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KOPAL-KUNDALA.
Jogini[1] is changed into the Grihini.[2] You have touched that stone, you will see.
"I will tie up your masses of hair, I will put fine clothes on you,
I will hang flowers from your top-knot;
I will put the sithi[3] on your forehead, on your waist the chandrahar,[3]
And a pair of ear-rings in your ears.
I will give you saffron, sandal, myrrh, and plates of pán and betel-nut.
Your face will be red in colour.
I will place in your lap a gold doll-child,
And see if you like it or not."
Mrinomoi said, "Well, I understand. Suppose I have touched the touchstone, and have become gold: I tie up my hair, I wear
- ↑ Jogini, a female ascetic.
- ↑ Grihini, the mistress or matron of a household, often spoken of as "Ginni."
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sithi, also called simontini, an ornament which is worn along the parting at the top of the head, and stretches along the edge of the forehead on either side to the ears. Chandrahar is a silver waist-belt. The ornaments of Bengali women are numerous and varied. Perhaps the commonest way of investing savings is to spend it on ornaments for the wife or other female members of the family. The gold used is pure, so that the ornaments, when sold, realise almost as much as they cost, whereas English ornaments rarely realise more than twenty per cent. of their cost price. It may be said that the end-all and be-all of a Bengali woman's existence is to wear
