84 



RELICS OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



spirits if present when lie closed his eyes for ever. Ibrahim never 

 started till he saw a skeleton-hand stretched to snatch one of the 

 baskets of provisions which had been scattered as usual, by his or- 

 ders,^ for the wandering dogs. Presently, from beneath the cocoa- 

 nut tree which overshadowed the entrance of the cemetery, he saw 

 a meagre woman creep towards a little mound of leaves, on which 

 a child was lying. She offered some of the boiled rice she had 

 found in the basket to its hps, but they could not open. The 

 miserable mother held it to her breast an instant, and dropped it 

 on the earth again, as if then conscious of its death. She heard 

 the bowlings of the famished dogs, and throwing them the rest of 

 the food, more anxious to preserve her infant's remains than her- 

 self, the Pariah laid a few of the freshest leaves together, and 

 seemed preparing a grave among the urns and obelisks that adorn 

 the burying-place, when she saw Ibrahim standing near her. 

 Aware how horribly the profanation of such holy ground might 

 be avenged on a wretched outcast, she fled with a dismal shriek 

 among the entangled cocoa-trees, and the good Guebre took up 

 the body, determined to give it the most sacred funeral rites in 

 consecrated tire. Covered in his robe, he brought his prize to the 

 chamber of his priestly office, and looking on it more steadfastly, 

 perceived that it still lived. He had, according to the custom of 

 his sect, only one wife, and she was childless. This infant boy 

 justified the eastern proverb, which compares what is most lovely, 

 to the loveliness of a child. An eastern poet would have com- 

 pared its beauty as it lay in seeming death, to the Indian Cupid 

 slain by Seeva. Ibrahim was skilled in medicinal science, and the 

 weakness caused by famine was soon remedied. His wife consent- 

 ed to adopt the foundling, whose shape and features gave no indi- 

 cation of that coarseness usually found in the offspring of Pariahs ; 

 and the foster-father was careful to conceal whatever might raise 

 a suspicion of its abhorred origin. His mansion was one of the 

 most splendid in Bombay, and its gardens were now made delight- 

 ful to him by the gambols of his new favourite. These gardens 

 were watered, as is customary in the East, by means of a cistern, 

 whose w^heel was kept in constant motion by a buffalo. Ibrahim 



* Perhaps this veneration for dogs, is peculiar to Indian Guebres, because 

 they have a tradition of their escape from shipwreck, caused by the barking 

 of dogs, when they emigrated to India. 



