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296
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1896.
At this, she replied :-"In extreme cases you may touch. In cases where you can prevent death, you may touch. In this fearful forest, full of tigers and bears, the wild beasts did not eat me! Even the wild beasts bate me! Please give me liberty. These wild beasts would not eat me, and thus set me at liberty."
At this, he looked to his right and to his left, and thinking there was no help for it, he exclaimed :- Alas! to-day I am touching a Brahman maid. And he said to her :-"My child, I touch you, calling on the name of the Lord God; there is no help for it, my child."
In this manner, with much fear, he touched her, and set her hands at liberty, and loosened and took off the bandages over her eyes. When he saw her after the bandages were taken off, she looked very beautiful. Then he said to her :-" Now, at least, tell me, my child, who you are."
At this, she said :-"I am the daughter of a Brahman."
Then he asked her :-"Why did they leave a Brahman maid in the forest in this manner ? Who are your parents? Of what town are they? Tell me without any fear or bashfulness. You are as my sister. Tell me the name of your native town. Tell me the reason why you were left here in this condition."
At this, she said :-"You have touched me and loosened my bandages. Now, therefore, take me to your house, making me one of your own."
Then he said :-"Yes, as I have loosened your bandages I will take you home."
At this, she said :-" In that case I will tell you; hear me. If you ask me where I come from - I come from Parmale. A Brahman maid is like an earthen pot. A copper pot may be touched by any one, but an earthen one must not be touched by outsiders. When A dog touches an earthen pot, it is thrown away. This the custom among the Brâhmans. If you ask my parents' names, I will not tell you. I am not married. I am a virgin maid. I am thirteen years of age. Nobody came to ask me in marriage, and as I reached puberty before marriage, they tied my hands and eyes and left me in the forest. If a girl attains puberty before her marriage, they do not allow her to remain in the town, but send her to the forest. This is the custom among the Brahmans."
At this, he said :-"O maid, your custom is not among other castes. Is it a sin in a girl to attain puberty before marriage ? In our caste we have no such custom. We alway marry after a girl attains puberty. It is very rarely that we marry before that."
Then she said further :-" There is another custom among Brahmans. If a little girl, stils a child, should lose her husband and become a widow, she is not allowed to marry again. God has created different customs for different castes."
Then he said :-"O maid, hear me, if they leave a girl in the forest, blind-folding her and tying her hands behind her, how can she live "
She replied :-"She must starve in the forest till some wild beast devonra her."
Then he said :-"These Brahmaņs are very hard-hearted men. They do not shew any mercy to their own offspring. It would be better for them to kill her at once than to bring her and leave her in the forest in this manner. No other castes are so hard-hearted as the Brahmaņs. It seems to me that this custom is not given to you by God, but it is instituted by men themselves. God will never ordain that they should sacrifice young women to tigers and bears, to be devoured by them."
Then the girl asked him :-"Why did you come to this forest ? ”
He replied :-"I came to take palm-juice from the palm-trees which are in this forest, This forest belongs to the Ballal of Parmale, and I am the palm-climber of this forest. When I was on the top of a palm-tree, I heard the sound of weeping and came down to discover who was weeping; and so I found you. I have tied my camel to'a palm-tree."
