Page:Nil Durpan.djvu/105

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Cowherd.   It is the cold attacking a frog.[1] Dewanji, don't be angry with me, I am as a mad goat; shall I prepare the tobacco?

Gopi.   This filth-eater of Nanda's family is very senseless.

Cowherd.   The Sahebs are doing all; they are the blacksmiths and you are the scimitars; the scimitars fall wherever they wish. If a flood comes whirling into the Factories of the Sahebs the villagers would bathe therein for relief.[2]

Gopi.   You are very foolish, I don't want to hear any more. Go out, the Saheb will come very soon.

Cowherd.   Now, I am going, You must attend to my milk bill, and also give me one rupee to-morrow. We shall go to bathe in the Ganges.

(Exit Cowherd

Gopi.   I think the thunder-bolt will strike this head, which is aching. No one will be able to stop the Saheb from sowing the Indigo seed on the sides of your tank. The Sahebs did something improper. These persons engaged themselves to sow Indigo on fifty bigahs of land, although they did not get the full price of the last year. Yet the Sahebs are not satisfied; these disputes arose only for certain pieces of ground; and it would have been good for Nobin Bose to have given them these—to keep the goddess Sitola well-pleased[3] is the best. Nobin will bite once more even after his death. (Seeing the Saheb at a distance.) Here the white-bodied man with a blue dress is coming, I think, I am to remain as a companion [i.e. in prison] with the former Dewan for some days.

Enter Mr. Wood

Wood.   There will be a great riot at Matanganagar; and all the latyals will be there. Let no one hear this. For this

  1. That is nothing to you, as the cold has no effect on the frog.
  2. That is, purify themselves by bathing.
  3. Sitola: the goddess of small-pox; and the meaning of the above is that if that goddess be kept satisfied, the disease cannot come; and if it comes it will pass away.

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