CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER III.

About a coss from the Pariah’s dwelling lived a jiggerkhar or liver-eater, who was looked upon as a pythoness throughout the neighbourhood, having the power of foretelling future events.

“One of this class,” says Abul Fazil,[25]“can steal away the liver of another by looks and incantations. Other accounts say, that by looking at a person he deprives him of his senses, and then steals from him something resembling the seed of a pomegranate, which he hides in the calf of his leg. The jiggerkhar throws on the fire the grain, which thereupon spreads to the size of a dish, and he distributes it amongst his fellows to be eaten, which ceremony concludes the life of the fascinated person. A jiggerkhar is able to communicate his art to another, which he does by teaching him the incantations, and making him eat a bit of the liver-cake. If any one cut open the calf of the magician’s leg, extract the grain, and give it to the afflicted person to eat, he immediately recovers. These jiggerkhars are mostly women. It is said, moreover, that they can bring intelligence from a great distance in a short space of time, and, if they are thrown into a river with a stone tied to them, they neverless will not sink. In order to deprive any one of this wicked power, they brand his temples and every joint in his body, cram his eyes with salt, suspend him for forty days in a subterraneous cavern, and repeat over him certain incantations. In this state he is called Datchereh. Although, after having undergone this discipline, he is not able to destroy the liver of any one, yet he retains the power of being able to discover another jiggerkhar, and is used for detecting those disturbers of mankind. They can also cure many diseases, by administering a potion, or by repeating anincantation. Many other marvellous stories are told of these people.”

Yhahil had heard many things related of the extraordinary woman already mentioned, though she had never seen her. Impelled by an unconquerable impulse, she determined to visit her. The woman was reputed to possess a singular faculty in tracing human destinies, and was said to have foretold events which had taken place after a considerable interval of time. It was likewise reported, that some of her practices were of a less innocent character. The death of more than one person had been attributed to her, and yet she was held in such awe that no one dared to molest her. When a violent hurricane ravaged the land, it was declared to be of her producing. When famine spread devastation over the country, it was attributed to the jiggerkhar, and not a serious casualty happened, but the blame was attached to her. She was, therefore, shunned and dreaded by the whole country around.

One day about noon Yhahil sought the abode of this prophetess. It was a deep cavern, near the base of a hill. No human habitation was near. Situated on the north side, the beams of the sun were excluded from it. At the entrance were scattered several large fragments of rock, as if casually flung there by some violent convulsion of nature. Not a shrub or particle of verdure was visible within at least fifty yards of the cavern. Lizards crawled about the stones, and snakes were occasionally seen to glide for a moment from their rocky retreats, and retire at the sound of human footsteps. The whole place had an aspect of desolation, perfectly concurring with the life and character of the unnatural being who inhabited the cave. For years the place had been trodden by no foot save her own. Yhahil, with a trembling step, approached the den of the prophetic hag. The old woman was seated on a fragment of rock which lay just in front of her dreary dwelling. On her lap was a Pariah dog, blind with age and disfigured with mange. As the lovely girl approached, the squalid brute raised its head, and commenced a shrill continuous howl, and, when it had finished, began licking its mistress’s face withdisgusting familiarity. Having finished this canine caress, it resumed its howl in a still louder key.

Yhahil undauntedly approached, but, on a nearer scrutiny, was for an instant repelled at the sight of the object whom she had come to consult upon the events of the future. Never was anything akin to humanity so perfectly hideous. She might have been taken for any age above a hundred years. She seemed almost to have lived from eternity. Her whole aspect was so essentially old, that every mark which in age so frequently conveys an association with youth was entirely obliterated. She appeared the withered consort of old Time, with whom one might have imagined she had travelled through all the cycles of duration. Every feature of her face was frightful. Her hair, matted and grizzled, fell upon her shrivelled shoulders in long thin wisps, like the dull wiry grass which occasionally hangs from the crest of the sun-scorched rock. Her forehead appeared as if it had been crimped. The wrinkles were so near together, that a needle’s point could scarcely have been inserted between them. The skin clung so close to her cheek-bones as to develop the grim anatomy of her visage with a minuteness almost appalling. Nose she had none, but the slight indication of it which remained showed that such a member had once a “local habitation” upon her now revolting countenance. Her eyes were so deeply sunk into her head, and the lids approximated so closely, that the dim lurid orbs were scarcely discernible.

