Page:Old Deccan Days.djvu/228

184 colour in her cheeks and on her lips; she seemed to be only asleep. When poor Rowjee Rajah heard of her death, he was so broken-hearted they thought he also would die. He cursed the evil fate that had deprived him of hearing her last words, or bidding her farewell, if he could not save her life; and from morning to evening he would go to her tomb and rend the air with his passionate lamentations, and looking through the grating to where she lay calm and still under the canopy, say, before he went away, 'I will take one last look at that fair face. To-morrow Death may have set his seal upon it. O loveliness too bright for earth! O lost, lost wife!' The Rajah and Ranee feared that he would die, or go mad, and they tried to prevent his going to the tomb; but all was of no avail; it seemed to be the only thing he cared for in life. Now the negress who had stolen Sodewa Bai's necklace used to wear it all day long, but late each night, on going to bed, she would take it off, and put it by till next morning, and whenever she took it off Sodewa Bai's spirit returned to her again, and she lived till day dawned and the negress put on the necklace, when she again died. But as the tomb was far from any houses, and the old Rajah and Ranee, and Rowjee Rajah, only went there by day, nobody found this out. When Sodewa Bai first came to life in this way she felt very frightened to find herself there all alone in the dark, and thought she was in prison; but afterwards she got more accustomed to it, and determined when morning came to look about the place, and find her way back to the palace, and recover the necklace she found she had lost (for it would have been dangerous to go at night through the jungles that surrounded the tomb, where she could hear the wild beasts roaring all night long); but morning never came, for whenever the negress awoke and put on the golden beads Sodewa Bai died. However, each night, when the Ranee came to life, she would walk to the little tank by the tomb, and drink some of the cool water, and return; but food she had none. Now no pearls or precious stones fell from her lips, because she had no one to talk to; but each time she walked down to the tank she scattered jewels on either side of her path; and one day, when Rowjee Rajah went to the tomb, he noticed all these jewels, and thinking it very strange (though he never dreamed that his wife could come to life), determined to watch and see whence they came. But although he watched and waited long, he could not find out the cause, because all day