Page:An Indian Study of Love and Death.pdf/65

 moment of sunset or dawn for the ﬂight of souls. Sunset or dawn, and the turn of the tide. But darkness, and the silence of night, and the sound of water lapping against the shore, for the builded pile, and the ﬂames of the death-ﬁre!

In that Indian house where the coming of death is waited, the distant children are all-called home; and even wedded daughters watch, side by side with the older women, and with their brothers’ wives, for the ﬁnal change. To some few, death comes with a merciful swiftness. In work, or at play, alone or amongst friends, he plucks them by the sleeve, or touches them on the shoulder,