A CASTE STORY 285 himself before the guru, made the following: speech
1
So you have decided, you and your assessors, to break my cord! Well, that will not be a heavy loss, as for two
farthings I can get another. But what is your motive for treating me with so much severity, and for dishonouring
me thus publicly I Is it because I have eaten animal food? But then a guru ' s justice should be meted out impartially, and punishments should be awarded without respect of persons. Why am I the only one to be accused, the only one to be punished, when there are so many others who are quite as much to blame as myself, or even more
so? If I turn my eyes on one side, I see two or three among my accusers who not long since partook with me of an excellent leg of mutton. If I look on the other side,
I see several who have not disdained to accept the invitation of a common Sudra friend, who treated us to an admirable chicken stew; while there are others not less to blame on this score who have not dared to put in an
appearance in this assembly. Have I your permission to mention their names? I am quite ready to produce witnesses, and to substantiate my accusation.' Struck dumb by this speech, which was delivered with the utmost confidence and imperturbable assurance, the guru began to consider what the consequences of this affair would be, and how it would end if he persisted in carrying
it to its proper termination; so he put a stop to all future complications by crying out, with great presence of mind:
'
Who has brought this babbler here? Do you not see that he is mad? Turn him out of the assembly at once, and let me hear no more of him.'
If these slight and rare infractions of the law, which are,
after all, only weaknesses inseparable from human nature, were the only sins, they would be undeniably small indeed; but occasionally one may also come across vice and wickedness in their most hideous forms. It once came to my knowledge that men calling themselves conjurers or magicians used to attend nocturnal gatherings, which were
held in a deserted spot that I knew of, there to give themselves up to indescribable orgies of debauch and intemperance.
The leader of these orgies was a Vishnavite Brahmin,