The Bengali Poem ? Candl . 
25 
She gives her presents and pays her respects, 
And Lilavatl with kindly greeting takes her by the hand. 
She asks her for the news about her mistress, 
“ You have not been here, Duya,* for many a day.” 
Durbala told her the whole story, 
u She wants some private talk with you.” 
When Lilavatl arrived, Lahana poured out her griefs: “No husband 
in the house, a co-wife set over her head—trouble heaped upon trouble! ” 
Lilavatl laughed at her disconsolate friend’s sorrow. “ Why are you 
so downcast at one co-wife? I have six co-wives at home, and think 
nothing of it! ” She then described how she kept her mother-in-law and 
all her rivals quiet by means of her spells, and how her potions had 
completely subjugated her husband to her will. A long account follows 
of the various spells which she recommended her to use; but she especially 
recommended to her the spells of cheerfulness and gentle words. 
“ She who would win her husband’s love must wait on him with smiling look, 
Not lose her beauty at the fire, for ever drudging as his cook; 
If thoughtless of her husband’s wish, to all his interests blind and cold, 
The young wife is a constant care, just like the miser’s hoarded gold; 
Or if her tongue is never still, of what avail will beauty be ? 
Yain the silk-cotton’s crimson flowers without the scent that lures the hee. 
Brown is the musk, the queen of scents; ’t is sweetness wins the surest love, 
And the black kokil, by its song, enchants all listeners in the grove. 
Test for yourself th’ advice I give—be gentle words henceforth your art; 
They are the best and surest pit t’ ensnare that deer, your husband’s heart.” 
Lahana answered; “ Gentle words ? good heavens! I know not what 
they mean; 
I was a single wife too long, mine the sole rule the house within; 
I cannot meet this altered lot, my heart through fortune’s spite is sore ; 
Truly my cocoanut is spoiled, water has soaked it to the core! 
No gentle words I needed then; and, if my husband scolded me, 
I beat the board about his head and stormed in louder tones than he. 
Talk not to me of gentle words; tell me some better means, I pray— 
Oh what a sudden scurvy trick was this for destiny to play! 
See, I am utterly undone, the snake has bit me in the eye; 
Where can I bind the bandage tight to stop the poison’s agony?” 
* A colloquial abbreviation of Durbala. 
