Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/192

176 half an hour thus employed, the patient is released, and the Hajaam is paid about a penny-worth of copper on the assurance that the operation will "answer" fifteen days.

Thus plies the Hajaam at his principal work. He is good at many other jobs besides. He is the hereditary torch-bearer of the village, and has the honour of lighting in or out the Collector or his young man. The Hajaam is also a good pleader; not a High Court or District Court pleader, please, but a pleader—that is, he pleads the cause of the enamoured youth before his (that is, the e. y.'s) divinity. The village Hajaam is the priest of Hymen, and his wife is the accoucheur-general of the village. This is a fair division of labour between husband and wife.

The village Hajaam is also a good herbalist, and in this respect a more trustworthy person than the modern L. M. and S. —he never poisons his patients.

The village Hajaam labours under one sad