Ramabai

“ Umballa dreamed of what he had seen.
To Ramabai was given the exalted honor of conducting the king and his betrothed to their respective quarters. Once in the private passageway to the harem, or zenana, Ramabai threw caution to the winds.
"We must go a roundabout way to the garden of brides, which will be deserted. Outside the gate Bruce Sahib and Ahmed and Lal Singh await with elephants. Once we can join them we are safe. ”

“ Well, there were worse things than a woman who could not talk. Thus they gabbled in the bazaars, round braziers and dung fires. And some talked of the murder. The proud Ramabai had been haled to prison; his banker's gold had not saved him. Oh, this street rat Umballa generally got what he wanted. Ramabai's wife was one of the beauties of Hind.
Through the narrow, evil smelling streets of the bazaars a man hurried that night, glancing behind frequently to see if by any mischance some one followed. He stopped at the house of Lal Singh, the shoemaker, whom he found drowsing over his water pipe. ”

“ Shall it fly to Benares, this news that Allaha permits itself to be ruled and bullied by a common murderer; a man without family, a liar and a cheat? Durga Ram, who slew the king; you turned upon the hand that had fed and clothed you and raised you to power.... Wait! Let this woman speak!"
A dramatic moment followed; a silence so tense that the fluttering wings of the doves in the high arches could be heard distinctly. Ramabai was a great politician. He had struck not only wisely but swiftly before his public. Had he come before the priests and Umballa alone, he would have died on the spot. ”

“ What the deuce is Allaha to me? Ramabai must fight it out alone. But don't worry about me; I can take care of myself."
"But I don't want you to go. I need you."
"It is your life, Kit, I am certain. Everything depends upon their finding out that Bala Khan will strike if you call upon him. At most, all he'll do will be to levy a tribute which Ramabai, once Pundita is on the throne, can very well pay. Those priests are devils incarnate. They will leave no stone unturned to do you injury, after to-day's work. You have humiliated and outplayed them." ”

“ On the morrow he was somewhat daunted upon meeting Ramabai in the corridor leading to the throne room, where Winnie and the council were gathered. He started to summon the guards, but the impassive face of his enemy and the menacing hand stayed the call.
"You are a brave man, Ramabai, to enter the lion's den in this fashion. You shall never leave here alive."
"Yes, Durga Ram. I shall depart as I came, a free man."
"You talk like that to me?" furiously.
"Even so. Shall I go out on the balcony and declare that I know what a certain dungeon holds?" ”

“ Once more was Ramabai left unprotected to face the world, and this time in the condition of all others which is a sad one for a Hindu woman, that of a son-less widow. To add to her desolation and loneliness, she had committed the unpardonable crime of marrying out of her own caste, and thereby incurred the wrath and contempt of all her relations and friends. Her husband had been of an inferior caste to herself, but it was the fact they were not of the same caste which constituted their marriage a crime, and caused them to be shunned by all their belongings. ”

“ Ramabai and his officers were just entering the corridor which led to the chamber when the tragedy occurred. They heard the noise, the king's cries. When they reached the door silence greeted them.
The room was wrecked. There was evidence of a short but terrific struggle. The king lay dead upon the floor, the side of his head crushed in. His turban and garments were in tatters. But he had died like a king; for in the corner by the window lay the striped one, a jeweled dagger in his throat.
Ramabai was first to discover the deserted palanquin, and proceeded to investigate. ”

“ Again Ramabai smiled. "My people are sometimes children in that they need constant amusement. Have patience, my friend; for I understand. Do I not love Pundita even as you love the Mem-sahib?"
"What do you mean?" demanded Bruce roughly.
"I have eyes."
"Well, yes; it is true. Behind you are your people; behind us, nothing. That is why I am frantic. Umballa, whenever he finds himself checkmated, digs up what he purports to be an unused law. There is none to contest it. I tell you, Ramabai, we must escape soon, or we never will. You suggested this impossible marriage. ”

