Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/209

Rh appear, goes to Court after many prayers and supplications to the gods to "preserve his abru." Poor native suitors know the Magistrate's weakness, and take all precautions they can to counteract its effects.

A few months ago one of these Magistrates had to decide a case in which the town barber was plaintiff and a discharged Irish soldier defendant. The soldier seems to have thrashed the barber for some reason best known to himself. Now the barber, who was a man of sense. knew that he could not establish his case against the white man. So, with grim Oriental humour, he made his mother-in-law plaintiff in the case, and with the aid of two or three trumpery witnesses, undertook to prove that the soldier had assaulted the "poor defenceless woman" in a field of bájri hard by, and that the whole town knew of it. The barber had only recently married a fourth wife, with a neat little dowry; so he said, "As Prabhu has given me the means, I am determined to set an example." With this purpose in view, the barber went to the best pleader in his town, a very learned man,