When Yhahil reached the spot where the jiggerkhar was sitting, she flung a gold mohur[26]into her lap, saying, “I seek a boon, mother.”

“Thou shalt have it, maiden,” said the hag; “thou knowest how to solicit a boon. Silence Parvati,” she said to the dog, which was again beginning to howl, “canst thou not distinguish the voice of a friend—peace, churl! What wouldst thou?”

“I would know of the future, mother, into which thy dim eyecan pierce with the clearness of a star. I stand upon this world as upon a pinnacle in the midst of a blasted wilderness, whence I can behold nothing but sterility beneath, and vague unfathomable distance above.”

“Those who would know of the future, child, must buy the knowledge at a heavier cost than a meal of rice.”

Yhahil threw another gold mohur in the sybil’s lap.

“You are a liberal probationer, and deserve a good reckoning in this life, and a happy change in the better. Follow me, and you shall know more.” Saying this she entered the cavern, and the dog limped after her. The entrance was so narrow as to admit only one person at a time. Yhahil followed the old woman undauntedly, but when she stood within the cave her heart sickened. It was so dark that, three yards beyond the entrance, all was involved in impenetrable gloom. The pythoness was no longer visible, but her hoarse cracked voice was audible through the intense darkness of the cell, the rugged sides of which reverberated it with so terrible an echo, that the terrified girl started, sickened, and would have fallen; but drawing a deep sigh she brushed the gathering dews from her forehead, and in another moment had braced her mind to the necessary pitch of high resolve that defied all future suggestions of terror.

“Now tell me,” cried the crone, “what you especially seek to know.”

“I am a Pariah, mother.”

“That I need not be told, nor how the Pariah became rich. The eye that looks beyond the confines of this world can be no stranger to what passes within them.”

“Can you read my thoughts?”

“Ay;—thou wouldst marry a man of caste, but that may not be; yet shalt thou wed.”

“Never, I would sooner perish than wed a Pariah.”

“That thou wilt not do, and yet marry. Brahma never brought so comely a creature into this world to discredit his creation. Thou wilt be a propagator of beautiful sons and daughters; but I must look more closely to the lines of thy face through the darknessthat now surrounds thee, before I can obtain a true sign of thy destiny. I must read the stars too, and that can only be done at night. Come to-morrow by this time, and thou shalt hear more; but let thy sleep be gentle: there is already a fair augury for thee. Parvati, conduct the Pariah to the light.” The dog immediately trotted from the dark extremity of the cavern, and, placing itself just without the entrance, gave a single short bark.

“You are summoned; to-morrow you will hear a more copious record. The volume of futurity is not read in a moment; its page is filled with characters which require the sage’s expounding. Come to-morrow, and do not forget your gold. If you would learn the secrets hid in the bosom of time, you must pay the price.”

Yhahil was disgusted at the impatient covetousness of the jiggerkhar, but her anxiety had become so predominant that she determined to purchase the promised prediction at whatever cost. She hastened to her home under a new but agreeable excitement. Like all her race, though naturally of a strong mind, she was superstitious. Superstition, in fact, was inseparable from the dogmas of that idolatrous creed in the belief of which she had been reared. Her two singular escapes from death had impressed her mind with a solemn assurance that she was fore-doomed to something uncommon. The impression haunted her, and she was impatient for the morrow, to hear her anxious longings confirmed by the oracle of the pythoness. Her father remarked the unusual vivacity of her manner, and was pleased, as it encouraged a hope that the root of her prejudice was losing its hold in her heart. The mother was no less overjoyed, and the outcast’s home was for that evening a scene of joy.

