Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/282

266 THE INIMITABLE "RAMAYAN." RAMA, SITA, LAXAMAN.

attractive feature of the Diwáli holiday is the recitation of the epic of Rámáyan. I had the most enjoyable time of it at Baroda when listening, for a few hours every evening, to recitations from the Rámáyan.

I have read the Rámáyan, the Iliad, the Sháhnámeh, and other master-pieces of human thought, but none in the original. I never advanced much in the learned languages,though I attempted all by turn. I remember having taken up my friend Professor Bhandárkar's First Book of Sanskrit to keep off the agitating sensation one feels when conscious, for the first time, of having ababy at home. But baby was obstinate that night in mistaking vme for the mother. I loved Sanskrit, and I loved baby, too, in a sort of way. What was I to do? Oh! happy thought. I put baby