adroit a blow that it released its hold; then as I wore heavy boots, I had crushed its head under my heel.
"But though she had escaped all immediate danger, the charming Amaru was in a terrible state; instead of dying of snake-biie, she seemed like to die of fear. Lying back in my arms, she was as pale and looked as fragile as a waterlily. Pressing her to my bosom, I carried her to the hut, where breakfast awaited us. The child who was barely twelve felt scarcely heavier than a dream or a vapour; only her heart beating against mine proved she was a living being.
"Once inside the hut the charming Amaru plucked up courage and consented to partake of some grains of rice; but when it came to setting forth again, the same terror seized her and she declared she had made up her mind not to walk another step. Nothing could have pleased me better than such a declaration. I offered her the same means of transport by which she had been conveyed to where she was. She threw a glance at her father, who nodded his consent; so I took up Amaru in my arms once more and we started out afresh. This time, fearing to burden me overmuch, she threw her arm round my neck, so that her face came close to mine while our hair and breath intermingled, circumstances which appeared to give her as much pleasure as they did me. At the first hut I had hoped I might be loved; at the second I was sure of it; at the third Amaru had told me so; at the fourth our union was agreed upon, and it only remained to fix the day.
"This date was decided by Nachor. He was a man of much sagacity, he had seen the crop sown, but he wished to see the harvest garnered; so he fixed the ceremony for the month of July. This suited me very well; it was the time when I hoped to despatch my httle ship or rather to sail it myself to Ceylon, and I was not sorry to be in a position to leave someone behind me to superintend the work and workmen on my estate. Amaru, fearing green snakes as she did, was ineligible for the post of inspector; but Nachor had shown me that he understood what he was about, and there was no doubt that when it became a question of looking after the interests of his only daughter, which would now be identical with my own, he would perform his duties admirably, We were now at the end of May; so after all, I was not condemned to any very long period of waiting.
"Nachor and Amaru followed the Hindoo religion. It was therefore agreed that we should be married according to the Brahminical rite. Accordingly, though everything was really settled between us, I looked about for a Brahmin to make formal request to Nachor in my name for his daughter's hand. Such is the custom of the country, and I saw no harm in conforming to it. I had no acquaintances among the Brahmins; but Amaru suggested the tall fellow who had rolled his niece in a sheet, after swearing a false oath by the waters of the Ganges, and then thrown her into the fiery furnace in spite of her cries and supplications. I had nothing to say against him except that he was a poor sort of relation to have; but as the errand he was going to do for me with Nachor did not make him my uncle, what did that matter to me? So on the day agreed upon he left my house to go to Amaru's. Twice over at different intervals he came back again professing each time to have encountered evil omens by the way; but the third time, happiest presages having taken their place, he returned finally to inform me that Amaru's hand was mine and all I had to do now was to choose a day agreeable to the Brahmin.
"I told him every day was alike to me, so his day should be mine. Thereupon the Brahmin chose Friday. I thought for a moment of objecting, as you know in Europe we have certain prejudices about Friday; but I had boasted every day was alike to me, so I was not going to stultify myself and answered:
"'Friday be it then, always provided it is next Friday!'
"The happy day arrived. It was at Nachor's house that the ceremony was to be performed; and about five o'clock in the evening I proceeded thither. We mutually presented each other with the betel. The fire Homan was kindled with the wood Ravistu. The tall scamp of a Brahmin, the hero of the suttee, took three handfuls of rice and scattered them over Amaru's head. He took three more and did the same to me, after which Nachor poured water into a great wooden bowl, washed my feet, then held out his hand to his daughter. Amaru laid her
