The Little Clay Cart Part 10

_Maitreya._ Yes, with your pretty bows you two have knocked your heads together, till they look like a couple of rice-fields. I also bow my head like a camel colt's knee and beseech you both to stand up. [_He does so, then rises._]

_Charudatta._ Very well, let us no longer trouble ourselves with conventions.

_Vasantasena._ [_To herself._] What a delightfully clever hint! But it would hardly be proper to spend the night, considering how I came hither. Well, I will at least say this much. [_Aloud._] If I am to receive thus much of your favor, sir, I should be glad to leave these jewels in your house. It was for the sake of the jewels that those scoundrels pursued me.

P. 45.14]

_Charudatta._ This house is not worthy of the trust.

_Vasantasena._ You mistake, sir! It is to men that treasures are entrusted, not to houses.

_Charudatta._ Maitreya, will you receive the jewels?

_Vasantasena._ I am much indebted to you. [_She hands him the jewels._]

_Maitreya._ [_Receiving them._] Heaven bless you, madam.

_Charudatta._ Fool! They are only entrusted to us.

_Maitreya._ [_Aside._] Then the thieves may take them, for all I care.

_Charudatta._ In a very short time--

_Maitreya._ What she has entrusted to us, belongs to us.

_Charudatta._ I shall restore them.

_Vasantasena._ I should be grateful, sir, if this gentleman would accompany me home.

_Charudatta._ Maitreya, pray accompany our guest.

_Maitreya._ She walks as gracefully as a female swan, and you are the gay flamingo to accompany her. But I am only a poor Brahman, and wherever I go, the people will fall upon me just as dogs will snap at a victim dragged to the cross-roads.

_Charudatta._ Very well. I will accompany her myself. Let the torches be lighted, to ensure our safety on the highway.

_Maitreya._ Vardhamanaka, light the torches.

_Vardhamanaka._ [_Aside to Maitreya._] What! light torches without oil?

_Maitreya._ [_Aside to Charudatta._] These torches of ours are like courtezans who despise their poor lovers. They won't light up unless you feed them.

[25.23. S.

_Charudatta._ Enough, Maitreya! We need no torches. See, we have a lamp upon the king's highway.

Attended by her starry servants all, And pale to see as a loving maiden's cheeks, Rises before our eyes the moon's bright ball, Whose pure beams on the high-piled darkness fall Like streaming milk that dried-up marshes seeks. 57

[_His voice betraying his pa.s.sion._] Mistress Vasantasena, we have reached your home. Pray enter. [_Vasantasena gazes ardently at him, then exit._] Comrade, Vasantasena is gone. Come, let us go home.

All creatures from the highway take their flight; The watchmen pace their rounds before our sight; To forestall treachery, is just and right, For many sins find shelter in the night. 58

[_He walks about._] And you shall guard this golden casket by night, and Vardhamanaka by day.

_Maitreya._ Very well. [_Exeunt ambo._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 30: During the mating season, a fragrant liquor exudes from the forehead of the elephant. Of this liquor bees are very fond.]

[Footnote 31: The most striking peculiarity of Sansthanaka's dialect--his subst.i.tution of _sh_ for _s_--I have tried to imitate in the translation.]

[Footnote 32: Red a.r.s.enic, used as a cosmetic.]

[Footnote 33: Here, as elsewhere, Sansthanaka's mythology is wildly confused. To a Hindu the effect must be ludicrous enough; but the humor is necessarily lost in a translation. It therefore seems hardly worth while to explain his mythological vagaries in detail.]

[Footnote 34: A name of Krishna, who is perhaps the most amorous character in Indian story.]

[Footnote 35: Cupid.]

[Footnote 36: The five deadly sins are: the slaying of a Brahman, the drinking of wine, theft, adultery with the wife of one's teacher, and a.s.sociation with one guilty of these crimes.]

[Footnote 37: These are all epithets of the same G.o.d.]

[Footnote 38: Which look pretty, but do not rain. He doubtless means to suggest that the cloak, belonging to a strange man, is as useless to Vasantasena as the veil of autumn clouds to the earth.]

ACT THE SECOND

THE SHAMPOOER[39] WHO GAMBLED

[_Enter a maid._]

_Maid._

I am sent with a message to my mistress by her mother. I must go in and find my mistress. [_She walks about and looks around her._] There is my mistress. She is painting a picture, and putting her whole heart into it. I must go and speak to her.

[_Then appear the love-lorn Vasantasena, seated, and Madanika._]

_Vasantasena._ Well, girl, and then--

_Madanika._ But mistress, you were not speaking of anything. What do you mean?

_Vasantasena._ Why, what did I say?

_Madanika._ You said, "and then"--