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'And yet' here his voice faltered, and he glanced down pityingly on his wife crouched upon the ground, rocking herself and wringing her hands. 'And yet I know, we know, Devaka and I, that Sheikh Ahmed has been murdered. "I started aghast, and involuntarily drew my garments around me.
"'How did you find him? he asked. "'Strangely altered, I replied. "'And so does every one, he concurred. "'Why so? I ventured. "The barber looked at me squarely, and then said: "'You and he were very good friends, Chunda Das. "'Yes, and are still, so far as I am concerned, I answered. "'I thought so. Well, I am his friend likewise. Many years I have known him and his wife, Devaka.
"And at the command of Dhritarashtra, people were busy in supplying Pandu in his retirement with every object of pleasure and enjoyment. "Meanwhile the son of the ocean-going Ganga heard that king Devaka had a daughter endued with youth and beauty and begotten upon a Sudra wife. Bringing her from her father's abode, Bhishma married her to Vidura of great wisdom.
The second is a certain Vasudeva. Devaka has six daughters, all of whom he marries to Vasudeva. The seventh is called Devaki. Vishnu announces that Devaki will also be married to Vasudeva, and plucking out two of his hairs one black and one white he declares that these will be the means by which he will ease Earth's burden.
Here dwells an old friend and caste brother, formerly, like myself, a merchant in the Bombay bazaar where silken stuffs are sold, but retired now to his own country with modest savings sufficient for the rest of his days. Baji Lal, as he is named, is all the closer to me because his wife Devaka is a sister of my own wife, and the two are always eager to have news of each other's welfare.
No second bidding was required; the open space was soon crowded, right to the edge of the tank and to the wall of the temple. "When all were assembled, with Sheikh Ahmed, Baji Lal and Devaka, also Bimjee the barber, standing by me, I faced the throng. "'Good people, I said, 'our worthy friends, Baji Lal and his wife, have been publicly disgraced.
"Devaka, who, as I have said, had already removed the chain of gold from her neck, looked at it perhaps a little lingeringly, let it slip through her fingers caressingly, then with a sigh placed it in my hands and turned away. But her sigh, I knew, was less for the surrender of the gift than for the unworthiness that had prompted its bestowal. "Her husband contemplated her compassionately.
"'Thus suspicion gradually filled the air, and it was whispered that Baji Lal and Devaka had murdered their guest for his money, and had merely invented the story of his midnight departure to hide their crime. Children who once used to run to them shrank back, or were called away by their parents.
At last Earth can bear the burden no longer and appeals to the gods to approach the supreme Deity, Brahma, to rid her of the load. Brahma as Creator can hardly do this, but Vishnu as Preserver agrees to intervene and plans are laid. Among the Yadava nobility are two upright persons. The first is Devaka, the younger brother of King Ugrasena and thus an uncle to the tyrant.
The night after the Sheikh left was cold and windy, for the monsoon was approaching. Devaka and I were sitting together, and as we listened to the wind blowing outside she expressed the hope that our guest was safely at his destination, for in his state of health the inclement weather would be harmful. Before I could answer her we were startled to hear quite close to us a faint cry.
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