The Bengali Poem , Candi. 
35 
Full sixteen hundred merchants, one and all 
Of stainless credit, gathered in his hall, 
Yet I was first of all that company; 
Too much good luck has made you blind, I see.” 
Retorts the merchant, “ First, I grant, you were; 
Rut why so ? Cand, I warrant, was not there. ■ 
His wealth and virtues are alike untold, 
Even his outer court * is filled with gold.” 
At this Nilambar sneers, “ And think you, then, 
That gold can purchase everything for men ? 
His six poor childless wives bemoan their fate,— 
Can gold light up a house so desolate ? ” 
“ I know you well, Nilambar,” Cand replies, 
“ Your father too,—there’s many a rumour flies. 
He used to sell myrobalans, fame avers, 
With all the city’s scum for purchasers. 
His cowrie-bundles, with a miser’s care, 
He stowed away here, there, and everywhere; 
He ’d stand for hours, and then, the hustling o’er, 
Go home and dine, with ne’er a bath before.” 
“ Well,” says Hllambar, “well, and why this din? 
He plied his lawful trade,—was that a sin ? 
And then the snack which you his dinner call,— 
A sop of bread or plantain, that was all.” 
Hllambar’s son-in-law, Ram Ray by name, 
How interposes to divert the blame : 
“If we ’re to wrangle on a caste affair, 
Had we not better turn our thoughts elsewhere ? 
When a young wife keeps goats in woods alone, 
Is there no loss of caste to anyone ? ” 
At this around the room a murmur went, 
One whispers and his neighbour nods assent, 
And then Ram Ray, to deepen the offence, 
Called for the Harivamga’s evidence. 
* The mahals are the different compartments into which a Hindu mansion is divided, each 
containing its garden with rooms round it on all four sides. 
