It was one of those blue days which come to the plains of Upper India
when the rains of early September have ceased, leaving the heat-weary,
dust-soiled world regenerate by baptism.
A light breeze sent westering ripples along the pools of water filling
each shallow depression, and stirred the fine fretwork of an acacia
set thick with little odorous puffs, sweet as a violet. Despite the
ruddy glow of the sinking sun, the shadows, far and near, still kept
their marvellous blue--a clear porcelain blue, showing the purity of
the rain-washed air. A painter need have used but three colours in
reproducing the scene--red and blue and yellow in the sky; russet
and blue and gold in the tall battalions of maize and millet
half-conquered by the sickle, which stood in shadowed squares or lay
in sunlit reaches, right away to the level horizon.
Russet and blue and gold, also, in the dress of a woman who was
crouching against the palisade of plaited tiger-grass, which formed
two sides of the well-homestead. Seen upon this dull gold diaper, her
madder-red veil and blue petticoat, with their corn-coloured
embroideries, seemed to blend and be lost in the harvest scene
beyond, even the pools of water finding counterpart in the bits of
looking-glass gleaming here and there among her ample drapery. She was
a woman who in other countries would have been accounted in the prime
of life; in India, past it. Yet, as she crouched--her whole body tense
in the effort of listening--every line of her strong face and form
showed that she was not past the prime of passion.
"_Ari!_ Heart's delight! See, O father! Yon is his fifth step, and
still he totters not. What! wouldst crawl again? Oh! fie upon such
laziness." The high, girlish voice from within the palisade paused in
a gurgle of girlish laughter. "Say, O father! looks he not, thus
poised hands and feet, for all the world like the monkey people in
Gopal's shop when they would be at the sweets? _Ai!_ my brother! what
hast found in the dust? Cry not, heart's life. Mother will give it
back to Chujju again. So, that is good! Holy Ganeshji! Naught but a
grain of corn! Art so hungry as all that, my little pecking pigeon, my
little bird from heaven?"
"Little glutton, thou meanest," chuckled a base voice. "Still, of a
truth, O Maya, the boy grows."
"Grows? I tell thee he hath grown. See you not this two-year-old hath
turned farmer already? He comes to bargain with thee, having his corn
in his hand. Give him a good price, to handsel his luck, O Gurditta
Lumberdar."[41]
---------------------
[Footnote 41: Head-man of village.]
---------------------
"I will pay thee for him, O wife! Sure, hast thou not given me the
boy, and shall I not pay my debt? Nay, I am not foolish, as thou
sayest. What! Wouldst have me kiss thee also, little rogue? So! Yet do
I love mother best--best of all."
The woman behind the palisade stood up suddenly. Tall as she was, the
feathery tops of the tiger-grass rose taller; so she could stand, even
as she had crouched, unseen. Unseeing also. Other women might have
lent eyes to aid their ears, but Saraswati was no spy--no eavesdropper
by intent, either. The lacquered spinning-wheel, the wheat-straw
basket piled with downy cotton cards which lay on the ground beside
her, testified to what her occupation had been, till something--Heaven
knows what, for she heard such light-hearted babble every day--in
those careless voices roused her pent-up jealousy beyond the dead
level of patience. She was not jealous of the child. Ah, no! not of
the child. Was it not for the sake of such a one that three years
before she had given Maya, his mother, a dignified welcome to the
childless home? But Maya? Ah! well was she called Maya--the woman
prolific of deceit and illusion, of whom the pundits spoke; woman, not
content with being the child-bringer, but seeking---- Saraswati's
large, capable hands closed in upon themselves tightly. She did not
need to peer through the plaited chinks to know the scene within. She
saw it burnt in upon her slow, constant brain. The tall bearded man of
her own age--her own type--her kinsman--the patient, kindly husband of
her youth; the child--his naked brown limbs dimpled still more by
silver circlets on wrists and ankles; those curving, dimpling limbs,
which, somehow, made her heart glad; and between them, degrading them
both, Maya, with her petty, pretty face, her petty, pretty ways.
Suddenly, as it had come, the passion passed--passed into that curious
resignation, that impassive acquiescence, which does more to separate
East from West than all the seas which lie between England and India.
