278 



Byram and Ghopal. 



locusts had come ten days later I — probably 

 they will go south for another ten days, 

 and it will be too late to redeem their 

 devastations by resowing. Suppose they 

 came two or three years in succession! 

 they would breed a famine, and what would 

 it help people dying of famine to know 

 that the land is being improved in fertility? 



Such was the tenor of Ghopal's reflec- 

 tions as he sat apart apparently listening to 

 the conversation maintained by Byram. 

 After the townspeople had all withdrawn 

 to their homes, he challenged Byram to a 

 renewal of the discussion. 



"Of course," he said, "now that you 

 have opened my eyes to the fact that all 

 the fertility of the soil is due to animal re- 

 mains, I recognize that even a visitation of 

 locusts has its redeeming features. As re- 

 gards the present visitation here and now, 

 there is time to sow the land, and the evil 

 may be remedied, but not without heavy 

 cost to the cultivators, most of whom will 

 have to buy grain at double rates or more 

 for seed, and to keep them alive until 

 harvest; but suppose the locusts had come 

 ten days later, it would have been too late 

 to resow the fields, and the people would 

 have starved." 



"As regards the enhanced price of 

 grain," said Byram, "that is not due to 

 the rapacity of locusts but to the rapacity 

 of man. But as regards your second ob- 

 jection, it would be better that the locusts 

 throw the soil out of cultivation every time 

 they visit a region than that they never 

 came. When the land can be resown, the 

 visitation is a clear gain to the people at 

 large, and this* is not affected by the fact 

 that the Bunyas reap all or more than all 

 the profit for themselves. When it is too 

 late to resow, the land is benefited by fal- 

 low, and the area affected is always a very 

 small one in comparison with the area of 

 the whole country, so that prices ought not 

 to be affected to more than a very small 

 extent for carriage. The farmers, too, 



could afford to lose a season, confident of 

 an improved return from their winter crop, 

 provided they had only to repay bushel for 

 bushel with a small interest for the loan. 

 What crushes the farmers is the advance 

 in prices and the heavy interest from seed 

 time till harvest, when prices fall in the 

 proportion that the harvest is abundant. 

 The worst enemy of mankind is always 

 man." 



"These Bunyas must be enormously 

 wealthy," said Ghopal. 



"By no means," said Byram. "They 

 demand more interest than their debtors 

 can ever pay, and these, having no hope, 

 have no energy. The land is poorly culti- 

 vated and gives the lowest possible return, 

 the cattle are poorly fed and stunted in 

 growth. The creators of wealth are poor, 

 and all who depend on them, Bunyas, Brah- 

 mins or Rajpoots, must of course share in 

 the general poverty. The poorest country 

 may retain a wealthy king, but if little 

 wealth is produced, the privileged classes 

 cannot be rich, or at least they cannot be 

 both rich and numerous." 



" But we are getting away from the point," 

 said Ghopal. " What I wanted to urge is, 

 that if the locusts come too late for resow- 

 ing, or two years in succession and create 

 a famine, the people will linger on in slow 

 starvation and many of them die. How in 

 such case would you call their visitation a 

 benefit to man?" 



"The Gods,"* said Byram, "do not ap- 

 pear to trouble themselves about how many 

 die, provided some are left to restock the 

 earth. In this matter they make but small 

 distinction between locusts and men. Of 

 these locusts now here perhaps ninety-nine 

 in every hundred will be dead before har- 

 vest, and the gods will not interfere to 

 save them, but the hundredth they are 

 careful to keep alive, and that one in 

 every hundred is enough to breed a fresh 



* Referring to the Hindoo Trinity, Creator, Preserver and 

 Destroyer. 



