Page:Old Deccan Days.djvu/246

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202
OLD DECCAN DAYS.

on her knees, and rent her clothes, and tore her hair; and when she tore it all the land began to burn, and all her hair burned too.

Then the old milk-seller, who had followed her, ran and put a lump of butter on her head, thinking to cool it; and two other women who were by fetched water to pour upon her hair, but by this time nineteen lines of houses were in flames. Then the old woman cried, 'Oh! spare the Purwari[1] lines; don't burn them down, for I did all I could for you.' So Chandra did not burn that part of the town near which the old woman and her friends lived. But the fire burnt on and on in the other direction; and it killed the Rajah and the Ranee, and all the people in the palace; and the wicked Jeweller and his wife—and, as he was dying, Chandra tore out his heart and gave it to the eagles who hovered overhead, saying, 'Here is vengeance for the death of your little ones.' And the Nautch girl, Moulee, and her mother, who were watching the fire from far off, were smothered in the flames.[2]

Then Chandra went to where Koila's dead body lay, and wept over it bitterly; and as she was weeping, there fell down to her from heaven a needle and thread; and she took them, saying, 'Oh that I could by any means restore you!' and, placing the two halves of his body side by side, she sewed them together.

And when she had done this, she cried to Mahadeo, saying, 'Sire, I have done the best I can; I have joined the body; give it life.' And as she said these words Mahadeo had pity on her, and he sent Koila's spirit back, and it returned to his body again. Then Chandra was glad, and they returned and lived in their own land.

But to this day in the Madura Tinivelly country you can trace where all the land was burnt.


  1. Or outcasts; literally, 'the extra-muralists,' i.e. the houses of the lowest classes, not permitted to live within the city walls.
  2. See Notes.