Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 502

WHO
402
LOST THE
WAGER
and lastly on the top of my head. I endured these cruel
tortures without showing the smallest symptom of pain
Indeed, I would rather
or uttering the least complaint.
have died, if necessary, than lose the bet I had made.
11
Now let us try the remedy on the woman," said the
shrewd operator, who was rather discouraged at my firm-
He then approached my wife and applied the red-
ness.
hot bar of gold to the soles of her feet. But no sooner
did she feel the effects of the burning than she quickly
"
drew away her leg, and cried out, " Appah ! Appah !
(Enough Enough !). Then, turning towards me, she said
"I have lost the wager; here is your betel-leaf." "Did
I not tell you," said I, taking the leaf, " that you would
be the first to speak ? You thus prove by your own
conduct that I was right in saying last night, when we
went to bed, that women are chatterboxes."
The spectators, thoroughly astounded, were gazing at
!
:
'
each other without understanding anything, until I ex-
plained to them the wager we had made overnight before
" What downright folly " they all ex-
going to sleep.
claimed together. " What " said they, " was it for a leaf
of betel that you spread this alarm in your own house
and through the whole village ? Was it for a leaf of betel
that you showed such courage in allowing yourself to be
burnt from the feet to the head ? Never in the whole
world was there seen such stupid folly." And from that
time I have always gone by the name of Betel Anantayya.'
This story appeared to the assembly remarkable enough
but it was only
as illustrating extraordinary foolishness
fair, they said, that they should hear the claims that the
fourth suitor had to put forward. And he, having been
granted permission to speak, thus addressed the assembly:
As the girl to whom I was married was too young to
cohabit with me, she continued to remain for six or seven
years in her father's house. At last, however, she attained
the proper age, and I was duly apprised of the fact by her
My father-in-law's house was six or seven miles
parents.
away from ours, and my mother, being unwell at the time
we received this happy intelligence, was not in a fit state
to undertake the journey.
She therefore entrusted to me
the duty of fetching my wife home. She counselled me so
!
!
;
*