competently chopping up a heap of betel nuts into small slivers that she dropped into a large metal box at her side. Her mouth was stained a deep red from the betel leaves and betel nuts that she chewed all day. She opened that crimson mouth in a surprised grin when she saw them and automatically adjusted the fold of her purple sari over her grey head as women always did when visitors appeared.
‘Ho, Bela. Ho, Kamal. What brings you here? Your father sent you for a pot of toddy this early in the morning?’ she shouted, and burst into loud laughter which made a man, invisible in the house, call out, ‘What’s up, Mother?’
Bela and Kamal stopped short at some distance from her. Kamal twisted one leg about the other and put her finger in her mouth. Bela did the same.
Hira-
bai
cackled with laughter. ‘Don’t like to say, eh? Don’t like to ask for toddy? Don’t be shy. We know what men are like. You know, and I know, so why be shy?’
The girls shook their heads at her, speechlessly.
‘Eh? No toddy, you say? Then what’s it you want? Money for toddy?’
More vigorously, they shook their heads till their plaits flew.
‘Not money for toddy? Well – your ma sent you then? For money for rice? For tea? Is that it? No rice in the house? Now girls, before you ask for any, I’d better warn you –’
Suddenly Bela could bear it no longer. Breaking away from Kamal, she came a few steps closer and said quickly in a hoarse voice, ‘We don’t want money. We don’t want rice. We haven’t come to ask for any. My mother is sick and my sister sent us to tell you to please –’
‘Sick?’ the old woman stared at Bela and stopped laughing. ‘I know she is sick. She is always sick. Is she worse then?’
Bela nodded rapidly. ‘She has fever. We have no medicine. Can you call a doctor to see her?’
The old woman began cutting betel nuts again with her powerful scissors. She mumbled to herself as she did so. Then she stopped chop-chopping the hard little wooden nuts and spoke in a different voice. ‘I’ll tell you what. I heard the old man who comes to the village with his cow blowing his horn and banging his drum early this morning. He can’t have gone far. I’ll send word to him to turn around and come back. I’ll send him to you. He has good herbs, powders and barks. Go and tell Lila,’ she said, nodding to them
encouragingly so that her sari slipped off her head and showed the grey hair dyed bright orange with henna.
Bela and Kamal turned and fled, fighting their way through the shrubbery back to the safety of their home. But before they came to the log across the creek they heard a yelp and turned to see Pinto, who had stayed back to sniff at the chickens in the coop and the fish bones in a heap by the house, come limping and squealing after them, his tail between his legs and his ears flattened. Either the old woman or one of the men in the house must have flung a stone or a coconut at him and hit him in the leg. He came up to them whining and they hurried him home before any more stones could be flung.
At the hut there was nothing to do but wait. Lila did not say anything about school as she went about her housework in a silent, tight-lipped way, now and then going to see to their mother, and the girls stayed outside the hut, playing in a quiet, subdued way, drawing patterns in the sand and decorating the patterns with flower petals. Now
and then Lila gave them some task to do and these they did at once, without arguing. They fetched water from the well, washed the pot in which the tea had been made, cleaned the rice for their lunch and then searched around the shrubbery for firewood.
At last they heard the throbbing of the drum and the long eerie blasts on the trumpet which meant the medicine-man was near. He was preceded by the little dwarf cow that he dressed in tassels and necklaces of beads, with an embroidered cloth covering her hump. They had often seen him take the rounds with her, offering
‘Ho, Bela. Ho, Kamal. What brings you here? Your father sent you for a pot of toddy this early in the morning?’ she shouted, and burst into loud laughter which made a man, invisible in the house, call out, ‘What’s up, Mother?’
Bela and Kamal stopped short at some distance from her. Kamal twisted one leg about the other and put her finger in her mouth. Bela did the same.
Hira-
bai
cackled with laughter. ‘Don’t like to say, eh? Don’t like to ask for toddy? Don’t be shy. We know what men are like. You know, and I know, so why be shy?’
The girls shook their heads at her, speechlessly.
‘Eh? No toddy, you say? Then what’s it you want? Money for toddy?’
More vigorously, they shook their heads till their plaits flew.
‘Not money for toddy? Well – your ma sent you then? For money for rice? For tea? Is that it? No rice in the house? Now girls, before you ask for any, I’d better warn you –’
Suddenly Bela could bear it no longer. Breaking away from Kamal, she came a few steps closer and said quickly in a hoarse voice, ‘We don’t want money. We don’t want rice. We haven’t come to ask for any. My mother is sick and my sister sent us to tell you to please –’
‘Sick?’ the old woman stared at Bela and stopped laughing. ‘I know she is sick. She is always sick. Is she worse then?’
Bela nodded rapidly. ‘She has fever. We have no medicine. Can you call a doctor to see her?’
The old woman began cutting betel nuts again with her powerful scissors. She mumbled to herself as she did so. Then she stopped chop-chopping the hard little wooden nuts and spoke in a different voice. ‘I’ll tell you what. I heard the old man who comes to the village with his cow blowing his horn and banging his drum early this morning. He can’t have gone far. I’ll send word to him to turn around and come back. I’ll send him to you. He has good herbs, powders and barks. Go and tell Lila,’ she said, nodding to them
encouragingly so that her sari slipped off her head and showed the grey hair dyed bright orange with henna.
Bela and Kamal turned and fled, fighting their way through the shrubbery back to the safety of their home. But before they came to the log across the creek they heard a yelp and turned to see Pinto, who had stayed back to sniff at the chickens in the coop and the fish bones in a heap by the house, come limping and squealing after them, his tail between his legs and his ears flattened. Either the old woman or one of the men in the house must have flung a stone or a coconut at him and hit him in the leg. He came up to them whining and they hurried him home before any more stones could be flung.
At the hut there was nothing to do but wait. Lila did not say anything about school as she went about her housework in a silent, tight-lipped way, now and then going to see to their mother, and the girls stayed outside the hut, playing in a quiet, subdued way, drawing patterns in the sand and decorating the patterns with flower petals. Now
and then Lila gave them some task to do and these they did at once, without arguing. They fetched water from the well, washed the pot in which the tea had been made, cleaned the rice for their lunch and then searched around the shrubbery for firewood.
At last they heard the throbbing of the drum and the long eerie blasts on the trumpet which meant the medicine-man was near. He was preceded by the little dwarf cow that he dressed in tassels and necklaces of beads, with an embroidered cloth covering her hump. They had often seen him take the rounds with her, offering
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