INDIRA AND OTHER STORIES
that I have known them to refuse to depart even when assaulted and forcibly ejected. The priest of this deity, if I may so describe those in whose abodes it takes up its habitation, are held in high public regard. If such a dignitary should deign to cast a look on an ordinary man, such a person is filled with modest pride.
It must be admitted that the deity in question is all-powerful and omnipresent in the transactions of men. There is no commodity in use among them that cannot be obtained by its intervention. There is no crime which cannot be committed under its auspices. No fault is there but can be overlooked by invoking its beneficent aid. What virtue is there that is recognised in human society unless it have the indispensable support of coin? He in whose home this most excellent of divinities has taken up its abode may be regarded as infallible. It is the sacred possession of money that constitutes wisdom among men. The scholar, however great his learning, is regarded as a fool if he does not possess the tribal deity. If we speak of a Great
166