"Old Dhunnu said sooth," she muttered, stooping to gather up her wheel
and bobbins methodically. "'Tis the child which makes him love her,
and I have been a fool to doubt it. I will delay no longer."
Behind the low mud houses, angled so as to form two sides of the
square, four or five jujube trees clustered thickly, and beneath them
the dark green whips of the jasmine bushes curved to the ground like a
fountain set with blossoms. Hence, and from the straggling rose hard
by, the women in the early dawn gathered flowers for the chaplets used
in the worship of the gods. There were so many occasions requiring
such offerings; sorrowful hours and joyful hours, whether they were of
birth, or marriage, or death. Who could say, till the end came,
whether they were one or the other? Only this was certain, flowers
were needed for them all.
Towards this thicket Saraswati, still with the same impassive face,
made her way, pausing an instant before the long, low, mud manger
where her favourite milch cow stood tethered, to stroke its soft
muzzle and give it a few tall stalks of millet from a sheaf resting
against the well-wheel. And once more the scene was red and blue and
gold, as the broad yellow leaves and blood-streaked stems blent with
her dress. There was not a change in her face, as, parting the
branches, she disappeared into the thicket, scattering the loose
blossoms as she went; not a change, when after a minute or two, she
reappeared, carrying a little basket with a domed cover, securely
fastened by many strands of raw cotton thread, such as she had been
spinning--a basket of wheaten straw festooned with cowries, and tufted
with parti-coloured tassels, such as the Jatni women make for the safe
keeping of feminine trifles--an innocent-looking basket, suggestive of
beads and trinkets. She paused a moment, holding it to her ear, and
then for the first time a faint smile flickered about her mouth as she
caught a curious rasping noise, half-purr, half-rustle.
"Death hath a long life," she murmured, as she hid the basket in the
voluminous folds of her veil and walked over to the homestead. As she
entered by a wide gap in the plaited palisade, the scene within was
even as she had imagined it; but the barb had struck home before, and
the actual sight did not enhance her resentment.
"It grows late, O Maya," she said coldly. "Leave playing with the
child and see to the fire for the cooking of our lord's food. Thou
hast scarce left an ember aglow beneath the lentils while I was yonder
spinning."
The reproof was no more than what might come with dignity from an
elder wife; but Gurditta, lounging his long length in well-earned rest
on a string bed, rose, murmuring something of seeing to the plough
oxen ere supper time. The big man was dimly dissatisfied with affairs;
he felt a vague desire to behave better towards the woman who had been
his faithful companion for so many years. But for her, he knew well,
things would go but ill in the little homestead by the well. Yet Maya
was so pretty. What man, still undulled by age, would not do as he
did? For all that, the little capricious thing might be more friendly
with Saraswati; there was no need for her to snatch Chujju in her arms
whenever the latter looked at the child. But then women--and Maya was
a thorough woman--were always so fearful of the evil eye. Fancy her
calling that straight-limbed, utterly desirable son, Chujju,[42] as if
any one would cast such a gift away in the sweeper's pan! As if the
gods themselves, far off as they were, could be deceived by such a
palpable fraud, or even by that ridiculous smudge of charcoal on the
boy's face which only enhanced instead of detracting from its beauty!
Gurditta laughed a deep, broad laugh as he strewed the long manger
with corn cobs and green stuff cut from the fodder field by the well.
---------------------
[Footnote 42: From _chujj_, a sweeper's basket. One of the many
opprobrious names given to avert the envious, and therefore evil,
eye.]
---------------------
Meanwhile, within the house yard, Maya was sullenly blowing away at
the embers held in the semicircular mud fireplaces ranged along one of
the walls. A grass thatch, supported by two forked sticks, protected
this, the kitchen of the house, from possible rain and certain sun;
while on the other wall a similar screen did like duty to a triple row
of niches or pigeon-holes, wherein the household stores in immediate
use were kept out of harm's way. For the rest, was a clean-swept
expanse of beaten earth set round, after the fashion in a farmer's
house, with implements and hive-like stores of grain. Between the one
thatch and the other Saraswati moved restlessly, bringing pickles and
spices as they were wanted. And still the basket lay tucked away in
the folds of her veil.
