Page:Between the twilights being studies of Indian women by one of themselves (IA betweentwilights00soraiala).pdf/176



N an orthodox Hindu house of mine acquaintance are to be found two darling Babies, aged four and five. They are girls, one named “Lightning-Beloved,” the other after a Greek Goddess.

I made their acquaintance first in the Summer, and they were most seasonably dressed in gold waist-bands and an amulet a-piece—for the Goddess of Learning, a bear’s claw, and for “Lightning-Beloved,” a little gold box of mystic “spare-me-s” against the blue sword of her tempestuous Lord. … I was much in request for games, and daily beguiled into longer and longer visits; how could one resist Babies who were just being introduced to the joys of childhood? And, when I left the “Inside,” there would be one Baby on my hip—they taught me that, and it is quite easy,