the cut; I've often smelt it from the road. +Drowning men--you know the rest." + +Did I? The coincidence was, to say the least of it, curious. It became +more curious still when, three weeks afterwards, the unrecognisable +body of a man was found half buried in the silt left in the alluvial +basin by the subsiding floods--a man of more than middle age, whose +right hand was clenched tight, over nothing. + +So the question remains. Did I dream that night, or did the Footstep of +Death bring revenge when it came over the bridge at last? I have never +been able to decide; and the only thing which remains sure is the +figure of the old _fakeer_ with blind eyes, looking out on the +uncertain mirage of the river and waiting in godliness and +contentment,--for what? + + + + + HABITUAL CRIMINALS. + + +The very _mise-en-scene_ was indeterminate. A straight horizon meeting +the blue sky evenly, though not an inch of level ground lay far or near +in the pathless waste of yellow sand. Pathless, yet full of tracks. +Looking down at your feet, which, breaking through the rippling crust +of wind-waves on the surface, sank softly into the warm shifting sand +beneath, you could see the tracks crossing and re-crossing each other, +tracing a network over the world, each distinct, self-reliant, +self-contained. Yet such tiny tracks for the most part! That firm +zigzag, regular as a Gothic moulding, is 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 +upon a boy. He must have been ten years old, at least, by his size; any +age, judging by his face; stark naked save for a string and a scrap of +cloth. His head would have been an admirable advertisement to any hair +restorer, for it was thick and curly in patches, bald as a coot's in +others; briefly, like a well-kept poodle's. For the rest he was of +unusually dark complexion. He was sitting listless, yet alert, beside +some small holes in the sand, and when he saw me he smiled broadly, +showing a great gleam of white teeth. I asked him cheerfully who he +was, and he replied in the same tone, + +"_Huzoor! main Bowriah hone_." (I am a Bowriah.) It gave me a chill +somehow. So the lad was a Bowriah; in other words, one of that criminal +class which Western discipline keeps in 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 solemnly set down in black and write as an adult bad character. +The boy, however, seemed to have no misgivings, for he smiled still +more broadly when I asked him what he was doing. + +"Catching lizards, _Huzoor!_ They are fat at this time." + +My chill changed its cause incontinently. "You don't mean to say you +eat lizards?" + +He looked at me more gravely. "Wherefore not, _Huzoor_? The Bowriahs +eat everything, except cats. Cats are heating to the blood, especially +in spring time." + +His air of well-defined wisdom tickled me; perhaps it touched me also, +for, ere riding off, I asked him his name, thinking I might inquire +more of him; for the sole reason of my tents being a few miles farther +in this sandy wilderness was the due inspection of a Bowriah village +which had been planted there, out of harm's way, by the authorities. + +"Mungal, _Huzoor_" he replied. So I left him watching for the fat +lizards, and cantered on over the desert. + +Suddenly I drew rein with a jerk. There he was again in front of me +sitting before another group of holes. + +"Hullo!" I cried, "how on earth did you manage to get here, Mungal?" + +The boy smiled his broad, white smile, "The _Huzoor_ mistakes. I am +Bungal. Mungal is my brother over yonder." He stretched a thin dark arm +into the desert whence I had come. Mungal and Bungal! Twins, of course! +Even so the likeness was almost incredible. My memory could find no +dissimilarity of any sort or kind--no outward dissimilarity, at any +rate. The thought suggested an experiment, and I asked him what he was. + +"_Huzoor! main Bowriah hone_," came instantly. + +"And what are you doing?" I continued. + +"Catching lizards, _Huzoor!_ They are fat at this time." + +Positively my chill returned, making me say quite naturally, "What! do +you eat lizards?" + +"Wherefore not, _Huzoor_? The Bowriahs eat everything, except cats. +Cats are heating to the blood, especially in, spring time." + +Identical so far. The quaintness of the idea prevented me from +disturbing it by further inquiry, so I rode on, dimly expectant of +finding a third habitual criminal--say Jungal this time--watching for +fat lizards at other holes. But I did not. They were twins only; 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 three months. By no means a +disagreeable occupation, for the Bowriahs have always a broad smile for +a sportsman. Indeed, several of the most suspicious characters had +promised me the best of _shikar_ on the morrow; and what is more, they +kept their promise faithfully. + +As for Mungal and Bungal, even when seen together it was absolutely +impossible for me to detect any difference of any kind between the two +boys. Even their heads were shaven in the same tufts, and as they +invariably repeated each other, there was no differentiating them by +their words. + +Only their works remained as a means of knowledge, and with a view to +this I questioned the Deputy Inspector of Police, who was out with me, +as to the lads. + +"_Huzoor!_" he said, "they are of the Bowriah race. Their father and +mother are dead, but in life these were Bowriahs also. The boys, +however, not being adult, are not as yet on the Register; but they will +be. For the rest they are as Bowriahs. They eat jackals, wolves, and +such unclean things." + +I felt myself on the point of adding, "But not cats--cats, etc.;" +however I stopped myself in time, and asked instead if the boys stole, +or lied, or-- + +The Deputy Inspector interrupted me respectfully, yet firmly. +"_Huzoor!_ not being adult they are not on the Register. Therefore the +police have no cognizance of them--as yet." + +"Then why do they make for the village now they hear the roll +beginning?" I persisted somewhat testily, as I saw Mungal and Bungal +racing along to the gateway in company with a number of boys about +their own age. + +"They do it to please themselves. It gives them dignity. Besides, in +youth one learns habits easily. Thus it is better, since the boys will +surely be on the Register if God spares them to adult age." + +I looked at the man sharply; there was positively not one atom of +expression of any kind whatever on his face. It is a great art. + +On the morrow Mungal and Bungal turned up again as part of the shooting +excursion, for even among their tribe of hunters they had already made +themselves a sporting reputation; perhaps because, being orphans, they +lived chiefly on their wits. It certainly was remarkable to see them on +a trail, turning and twisting and doubling on traces invisible 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 bush whence I +intended to fire, when a small dark hand clutched mine from behind, and +another pointed to something within an inch of where I had been about +to place my fingers. By everything unpleasant! a viper coiled in a true +lover's knot! "T--Tss-ss," came a sibilant whisper checking my start; +"the buck is there, _Huzoor_; the buck is there still." + +And he remained there, for my bullet went clean through his heart. It +was after the excitement of success was over that I turned to the boys, +and, somewhat thoughtlessly, held out a rupee. + +"Which of you two pointed out that _jelaibee?_" I asked. + +"_Huzoor!_ I did," came both voices simultaneously. At first they +refused to budge from this simple statement, reserving the remainder of +their vocabulary for indignant abuse of each other. Nor could I from +their expression or tone glean the slightest corroborative evidence for +or against the truth of either. The greed in 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 deserved a rupee. Certainly there had been two +hands, the one to clutch, the other to point, but I felt morally +certain that they had belonged to one body. However, to settle the +matter I gave each of the boys eight annas, and went back to my tents +convinced that either Mungal or Bungal was a liar. The question +was--which? + +That evening, when I was awaiting the appearance of my dinner with the +comfortable sense of a good appetite, I heard trouble in the cook-room +tent. It was followed by the violent irruption into mine of the whole +posse of servants gathered round my old _khansaman_ who, breathless but +triumphant, held Mungal and Bungal each by one ear. + +"It was the _esh-starffit_[25] quails, _Huzoor_, that I had prepared +for the Protector of the Poor; two for his Honour, seeing that he loves +the dish, and one for _Barker sahib_,[26] should God send a guest, so +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 +I am I fled after him, then remembering boys' ways, ran back round the +tent in time to see him, from fear, replacing it. Finally, with hue and +cry, we caught both escaping into the darkness of the desert." + +"Both of them!" I echoed; "but you said there was only one." + +"The _Huzoor_ mistakes," retorted the _khansaman_ quite huffily. +"Perchance there was one who stole, and one who gave back. This slave +had no time for trivial observation, these being undoubtedly 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 remarks, that being Bowriahs the +boys were necessarily thieves, and that in addition it was superfluous, +if not impious, to draw invidious distinctions where it had pleased +Providence to make none. + +But my curiosity had been aroused. "Mungal and Bungal," I said +solemnly, addressing the culprits who, with hands folded in front of +them like infant Samuels, stood cheerfully stolid, just as the adult +members of their tribe invariably did when brought before me as +habitual criminals, "do you by chance know what telling the truth +means?" + +As they assured me fervently that they did, I went on to explain that +my only desire in this case was to have the truth; that no one should +suffer by it; that contrariwise the tellers should 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 knew instinctively that +they were discounting my words by inherited experience of similar +promises. So it was with a prescience of what would follow that I put +the least formidable question-- + +"Which of you replaced the quail?" + +The answer came double-barrelled, unhesitating, "I did, _Huzoor_." + +"Let me give the boys five stripes each with the bamboo, _Huzoor!_" +suggested the Deputy Inspector with a stifled yawn, when I had wasted +much time and more unction, "it is good for boys at all times, and +these are but boys--as yet." + +It would have been the wisest plan, but I could not make up my mind to +it, so I went to bed that night certain of but one thing--either Mungal +or Bungal was a thief. The question was--which? + +It kept me awake until I made up my mind that somehow, by hook or by +crook, I would find out. Twenty-four hours was 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 boys with me I should have ample opportunity +of settling the question. Besides, they would be invaluable as +trackers. + +They proved themselves useful in many ways, and even the old khansaman +grudgingly admitted their skill in the capture of chickens. The +spectacle of a half-plucked fowl defying all the resources of the camp +became a thing of the past, for Mungal or Bungal had it fast by the leg +in a trice. + +"_Sobhan ullah!