Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/258

240 eat, the infatuated husband warmly reproved the child, and, on his refusing to deny the truth of what he had said, beat him.

"In great distress Aruman fled to his baboo, or nurse, and on her faithful bosom poured forth all the grief of childhood, mingling with his sorrow the recollection of his mother's kindness and affection. Sumarr, whose memory cherished the image of her late mistress with love and respect, often contrasting her gentleness with the pride and severity of Ma Qualoan, felt much for Aruman, and tried to soothe his grief by the narration of tales associated with his mother's memory, in listening to which the little fellow would soon fall asleep. Sumarr would then seek the child's father, to see if anything she might say could move his heart; but her expostulations were all in vain. The man was so entangled in the wiles of a perfidious woman that he readily lent an ear to all she said in disparagement of his first-born, and now began to