He blessed her, and, getting a fragrant earthen pot from another room, boiled the milk on the fire that was burning. When the milk was ready, he gave it to Kalyani and said "Mother, give some to your daughter and take the rest yourself—you may talk to me later on." Kalyani joyfully began to feed her child. Then the saint walked out,[1] saying, "You need have no fear till I come back."
Coming back presently, he found that Kalyani had fed her child but had taken nothing herself. There was now almost as much milk as he left, only a little having been used. "Mother," said he, "You have not taken the milk; I am going out again; I wont come back till you have taken it."
With this, the saintly man was going out again when Kalyani bowed to him and folded her arms as if she would speak.
The anchorite asked, "What do you want to say?" Kalyani said, "Do not bid me take the milk, there is some bar to it; I will not take anything now."
Then the anchorite feelingly said, "Tell me what bar there is. I am an anchorite and a celebate. You are as a daughter to me. What can there be that you may not like to tell me? When I brought you senseless from the woods, you seemed to be very much pulled down with hunger and thirst How can you live without food?"
Kalyani's eyes grew wet as she said: "You are a
- ↑ This and what follows refers to a point of etiequette in Bengali Hindu Society where a lady does not consider it consistent with her modesty to take food before males or strangers.