_" (Power of the Lord) the old man would say piously. +"But there! they were made for such work from the beginning. We all +have our uses." + +My first desire was naturally to distinguish Mungal from Bungal. The +camp, it is true, had no such ambition. It was content to speak of them +as "_Yeh_" or "_Dusra_" (This or the Other), to which they answered +alternately. Thinking to effect my purpose, I gave one a necklace of +blue, the other a necklace of red beads; but they were evidently +suspicious of some plot, for I caught them exchanging decorations +several times. Evidently no reliance was to be placed on beads, so I +had a brass bangle riveted on the arm of one, and an iron bangle on the +arm of the other. That succeeded for a week. At least so I thought, +till I discovered that they had utilised my English files to cut +through the 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 stood, as usual when before me, in the attitude of the +praying Samuel, but I noticed their shoulders seemed glued to each +other, and that the whole balance of their lithe brown bodies was +towards each other. In truth the tie between them was strong indeed. By +day they and my big dog hunted together, and by night the trio slept in +each other's arms like puppies of one litter. When they pilfered, they +pilfered in pairs, and when they lied, they lied in pairs; still, +through it all, the idea clung to me that perhaps only one lied and +stole. But punishment of some sort being imperative, I gave in to the +impartial bamboo--for which, to say sooth, neither of them seemed to +care very much. + +In fact, the experiment appeared so successful, the boys so happy, that +the demon of self-complacency entered into me on my return to +headquarters, and I determined to send Mungal and Bungal to school, and +so differentiate them by their intellects. It was a disastrous +experiment, both to the clothes in which I had to dress them, and to +the peace of the compound; but it proved one thing, that neither Mungal +nor Bungal had any aptitude for learning the alphabet. Then, as the +recognised way of reclaiming the predatory tribes is to make them +tillers of the soil, I set my boys to work weeding in the garden. It +was a large garden, full of blossoming shrubs and shady fruiting trees, +where the squirrels loved to chatter, the birds to sing, and I to watch +them both. Within a fortnight neither fur nor feather was to be seen +anywhere. On the other hand, Mungal, Bungal, and Co. had killed five +cobras, two iguanas, and some dozens of cockroaches, rats, and +mice--all of which they had eaten. It was when, failing other game, a +pet parrot of 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 them up without food for twenty-four hours, and begged me to +continue the like discipline whenever the offence was repeated. Hunger, +she said, had a gentle and humanising influence on all wild animals, +who might thus be brought to eat from the hand of authority. So it +seemed; for one night the lady's pet Persian kitten disappeared +mysteriously from her room. I tried to persuade myself it could not be +the boys, because "cat is heating to the blood," etc., etc.; but I knew +they had been hungry, and that game was scarce in both gardens. And, +sure enough, the police in searching their hut found some gnawed bones, +poor pussy's white skin neatly stretched on a board to dry, and, of +course, both the boys. They always were found together. This time they +attempted excuse, the one for the other. Mungal or Bungal had been +hungry; must have been hungry, or he would not have eaten cat, seeing +that cat, etc., etc. So they were sentenced judicially to so many +stripes apiece, and I resolved on sending them back to the walled +village as incurable. + +"It is a good word, indeed," said the old _khansaman_ pompously. "Thus +the _Huzoor's_ compound will be free from all kinds of vermin; for, as +I live, the boy hath killed a snake in his Honour's henhouse every +night, save the last; and that, methinks, is because there are no more +to kill." + +"The boy? which boy?" I asked, suddenly curious. Then it came out that +every one in the place knew that either "Yeh" or "Dusra" had been +locked up in the hen-house from dusk till dawn every night for a +week or more, because some vermin was carrying off the chickens. Locked +up from daylight to daylight! without a possibility of cat_icide_. The +fact revived all my old curiosity, all my old determination to +differentiate these boys. I shall not easily forget the Deputy +Inspector's face of incredulous horror when I told him that +Mungal-Bungal was to remain for another trial. Even the Commissioner's +wife told me she thought it conceited on my part, seeing that female +influence had failed so signally. + +And, as a matter of fact, I gained nothing in the end by my +perseverance. + +The nights were growing warm, so I slept with the doors open; secure, +however, so I deemed, from fear of any kind by reason of the mastiff +which was 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, where I slept in order to enjoy the full current of air. +Hopelessly dark for the eyes as I woke one night to the touch of a +small flexible hand on mine. + +"Hullo! who are you?" I cried in the half-drowsy alertness which comes +with a sudden decisive awakening. + +"_Huzoor, main Bowriah hone_." + +I seem to hear the answer as I write--confident, contented, cheerful. +And then my attention shifted absolutely to a streak of light +glimmering under the closed door of my office. Thieves! thieves in the +house! I was among them in an instant, getting a glimpse of dark +figures at my cash box before the light 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 retainers I saw Mungal-Bungal led by the ears, caught +in the very act of running away in the rear of those adult members +of their tribe whose accomplices they had been; for the mastiff was +dead--brutally, skilfully strangled by some fiend of a friend whom the +poor dog had trusted to slip a noose round its neck. + +One of those two, of course; who else could it have been? + +But then that small warning hand on mine! That answer I knew so +well:-- + +"_Huzoor! main Bowriah hone_." + +Great God! what a tragedy lay in these words! + +I was too sick at heart to question those infant Samuels again; I knew +the double-barrelled denial too well. However, as I had been roused in +time to prevent actual theft, I managed to hush the matter up by +promising the Deputy Inspector to send the boys back to their village +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 watched +Mungal-Bungal go from my gate in charge of the constable who was to +conduct it back to the hereditary place in life to which it had, +apparently, pleased God to call the firm, I knew that if one-half was +already a habitual criminal, the other half was an embryo saint. + +The question remains--which? + + + + + MUSSUMAT KIRPO'S DOLL. + + +They had gathered all the schools into the Mission House compound, and +set them out in companies on the bare ground like seedlings in a +bed,--a perfect garden of girls, from five to fifteen, arrayed in +rainbow hues; some of them in their wedding dresses of scarlet, most of +them bedecked with the family jewelry, and even the shabbiest boasting +a row or two of tinsel on bodice or veil. + +And down the walks, drawn with mathematical accuracy between these +hotbeds of learning, a few English ladies with eager, kindly faces, +trotting up and down, conferring excitedly with portly native Christian +Bible-women, and pausing occasionally to encourage some young offshoot +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, kindly foreign faces, +not confined here to one sex, but in fair proportion male and female; +yet, bearded like the pard or feminine to a fault, all with the same +expression, the same universal kindly benevolence towards the +horticultural exhibition spread out before their eyes. + +At the table, pale or flushed with sheer good feeling, two or three of +the chief Mission ladies, and between them, with a mundane, married +look about her, contrasting strongly with her surroundings, the +Commissioner's wife, about to give away the prizes. A kindly face also, +despite its half-bewildered look, as one after another of the seedlings +comes up to receive the reward of merit. One after another solemnly, +for dotted 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, scholastic Hindustani with which her flushed, excited +countrywomen introduce each claimant to her notice. Still she smiles, +and says, "_Bohut uchcha_" (very good), and nods as if she did. In a +vague way she is relieved when the books are finished and she begins +upon the dolls. There is something familiar and cosmopolitan in the +gloating desire of the large dark eyes, and the possessive clutch of +the small hands over the treasure. + +"Standard I. Mussumat[27] Kirpo," reads out the secretary, and a tall +girl of about fifteen comes forward. A sort of annoyed surprise passes +among the ladies in quick whispers. 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 +school so irregularly, and really Julia Smith might have explained! +This the lady in question proceeds to do almost tearfully, until she is +cut short by superior decision. + +"Well, we must give it her now as there isn't anything else for her. +So, dear Mrs. Gordon, if you please! Of course, as a rule, we always +draw the line about dolls 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 emphasise our views on the +child-marriage question. But if you will be kind enough in this +case--just to avoid confusion--we will rectify the mistake to-morrow." + +Mussumat Kirpo took her doll stolidly;--a sickly, stupid-looking girl, +limping as she walked dully, stolidly back to her place. + +"_Ari!_" giggled the women behind the bushes. "That's all she is likely +to get in that way. Lo! they made a bad bargain in brides in Gungo's +house, and no mistake. But 'twas ill luck, not ill management; for they +tell me Kirpo was straight and sound when she was betrothed. May the +gods keep my daughters-in-law healthy and handsome." + +Then they forgot the joke in tender delight over more suitable gifts to +the others; and so the great day passed to its ending. + +"I do believe poor Kirpo's getting that doll was the only +_contretemps_," said the superintendent triumphantly, "and that, dear +Julia, you can easily remedy to-morrow, so don't fret about it." + +With this intention Julia Smith went down at the first opportunity to +her school in the slums of the city. A general air of slackness +pervaded the upstairs room, where only a row of little mites sat +whispering to each other, while their mistress, full of yawns and +stretchings, talked over the events of yesterday with her monitor. +Briefly, if the Miss-_sahib_ thought she was going to slave as she had +done for the past year for a paltry eight yards of _sussi_-trousering, +which would not be enough to cut into the "fassen "--why, the +Miss-_sahib_ was mistaken. And then with the well-known footfall on the +stairs came smiles and flattery. But Kirpo 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 glances +of longing on every house where she had not as yet found entrance. +Hence her reluctance to quarrel definitely with her pupil, or rather +her pupil's belongings, since poor Kirpo did not count for much in that +bustling Hindu household. But for the fact that she was useful at the +trade and as a general drudge, _Mai_ Gungo would long ago have found +some excuse for sending the girl, who had so wofully disappointed all +expectations, back to her people,--those people who had taken the +wedding gifts and given a half-crippled, half-silly bride in exchange. +Unparalleled effrontery and wickedness, to be avenged on the only head +within reach. + +"She wants none of your dolls or your books," shrilled _Mai_ Gungo, who +was in a bad temper; "they aren't worth anything, and I expected +nothing less than a suit of clothes, 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 folk, +and she costs to feed--she who will never do her duty as a wife. Yet +must not Kuniya's son remain sonless; thus is there the expense of +another wife in the future." + +So the complaints went on, while Kirpo, in full hearing, sat filing +away at the combs without a flicker of expression on her face. + +But when Julia had settled the business with eight annas from her +private pocket, and was once more picking her way through the +drain-like alley, she heard limping steps behind her. It was Kirpo and +the Japanese doll. + +"The Miss-_sahib_ has forgotten it," she said stolidly. Julia Smith +stood in the sunlight, utterly unmindful of a turgid stream of +concentrated filth which at that moment came sweeping along the +gutter. Her gentle, womanly eyes saw something she recognised in the +child-like, yet unchild-like face looking into hers. + +"Would you like to keep it, dear?" she asked gently. Kirpo nodded her +head. + +"She needn't know," she explained. "I could keep it in the cow-shed, +and they will sell the book you left for me. They would sell this too. +That is why I brought it back." + +This admixture of cunning rather dashed poor Julia's pity; but in the +end Kirpo went back to her work with the Japanese doll carefully +concealed in her veil, and for the next year Julia Smith never caught +sight of it again. Things went on as if it had not been in that +straggling Hindu house, with its big courtyard and dark slips of rooms. +Perhaps Kirpo got up at night to play with it; perhaps she never played +with it at all, but, having wrapped it in a napkin and buried it away +somewhere, was content in its possession like the man with his one +talent; for this miserliness 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, seemed +disposed to save the family from the expense of another bride by +presenting it with a child. Nothing, of course, could alter the fact of +the girl's ugliness and stupidity and lameness; still, if she did her +duty in this one point _Mai_ Gungo could put up with her, especially as +she really did very well at the combs. She was not worked quite so hard +now, since that might affect the future promise. Perhaps this gave +Kirpo more time to play with the Japanese doll, perhaps it did not. +Outwardly, at any rate, life went on in the courtyard as though no such +thing existed. + +"She may die, the crippled ones often do," said the gossips, scarcely +lowering their voices; "but it will be a great saving, _Mai_ Gungo, if +the grandson comes without another daughter-in-law; they quarrel so. +Besides, it is in God's hands. May He preserve both to you." _Mai_ +Gungo echoed the wish, with the reservation that if the whole wish was +impossible, the child at least 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 shrill voice. It had +been much greater fun at the school; and as for the prize-giving days! +Kirpo had four of those red-letter glimpses of the world to recollect, +but she always gave the palm of pleasure to the last, when they had +laughed at her and the Japanese doll. Perhaps because she remembered it +best; for, as has been said, poor Kirpo's was not a brilliant +intellect. + +So just about the time when the Mission House was once more buying +large consignments of dolls and books, and laying in yards on yards of +_sussi_-trousering and Manchester veiling against another prize-giving, +the mistress of the little school-room up two pair of stairs said to +Julia Smith, + +"Kirpo had a son last week. _Mai_ Gungo hath given offerings galore." + +"And Kirpo herself?" + +"She ails, they say; but that is likely. The hour of danger is over." + +That same afternoon Julia Smith once more picked her way along the +gutters to the mud steps and closed door of Kuniya's house. Kirpo was +lying alone on a bed in the shadow of a grass thatch. + +"And where is the baby?" asked Julia, cheerfully. + +"Mother-in-law hath it. 