Page:Anandamath, The Abbey of Bliss - Chatterjee.djvu/105



Santi had lost her mother early, and this was one of the principal factors that went to the making of her singular character. Her father was a Brahmin of the Adhyapaka class and had no other woman in the household. Naturally, when her father gave his lessons to his class, Santi sat near him. At other times she would play with the pupils who stayed under her father's roof and they all loved and patted her. The result of this constant association with males in her childhood was that Santi did not learn to dress like females or, having learnt to do so, gave it up. She used to dress like a man with her koncha dangling before her. If anybody made her wear her cloth like a girl, she would instantly change it and wear it like a boy again. The scholars of the tole did not dress their hair, nor did Santi — and in sooth who was there that could dress her hair into a knot. The scholars would dress her hair with a wooden comb and her locks flowed in curls upen her back and breast and hands and cheeks. The scholars wore sandal prints. Santi did likewise. She used to weep that she could not wear the sacred thread, but all the same, when the boys sat down to their morning and evening prayers, she did not miss imitating their actions. * * * Another result of it all was that as she grew older, Santi began to learn what the scholars read. She did 6