________________
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
AUGUST, 1838.J
safe custody of their prisoner, they marched to their cave. Meanwhile Chandralekha was not idle on the cot. The way to the jungle was through a long and fine avenue of mango trees. It was the mango season, and all the branches were hanging with bunches of ripe and unripe fruit. To make up for her weight on the cot she kept plucking mango banches and heaping them on it, and as soon as a quantity which she thought would make up her weight was upon the cot, she without the slightest noise took hold of a branch and lifted herself up from off it. The thieves walked on as before, the weight on their heads not apparently diminishing, leaving our heroine safely seated on a mango branch to pass the few remaining ghafikás of that anxious night there. The thieves reached their cave just at daybreak, and when they placed their burden down their eyes met only bunches of ripe mangoes, and not the lady they looked for. "Is she a woman of flesh and blood or is she a devil ?" asked the chief of the next in rank.
"My lord! She is a woman fast enough, and if we search in the wood we shall find her," replied he, and at once all the eight robbers after a light breakfast began to search for her.
Meanwhile the morning dawned upon Chandralekha and let her see that she was in the midst of a thick jungle. She feared to escape in the daytime as the way was long, and she was sure that the robbers would soon be after her. So she resolved to conceal herself in some deep ambush and wait for the night. Before she left the cot for the mango branch she had secured in her hip the small knife she had made for herself out of the robbers' rod and the purse containing the materials for chewing betel; and near the tree into which she had climbed she saw a deep hollow surrounded by impenetrable reeds on all sides. So she slowly let herself down from the tree into this hollow, and anxiously waited there for the night.
All this time the eight thieves were searching for her in different places, and one of them came to the spot where Chandralekha had sat in the tree, and the dense bushes near made him suspect that she was hidden there; so he proceeded to examine the place by climbing up the tree, When Chandralekha saw the thief on the tree she gave up all hopes of life. But suddenly a bright
237
thought came into her mind, just as the man up above saw her. Putting on a most cheerful countenance she slowly spoke to him: "My dear husband, for I must term you so from this moment, since God has elevated you now to that position, do not raise an alarm. Come down here gently, that we may be happy in each other's company. You are my husband and I am your wife from this moment."
So spoke the clever Chandralekha, and the head of the thief began to turn with joy when he heard so sweet a speech, and, forgetting all of her previous conduct to himself and his brethren, he leapt into the hollow. She welcomed him with a smiling face, in which the eager heart of the robber read sincere affection, and gave him some betel-nut to chew and chewed some herself merrily. Now redness of the tongue after chewing betel is always an indication of the mutual affection of a husband and wife among the illiterate of Hindû society. So while the betel-leaf was being chewed she put out her tongue to show the thief how red it was, letting him see thereby how deeply she loved him: and he, to show in return how deeply he loved her, put out his tongue too. And she, as if examining it closely, clutched it in her left hand, while with her right hand in the twinkling of an eye out off the tongue and nose of the robber, and taking advantage of the confusion that came over him she cut his throat and left him dead.
By this time evening was fast approaching, and the other seven robbers, after fruitless search,/returned to their cave, feeling sure that the eighth man must have discovered Chandralekha. They waited and waited the whole night, but no one returned, for how could a man who had been killed come back?
Our heroine, meanwhile, as soon as evening set in, started homewards, being emboldened by the occasion and the circumstances in which she was placed. She reached home safely at midnight and related all her adventures to her mother. Overcome by exhaustion she slept the rest of the night, and as soon as morning dawned began to strengthen the walls of her bedroom by iron plates. To her most useful pocket-knife she now added a bagful of powdered chillies, and went to bed, not to sleep, but to watch for the robbers. Just as she expected, a small hole was bored in the east wall of her