'Tis a son--doubtless the Miss hath heard so." +There was the oddest mixture of pride and regret in the girl's dull +face. + +"She will let thee have it when thou art stronger," said her visitor +quickly. "Thou must give me back the dolly, Kirpo, now thou hast a live +one of thine own." + +The girl's head shifted uneasily on the hard pillow. + +"Ay! and the prize-giving day must be close, I have been thinking. If +the Miss-_sahib_ will look behind the straw yonder she will find the +doll. It is not hurt. And the Miss can give it to some one else. I +don't want it any more. She might give it to a little girl this time. +She could play with it." + +"_Mai_ Gungo!" said Julia severely, as, on her way out, she found the +mother-in-law surrounded by her gossips, exhibiting the baby to them +with great pride, "you must look to Kirpo; she thrives not. And give +her the baby--she pines after it." + +"The Miss doth not understand," flounced Gungo. "What can Kirpo do with +a baby? She is a fool; besides, a mother like that hath evil influences +till the time of purification hath passed." + +Ten days afterwards the mistress of the school told Julia that Kirpo +had the fever, and they did not think she would recover. It was never +safe for such as she to have sons, and nothing else was to be expected. + +Perhaps it was not; for Julia found her on the bare ground of the +courtyard where she had been set to die. The oil lamps flared smokily +at her head and her feet, and _Mai_ Gungo, with the fortnight-old baby +in her arms, cried "_Ram! Ram!_" lustily. But the girl lingered in +life, turning her head restlessly from side to side on Mother Earth's +bosom. + +"Give her the baby--only for a minute," pleaded Julia with tears in her +eyes. _Mai_ Gungo frowned; but a neighbour broke in hastily-- + +"Ay! give it to her, gossip, lest in her evil ways she returns for it +when she is dead." + +So they laid the baby beside her; but the restless head went on turning +restlessly from side to side. + +"My doll! my doll! I like my doll best." + +Before they could fetch it from the Mission compound Kirpo was dead. + + + + + "LONDON." + + +The rains had fallen late, bringing unusual greenness to the stretches +of waste-land, and unusual promise of harvest to the bare, brown fields +where man and beast were hard at work, day and night, ploughing, +harrowing, 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 uninterested though it was; for surely no one who has seen a Jat +cultivator, tall, meagre, soft eyed, wandering amongst his green wheat, +waiting for Ram to send rain, can ever forget the incarnate tragedy of +the sight. + +The sun was setting cloudless in a sea of light, that still flooded the +scene with the brightness of noon, though the shadows lengthened in +swift strides. I was sitting on a wide flight of steps leading down +into a small tank closed in on all sides by masonry. Viewed thus, with +the mass 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 woman in a saffron veil was filling her brass pot, and +on the trumpery stucco arcades of the temple-plinth were painted blue +elephants, gingerbread tigers, and spidery monkeys. Round and round the +central spire the iridescent breasts of the whirling pigeons glinted in +the level rays. + +It was peaceful, colourful, almost in its way beautiful, especially +after a long day's work in the office tent which rose a few hundred +yards away. Suddenly the clear-cut silence of the scene was marred by a +deprecatory voice behind me. + +"The Presence will not think it so fine as '_Ide Park_, doubtless?" + +"So fine as what?" I echoed carelessly, being accustomed to the +thousand and one interruptions of a district officer's life. + +"So fine as your '_Ide Par-k_ in the town of London." + +"Hyde Park!--why! what the deuce do you know of Hyde Park?" + +Intense surprise had replaced my indifference, for there was nothing to +account for the strangeness of his words either in the face or figure +of the man who stood behind me leaning on a long staff over which +his hands were crossed. It 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 cotton +cloth suggesting the lean, bony frame beneath. A face well cut, but not +refined, marked, but not strong, in which the most noticeable features +were the large dreamy eyes like those of Botticelli's Moses in the +Sistine Chapel. + +Immovable from the knee downwards he squatted, as the Americans say, +"in his tracks," keeping his submissive face towards mine like a dog +awaiting his master's pleasure. + +"By the mercy of the Presence I have seen 'Ide Park. Yes, I have been +there--in the city of London--where the _sahibs_ and the _mem-sahibs_ +sit and walk." + +A vision of the figure before me planted out amongst flower-decked +mashers and powdery belles aroused such a sense of incongruity in my +mind that I could only echo feebly-- + +"So you have been to London!" + +"Yes!" he replied cheerfully, "I've been to London to see the great +Queen." + +For the life of me I could not help reverting to the sequence of +childish days: "_Pussy cat, pussy cat, what saw you there?_" and his +reply fitted in so neatly that my query lost its lightness and became +serious. + +"I saw the _Sikattar_ (secretary) who sits in her chair." + +I laughed then; I could not help it, for I felt convinced that no other +words could have expressed the whole incident more truthfully. + +"I went to London, O Protector of the Poor!" continued the stranger +softly, "because I wanted, to get back the land. The Presence knows we +Jats cannot live without our land." + +Involuntarily his eyes turned to a neighbouring field, where a couple +of plough bullocks were slowly scoring the levels into feeble furrows, +whilst the ploughman--just such a man as the one before me--held his +hookah in one hand, his goad in the other. + +"So you did not get the land after all? How was that?" God knows I was +not always so ready of access to the native (as the departmental +pastorals put it), but then one does not meet a Jat who has been to +Hyde Park every day. + +"Perhaps if it had not been a _Sikattar_," replied the low soft +voice--"perhaps if it had been the great Queen herself--" Here the +plough bullocks he was watching turned too sharply, and his hand closed +mechanically on the stick he held between his knees, as if he were +responsible for the mistake. "If the Presence has not heard it all +before, I will tell it why Dewa Ram the Jat went to London." + +I give the story in his own words, for mine might fail to transmit the +perfection of his patience. + +"The land was my father's, and my father's father from Mahratta times. +In those days no one could sell the land or prevent the sons from +following the father's plough. To begin with, no one wanted to sell +good land, and then they could not if they would. That was before the +great Sirkar--life and prosperity be with it always--came to lift the +hearts of the poor and set their heads high. There was much land, and +on some of it in olden days a mortgage had been put. The Presence will +know the kind of mortgage, where for a hundred rupees or so of loan +another man is allowed to till the soil worth thousands. Only if it is +wanted back, then the owner returns the hundred rupees. That is all. It +is done when a family is small and has too much land to till properly. +So the village accountant's people held the land because they were +relations by marriage. It was in my father's time that the great Sirkar +came, and we began paying the dues to it instead of to the Maharajah. +Then, when my father fell into evil ways because of drugs, my mother +took her sons--we were twins, Sewa Ram and I--if the Presence pleases, +back to her people far away beyond Amritsar. For 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 names,' because, as I have said, Sewa Ram and I +were away beyond Amritsar, and our mother thought the land could not +run away. It was no wonder the Sirkar was deceived, no wonder at all, +but when we came to claim the land even our names were not on the list. +They had written the wrong thing because the mortgage had been +foreclosed, and there were no heirs. After this one judge--may he +become the _Lat Sahib_--said he would put it right, but the accountant +was rich and made it into an appeal. The Presence knows what an appeal +is, doubtless, and how, when a little thing like this--just a mistake +in a map--gets up amongst the pleaders and the _Sikattars_, it is +sometimes too small for them to see. It would have been different if +the Sirkar had seen two big noisy boys when it counted the village. +Then Sewa Ram was set free from the prison of life, and I was alone; +for the Presence knows a Jat cannot marry without land, or have sons +when there is no plough to keep the furrow of existence straight. So I +sold my mother's jewels and went to show the great Queen herself that +my father really had a son. Thus I came to 'Ide Park in London city, +and saw the _Sikattar_." + +"Then you did not succeed?" + +"The Presence knows that the _vizier_ is not as the _badshah_. He was +very kind, sending me back by ship P. and O. And writing! God knows how +many letters he wrote, and he bade me wait. That is two years gone, so +I am waiting still." + +"Have you a case in my Court?" + +He shook his head with a certain pride. "Oh no! it is in the big Court, +or with the Financial, or a _Sikattar_ just now; but it will come to +the Presence sooner or later. That is why I journey with the Protector +of the Poor. When that day comes the Presence will remember how Dewa +Ram the Jat went to 'Ide Park." + +As I strolled back to the tent he followed at a discreet distance. +Afterwards, as I sat smoking outside, I saw him wandering in the fields +listlessly, his tall figure standing out against the sky as he paused +to look at the sprouting wheat. When I questioned my underlings as to +his story, they smiled obsequiously, as the native will smile before +the master's face. The case, it appeared, had grown to be quite a +standing joke in the office, nor was this the first cold weather that +Dewa Ram had haunted the camp of the Deputy Commissioner and waited for +news of his land. They hemmed and hawed, however, over the rights and +wrongs of his claim, until I asked them point blank what their own +impressions were; 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 bring the promised land within his reach. +He was very grateful. So condescending a Presence, he said, had never +before dwelt in the tents of the great Sirkar; and often on Sunday +afternoons, when the camp was at rest, he would steal ostentatiously to +a spot about thirty yards from where I was sitting, and if opportunity +offered, enter into conversation--generally beginning by some +apologetic allusion to 'Ide Park, but ending with a vast amount of +information. He was a perfect mine of folk-lore, and many a half hour +did he beguile by old-world stories and traditions. One, in particular, +I will retail in his own words, because it seems to me to give insight +into the nature of the man and of his race. + +I had been having my Sunday cup of afternoon tea in the shade of a huge +banian tree, and was idly amusing myself by throwing crumbs to a +bright-eyed, bushy-tailed palm squirrel, that had crept down 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 nearer and nearer, its +tail in an aggressive pluff, its large eyes scanning my face knowingly. +A pause, a dart, and it was chirruping on the branch above my head with +the crumb in its deft fingers. + +"The Presence is a friend of Ram's," said "London" deferentially, "that +is why the heart of the Presence is so soft." + +"And why do you say I am a friend of Ram's?" I asked. + +"Because the Presence is a friend to Ram's friend. Has the _Huzoor_ +never heard how the squirrel people come to have four black marks on +their golden backs? Then I will tell. It was in the old days when Ram's +parents fastened the silken bracelet on his wrist, and sent him out to +find Seeta his wife. The Presence will have heard of that, and how each +year our women folk 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 days it was all golden, like corn +in the sunlight, and