By noon the following day Yhahil was again at the jiggerkhar’s dwelling. The crone was seated as before with the mangy dog upon her lap, and, as the anxious girl approached, extended her hand, exposing her withered palm. Yhahil placed a mohur upon it, but the long fingers did not close over the gold. The coin remained unclutched, yet the hand continued extended. The hag’s countenance darkened, and her eye emitted a fierce lurid glare.Another mohur was placed upon the former. The fingers immediately compressed the two pieces of pure mintage, the old woman’s countenance relaxed into a subdued expression of gratified avarice, the dog again licked her face, as if it participated in her satisfaction, and, rising, she said, “Follow me.”

Yhahil entered the cave as she had done the preceding day, and remained some minutes without hearing a sound. At length the old woman’s voice was heard through the gloom as before.

“The volume of futurity is still clasped. In the broad skies it is written that I shall read further, and that you shall know further, but not now; come to-morrow at this time, and you will ascertain what you seek to be informed.” The disappointed girl retired from the cavern, deeply mortified; but there was something too terrible in the aspect of the jiggerkhar to render expostulation prudent. She therefore departed without uttering a word.

For several days the same mummery was repeated and the same pretences urged; the same fee was received at every visit. At length the crone, perceiving that the patience of her victim was gradually waning, promised her with an asseveration of blasphemous solemnity, that on the morrow her doom should be read upon paying a double fee.

Yhahil had now proceeded too far to retreat, and on the following day she appeared once more at the jiggerkhar’s den. The prophetess was seated as usual before the entrance, and received her visitor with a smile, as the latter dropped ten gold mohurs into her filthy hand. She now took from her pocket a snake, and shaking it by the throat with her finger and thumb, made it hiss violently; then muttering a few words she entered the cave, and desired the anxious Pariah to follow. This the latter did without emotion, having so frequently obeyed the injunction, without witnessing any terrifying result. In fact, her anxiety had now reached to such a painful climax, that she felt reckless of all consequences, and stood with unshrinking firmness in the presence of one possessing, as she imagined, the awful power of divination.

She had not remained long within the cavern when she heardthe snake hiss; the dog uttered a heavy moan, a sudden flash was seen to break through the gloom, and a stream of blue light rose from the floor: the whole space was illuminated. The old woman stood behind the flame, which shone full upon her unearthly form, throwing over it a pale grey, quivering radiance, which added tenfold to the natural hideousness of her aspect. The snake was coiled round her neck; a guana[27]crawled at her feet, where the dog lay with its head erect, looking into her face. Yhahil blanched not, though every drop of her blood appeared to recede with a sudden gush upon her heart.

“The word of divination comes,” said the sybil. “Your destiny has been perused, and it will be as fruitful as you have been liberal. You will not live a maiden, and you will die ennobled. Go to the Mogul capital, and look for the consummation of a blessed lot, or remain where you are, and perish an outcast. Go,—your doom has been read.”

The light now gradually faded, and the place was involved in intense darkness. Yhahil quitted the cavern. Absurd and evident as the juggle had been, she was fully impressed with a notion that she had heard the voice of an oracle. Her bosom swelled with joyous anticipations. She seemed to tread on the clouds as she sought her home. For days her spirits were so buoyant that her parents became uneasy: the excitement, however, at length subsided, and she appeared to have become rationally happy. This was an event of real gladness to the delighted father, a feeling also in which the mother fully participated.

FOOTNOTES:[25]See Ayeen Ackberry.[26]The gold mohur is worth about five and thirty shillings. It passes in India for twenty rupees.

[25]See Ayeen Ackberry.

[25]See Ayeen Ackberry.

[26]The gold mohur is worth about five and thirty shillings. It passes in India for twenty rupees.

[26]The gold mohur is worth about five and thirty shillings. It passes in India for twenty rupees.

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