DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5828#0231
A MOHAMMEDAN ROMANCE.
197
magician was, consequently, sent for to release us
from so dreadful a thraldom. He came, imme-
diately commenced the exercises of his craft, and
finished by declaring that my wife and I were un-
doubtedly possessed by two demons, but that, if any
one interested in our delivery would place four pa-
godas upon his palm, he would instantly lay the
devils, and restore us to the use of our speech.
" To this proposal my father and mother at once
agreed, but a Brahmin who happened to be present,
and was more than a match for the magician in cun-
ning, declared that our dumbness was the mere effect
of some ordinary cause, and agreed to cure us both
without incurring the expense of a single cowry
He accordingly made a small rod of iron red-hot, and
taking it in a pair of pincers applied it to the soles of
my feet. Finding I did not speak, he put it upon
the crown of my head ; but I did not stir my tongue,
being determined to die, rather than afford my wife
so signal a cause of triumph, as by her sly smiles she
evidently expected from this process.
" Seeing that the searing produced not the ex-
pected effect upon me, ' Let us try the wife,' said the
wise Brahmin. The heated iron no sooner touched
the skin of her tiny foot, than she screamed out
' Appa*', and confessed that I had conquered. This
was not all, for she candidly admitted, that, of the
two, women were greater talkers than men. Our
conversation causing some surprise among the by-
1 A shell, the lowest current coin of Hindostan, one heing ahout
the fiftieth part of a farthing.
5 Enough.
K 3
197
magician was, consequently, sent for to release us
from so dreadful a thraldom. He came, imme-
diately commenced the exercises of his craft, and
finished by declaring that my wife and I were un-
doubtedly possessed by two demons, but that, if any
one interested in our delivery would place four pa-
godas upon his palm, he would instantly lay the
devils, and restore us to the use of our speech.
" To this proposal my father and mother at once
agreed, but a Brahmin who happened to be present,
and was more than a match for the magician in cun-
ning, declared that our dumbness was the mere effect
of some ordinary cause, and agreed to cure us both
without incurring the expense of a single cowry
He accordingly made a small rod of iron red-hot, and
taking it in a pair of pincers applied it to the soles of
my feet. Finding I did not speak, he put it upon
the crown of my head ; but I did not stir my tongue,
being determined to die, rather than afford my wife
so signal a cause of triumph, as by her sly smiles she
evidently expected from this process.
" Seeing that the searing produced not the ex-
pected effect upon me, ' Let us try the wife,' said the
wise Brahmin. The heated iron no sooner touched
the skin of her tiny foot, than she screamed out
' Appa*', and confessed that I had conquered. This
was not all, for she candidly admitted, that, of the
two, women were greater talkers than men. Our
conversation causing some surprise among the by-
1 A shell, the lowest current coin of Hindostan, one heing ahout
the fiftieth part of a farthing.
5 Enough.
K 3