light-hearted beyond all mortal things, as it is +now. It leapt on to Ram's sword and cried, 'Master! I am ready.' But +the great god's eyes grew soft as he saw the little thing's slender +beauty, and perceived that it had the bravest heart of all his +creatures. So he laid his hand on it in blessing, saying softly-- + +"'Nay! tender little warrior! thou art too pretty for strife and death. +Live on, brave and careless for ever, so that weary men may see the +beauty of the life great Ram has given.' + +"But, lo! when he raised his hand the squirrel's shining coat bore the +shadow of Ram's tired fingers, for even golden life is dimmed by the +touch of care." + +This and many another tale he told to me, while the green pigeons +bustled about in the branches, and the squirrels lay yawning amongst +the mango flowers. For the winter had flown, the camping season was +at an end, and still "London" was waiting. He never complained; only +when rain fell, or when there was a heavy dew, or a good winnowing +wind,--anything, in short, calculated to gladden the heart of a +farmer,--he used to talk of 'Ide Park, and bewail the fact that +_Sikattar sahibs_ had penetrated even there. The hot weather passed, as +usual, in a stagnation of mind and body more or less modified 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 "to be let" as they are in +England, and the State, though in reality owner, has no power to turn +out one man or his heirs in favour of another, or in any way to +manipulate the holdings of hereditary cultivators. Why, knowing this, +it could have delegated the power to the money lender, in giving the +right of alienation by sale or mortgage to the cultivator, is one of +those abstruse mysteries over the elucidation of which volumes have +been and are still to be written. A mystery, moreover, which is +responsible for half the growing poverty of those whose patient labour +is the bulwark of the State. + +The particular village in which I hoped to find a more or less +temporary outlet for poor "London's" hereditary instinct--which made +the sight of a plough have much the same effect on 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 direct Government control by confiscation, and as the +country settled down, had been leased, at fixed rentals, to the loyal +families, or in many cases to the heirs of the dead offenders. + +One of these, the son of a notorious mutineer, had just died childless, +and it was into his place that I determined, if possible, to put +"London." The case "Dewa Ram _versus_ the Empress and others" had come +back to me for the third time, with a request for further inquiry and +evidence. There was none to give, for in a country where 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-invented theory that the peasant +proprietor had a right to alienate the ancestral property of his +descendants. So, with the prospect of another cold weather camp before +me, I felt an almost morbid desire to get rid of "London," and those +patient eyes that seemed to me as if they were ever on the look-out for +the promised land. + +I was told afterwards by my superiors, in set terms, that my behaviour +was illegal and indiscreet, and that I should have gone round the +mutinous crew one by one, giving them the option of leasing the land, +before offering it to any one else, above all, before putting in a man +whose claim to other ground was "in course of settlement." I believe my +superiors to have been quite right theoretically, and I know that, +practically, my philanthropic experiment proved a 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 protege's arrival in the mutineers' village; for he had some +friends, stalwart as himself, and the Jats, once aroused from their +usual calm placidity, fight like devils with their long quarterstaves. +On this occasion they gave the truculent crew as good as they got, +until overpowered by numbers. When the incident occurred I was in a +very out of the way part of the district, and I well remember having to +send a special messenger thirty miles with an urgent telegram in order +to allay still more urgent inquiries as to the "serious agrarian riot +in B----." + +When I returned to head-quarters I found "London" convalescent and +distinctly cheerful. He was sitting on the hospital steps whittling a +new staff, and expressed his determination of going back to the village +as soon as possible with a larger supply of friends. I felt +constrained, however, to 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 that I too might +become a prey to _Sikattars_ ere long. He took great pride in his +broken arm and new stick, and more than once suggested that if the +great Queen only knew how he had clouted the heads of the misbegotten, +unfaithful devils, she might believe that his father had indeed left a +son. + +After this I made several attempts to bring a plough handle within +"London's" reach, but my philanthropy was guarded, and my efforts +uniformly unsuccessful. Once, a small atom of land on which I had my +eye was taken up by a newly-made Municipal 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 of aniline dyes, occupied what they were pleased to call +the Industrial Department. In the reading room opposite an interesting +collection of seditious journalism lay on the table, and a chromo of +the "Kaiser-i-Hind" hung over the fireplace. + +Then once again, when I thought I had found a resting-place for those +dreamy eyes, the Military Department stepped between hope and fruition +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 +those who, living amongst the peasantry learn to admire them as they +deserve to be admired--came to put an end to all my plans for "London." + +He bore the tidings with gentle regret. The Presence, he said, had not +been well for some time; It would be the better of seeing 'Ide Park +again, and perhaps as It was to be away so long--a whole year he was +told--there would be a chance of seeing not only the _Sikattar_, but +the great Queen herself. + +"And if," he continued, standing up and leaning on his staff as I had +first seen him, whilst his eyes followed the ploughing for yet another +harvest,--"and if the Presence is so fortunate, perhaps It might find +time to remember that Dewa Ram the Jat is waiting for his land." + +The reason for my writing this absolutely true experience is one of +those distressing inconsistencies which are part and parcel of poor +humanity. 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 peasant life of which the rulers and governors know so little. But +it needed an unreality, a mere feverish fancy to supply the motive +power. + +I was in Hyde Park yesterday at the close of a bright afternoon. No +need to describe what I saw. To those who live in London the scene is +as familiar as their own faces, while those who do not, have at their +disposal a thousand descriptions 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 vast number of +sandwich men advertising lectures, meetings, and addresses on every +conceivable subject, struck me as favourable evidence of the growing +intelligence and sympathy of the many for things beyond the daily round +of English life. + +I sat down, and being a comparative stranger, amused myself, as many +have done before me, in listening to the scraps of conversation which +fell from the lips of the passers by--the flotsam-jetsam left by the +stream of humanity; and as usual my initial curiosity and interest died +down before the growing perception of some strange likeness underlying +all the atoms of thought and speech. + +Slowly, uncertainly, as the confused tints of a child's magic lantern +focus into some horrid monster, or as the ebbing tide discloses the +drowned face of a victim, the half-heard assertions, denials, +protestations of the pleasure-seeking crowd, 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. +Inevitable, no doubt, but depressing in the masks are men and women +claiming to be the cream of culture and civilisation. I wondered if, +when the best was said and done, the art of widening our vitality by +our sympathies had made much progress. + +A stir in the crowd, a murmur, a look of expectation roused me from +idle moralisings. A couple of outriders in red came down the drive, and +people paused to look. + +"By Jove! it's the Queen herself," said some one hurriedly, as a +brougham drove past giving a glimpse from behind closed windows of grey +hair and a widow's cap. The murmur swelled to a roar, almost a cheer. +Every hat was off, and some country cousins stood up in their chairs in +order to see better. + +Now, what followed will, I know, be set down to the attack of Indian +fever which some ten minutes afterwards sent me home to shiver in bed. +Nevertheless, I am prepared to swear that there, amongst the +flower-decked mashers and the powdery belles, I saw the tall, gaunt +form of "London" leaning on his quarterstaff. 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 me! On me, the tape-tied, sealing-waxed representative of a paternal +despotism in India. The myriad tongues resumed their civilised +shibboliths, but above them came a well-known cadence, "And if the +Presence is so fortunate, perhaps it might find time to remember that +Dewa Ram the Jat is waiting for his land." + +As I said before, I went home to bed. What else could I do? Perhaps if +other people could have seen what I saw, Dewa Ram and his kind would +not be so often in difficulties about their land. + + + + + LAL. + + +Who was Lal? What was he? This was a question I asked many times; and +though it was duly answered, Lal remained, and remains still, an +unknown quantity--an abstraction, a name, and nothing more. L A L. The +same backwards and forwards, self-contained, self-sufficing. + +The first time I heard of Lal was on a bright spring morning, one of +those mornings when the plains of Northern India glitter with +dew-drops; when a purple haze of cloud-mountain bounds the pale +wheat-fields to the north, and a golden glow strikes skywards from 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 law and bucklered +by foot-rules and maps, the Government of India, in the person of one +of its officers, came gravely and altered the proportion of land and +water on the surface of the globe, while the river gurgled and dimpled +as if it were laughing in its sleeve. + +Strange work, but pleasant too, with a charm of its own wrought by +infinite variety and sudden surprise. Sometimes watching the stream +sapping at a wheat-field, where the tender green spikes fringed the +edges of each crack and fissure in the fast-drying soil. A promise of +harvest,--and then, sheer down, the turbid water gnawing hungrily. +Every now and again a splash, 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 sagely over the +problem, and younger voices protest that it was not worth while to +enter such a flotsam-jetsam as a field. But the ruthless iron chain +would come into requisition, and another green spot be daubed on the +revenue map, for Governments ignore chance. And still the river dimpled +and gurgled with inward mirth; for if it gave the vetch, had it not +taken the wheat? + +So from one scene of loss or gain to another, while the sun shone in +the cloudless sky overhead. Past pools of shining water where +red-billed cranes stood huddled up on one leg, as if they felt cold in +the crisp morning air. Out on the bare stretches of sand where +glittering streams and flocks of white egrets combined to form a silver +embroidery on the brown expanse. Over the shallow ford where the +bottle-nosed alligators slipped silently 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 to another. +Back again to higher ground through thickets of tamarisk dripping with +dew. The bushes sparse below with their thin brown stems, so thick +above where the feathery pink-spiked branches interlaced. Riding +through it, the hands had to defend the face from the sharp switch of +the rosy flowers as they swung back disentangled; such tiny flowers, +too, no bigger than a mustard seed, and leaving a pink powder of pollen +behind them. + +It was after forcing my way through one of these tamarisk jungles that +I came out on an open patch of rudely ploughed land, where a mixed crop +of pulse and barley grew sturdily, outlining an irregular oval with a +pale green carpet glistening with dew. In the centre a shallow pool of +water still testified to past floods, and from it a purple heron winged +its flight, lazily craning its painted neck against the sky. + +The whole _posse comitatus_ of the village following me broke by twos +and threes through the jungle, and gathered round me as I paused +watching the bird's flight. + +"Take the bridle from his honour's pony," cried a venerable pantaloon +breathlessly. "Let the steed of the Lord of the Universe eat his fill. +Is not this the field of Lal?" + +Twenty hands stretched out to do the old headman's bidding; twenty +voices re-echoed the sentiment in varying words. A minute more, and my +pony's nose was well down on the wet, sweet tufts of vetch, and I was +asking for the first time, "Who is Lal?" + +Lal, came the answer, why, Lal was--Lal. This was