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152
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JUNE, 1895.
and started onwards, and said :-“Who is that going along ? Is he a Sambhôg ? A son of a Jaina Sêtti P Is he a Baraga, the son of a Bant?"
"No matter who you are, you must pay the daily toll at Banga's verandah," said Dere.
“Why do you ask toll, Dêrê P Have we loads on our heads, Dêrê? Have we loads on our backs, Dêrê ? Do men or women follow us, Dêrê ?” asked they.
“The toll is for your dagger of steel, which you have on," said Dere.
“No one has ever taken toll from us in the whole world up to this day, not even from the creation of the sun and the moon," said they.
"Brother! Dêrê has good sense. I will ask him the remaining questions and follow you," said Channayya.
Then he stabbed Dêrê in the breast. Dêrê vomited blood and white rice. Then Channayya put three coins on his breast and said : -"Take toll from every body going along the road."
They went to a shed for water, and asked the Brâhmaņa: - "Holy one, bave you pure
water ?"
"I have water, but I have only three cops in my house. One is used for giving water in the hot season to kings and great people, and a second one is for Brahmaņas. But, children ! there is a small spout of bell-metal. Shall I pour water out of it ?” said he.
"We do not drink water from a spont, in which people of twelve religions and one hundred castes have drunk," said they.
Koți held out his dagger's point, on which the Brahmaņa poured water, and drank water through the handle.
"Oh ! Brother, you have drunk water and rested. How can I drink water?" asked Channayya.
The Brahmaņa gazed at Channayya's face, and when he saw the red eyes, the brown hair on his face, the mustaches bent like a horn, and his breast, the Brahmana was attacked by a devil that can never be routod. His hands were drawn back of themselves as if he were pouring out water, and then the water went suddenly up to his head and he became senseless. Then Kôți asked of the people: "Is this water put here by yourselves or by the permission of the king P"
The younger brother knew what to do. He stood up at once and began dragging away the Brâhmana.
Then Kôti said: - "Do not go, brother ! Do not go. If you think two ways of the Brahmana, you will become a sinner that has killed a red cow at Kasi. If you do not heed my advice and go any further, you will become as a sinner that has killed me. If you disregard this advice, you will have committed seventy-seven karors of sins." Channayya was not the brother to disregard Koți's advice.
“O Brother! I will give you an oracle. If it is useless, treat it as useless; and if it is good, treat it as good," said the Brahmana.
He brought sixty handfuls of játakams and thirty handfuls of granthams. He brought golden balls and wires of silver, and put them on a plank of white kadroli, and he also shed tears.
"Do not try on any injustice : tell the truth now, putting down a handful of the balls," said Channayya.
"At Nelli and at Savalandadka enemies with swords are waiting both on the trees and on the ground. A little further on a berry with a white stone will fall on Channayya's hat, and if you go on further, you will see a woman named Kantakke, who is selling Areca-nut," said the astrologer. "O Chan ayya and Kôți, let me fold up the wires."
