Part 40 (2/2)
”Chandika the fierce, Parvati who steppeth lightly upon the mountains.
”Bhairavi the terrible, Kali of death, Kali! Kali!”
The old priest, who had leapt to his feet under the exaltation of his wors.h.i.+p, sank down again upon the floor, and continued his tale in the Indian tongue.
”The high caste woman, chief wife of a great prince of Northern India, held in her arms her first, her only son, a weakling, a sickly babe nigh unto death. Thrice had she been shamed by the birth of a woman child, and now her crown, her glory, her great gift unto her lord was like to die.
”Followed only by her body servant she had sped from her palace in the shadows of the Everlasting Hills, even unto the southernmost limits of Bengal, a pilgrim to this holy, secret temple where I pa.s.s my last days in sacrifice and wors.h.i.+p; I, even I, foremost _guru_, once teacher of the Thugs, those beloved servants of Kali--before the law of the white man forbade their sacrifices unto the G.o.ddess.”
Jan Cuxson, knowing of the sacrifices both human and animal offered in bygone days to the terrible G.o.ddess, s.h.i.+vered as the horror of the place seemed to close in upon him.
”The high caste woman demanding from the G.o.ddess of Death the boon of life for her son, cast her jewels upon the altar and made promise of cattle and grain and her three daughters as handmaidens in the secret places of the temple. And I, aforetime great among the Thugs, lamented that I had but a coal black kid to offer as a sacrifice, for behold, Kali demands _life for life_, and _will not be denied_.
”Flowers flung by the woman, O white man, strewed the stone floor upon which I have worn a path during the pa.s.sing of the years; hundreds of small lights flickered in every corner, causing the shadows to dance about these weary feet and the eyes of the great G.o.ds to s.h.i.+ne from the corners of the roof; and without I heard against the wall the rubbing of the great tiger as it waited for the blood sacrifice which it nightly devoured before the dawn, the striped cat upon which Kali rides forth at night on her journeyings through the jungle.
”Even as I plunged the sacrificial knife into the neck of the unworthy sacrifice, I heard footsteps as of one running swiftly; and behold, there came a low caste, pock-marked woman up the middle of the temple, who flung herself at the feet of Kali, laying a sleeping babe upon the altar steps.”
”Ah!” barely whispered Jan Cuxson with his eyes fixed upon the fanatical old face.
”And behold, the low caste woman was ayah in the services of one, even a great colonel-sahib, who, being raised above his fellows, was hastening back across the Black Water to his own land, taking with him his one wife, and the one child of their union.
”Loving the white girl child with the great strange love of the servant of India for the offspring of the _feringhee_, the ayah had secretly brought the babe in the absence of the mem-sahib upon visits of farewell, that I might dedicate her to the G.o.ddess, binding her in spirit for ever to the land of her birth.”
The white man sat in silence when the old man sprang to his feet, standing relentless and formidable in the light of the one lamp.
”See'st thou? See'st thou, sahib, my sin? The sacrifice was within my hands, and yet I spared the child because of the woman's beseechings.
I hesitated, yea! I even asked a sign. Aye! and the sign was good, twice pleasing to the G.o.ddess of Death, for behold the owl hooted not, neither was the voice of the jackal uplifted as the doe, coming from the _right_, looked through the open door.
”With the high caste woman I made covenant, that her male child in return for his life should be a servant of the Black One, obeying in all things the mandates of her priests.
”And I held those sleeping babes upon my arm, and within the lips of the girl child I placed the _goor_, the sacred sugar, and around her neck the _roomal_, the noose of sacrifice. And I cut the sign of Kali between the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the man child and between the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the woman child, and marked him between the brows with her blood, and marked her upon the forehead with his blood, so that his mind should be her mind. And her will I bent to _my_ will, that her eyes should open in sleep at the light of the full moon, and that she should go forth upon the mission of the Black One, making sacrifice to the spouse of Siva.
”And yet, though she be bound to the secret temple and to Kali, and to the son of princes until death shall release her, the Great Mother is not pleased, nay, her wrath is terrible at the averted sacrifice, and India, my land, has suffered through my fault.”
The priest stood motionless, staring down unseeingly upon the man at his feet who spoke softly.
”And what became of the white child?”
”The white child, the infant _feringhee_? She lay asleep in my arms with eyes wide open, and the high caste woman, picking up a jewel, even one of the colour and shape of cat's eye, smeared it with the blood of the kid, placed it above the heart of Kali, and then hung it by a slender golden chain about the neck of the woman child. And the women, content, departed, bearing with them the united babes, but since that ill-begotten night my land has travailed in agony, stricken with plague and pestilence and famine!”
”And?” Cuxson scarcely breathed the word.
The light of the moon slipped over the ruined wall, drawing a nimbus round the old white head as the tall thin figure in the snow-white garments swayed slightly.
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