his field. Why should +not the pony of the Protector of the Poor have a bellyful? Was it not +more honourable than the parrot people and the squirrel people, and the +pig people who battened on the field of Lal? + +It was early days yet for the flocks of green parrots to frequent the +crops, and the dainty squirrels were, I knew, still snugly a-bed +waiting for the sun to dry the dew; but at my feet sundry furrows and +scratches told that the pig had already been at work. + +"Is Lal here?" I asked. + +A smile, such as greets a child's innocent ignorance, came to the +good-humoured faces around me. + +Lal, they explained, came when the crop was ripe, when the parrot, the +squirrel, and the pig people--and his honour's pony too--had had their +fill. Lal was a good man, one who walked straight, and laboured truly. + +"But where is he?" I insisted. + +Face looked at face half puzzled, half amused. Who could tell where Lal +was? He might be miles away, or in the next jungle. Some one had seen +him at Sukkhur a week agone, but that was no reason why he should not +be at Bhukkur now, for Lal followed the river, and like it was here +to-day, gone to-morrow. + +Baulked in my curiosity, I took refuge in business by inquiring what +revenue Lal paid on his field. This was too much for the polite gravity +of my hearers. The idea of Lal's paying revenue was evidently +irresistibly comic, and the venerable pantaloon actually choked himself +between a cough and a laugh, requiring to be held up and patted on the +back. + +"But some one must pay the revenue," I remarked a little testily. + +Certainly! the Lord of the Universe was right. The village community +paid it. It was the village which lent Lal the field, and the bullocks, +and the plough. It was 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 gave him the rest. All, that +is to say, that was not wanted for the parrot, the pig, and the +squirrel people, and, of course, for the pony of the Lord of the +Universe. + +There are so many mysteries in Indian peasant life, safe hidden from +alien eyes, that I was lazily content to let Lal and his field slip +into the limbo of things not thoroughly understood, and so, ere long, I +forgot all about him. Spring passed ripening the crops; summer came +bringing fresh floods to the river; and autumn watched the earth once +more make way against the water; but Lal was to me as though he had not +been. + +It was only when another year found me once more in the strange land +which lies, as the natives say, "in the stomach of the river," that +memory awoke with the words, "This is the field of Lal." There was, +however, no suggestion made about loosening my pony's bridle as on the +former occasion, the reason for such reticence being palpable. Lal had +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 previous +gifts of rich alluvial soil--a trick which has given her a bad name, +the worst a woman can bear, because she gives and destroys with one +hand. Here and there, in patches, the sparse crop showed green; but for +the most part the ground lay bare, cracking into large fissures under +the noonday sun, and peeling at the top into shiny brown scales. + +"A bad lookout for Lal," I remarked. + +Bad, they said, for the squirrel people and the parrot people, no +doubt; but for Lal--that was another matter. L&I did not live by bread +alone. The river gave, the river took away; but to Lal at any rate it +gave more than it stole. + +"What does it give?" I asked. + +It gave crocodiles. Of all things in the world crocodiles! Not a +welcome gift to many, but Lal, it seemed, was a hunter of crocodiles. +Not a mere slayer of alligators, like the men of the half-savage tribes +who frequent the river land; who array themselves in a plethora of blue +beads, and live by the 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 hunted the crocodile in its native +element, stalked it through the quicksands, knife in hand, dived with +it into the swift stream, sped like a fish to the soft belly beneath, +and struck upwards with unerring hand, once, twice, thrice, while the +turbid orange water glowed crimson with the spouting blood. + +I heard this tale curiously, but incredulously. Why, I asked, should +Lal run such risks? What good were crocodiles to him when they were +slain? There was not so much risk, after all, they replied, for it was +only the bottle-nosed ones that he hunted, and though, of course, the +snub-nosed ones lived in the river also--God destroy the horrid +monsters!--still they did not interfere in the fight. And Lal was +careful, all the more careful, because he had but two possessions to +guard, his skin and his knife. As to what Lal did with the crocodiles, +why, he ate them, of course. Not all; he spared some for his friends, +for those who were good to him, and gave him something in return. Had +the Presence never heard that the poor ate crocodile flesh? They +themselves, 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 the sun on +the dry sand, sitting beside them to scare away the carrion birds. +Sometimes there would be a crowd of vultures, and Lal with his knife +sitting in the midst. "He will have to sell some of his jerked +crocodile to pay his revenue this year," I remarked, just to amuse +them. Again the idea was comic; evidently Lal and money were +incompatible, and the very idea of his owning any caused them to +chuckle unrestrainedly amongst themselves. Then, growing grave, they +explained at length how Lal had nothing in the world but his knife. All +the rest--the sun, the river, the crocodiles, the field, the bullocks, +the plough, and the seed-grain--were lent to him by them and the good +God; lent to him and to the other people who ate of the field of Lal. + +As I rode away a brace of black partridges rose from one of the green +patches, and close to the tamarisk shelter a brown rat sat balancing a +half-dried stalk of barley. The river gleamed in the distance, a +wedge-shaped flight of _coolin_ cleft the sky. All that day, when the +shadow-like crocodiles slipped into the sliding water, I thought of 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 went, +what he hoped, or what he feared; only his field bare witness to one +human frailty--hunger; and that he shared with the pig, and the parrot, +and the squirrel people. But though my thoughts were full of Lal for a +day or two, the memory of him passed as I left the river land, and once +more spring, summer, and autumn brought forgetfulness. + +There were busy times for all the revenue officers next year. The +fitful river had chosen to desert its eastern bank altogether, and +concentrate its force upon the western; so while yard after yard of +ancestral land was giving 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 sight of the river land failed to awake any +memory of Lal. It was not until I was re-entering the outskirts of the +village at sundown that something jogged my brain, making me turn to +the _posse comitatus_ behind me and ask,-- + +"And where, this year, is the field of Lal?" + +We were passing over an open space baked almost to whiteness by the +constant sun,--a hard resonant place set round with gnarled _jhand_ +trees, and dotted over with innumerable little mud mounds. + +"There," wheezed the venerable pantaloon, pressing forward and pointing +to one newer than the rest. "That is the field of Lal." + +Then I saw that we were in the village burial-ground. I looked up +inquiringly. + +"_Huzoor!_" repeated a younger man, "that is Lal's field. It is his own +this time; but for all that the Sirkar will not charge him revenue." +The grim joke, and the idea of Lal's having six feet of earth of his +own at last, once more roused their sense of humour. + +"And the other people who ate of the field of Lal?" I asked, half in +earnest, for somehow my heart was sad. + +"The good God will look after them, as He has after the crocodiles." + +Since then, strangely enough, the memory of Lal has remained with me, +and I often ask myself if he really existed, and if he really died. +Does he still 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 other people have had their fill? I cannot say; +but whenever I see a particularly fat squirrel I say to myself, "It has +been feeding in the field of Lal." + + + + + A DEBT OF HONOUR. + + +A flood of yellow sunshine on yellow sand, and a horse at the gallop. A +horse guided by an English boy, in blue spectacles, sitting squarely +enough, but somewhat stiffly, in his saddle, as if too independent to +give 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 other words, one appointed to administer justice to the +ignorant heathen--those ignorant heathen who seemed to have such odd +ideas of life, and to require such immediate regeneration--at the hands +of English boys. + +In front, across the foreground, the glaring white high road for which +he was steering; to the left centre a gnarled, knotted old _jhand_ tree +hung with coloured threads and patches, proclaiming it to be still +sacred to some effete modern form of serpent-worship--one of 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 but +incomprehensive eye of superiority. A not uncommon feeling of +contemptuous interest came over him, which prolonged itself even when +the cause changed into a wonder why the brute he was riding would not +keep its head at the proper angle. Then darkness, and silence! + +Smith-Jones's horse had put its foot into a rat-hole and given him a +bad fall, about as bad a fall as could well have been, short of those +curious plunges over the edge of one world into the next. 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 and his thoughts that it must +be seen and told; therefore until he began to gain consciousness the +scene remained, as it were, a blank, despite the fact that there were +other actors on the stage. + +Most people when coming to themselves (to use a popular, but confusing +phrase) meet first of all with a sound of slow, storm-spent breakers +rolling in on some unknown shore. Is it the one they 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, for a decision. Then, as a rule, +comes a kindly, familiar voice or touch to settle the question in +favour of this earth; perhaps some day it may come to summon us to +another. Again, who knows? + +Smith-Jones, however, felt something so distinctly unfamiliar that he +opened his eyes in a fright, relieved to find himself in that +unmistakable flood of sunshine which does not exist out of India. +Briefly he felt, or thought he felt, a kiss upon his lips. Now +Smith-Jones, like most well-trained, unemotional 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 +while Robin the gardener hoisted the brand-new cabin-trunk on to the +fly, which from the large white placards on the luggage was evidently +destined to carry Smith-Jones part of the way to Bombay, he had only +got as far as a kiss on the cheek, despite a choke in his throat, and a +distinct inclination to cry. + +And now? It was startling in the extreme! + +Lying on his back, a prey to somewhat alarmed surprise, he became aware +through his nose of a pleasant scent, and through his eyes, of the +pendant mistletoe-like twigs of the _jhand_ tree. Mistletoe,--yes, that +might account for the kiss; but what about the perfume of roses? There +it was again, in company with an old peacock's feather fan which looked +as if it were half through a severe moulting. Some one was fanning him, +positively fanning him! for the feathers swooped again and again just +above his face in composed curves suggestive of leisure and perpetual +motion. 