"The raw sugar is nigh done," she said, stooping with her back towards
Maya to reach the lowest row of niches.
"We must use the candy to-night, till I can open the big store.
Luckily I bought some when we took the Diwali[43] sweets from Gopal."
Then, ere she replaced the cloth in which the sweetmeats were tied,
she held out a sugar horse to the child, who was playing by his
mother. "Here, Chujju, wilt have one?"
---------------------
[Footnote 43: For the most part, sugar animals, such as are sold at
English fairs.]
---------------------
Maya was on her feet at once, indignant, vehement.
"Thou shouldst not offer him such things. He shall not take them from
thee. I will not have it. Nay, nay, my bird--my heart's delight!
Mother will give thee sweets enough. Kick not so, life of my life!
Ganesh! how he cries. He will burst: and 'tis thy fault. Hush, hush!
See, here is mother's milk. _Ai!_ wicked one! would bite? Ye gods, but
'tis a veritable _Toork_ for temper."
Hushing the child in her arms, she walked up and down, followed by
Saraswati's calm, big black eyes.
"Thou art a fool, Maya," she said slowly, putting down the sugar
horse. "Gopal's sweets would not have hurt the child so much as thy
spitefulness." Then she turned to her work again among the niches.
When she rose the basket was in her hand, the threads were broken, and
the cover tilted as if something slender and supple had been allowed
to slip out. Perhaps it had, for behind the sugar horse, standing in
the lowermost niche, two specks of fire gleamed from the shadow. It
was growing dark now, but the harvest moon riding high in the heavens
and the now flaming fire aided the dying daylight, and a curious
radiance, backed by velvety shadows, lay on everything.
"I must sweep out the niches thoroughly tomorrow," she said
indifferently. "Methought just now I heard the rustle as of a
_jelabi_.[44] They love to hide in such places, and therefore I bid
thee but yesterday see to their cleansing, But, sure, what work is
done in this house mine must be the hand to do it. See to your
lentils, sister; methinks they burn at the bottom."
---------------------
[Footnote 44: _Echis carinata_, the Indian viper. It lies coiled in a
true-lover's knot, rustling its scales one against the other. It is
the most vicious and irritable of all Indian snakes.]
---------------------
Maya, with a petulant shrug of her shoulders, set down the child.
"Such work spoils my hands, and--and--folk like them pretty."
Even she, town born and town bred, did not dare before this grave-eyed
peasant woman to name her husband's name in such a connection,[45] but
Saraswati understood the allusion, and the simple, straightforward
naturalism drawn from ages of rural life which was her heritage, rose
up in arms against such depravity. But even as she lashed herself to
revenge by the thought, everything that was stable seemed to shift,
all that moved to stand still. Her heart ceased beating, the walls
span round, the moon quivered, the flames grew rigid. Ah, no! one
thing that moved would not pause. Chujju had caught sight of the sugar
horse, and was creeping towards it, now on his little fat hands, now
tottering on his little fat feet, his glistening eyes fixed on the
niche which held those gleaming specks of fire.
---------------------
[Footnote 45: A husband's name should never be mentioned by a wife,
especially in matters referring to herself.]
---------------------
No! nothing was too bad for Maya; and Dhunnu, the wise woman, had been
right when she said that the charm lay in the child. It must be
so--and death was naught. There! he was close now, one little hand
stretched out, the dimples showing--the---- Ah!
A cry, fierce, almost imperative, and Saraswati had him in her arms,
while something slim and grey fell from the niche in its spring, and
wriggled behind a pile of brushwood.
"I saw its eyes," she gasped, still straining the child to her ample
bosom, when Gurditta, brought thither by Maya's screams of "Snake!
snake!" stood beside her, his breath coming fast, his manliness
stirred to its depths.
Maya saw the danger swiftly. "Give him to me," she clamoured. "O
husband, make her give him to me. She would kill him if she could. She
put it there--I saw her put it there--I swear it."
