a 



382 LIEUT.-COL. D. C. PHILLOTT : 



the one left the day before and the one just brought, and giving him a slap or two on 

 the back of the neck said, " Cuckold ! be off. Don't let me catch you near here again^— 

 mind." •- ; . ■. ,< ■ .him I ■■■., b&; 



': -,;' -The opium-fellow, with two babies in his arms, wanders about. the streets;' He slaps 

 the children and exclaims, " Oh children of burnt-fathers ! Have you to-day fallen to my 

 lot to bring ruin on me ? " At length he arrived at an old ruined bath. There placing 

 the children on the ground he began to make off at a run. Someone happened to be 

 • sitting there and saw all this, and calling out " Son of a burnt father ! Bastard ! Whence 



have you brought these babies and left them here ? " began to hurry after him. Away 

 run the two, the opium-smoker ahead and the other after him. The opium-smoker 

 -spied; an open door and dashed in to hide. 1 Inside he found a flight of steps; in 

 fear of his life, he mounted and sat down half way up, exclaiming to himself, " O God ! 

 now they are coming to force these children back into my arms." He heard someone 

 knock. " Oh," he exclaimed, " here they are. What on earth am I to do ? 2 I do not 

 know where to flee." A negress came to the door and opened it to a smartly-dressed 

 .youth, who said to her, " Go, tell your mistress that so and so, who saw you in such 

 and such a place,' and there made an appointment with you, has come." . , ni 



When the negress carried the message to the mistress, the latter said, "Take him 

 ^upstairs till I come." The negress returned to the youth and said to him, " Kindly come 

 •upstairs. My mistress will come in a moment." When the opium-smoker heard the 

 youth mounting the stairs, he hurried off and hid in a back room on the upper storey. 

 The youth mounted and, after a minute or so had elapsed, the opium-smoker saw a 

 ^finely-dressed and bejewelled lady come up the stairs. The two entered a room and 

 -began to embrace and kiss. The opium-smoker who was peeping through the doof saw 

 all this. i3;AOi .:.->-. -;m"j : 



While they were thus engaged the husband of the lady arrived. The negress, who 

 was on the watch to warn her mistress of intruders, ran up and said, "Mistress !. Mercy 

 on us, the master has come ! ' ' The lady rose in agitation and said to her lover, ... " Deat, 

 go into that back room and hide." When the opium-smoker heard this, he hastily got 

 JntO'Qne of two, large jars that were there.* Then the lover came in, got into the other jar 

 arid hid. The husband came upstairs. 'Wife!" said he, " what are you doing here,?; & 

 $he : said, " I'm sweeping and cleaning. What can I do ?— this girl does not do her work 

 jthproughly;" The girl said, "Ah master ! you little know all what my mistress does and 

 £he anxiety she suffers." The husband said, " I have brought a quantity pi flour ; store 

 it in these jars, here/' The lady answered, " This jar is broken j. a mouse;to,0 died jn it 

 aj £eWy days ago, 5 • Put the flour in that other jar." (The lady kr^ew , in r w|>ich jar, kit 

 Jpyer, was concealed.) . __.\-. brmprg s0 iio' 



3 j5 The^a^y and : the girl then brought the bags of flour to the other jar a#(jlf poured 



t .fr,'i .c/Krt ^- J.ri :. i: i? ■ £.;„ ■ \ ..:. .. .' ! i — ^ — '- - : '/ -. ■■' ■ 'O.c ■• ■ . L~:il: ::-V£"j, ,;TiJi i j jt- ', . ■ . -: - 2 



1 Opium-smokers are short-winded ., -_ . _ , 



2 " What ashes shall I pour on my head ? " 



3 The story-teller substitutes 'such and such " for the names given by the youth. :i ;j t 

 * T:he>A"> s ^ would be the natural place for such jars. si , ; ' 

 f> It would therefore be najis V iin,clean " and unfit for uae, and being earthenware k could nob.be gufififedi i . ..; •.. .„ 8 