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. Then, being still confused out of speech, +he tried to arrest the arm by catching hold of it; but either he had +not yet recovered a just estimate of distance, or it eluded his grasp, +for the even monotony of the curve continued. And, on the whole, it was +pleasant enough to lie on one's back in the yellow sand and be fanned +sleepily, gracefully. An enjoyment, however, which could not be allowed +long continuance when there was a horse to be caught, a camp to be +reached, a judgment to be written; the whole burden of a world, in +short, on Smith-Jones's young shoulders. + +"I could get up now, if you would remove that fan," he said at last, +weakly surprised at his own difficulty in stringing two words together +in a foreign tongue. + +"There is no hurry, _Huzoor_," came in immediate reply. "The Protector +of the Poor being so very young, there is naturally plenty of time for +all things ere he has to leave life; yea, plenty of time." + +What a remarkable voice! Soft as the cooing of the doves in the _jhand_ +tree, and no louder; the far-away echo of a voice, toneless, yet +mellow. But then the whole experience was remarkable, and he lay trying +to piece common-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 other averting the sweep of the fan. There was +no doubt as to the place; yonder was the white road, there the +responsible hole, the wallow in the sand where his horse had rolled, +the _jhand_ tree gay in its shreds and patches. + +But what was that to one side of him? Some one, either half-fledged +girl or shrunken old woman, seated in one of those flat baskets which +packmen use for carrying their burdens. It was, in effect, a +pack-basket, since cords attached it to one end of a _banghy_, or yoke, +which was resting against a net-full of small earthern pots fastened to +the other extremity of the pliant lever. The sight of a human being in +a pack-basket was unusual, but Smith-Jones during the last six months +(that is to say, during his service in India) had seen so many strange +things that he set it down as yet another eccentricity of an eccentric +people. The occupant of the basket, however, disturbed him more; he +even thought (with a certain sense of shame, which would have been +wanting had he been 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 fancied kiss still haunting his brain, +looked at her without a shudder. She was dressed in a way which even +his ignorance of the gala costumes of respectable females told him was +unusual. A very full red silk petticoat bordered with gay colours was +half tucked into the basket, half displayed over the edge in coquettish +quillings and frillings of the bright embroidery. A loose sacque of the +same stuff, many times too large for the bones it covered, lay in +wrinkles on arms and bust with here and there a glint of tarnished +tinsel, while a veil of like material, faded to a purplish tint, its +heavy gold thread tracings torn, frayed, or wanting, hid all but the +tiny hand and arm swaying the fan, and a shrunken, waxen face whence a +pair of bright black eyes looked at him wisely. + +"The Presence would do well to repose once more," came the worn-out +voice. "He is not to die this time. He has broken nought save his blue +spectacles, and that is well. Spectacles are not for the young; and, as +this slave said but now, my Lord 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 +gorge in a _gram_ field. But I, being Dittu's relation, can affirm that +he will of a surety return ere long; therefore rest is within reach, +and if the Presence will lie down again I will keep the fly-people from +settling on the Presence's face." + +To tell the truth, the effort to rise had made Smith-Jones feel +decidedly queer, so without more ado he lay back on the pillow which +the strange watcher had evidently improvised from the coarse outside +veil she had worn over her finery. He guessed this by the lingering +smell of roses which clung to the fabric. + +"You might tell me how I came to fall off, and who you are," said he +after a pause, a little fretfully, for he was unused to inaction, and +impatient at things he did not understand. + +"_Huzoor!_ rat-holes are very simple things. Or perhaps it was a +snake-hole. If my Lord had gone a pace farther from the tree, he would +not have been on sacred ground, and then the serpent might not have +revenged himself." + +Smith-Jones gave a little wriggle. "What bosh!" he muttered; adding +aloud, as if to change the subject, "And who are you, mother?" + +"If my Lord dislikes old wives' tales," came the cooing voice, +"he will not care for mine. He is so young. If the Presence's +great-grandfather--" + +"What do you know about my great-grandfather?" he interrupted hotly. + +"Nothing, except that the Protector of the Poor must have had one. That +is all. Nevertheless, if the Presence's great-grandfather (Heaven cool +his grave!) had been in Jodhnagar when he was young he might have heard +Gulabi[28] sing. I am Gulabi, _Huzoor_." + +The peacock's feather fan, with its scent of dead roses, swung +backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, in that even rhythmical +sweep which only those accustomed to the task from childhood can +maintain for long without break or flaw. It was particularly soothing. + +"I was singer to the great Maharani at the Pearl Palace," went on the +voice, "I had to sing her to sleep whilst I fanned her as I am fanning +the Pillar of Justice even now, I used to sing also before the 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 in those days for gold +and jewels. Sometimes also for love; not for justice, as my Lord comes +now. Nor did they wear blue spectacles; but then they were young, and +I, who am so old now, I was young also." + +The melancholy cadence of her words was quite lost on Smith-Jones, who +was fast recovering himself, and beginning once more to take a rational +view of life, and an interest in the situation, as a 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 tempting. "You must know a lot of old +songs, mother," he said in superior tones. "Sing me one while we are +waiting for Dittu. Or if you can't sing it, you know, just say it; I +only want the words." + +Was it a faint chuckle he heard, as he lay prone on his back, or only a +louder gurgle of those ceaseless doves in the _jhand_ tree? The old +lady's voice, imperturbably 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 father's father sang of +them before me; yet I have no son to sing them after me. So the songs I +sing die with me. When I am dead no one will hear them any more." + +All the more reason why he should hear them now, thought Smith-Jones, +feeling surreptitiously in his pocket for a note-book. + +"The Presence need not trouble himself. He must close his eyes or I +shall forget my song. My singing is for sleep and dreams, and this song +has been waiting to be sung so long that it is well-nigh forgotten +already. Listen and dream, _Huzoor!_" + +She began in the usual low chant, varied by occasional sudden turns +modulating the tone into a higher or a lower key in accordance with the +spirit of the story. From a musical point of view there was nothing +remarkable in the performance, save the absolute want of vibration in +the worn-out voice, whose even softness became all the more remarkable +when contrasted by the passion in the words. Yet Smith-Jones 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 clung close to the original, +and that her song swept on untrammelled by more rhyme or rhythm than +what seemed to come to it spontaneously through the chant. She sang, in +fact, as the native bards sing, with every now and again an interlude +of refrain or exclamation serving as a pause during which the singer +grasps a fresh idea, a new measure. And this, according to Smith-Jones, +was the song that she sang. + + + Listen, Pillar of Justice! Listen. +Roses smell sweet, but they are silent when the sun kisses them. I sing +of a rose who sang, yet rose-like was silent of kisses. Heart of my +heart? why should I sing of a kiss which never came, of the kiss owed +to the rose, not by the dead but the living! + +For what is a dead man's kiss to lips that are like the rose? He was so +fair and young, he came from far over the seas. Was it jewels or gold +he was seeking? No matter! 'twas love that he found. + +His hair was golder than gold, his eyes, full of laughter, were +blue--blue as the sapphires he sought whilst love was seeking for him. +Yea, the black sought for love in the blue. Oh, cold were his eyes! +cold as the snows in the north when the rose began singing + + + _Hai_, golden sun! _Hai_, cold blue skies! + Grant me but this, a look, a kiss. + _Hai! Hai! Hai!_ + + +Right to the inner court of marbles and jewels, 'mid peacocks' fans +waving and tinkling sutaras, he came when the stars came and talked to +my mistress--talked of love and of jewels, 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 +sought her for love and for kisses, who sought not her mistress. And +one, a snake of a man, sought both without shame; he was high in the +Court and a noble, the Rani's known lover. + + + _Hai_, the snake! _Hai_, venomous thing, + Dead of your own poisoning! + _Hai! Hai!_ + + +But what is a snake to a rose when the gold sun may kiss her? So she +sang sweeter and sweeter till blue eyes grew kinder. "What is your +price for a song, Singing-Rose?" he asked softly. "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 whispered of love and of jewels. "I owe her a gift of a +surety," he said the last night to my mistress. "Give her gold," she +replied with a sneer. "What more would you give to a slave?" + + _Hai!_ Gold, nothing but gold! + The heart of the Rose turned cold. + She sought for love! + Listen! listen! + Oh, the ways of love are bold, + And the guiles of love are old. + + +The coins were wrapped in a paper; it had a voice of its own. +"To-night, when the gong chimes one, the seeker will find a kiss, in +the twelve-doored marble summer-house bowered in roses." 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 dies; for the Rani sought love, and he gave +her but words. What are words in exchange for the jewels she gave as a +bride? The jewels he steals from the Queen when he leaves us +to-morrow." + + + Lies, lies! nothing but lies from the snake! + The sun gives gold he does not take. + Lies! lies! + + +Heart of my heart! what are words and tears to a snake? And the sun +far, far from the rose; too far for a warning. Listen! the rose has +thorns to protect her blossoms; a woman has guiles and smiles to +protect her lover. "What matters a kiss at one?" said I. "Take yours at +_eleven_, in the twelve-doored marble summer-house bowered in roses." + + + _Hai!_ the greed and lust in his look. + The greed at the baited hook! + He saw not the thorn. + + +But the Rose saw his lying soul; she knew he would take his kiss, and +betray her when it was over. She knew that with venomous snakes there +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 than +a scratch, ere the paper was lost by the maiden and found by her +mistress. Lost by the guile of one woman, found in the path of another. + + + Oh, heart! waiting 'mid the flowers, + Counting out the hours + Till the snake's kiss! + + +_One--two--three--four--five--six--seven--eight--nine--ten--eleven!_ + + +The clasp of a snake is cold, but the clasp of death is colder; and +coldest of all, the warm clinging clasp of a rose, holding him tighter +and 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 staining her bosom as she waited for death in her turn. Then +lights and an uproar, and, lo! instead of the stranger the Rani's own +lover was dead. + + + Dead! who grieves when a snake is dead? + Men are glad that its power has fled. + They laugh in their sleeve. + + +Yet was there crying and shouting, and noise bringing warning to all, +reaching the moon in the heavens, the sun in its rising,--hastening its +flight from the east, to its home in the arms of the west. Is not that +the course of the sun? Leaving the cast with a smile; leaving the rose +and the nightingale? Yea! 'tis the course of the sun. + + + _Hai_, for the Rose, the Singing-Rose! + _Hai_, for the nightingale. + + +Yet who kills his own pleasure? Who kills the bulbul in the rose? No! +they cut its wings, they prison it, they bid it sing; sing with a +blood-stained heart when the sun shines on other roses. So it sang, +waiting always for the kiss which never came. Pillar of Justice, from +the land of the western sun, say! did the Rose deserve the kiss which +never came? Hath she not waited long enough for the promised kiss? + + +The song ceased as abruptly as it began, and Smith-Jones, distinctly +disappointed at its want of historical value, thanked the old lady +politely. It appeared 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 chiming of the hours pointed conclusively +to the swallowing up of darkness by light, and _vice-versa_. And--by +Jove, that must be Dittu returning with the horse! + +It was; Dittu, the horse, a bundle of green wheat, and a very broad +grin--all of which common objects relieved Smith-Jones, who, to say +sooth, felt out of his element lying on his back and being fanned by an +old mummy. 