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154
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
was a very miserly man, and would never part with any of his money, for all he was exceedingly rich. Nevertheless, without his knowledge cunning beggars would now and then come to his wife and beg of her, and they used generally to succeed, as she was so amenable to flattery. But whenever her husband found her out he would come down heavily upon her, sometimes with words and sometimes with blows. Thus quarrels arose, till at last, for the sake of peace, the wife had to give up her charitable propensities.
Now there lived in the village a rogue of the first water, who had many a time witnessed what took place in the rich miser's family. Wishing to revive his old habit of getting what he wanted from the miser's wife he watched his opportunity and one day, when the miser had gone out on horseback to inspect his lands, he came to his wife in the middle of the day and fell down at the threshold as if overcome by exhaustion. She ran up to him at once and asked him who he was.
"I am a native of Kailasa," said he, "sent down by an old couple living there, for news of their son and his wife."
"Who are those fortunate dwellers on Śiva's mountain ?" said she.
On this the rogue gave the names of her husband's deceased parents, which he had taken good care, of course, to learn from the neigh bours.
"Do you really come from them ?" said she. "Are they doing well there? Dear old people. How glad my husband would be to see you, were he here! Sit down please, and take rest awhile till he returns. How do they live there? Have they enough to eat and to dress themselves ?" These and a thousand other questions she put to the rogue, who, for his part, wanted to get away as quick as possible, as he knew full well how he would he treated if the miser should return while he was there, so he said :
[JUNE, 1885. come down from Kailasa, sent by the old couple to her.
"Why should they suffer so?" said she, "when their son has plenty to eat and to dress himself, and when their daughter-in-law wears all sorts of costly ornaments ? "
"Mother, language has no words to describe the miseries they are undergoing in the other world. They have not a rag to cover themselves, and for the last six days they have eaten nothing, and have lived on water only. It would break your heart to see them."
The rogue's pathetic words fully deceived the good woman, who firmly believed that ho had
With that she went into the house and came out with two boxes containing all the clothes of herself and her husband and gave the whole lot to the rogue, with instructions to take them to her poor old people in Kailasa. She also gave him the jewel box to be presented to her mother-in-law.
"But dress and jewels will not fill their hungry stomachs," said he.
Requesting him to wait a little, the silly woman brought out her husband's cash chest and emptied the contents into the rogue's coat, who now went off in haste, promising to give everything to the good people in Kailasa. Our good lady, according to etiquette, conducted him a few hundred yards along the road and sent news of herself through him to her relatives, and then returned home. The rogue now tied up all his booty in his coat and ran in haste towards the river and crossed over it.
No sooner had our heroine reached home than her husband returned after his inspection of his lands. Her pleasure at what she had done was so great, that she met him at the door and told him all about the arrival of the messenger from Kailasa, and how she had sent clothes and jewels and money through him to her husband's parents. The anger of her husband knew no bounds. But he checked himself, for a while, and asked her which road the messenger from Kailasa had taken, as he said he wanted to follow him and send some more news to his parents. To this she willingly agreed and pointed out the direction the rogue had gone. With rage in his heart at the trick played upon his stupid wife our hero rode on in hot haste and after a ride of two ghatikás he caught sight of the flying rogue, who, finding escape hopeless, climbed up into a big pipal tree. Our hero soon reached the bottom of the tree and shouted to the rogue to come down.
"No, I cannot, this is the way to Kailasa," said the rogue, and climbed up on the top of the tree. Seeing no chance of the rogue's coming Uparani or upavastra, an upper garment.
