slowly on the ground.) My son, what fear near a mother? You lie down peacefully. I shall spit here (spits on its breast).[1] If that Englishman's lady come here this day, I shall kill her by pressing down her neck. I shall never have my child out of my sight. Let me place the bow round it (gives a mark with her finger round the floor, while reading a certain verse as a sacred formula read to a god). "The froth of the serpent, the tiger's nose, the fire prepared by the Sala's[2] resin, the whistling of the swinging machine, the white hairs of seven co-wives bhanti leaves, the flowers of the dhutura, the seeds of the Indigo, the burnt pepper, the head of the corpse, the root of the maddar, the mad dog, the thief's reading of the Chundi[3]: these together make the arrow to be directed against the gnashing teeth of Yama".
Enter SARALOTA
Saralota. Where are these gone to? Ah! She is turning round the dead body. I think, my husband, tired with excessive travelling has given himself up to sleep, that goddess who is destroyer of all sorrows and pains. Oh, Sleep! how very miraculous is thy greatness, thou makest the widow to be with her husband in this world, thou bringest the traveller to his country; at thy touch, the prisoner's chain breaks; thou art the Dhannantari[4] of the sick; thou hast no distinction of castes in thy dominions; and thy laws are never different on account of the difference of nations or castes; thou must have made my husband a subject of thy impartial power; or else, how is it, that the insane mother brings away the dead son from him. My husband is become quite distracted by being deprived of his father and his brother. The beauty of his countenance has faded by and by, as the full
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