The Adventures of Kathlyn

From the four ends of the principality they came, the veiled

candidates; from the north, the east, the south and west. They came in

marvelous palanquins, in curtained howdahs, on camels, in splendid

bullock carts. Many a rupee resolved itself into new-bought finery,

upon the vague chance of getting it back with compound interest.

What was most unusual, they came without pedigree or dowry, this being

Ramabai's idea; though, in truth, Umballa objected at first to the lack

of dowry. He had expected to inherit this dowry. He gave way to

Ramabai because he did not care to have Ramabai suspect what his inner

thoughts were. Let the fool Ramabai pick out his chestnuts for him.

Umballa laughed in his voluminous sleeve.

Some one of these matrimonially inclined houris the colonel would have

to select; if he refused, then should Ramabai do the selecting. More,

he would marry the fortunate woman by proxy. There was no possible

loophole for the colonel.

The populace was charmed, enchanted, as it always is over a new

excitement. Much as they individually despised Umballa, collectively

they admired his ingenuity in devising fresh amusements. Extra feast

days came one after another. The Oriental dislikes work; and any one

who could invent means of avoiding it was worthy of gratitude. So,

then, the populace fell in with Umballa's scheme agreeably. The bhang

and betel and toddy sellers did a fine business during the festival of

Rama.

There was merrymaking in the streets, day and night. The temples and

mosques were filled to overflowing. Musicians with reeds and tom-toms

paraded the bazaars. In nearly every square the Nautch girl danced, or

the juggler plied his trade, or there was a mongoose-cobra fight (the

cobra, of course, bereft of its fangs), and fakirs grew mango trees out

of nothing. There was a flurry in the slave mart, too.

The troops swaggered about, overbearing. They were soon to get their

pay. The gold and silver were rotting in the treasury. Why leave it

there, since gold and silver were minted to be spent?

There were elephant fights in the reconstructed arena; tigers attacked

wild boars, who fought with enormous razor-like tusks, as swift and

deadly as any Malay kris. The half forgotten ceremony of feeding the

wild pig before sundown each day was given life again. And drove after

drove came in from the jungles for the grain, which was distributed

from a platform. And wild peacocks followed the pigs. A wonderful

sight it was to see several thousand pigs come trotting in, each drove

headed by its fighting boar. When the old fellows met there was

carnage; squealing and grunting, they fought. The peacocks shrilled

and hopped from back to back for such grain as fell upon the bristly

backs of the pigs. Here and there a white peacock would be snared, or

a boar whose tusks promised a battle royal with some leopard or tiger.