friends in the world. Nevertheless I am bound to confess that the first few times I found one or other of them in my bed, when I retired or woke up in the morning, I felt a certain repugnance at such close contact; but by degrees I grew used to them, and thought no more about it.
"The trade I had especially chosen to devote myself to was that of growing and selling cardamum, a sort of pepper which is only to be got at the druggists' shops in Europe, but of which all the inhabitants of the Islands of the Indian Ocean are inordinately fond. During my stay in Ceylon, I had learnt the importance of this article and I resolved to make it the main basis of my commercial enterprise.
"It so happened I had arrived in the rainy season, which is the best time for clearing the land for planting cardamum, This process indeed is simple enough; during the winter the soil in the neighbourhood of Calicut produces a perfect forest of weeds, which serve as manure; you sow your seed and four months later you reap your harvest.
"Accordingly I rented a large extent of ground on the outskirts of Calicut and began my clearing operation, not however, as is usual in these districts, trusting entirely to a score or so of sudras, who far removed from the master's eye, cheat him in every possible way in their day's work, but superintending everything personally. To render this surveillance more effective, I began by building four huts for myself at the four corners of my property. This was an easy matter and involved little expense, inasmuch as I possessed a large supply of cocoanut palms on my estate. Now, as everybody knows, the tree in question is a perfect godsend for this climate; with its wood the natives build houses and roof them with its leaves; its bark is used for making mats, its pith for food; the bud produces wine, the nut oil, and the sap sugar.
"Now by distilling this wine I manufactured a species of brandy by means of which I could persuade my sudras to do whatever I chose to ask them. My crop felt the good effects of these distributions of tari. No such yield of cardamum had ever been known at Calicut as my ten or twelve acres gave; not only was it abundant, but it was of prime quality too, and I resolved to devote five or six years to this business, at the end of which period my fortune would be made, especially if I went to Ceylon to sell personally the harvest I had myself reaped at Calicut. To do this nothing was needful but to charter a small ship, and towards the end of the summer season to sail for Ceylon, when I had secured a full cargo. Now two crops would suffice to load a ship, and there are two crops every year at Calicut.
"Meantime I continued to visit my old friend Nachor and my young friend the charming Amaru. I had not forgotten that the father could be of great service to me in the matter of charter-parties, custom-house dues and so on, and I must admit the sublime devotion to conjugal obligations which the girl had displayed on the great day of the Suttee had deeply touched my heart. Now old Nachor was no fool; he had seen me pay ready money for everything I had purchased or rented, and when he saw how successfully I managed my affairs, he had no doubt I was on the high road to fortune. Consequently he welcomed me like a man who is anxious to make his house agreeable to his guest, so that the latter may repeat his visits as often as he can.
"The end of it all was that in eight or ten months' time the matter was pretty well decided between Nachor and myself, always excepting the charming Amaru's consent, and this I ventured to think I had on one or two occasions read in her pretty eyes.
"An accident that might have had lamentable consequences led on the contrary to a more rapid consummation of our wishes. Perhaps we all desired the same thing, but the girl's modesty prevented her confessing as much. One day I had invited father and daughter to pay a visit to my plantations, and proposing to spend the whole day in the fields, I had had four collations prepared in my four huts. Suddenly Amaru, who was walking immediately behind the slave employed to beat along both sides of the path with a stick to drive away venomous reptiles, gave a loud shriek, A little green snake of the most poisonous species, the bite of which is invariably fatal, had darted out of a tuft of grass and fastened upon one corner of her scarf. I had seen the creature's spring and heard the girl's scream, and with the cane I carried had caught the snake so