Saraswati turned on her in calm contempt. "Thou liest, O Maya; since
Time began, spirit of deceit and mother of illusion. Thou didst _not_
see me put it there."
Then, with the same dignity, she turned to the man.
"Master! Take the child. He is safe. This much is true, I saved him."
That night, when the moon still shone in the cloudless sky, Saraswati,
her veil wrapped closely round her, stole softly from the homestead.
Past the resting oxen, out among the serried battalions of maize and
millet, where the tall sheaves, lying prone on the ground, looked like
the bodies of those who had fallen in the day's fight; down on the
sun-cracked borders of the tank, whence the water was sinking swiftly,
now the rain had ceased; by the ghostly peepul trees, shorn of their
branches which the camels love, and looking weird and human with great
arms stretched skywards; so on to the burning ghat beyond, with its
little cones of mud marking the spot of each funeral pyre, and the
twinkling lights set here and there by pious survivors. Saraswati
drew her veil tighter and sped faster as she passed through the more
recent ashes, as yet uncovered, but swept into little heaps; and
there--horrible sight!--still scattered, with the uncalcined bones
gleaming in the moonlight, and a faint line of smoke still circling
upwards, lay the most recent of all. That must be old Anant Ram, the
_khuttri_ (merchant) who had died that morning: an evil man, come to
his end.
She was trembling ere she reached the hut where Dhun Devi, the wise
woman, kept watch and ward over the ashes. It was a miserable shanty,
where she found the old woman asleep before a large iron pot,
supported on a trivet. Beneath it some cowdung cakes smouldered
slowly, yet not so slowly but that every now and again a blood-red
bubble showed on the contents of the pot. A flaring oil-lamp, filched,
doubtless, from those outside, stood in a smoke-blackened niche, and
by its light you could see festoons of dank, blood-red drapery
clinging, to a rope, while, with a drip, drip, drip, something fell
upon the floor--something which ran in rills right out to the
moonlight, and, sinking into the sand, stained it blood-red; a ghastly
setting to the wise woman's crouching figure, even though Saraswati
knew that Mai Dhunnu was engaged in no more nefarious occupation than
dyeing the webs of her ignorant neighbours with madder.
The old crone stood up hastily, then sank to her low stool again when
she had peered into her visitor's face. "Thou wilt not tell," she
whispered in a hoarse croak, which, coming in reality from a throat
affection, vastly enhanced her claims to wisdom in the eyes of the
villagers. "Thou art of the old style; not like these apes of to-day,
with their dog-eared books and their dyes which fade before a January
sun." The chuckle she gave suited her surroundings well; so did the
claw-like hand she laid suddenly on Saraswati's firm arm. "Well,
daughter! Hast plucked up courage? Hast learnt to trust the wisdom of
old Dhun Devi?"
Saraswati shook her head. "Thou must find other wisdom for me,
mother," she said briefly. "Such is not for me."
"Obstinate! I tell thee 'tis the glamour of the child."
"'Tis not the child, though the gods know the poison hath bit deeper
somehow since he came. Lo! I have tried it, and 'tis not my way. Nor
would I kill her. That were too trivial, seeing she is not worth life.
I want but my share. It is empty here, emptier than ever, somehow,
since the boy was born."
She clasped her strong hands above her heart. The glow of the fire,
spreading as the old woman fanned it with the tremulous breath of age,
lit up the big black brows knit above the puzzled black eyes.
Dhun Devi straightened her bent back, and looked at her companion
critically.
"Life is more than the shadow of a passing bird to such as thou, O
Saraswati! 'Tis not wise. For death is naught, and life is naught. The
soul of man circles ever, like the potter's wheel, upon its pivot.
Have I not seen it? Have I not known it? Did I not go through the
night of a thousand dangers myself, and bring five stalwart sons into
the day? Where are they? Have they not passed into the dark again?
Have not my hands piloted many through the Sorrowful Hour and sent
many from it? Lo! the snake would not have harmed the child."
"I care not if thou speakest truth or not, O mother, though thou art
learned above women in such thoughts, I know," muttered Saraswati
sullenly, with drooping head. "Only this I know, that way is not mine.
