Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/300

284 water, and fell to. This degrading farce was carried on for eighteen days, three times a day. Many Parsi families have got rid of this tomfoolery, but still it lingers on. The whole thing is intended for the good of two, the priest (Dastur) and the cook. These eighteen days are a carnival to these fellows. To the paterfamilias, and his son who is an unemployed graduate of the University, they are the worst days in the year. The old gentleman has to spend his cash without stint, and the young gentleman has to submit every now and then to the bitter reproaches of his progenitor, who turns fiercely upon him and says: "See, you idle unskilful vagabond! Look at the barber of a cook; we have to pay him Rs. 30 for eighteen days, and he knows not how to make an omelet. And you, sirrah, you are what they call B.A., and M.A., and your education alone has cost me Rs. 5,000. And what do you earn? Nothing. Oh, why did not your mother re-marry before you were born!" The old man is justified in complaining, though the logic of his concluding remark is eminently Hibernian. And who can help pitying the poor "B.A. and M.A."?