“ They were allowed to go to the bazaar to buy offerings to carry to the gods, and to have the barber shave them in his rounds. They might fast when they wished, and they need never hear of the faith of Jesus Christ. Ramabai did all that she could to rob the shadows that lay on them of their darkness, only she did not say that they must leave the shadows before they came to her. But ever as the children lived in the Sharada Sadan, they saw that there was one woman—a Hindu widow—on whom the shadow did not rest, one room in which there was no gloom. ”

“ Missionary homes and schools already existed for those who would use them; but Ramabai's aim was to provide a refuge for those who would not, for such orthodox women as, unable to bear the cruel hardships of a widow's lot, would commit suicide by drowning themselves in the sacred rivers, rather than lose their caste by putting themselves under the care of people who would teach them a strange religion and try to convert them. ”

“ The council had no suspicions. Twenty men had followed Durga Ram and without doubt they were at this moment with him.
"Free!" breathed the colonel, as Ramabai beckoned to a public litter.
"Hush! You are supposed to be my prisoner. Make no sign of jubilation." Ramabai helped the broken man into the litter and bade the coolies to hurry. "Elephants will be ready to start the moment we reach your camp. This time I believe we can get away in safety."
"And Umballa?" ”

“ In a quarter of an hour they will be as dead and we can return."
"It is a good plan," said Bala Khan, when the conversation was fully translated to him. "And once the elephant is back in the compound I'll send a dozen men back for the rogues. Ah! they will play with me; they will steal into my town, overcome my guards, take the apple of my eye! Ramabai, thou art a friend indeed. Haste and Allah fend for thee! Umballa may arrive with an army, but he shall not enter my gates."
Guided by a servant, Bruce and Ramabai set off for the opium den. ”

“ Day after day he followed, tireless, indomitable, as steadfast upon the trail as a jackal after a wounded antelope, never coming within range, skulking about the camp at night, dropping behind in the morning, not above picking up bits of food left by the treasure seekers. Money and revenge; these would have kept him to the chase had he been dying.
As for Bala Khan, he was at once glad and sorry to see his friends. Nothing would have pleased him more than to fall upon Allaha like the thunderbolt he was. But he made Ramabai promise that if ever he had need of him to send. ”

“ Umballa will throw his men round the whole city and there will not be a space large enough for a rat to crawl through. And he will fight like a rat this time; mark me."
Ramabai paused suddenly in front of his wife and smiled down at her.
"Pundita, you are my legal queen. It is for you to say what shall be done. I had in mind a republic."
Lal Singh cackled ironically.
"Do not dream," said Ahmed. "Common sense should tell you that there can be no republic in Allaha. There must be an absolute ruler, nothing less. Your Majesty, speak," he added, salaaming before Pundita. ”

“ Having become interested in the child-widows of India, through the eloquence, and later the personal friendship, of Pundita Ramabai, she was largely instrumental in the formation of the Ramabai Association, to carry out the plans of Ramabai and to systematize the work of her friends throughout the country. ”

“ Now, if I am right, we shall find shelter there, for he was an old friend of my father's and I might call him a friend of mine, since I sell sheep for him occasionally."
"Bala Khan?" mused Bruce, reminiscently. "Isn't he the chap who has a sacred white elephant?"
"It is the same," answered Ramabai. "We can reach there before sundown. It would be wise to hasten, however, as this desert and those hills are infested with lawless nomadic bands of masterless men—brigands, you call them. They would cut the throat of a man for the sake of his clothes." ”

“ Having at last collected sixty thousand rupees, a little more than four thousand pounds sterling, Ramabai considered she had sufficient to make a, beginning. She therefore left America, and reached Bombay on the 1st of February 1889. She lost no time in setting to work, and on the 11th of March opened her first home for widows, which she called Shardu Sadan—the "Home of Learning." [1] She is working hard, but it is up-hill work, and there are very many difficulties and discouragements to be faced. She has a large circle of sympathizers and friends ”

“ No help there, no guidance.
"Is the life of a decrepit old man," asked Lal Singh, "worth the lives of these white people who love and respect you?"
Pundita rose and placed her hands upon her husband's shoulders.
"We owe them our lives. Strike, Ramabai; but only if our need demands it."
"Good!" said Lal Singh. "I'm off for the bazaars for the night. I will buy chupatties and pass them about, as they did in my father's time at Delhi, in the Great Mutiny." ”

