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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1889.
from one of their spies that a rich traveller was then sojourning there. Somasetti, who a moment before had been calling himself a fool for not having gone into the public inn for his night's repose, now shed tears of joy to the memory of his father.
By this time it was dawn, and the villagers requested Sômusetti to oblige them by burying the murdered persons. It is loathsome work to bury the unclaimed dead, and our hero would have avoided the task, but the old Chetti's third maxim, -"neglect not what four or five people say," - rushed into his mind, and, true to his promise,' he willingly consented to perform the disagreeable task. In return, the villagers promised to pay him at the rate of five fanams for every dead body interred, and gave him the privilege of taking for his own use any property that he might find on the dead. Our hero thus gained a double advantage ; be was obeying his father's third maxim, and he was profiting himself materially by it. His reward was indeed a double one, for though the robbers had plundered all the people in the inn before putting them to death, still a great deal remained on the bodies. One of them, indeed, who had been a Chetti, had in his waist-cloth nine rubies tied up in a rag, and these our hero secretly removed and secured without arousing any suspicions. The great wealth he thus acquired in the remuneration for his duty, made him at once very rich, in addition to the possession of the nine rubieg. He thought that he had now enough to live upon, and returned to his own village. Near it there was an old temple of Kali, in ruins, and to this our hero resorted in the dead of night, and underneath the idol itself buried his nine rubies and great part of his other treasure. What remained with him was enough for him to lead a respectable life. He took to wife a girl of respectable family, and lived with her for a while in happiness and comfort.
Unlike the usual run of Chestis, who are proverbial for their stinginess, our hero was known in bis village for his liberality. And whenever all his available tash was exhausted, he would ask his wife for a little rice for a meal or two, as he was going to a village near, to try and make some more money. Now our hero had never informed his wife where he had buried his treasure, for his father's fourth and last maxim was, “be not always open with your wife.” And Somusetti had benefited so much by the strict observation of the first three maxims, that he had every reason to give more than usual weight to the last one. So he always kept his treasure underneath the image of Kali a dead secret ; but he now and then went to it, in the dead of night, when his cash was exhausted, pretending to be absent from the village, and always returned with enough for his expenses. This he did for a long time, and little by little he bought land, extended his house, and made jewels for his wife. She was a very simple and good-natured woman, but even she began to suspect that her husband must be the master of some miraculous power, to be growing rich in this way. She often asked him how he managed, every time he left the village, to return with so much money. He kept the truth from her for a long time, but she went on worrying him repeatedly. Even iron by constant hammering gives way, and the heart of a man, especially under feminine charms, has much less chance. So, notwithstanding his strict resolution to observe his father's words to their last letter, our hero at last told the whole truth to his wife, warning her at the same time to keep it a dead secret, and never to open her lips to anyone about it. He told her that he had brought with him a great quantity of money and nine rabies, that all the money had been spent, that he had sold one of the rubies for nine karose of mokars, on which money he was still living, and that when that was gone, he had still eight more rubies, each of which was worth the same enormous sum. How great was his wife's joy when she heard this news from her busband! Her whole face beamed over with it, and she swore to keep the secret. Thus did our hero, for once in his life, notwithstanding his strict resolution to observe his father's maximg, deviste from the last of them, and we shall now see the consequences.
The very next day the mistress of the neighbouring house, paying her usual visit to our hero's wife, observed unusual brightness in her face, and on repeatedly enquiring the cause of it learnt all the secret of Somuśetti's wealth. In fact Somusetti's wife told all about the rubies, the place where they lay buried, and everything else, to her friend, repeatedly asking her to keep the secret, as of course she swore over and over again to do. The conversation was