There must be others. See! I have brought thee my golden armlet.
_Dhun_[46] was ever as a sign-post to Dhun Devi. Is't not so?"
---------------------
[Footnote 46: Worldly-wealth.]
---------------------
The old dame's fingers closed greedily on the bribe, careless of the
open sneer which accompanied it. "Ways?" she echoed. "Of a surety
there are ways, but none so simple as death."
"Ay," said Saraswati quietly, "I have thought of that. The well is
deep, and the little feathery ferns in the crannies look kind. But
they would say Saraswati, the Jatni, had been ousted from her own
well-land by a stranger, and that is not so. I heed not the girl;
deceit is her portion. 'Tis something here." Again she laid her hand
on her heart with a puzzled look. "Nor do I want _him_ only. Couldst
thou not turn the child's mind to me, so that, seeing his love,
Gurditta would hold me dearer also?"
Dhun Devi shook her head, but her keen, bright old eyes were on the
other's face.
"There is a way," she whispered, after a pause, "but death lurks in it
often with such as thou."
"Whose death?"
"Thine own. Do not all women know how the Sorrowful Hour----"
Saraswati caught the withered wrist in a fierce clasp.
"_Mai!_" she panted; "Mai Dhunnu! Dost speak of the Sorrowful Hour to
me--to me--after all these years! Is there hope--hope even yet?"
"If thou art not afraid----"
"Afraid!"
* * * * *
It was sunrise in the homestead, and a new harvest was waiting in
battalions for the sickle. The jasmine fountain showered its green
stems to the ground, but it was bare of blossoms. They hung in
chaplets from the thatch screen beneath which, on that stifling August
night, a woman had been passing through her Sorrowful Hour. In the dim
dawn the little oil-lamps set about the bed flickered uncertainly in
the breeze which heralds the day, and glinted now and again on the
lucky knife suspended by the twist of lucky threads above the pillow.
In a brazier hard by some pungent spices scattered upon charcoal sent
up a clear blue line, like the last faint smoke from a funeral pyre.
All that wisdom could do Dhun Devi had done, but a dead girl-baby lay
between Saraswati and the harvest visible through the gap in the
plaited palisade. The midwife shook her head as she peered into the
unconscious face on the pillow.
"Only a girl, after all the fuss," came Maya's high, clear voice, as
she sat cuddling Chujju in her soft round arms--Chujju, whom the gods
had spared. "To die for a girl--for a dead girl, too--what
foolishness! But 'twas her own fault. 'Tis bad enough for us young
ones, and dear payment, after all, for the fun; and she had escaped
all these years----"
Dhun Devi's claw-like fingers stopped the liquid flow of words.
"Go, infamous!" she whispered fiercely. "Such as thou are not mothers.
Thou art Maya, the desire of the flesh. Go, lest I curse the child for
thy sake."
With a little shriek of dismay, half-real, half-pretended, the girl
gathered the sleeping child in her arms and disappeared into the huts.
"The wheel slackens on its pivot," muttered the old woman, stooping
again over the still form on the bed. "I must get her to Mother Earth,
as a seed to the soil, ere it stops."
She stood at the gap and called. The fine fretwork of the acacia
branches showed against the growing blue of the sky. The little golden
puffs sent their violet perfume into the air. A bird sat among them,
chirruping to its mate.
"Come," she said, and the tall bearded man followed her meekly.
Together--he at the head, she at the feet--they laid Saraswati on the
ground with the dead child, half-hidden in her veil, still between her
and the great stretch of harvest beyond.
Suddenly, roused by the movement, she stirred slightly, and the big
black eyes opened. Dhun Devi gripped the man's hand as if to detain
him.
"The child--is it well with the child?" came in a faint voice.
Dhun Devi's clasp gripped firmer; a look recalling long past years
came to her face.
"_Yea, mother, it is well; thy son sleeps in thine arms_."
Then, craning up from her crooked old age to reach his ear, she
whispered swiftly:
"Say 'tis so if thou art a man, and bid her God-speed on her journey."
So, with her husband's hand in hers, a child in her arms, and a smile
on her face, came the end of Saraswati's Sorrowful Hour.