“ The great among the Muslims in general turn night into day during Ramadán; therefore they are seldom seen in the streets. Most of them sleep from daybreak until the afternoon; while others break their fast in private. I do not think that this is done by the lower orders; and no one can hear the cry of joy which rings and echoes through the city at sunset, when, in token that the fasting is over, for at least some hours, a cannon is discharged from the citadel, without rejoicing with the people, that another day of Ramadán has passed. ”

“ The villages, which are commonly surrounded with olive-trees and sycamores, are for the most part in ruins; exhibiting a melancholy proof that under a bad government even the bounty of Heaven ceases to be a blessing.
The path by which the billy barrier is penetrated is difficult, and in some places dangerous. But before you reach it, turning towards the east, you perceive Rama, or Ramla, the ancient Arimathea, distinguished by its charming situation, and well known as the residence of a Christian community. ”

“ Lastly, we entered the vast olive grounds belonging to Ramlah, and found our tents (which had been sent on by another road) just as the Moeddin in the minaret was calling to sunset prayers.
I am never weary of the scenery about Ramlah; we have there the most picturesque Orientalism of all Palestine—a warm climate, numerous waving palm-trees, with the large reservoir for cattle drinking, all gilded in brilliant sunlight, together with the busy voices of a considerable population. ”

“ Rampore, in the territory of which the colonel now found himself, is still a semi-independent state, the Nawab of which has a revenue of sixteen lacs of rupees, (£160,000,) while the city, being without the pale of English law, is "a city of refuge, a very Goshen of robbers, ... the streets are crowded with a mob of very handsome, idle, lounging fellows, having generally the fullest and finest jet-black beards and black mustaches in the world. ”

“ After proceeding some miles, native villages began to appear here and there on both shores, and the great number of dhows on the river, with boats and canoes of every description, told us we were nearing a large town. Two hours afterwards we were anchored under the guns of the Sultan’s palace, which were belching forth fire and smoke in return for the salute we had fired. We found every creature and thing in Lamoo as entirely primitive, as absolutely foreign, as if it were a city in some other planet. ”

“ IV IN OLD RABAT Before General Lyautey came to Morocco Rabat had been subjected to the indignity of European "improvements," and one must traverse boulevards scored with tram-lines, and pass between hotel-terraces and cafés and cinema-palaces, to reach the surviving nucleus of the once beautiful native town. Then, at the turn of a commonplace street, one comes upon it suddenly. The shops and cafés cease, the jingle of trams and the trumpeting of motor-horns die out, and here, all at once, are silence and solitude, and the dignified reticence of the windowless Arab house-fronts. ”

“ The hotel at Ramleh, like that at Jaffa, was kept by a German Lutheran, and was clean and comfortable. A pretty little gazelle was the playmate of the family, and we felt grateful to the German nation all round, who send settlers to Palestine in order to provide "gasthausen" for weary travellers. Ramleh is a village pleasantly situated amongst gardens, and groves of olive-trees, sycamores, and carob-trees. Its lofty tower rises high above the surrounding country, and is a work of great skill and excellence ”

“ I did not tarry in Ramleh. The streets are narrow, crooked, and filthy as only an Oriental town can be. The houses have either flat roofs or domes, out of the crevices in which springs a plentiful crop of weeds. Some yellow dogs barked at us as we passed, children in tattered garments stared, and old turbaned heads were raised from the pipe, to guess who the two brown individuals might be, and why they were attended by such a fierce cawass. Passing through the eastern gate, we were gladdened by the sight of our tents, already pitched in the meadow beside the cistern. ”

“ Some members of the Rahamna tribe are there also. This tribe, which belongs to the far south, near Morocco City, about eight years ago was in a state of rebellion, to quell which the Sultan sent his army with orders to eat them up. Their fat lands and fine gardens were ruined; men, women, and children killed and taken prisoners; while six hundred of them were sent to the Tetuan prison, and a great number—I do not know exactly—went to Rabat. ”