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, which with a courteously intended grunt he +tendered to the old woman. She might have been a graven image for all +the notice she took of him or his coin. The hand holding the fan rested +on her lap, her eyes were half-closed. + +"The Presence wastes time. He had better give the _bucksheesh_ to me," +remarked Dittu, grinning again. "The old mother is nigh stone-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! The stirrup of the +Protector of the Poor is broken. God send the iron may be lying in the +sand where the base-born beast fell!" + +Smith-Jones's puzzled, perturbed look, as he watched Dittu on his knees +searching for the missing stirrup-iron, may have been due to anxiety +lest he should have to walk six miles into camp. On the other hand, he +may have been wondering if the fall had seriously injured his brain; +anyhow there was an unusual air of doubt 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'en cover up the old mother again with the veil he had taken from her. +It was more decent like; and she was a decent old creature, despite the +fancy she had to wear those gay garments of her youth. So the white +veil was wound about the faded finery, leaving nothing visible but the +waxen face with its half-closed eyes. + +"What are you carrying her about for?" asked Smith-Jones jerkily. + +"She is so old, _Huzoor_, and we, her belongings, thought she might +like to end her long life peacefully in holy Ganges. So as I had the +dead ancestors of the village to carry (they are in those little pots +on the other side of the yoke, _Huzoor_) we just put her to make a +balance in the basket." + +Smith-Jones's blue eyes (they really were fine eyes now the spectacles +were away) grew big with surprise. "You mean that those little pots +contain your dead ancestors?" + +"Their ashes, _Huzoor_; the ashes of the village for the year. Some one +always takes them at pilgrimage-time, and as I was strong I brought the +old lady too. She doesn't seem able to die up there amongst us all, and +she will have to be brought along some time. She is mostly bones, as it +is, no heavier than the ashes yonder." + +He nodded his head at the net-full of pots and went on twining the +thread. Smith-Jones's face grew more and more troubled. He had read in +books of old people being brought thus to end their days devoutly in +the sacred stream, and it had seemed to him an interesting and curious +habit. That was all. It seemed different now. + +"The Presence is surprised at the ways of the dust-like ones," +continued Dittu cheerfully; "but old Gulabi is accustomed to being +carried about in a basket. When 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 cut off for something she +did. I have heard my grandmother say she was a gay one; but it must +have been so long ago that we may forget it in her present decency." + +"Both her feet cut off!" + +"_Huzoor_, the feet of young people lead them into mischief. She was a +singer, and she got into trouble, so I have heard old folk say. If the +Presence will cause forgiveness to be awarded to the speaker, it may be +said that the trouble was an Englishman. One of the no-account +wanderers who used 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 for her art. That they could not +spare. What tyrant kills the bulbul in his garden? So they cut her feet +off to keep her in the paths of virtue. It is an excellent plan for +those who walk lightly. See! the stirrup is ready for the foot of the +Presence and will support him safely on his road." + +Smith-Jones stood irresolute before the mummylike figure in the basket. +"Did she ever tell you the story herself?" he asked at length. + +Dittu's tongue clucked emphatic denial from the roof of his mouth. +"_Huzoor_, she became decent before my day. Besides, grandmother said +even when she was 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 feet, and she expected her deserts some +day. _Hai! Hai!_ a bold saying for carnal sinners, but holy Ganges will +choke the wickedness from her for ever." + +"Then you will take her--to--to Hurdwar--and--and leave her there." +Smith-Jones had a difficulty with this euphemism for the strange and +barbarous custom he had read about in books. He seemed to see the old +creature seated in her flat basket in the stream, a prey to exposure +and cold. + +"It would scarcely be worth while her coming back," suggested Dittu +humbly. "My grannie (she is over there, _Huzoor_," nodding his head +towards 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 waited over long as it is. To-night, when the moon rises, we +will travel onwards to her rest. I must get back to the village by +harvest-time." + +Smith-Jones gave Dittu the rupee. He rode into camp sedately; he wrote +his judgment still more sedately; then he ate his dinner and sat down +sedately to read, one book after another--the _Asiatic Antiquary_, a +sermon by his father on the relative guilt of the heathen--which +in its day had fluttered the fold of Muddleton-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 leafage of the banyan-tree, the white road +shining like a straight broad path to heaven--or elsewhere. Sitting +beside the reading lamp he could see past the furled _chicks_ of the +door, right away to east and west: west to Rajputana and the Pearl +Palace; east to holy Ganges and the golden gates of the great +Rest-House. + +_Chink-a-chink-a-chink_ came the brass jingles of a _banghy_, making +Smith-Jones lay down _The Whole Duty of Man_ restlessly, and move +towards the door. Along that broad white shining path from west to east +came a strange sight,--an old mummy of a 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 at either end look as if they were alive. Shuffle, shuffle, +shuffle, bob, bob, bob, came Dittu and his burden. _Hurri Gunga! Hurri +Gunga! Hurri Gunga!_[29] Just a little guttural grunting, like a pig's, +to keep the shuffle and the bob together. + +Smith-Jones stood staring into the moonlight, the picture of +irresolution. The shadow of the banyan-tree lay right across the road +in a solid mass of darkness, 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 the lever into position with his +packman's stick, and made sideways for an interlude of tobacco among +the camp-followers at the watchfires across the road. + +Smith-Jones and the _banghy_ were alone. He could scarcely see it in +the darkness, though a wayward gleam of moonlight glittered on the +brass jingles and lit up the peacock'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 clothes to the +faded finery within, and through that again to something which had not +faded despite the long, long years. To something which was waiting +still for its reward. + +And then a strange thing happened. Smith-Jones forgot everything he had +been taught. He forgot his father's sermon, he forgot sociology, +folklore, and the whole duty of man. He forgot the sun-myth and the +great fight between darkness and dawn which never ceases. He even +forgot himself, as he stepped into the shadowy gulf, stooped, and paid +another man's debt of honour with a kiss. + + +He told me the tale years after, when we were sitting over our toddy +round a camp fire. It was a moonlight night, and the shadow of a great +banyan-tree lay like a gulf across a white road; perhaps that awoke the +memory. He was then a married man, with a charming 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 took off his spectacles, for though he had +given up wearing blue ones years before, his kind eyes had become a +little dim, perhaps with the sympathy they bestowed on all sorts and +conditions of men; he took off his spectacles, I say, and wiped them +furtively. + + + + + THE VILLAGE LEGACY. + + +"The case of Mussumat[30] Nuttia being without heirs," droned the +Court-Inspector. + +"Bring her in." + +"She is already in the Presence. If the Protector of the Poor will rise +somewhat,--at the other side of the table, _Huzoor!_--beside the +yellow-trousered legs of the guardian of peace,--that is Mussumat +Nuttia." + +A child some three years of age, with a string of big blue beads round +her neck,--a child who had evidently had a very satisfying meal, and +who was even now preserving its contour by half-a-yard of sugar-cane, +stared gravely back at the Assistant Magistrate's grave face. + +"She has no heirs of any kind?" he asked. + +"None, _Huzoor!_ Her mother was of the Harni tribe, working harvests in +Bhamaniwallah-khurd. There the misfortune of being eaten by a snake +came upon her by the grace of God. Mussumat Nuttia therefore +remains,--" + +"Oh, Guardian of the Poor!" said two voices in unison, as two tall +bearded figures swathed in whitish-brown draperies pressed a step +forward with outstretched petitioning hands. They had been awaiting +this crisis all day long with that mixture of tenacity and indifference +which is seen on most faces in an Indian Court. + +"Give her in charge of the head-men of the village; they are +responsible." + +"Shelter of the world! 'tis falsely represented. The woman was a +vagrant, a loose walker, a--" + +"Is the order, written? Then bring the next case." + +One flourish of a pen, and Mussumat Nuttia became a village-legacy; +the only immediate result being that having sucked one end of her +sugar-cane dry, she began methodically on the other. Half-an-hour +afterwards, mounted on a white pony, with pink eyes and nose, and a +dyed pink tail to match, she was on her way back to the cluster of reed +huts dignified by the name of Bhamaniwallah-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 the grave big-bearded Dogas who fed their herds of +cattle on the low ground, and speculated in the cultivation of +sandbanks, lived with their loins girded ready to shift house with the +shifting of the river. That was why the huts were made of reeds; that +was why the women of the village clanked about in solid silver jewelry, +thus turning their persons into a secure savings-bank. + +Mussumat Jewun, Bahadur the head-man's wife, wore bracelets like +manacles, and a perfect yoke of a necklet, as she patted out the dough +cakes and expostulated shrilly at the introduction of a new mouth into +the family, when Nuttia, fast asleep, was lifted from the pony and put +down in the warm sand by the door. + +"She belongs to the village," replied the elders, wagging their beards. +"God knows what my Lords desire with the Harni brat, but if they ask +for her, she must be forthcoming; ay! and fat. They like people to grow +fat, even in their jail-_khanas_." + +So Nuttia grew fat; she would have grown fat even had the fear of my +Lords not been before the simple villagers' eyes, for despite her +tender years, she was eminently fitted to take care of herself. She had +an instinct as to the houses where good things were being prepared, and +her chubby little hand, imperiously stretched out for a portion, was +seldom sent 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 again after every rebuff, till she felt herself in a +condition to seek some warm sunny corner, and curl round to sleep. She +lived for the most part with the yelping, slouching village dogs, +following them, as the nights grew chill, to the smouldering +brick-kilns, where she fed the little dust-coloured puppies with +anything above, or beneath, her own appetite. + +As she outgrew childhood's vestment of curves and dimples, some one +gave her an old rag of a petticoat. Perhaps the acquisition of clothes +followed, as in ancient days, a fall from grace; certain it was that +Nuttia in a garment 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 prize off on the world as a various and +complete wardrobe, and dishonesty flagrant and unabashed; for once +provided with a convenient receptacle for acquired trifles, Nuttia took +to stealing as naturally as a puppy steals bones. + +Then, once having recognised the pleasures of possession, she fought +furiously against any infringement of her rights. A boy twice her size +went yelling home to his parents on her first resort to brute force +consequent on the discovery of a potsherd tied to her favourite puppy's +tail. This victory proving unfortunate for the peace of the village, +the head-men awoke to the necessity for training up their Legacy in the +paths of virtue. So persistent pummelling was resorted to with the +happiest effect. Nuttia stole and fought no more; she retired with +dignity 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 hunched themselves together to doze away digestion, or a +snub-nosed alligator took a slimy snooze on the extreme edge. If you +wished to watch the birds, or the palm-squirrels, or the jerboa rats, +you had to face northwards and skirt the high bank. So much of Dame +Nature's ways, and a vast deal more, Mussumat Nuttia learnt ere the +setting sun and hunger drove her back to the brick-kilns, and the +never-failing meal of scraps--never-failing, because the Lords of the +Universe liked people to be fat, and the head-men were responsible for +their Legacy's condition. + +So when an Assistant Magistrate--indefinite because of the constant +changes which apparently form part of Western policy--included the +Bhamaniwallahs in his winter tour of inspection, a _punchaiyut_, or +Council of Five, decided that it was the duty of the village to 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 delight for the first five +minutes was exhilarating, and sent the head-men back to other duties +with a glow of self-satisfaction on their solemn faces. Then she folded +the veil up quite square, sat down on it, and meditated on the various +uses to which it could be put. + +The result may be told briefly. Two days afterwards the Assistant +Magistrate, being a keen sportsman, was crawling on his stomach to a +certain long low pool much frequented by teal and mallard. In the rear, +gleaming white through the caper bushes, showed the 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 them forward, prodigal of apology; but +the sight that met their eyes dried up the fountain of excuse. Nuttia, +stark naked, stood knee-deep in the very centre of the pool, catching +small fry with a bag-net ingeniously constructed out of the Manchester +veil. + +The _punchaiyut_ sat again to agree that a child who could not only +destroy the sport of the Guardian of the Poor, but could also drag the +village honour through the mud, despite munificent inducements toward +decency, must be possessed 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 be unkind to children, +and so, when the function was over, Mussumat Jewun and the other +deep-chested, shrill-voiced women comforted the victim with sweetmeats +and the assurance that she would be ever so much better behaved in +future. + +Nuttia eyed them suspiciously, but ate her sweetmeats. This incident +did not increase her confidence in humanity; on the other hand, the +attitude of the brute creation was a sore disappointment to her. She +might have had a heart instinct with greed of 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 in the sunshiny sand; then in a rage, she would fling +the crumbs at the timid creatures, and go home to the dogs and the +buffaloes. They at least were not afraid of her; but then they were +afraid of nobody, and Nuttia wanted something of her very own. + +One day she found it. It was only an old bed-leg, but to the eye of +faith an incarnation. For the leg of an Indian bed is not unlike a huge +ninepin, and even a Western imagination can detect the embryo likeness +between a ninepin and the human form divine. Man has a head, so has a +ninepin; and if humanity is to wear petticoats one solid leg is quite +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 few hours afterwards something comically, yet pitifully, +like the Legacy herself stared back at her from that humble studio +among the dirt-heaps--a shag of goat's hair glued on with prickly-pear +juice, two lovely black eyes drawn with Mussumat Jewun's _khol_ pencil, +a few blue beads, a scanty petticoat and veil filched from the child's +own garments. + +Nuttia, inspired by the recollection of a tinsel-decorated bride in Big +Bhamaniwallah, called her creature Sirdar Begum on the spot. Then she +hid her away in a tussock of tiger-grass beyond the thorn enclosures, +and strove to go her evening rounds as though nothing had happened. Yet +it was as if an angel from heaven had stepped down to take her by the +hand. Henceforward she was never to be alone. All through the silent +sunny days, as she watched the big black buffaloes grazing on the muddy +flats--for Nuttia was advanced to the dignity of a herd-girl by this +time--Sirdar Begum was with her as guide, counsellor, 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 butter she managed to twirl out of +the sour curds satisfied even Mussumat Jewun's demands; whereupon the +other herds looked at her askance, and muttered an Indian equivalent of +seven devils. Then the necessity for amusing the doll led Nuttia into +lingering round the little knots of story-tellers who sat far on into +the night, discoursing of _jins_ and _ghouls_, of faithful lovers, +virtuous maidens, and the beauties of holiness. Down on the edge of the +big stream, with the water sliding by, Nuttia rehearsed all these +wonders to her adored bed-leg until, falling in love with +righteousness, she took to telling the truth. + +It was a fatal mistake in a cattle-lifting district, and +Bhamaniwallah-khurd lay in the very centre of that maze of tamarisk +jungle, quicksand, and stream, which forms the cattle-thief's best +refuge. So Bahadur, and Jodha, and Boota, together with many another +honest man, made a steady income by levying black-mail on those who +sought safety within their boundaries; and this without in any way +endangering their own reputations. All that had to be done was to +obliterate strange tracks by sending their own droves in the 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 Luckimpura island maybe, to reach which she +had to hold on to the biggest buffalo's tail, and thus, with Sirdar +Begum tied securely to its horns, and her own little black head bobbing +up and down in its wake, cross the narrow stream; after which the three +would spread themselves out to dry on the hot sand. Nuttia took a great +fancy to the island, and many a time when she might have driven the +herds to nearer pastures, preferred the long low stretches of +Luckimpura where a flush of green lingered even in the droughts of +April. + +But even there on one very hot day scarcely a blade was to be found, +and Nuttia, careful of her beasts, and noting the lowness of the river, +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 +beyond. To her surprise they stood knee-deep in the water immovable, +impassive, noses in air, with long curled horns lying on their necks. + +The Legacy shaded her eyes to see more clearly. Nothing was to be seen +but the swift shallow stream, the level sand, and gleams of water +stretching away to the horizon. Something had frightened them--but +what? She gave up the puzzle, and with Sirdar Begum bolt upright before +her sat on a snag, dangling her feet over the stream for the sake of +the cool air which seemed to rise from the river. + +The buffaloes roamed restlessly about, disturbed doubtless by the cloud +of flies. The sun beat down ineffectually on the doll's fuzzy head, but +it pierced Nuttia's thick pate, making her nod drowsily. Her voice +recounting the thrilling adventures of brave Bhopalutchi died away into +a sigh of sleep. So there was nothing left but the doll's wide +unwinking eyes to keep watch over the world. + +What was that? Something cold, icy-cold! Nuttia woke with a start. One +brown heel had touched the water; she looked down at it, then swiftly +around her. The buffaloes huddled by the ford had ceased to graze, and +a quiver of light greeted her glance at the purple horizon. She sprang +to her feet, and breaking off a root from the snag, held it to the +dimpling water. The next instant a scared face looked at the horizon +once more. The river was rising fast, rising as she had never seen it +rise before. Yet in past years she had witnessed many a flood--floods +that had swept away much of the arable land, and driven the villagers +to till 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 herd rose on the hot air, and with Sirdar Begum close clasped in +her veil she drove the big buffalo Moti into the stream. How cold the +water was--cold as the snows from which it came! The Legacy had not +lived in the lap of the river for so long without learning somewhat of +its ways. She knew of the frost-bound sources whence it flowed and of +the disastrous floods which follow, beneath a cloudless sky, on unusual +heat or unusual rain in those mountain fastnesses. The coming storm +whose arch of cloud, shimmering with sheet-lightning had crept beyond +the line of purple haze, was nothing; that was not the nightmare of the +river-folk. + +She stood for a moment when dry land was reached, hesitating whether to +strike straight for the high bank or make for the village lying a mile +distant. Some vague instinct of showing Sirdar Begum she was not +afraid, made her choose the latter course, though most of the herd +refused to follow her 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? What if the low levels between +that rising ground and the high bank were to flood? And every one +beyond in the yellow corn, except _Mai_ Jewun and people who did not +count,--babies, and old women, and the crippled girl in the far hut! +Only herself and Sirdar Begum to be brave, for _Mai_ Jewun was sick. + +"Wake up! Wake up! _Mai_ Jewun! the floods are out!" broke in on the +new-born baby's wail as Nuttia's broad, scared face shut out the +sunlight from the door. + +"Go away, unlucky daughter of a bad mother," grumbled Jewun drowsily. +"Dost wish to cast thy evil eye on my heart's delight? Go, I say." + +"Yea! go!" grumbled the old nurse, cracking her fingers. "Sure some +devil possesseth thee to tell truth or lies at thy own pleasure." + +But the crippled girl spinning in the far hut had heard the flying +feet, caught the excited cry, and now, crawling on her knees to the +door, threw up her hands and shrieked aloud. The water stood ankle-deep +among the tamarisk roots, and from its still pool tiny tongues licked +their way along the dry sand. + +"The flood! the flood!" The unavailing cry rang out as the women +huddled together helplessly. + +"_Mai_ Jewun! there is time," came the Legacy's eager voice. "Put the +baby down, and help. I saw them do it at Luckimpura that time they took +the cattle over the deep stream, and Bahadur beat me for seeing it. +Quick! quick!" + +Simple enough, yet in its very simplicity lay their only chance of +escape. A string-woven bed buoyed up with the bundles of reeds cut +ready for re-thatching, and on this frail raft four people--nay five! +for first of all with jealous care Nuttia placed her beloved Sirdar +Begum in safety, wrapping her up in the clothes she discarded in favour +of free nakedness. + +Quick! Quick! if the rising ground is to be gained and the levels +beyond forded ere the water is too deep! Moti and a companion yoked by +plough-ropes to the bed, wade knee-deep, hock-deep, into the stream, +and now with the old, cheerful cry Nuttia, clinging to their tails and +so guiding them, urges the beasts deeper still. The stream 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 end is near,--when another frantic +struggle leaves Moti alone to her task. The high childish voice calling +on her favourite's courage rises again and again; but the others, cowed +into silence, clutch together with hid faces, till a fresh plunge +loosens their tongues once more. It is Moti finding foothold, and they +are safe--so far. + +"Quick! _Mai_ Jewun," cries Nuttia, as her companions stand looking +fearfully over the waste of shallows before them. She knows from the +narrowness of the ridge they have reached that time is precious. "We +must wade while we can, saving Moti for the streams. Take up the baby, +and I--" + +Her hands, busy on the bed, stilled themselves,--her face grew +grey,--she turned on them like a fury. "Sirdar Begum! I put her +there--where is Sirdar Begum?" + +"That bed-leg!" shrilled the mother, tucking up her petticoats for +greater freedom. "There was no room, and Heart's Delight was cold. Bah! +wood floats." + +"_Hull-lal-lal-a lalla la!_" The herdsman's cry was the only answer. +Moti has faced the flood again, but this time with a light load, for +the baby nestling amid Nuttia's clothes is the only occupant of the +frail raft. + +"My son! My son! Light of mine eyes! Core of my heart! Come back! Come +back!" + +But the little black head drifting down stream behind the big one never +turned from its set purpose. Wood floated, and so might babies. Why +not? + +Why not, indeed! But, as a matter of fact, _Mai_ Jewun was right. A +dilapidated bed-leg was picked up on a sand-bank miles away when the +floods subsided; and Moti joined the herd next day to chew the cud of +her reflections contentedly. But the village Legacy and Heart's Delight +remained somewhere seeking for something,--that something, doubtless, +which had turned the bed-leg into Sirdar Begum. + + + + FOOTNOTES + + +[Footnote 1: Head of a religious community.] + +[Footnote 2: Name of Vishnu.] + +[Footnote 3: Runjeet Singh never enlisted a man who, in counting up to +thirty, said _puch-is_ for five and twenty, but those who said +_punj-is_ were passed. In other words, the _patois_ was made a test of +whether the recruit belonged to the Trans-Sutlej tribes or the +Cis-Sutlej.] + +[Footnote 4: _Bunniah_, a merchant. _Bunniah-ji_ signifies, as +Shakespeare would have said, Sir Merchant.] + +[Footnote 5: _Zemindar-ji_, Sir Squire.] + +[Footnote 6: _Baba_, as a term of familiarity, is applied indifferently +to young and old.] + +[Footnote 7: _Purohit_, a spiritual teacher, a sage, answering in some +respects to the Red Indian's medicine-man.] + +[Footnote 8: Snakes are said to be attracted by the scent of blood, as +they are undoubtedly by that of milk.] + +[Footnote 9: With faith.] + +[Footnote 10: Priest.] + +[Footnote 11: Lit. Father. Baba is constantly used to a religious +teacher.] + +[Footnote 12: Lit. _rice and lentil_. A catchword for native food.] + +[Footnote 13: A fact.] + +[Footnote 14: The Sikh bible.] + +[Footnote 15: Lit. stick-bearer, but applied always to wandering +devotees who tramp the country living on alms.] + +[Footnote 16: Roast chicken.] + +[Footnote 17: The Sikh Commonwealth.] + +[Footnote 18: A Mohammedan preacher.] + +[Footnote 19: "God Almighty and his prophet Mohammed;" a brief +confession of faith.] + +[Footnote 20: The veil worn by secluded women.] + +[Footnote 21: Unleavened cakes and mince-meat balls.] + +[Footnote 22: The Creed.] + +[Footnote 23: The Hindu Venus; Durga in another form.] + +[Footnote 24: In India the cow will not give milk if separated from her +calf.] + +[Footnote 25: Stuffed.] + +[Footnote 26: Literally _bakee_, or extra; but _Barker sahib_ is a +perennial jest with both master and man, answering to the English Mr. +Manners.] + +[Footnote 27: Title of honour equivalent to our "mistress."] + +[Footnote 28: Rose.] + +[Footnote 29: The usual pilgrim's cry.] + +[Footnote 30: A title of courtesy equivalent to our mistress.] + + + + + END. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Flower of Forgiveness, by Flora Annie Steel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLOWER OF FORGIVENESS *** + +***** This file should be named 39987.txt or 39987.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/9/8/39987/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (Harvard University) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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