Page:Old Deccan Days.djvu/268

 224 HOW THE THREE CLEVER MEN OUTWITTED THE DEMONS.

Page 203.—Old residents at Surat may remember an ancient local celebrity named Tom the Barber, among whose recollections of former days was a chronicle of a renowned duellist, who used to amuse himself by shooting with his pistol, somewhat after the fashion of the Pearlshooter. The little tin can of hot water which Tom carried, slung from his forefinger, as he went his morning rounds, was a favourite mark. So were the water-jars on the heads of the women as they passed the duellist's house, coming from the well; and great was Tom's relief when an old woman, who could not be pacified by the usual douceur for the loss of her jar and the shock of finding the water stream down her back, appealed to the authorities and had the duellist bound over to abstain in future from his dangerous amusement.

So vivid were Tom's recollections of his own terrors, that, after the lapse of half a century, he could ill conceal his sense of the poetical justice finally inflicted on his tormentor, who was killed in a duel to which he provoked a young officer who had never before fired a pistol.

GLOSSARY OF SUCH INDIAN WORDS AS OCCUR MOST FREQUENTLY IN THE

'FAIRY LEGENDS.'

Printed by T. and A., Printers to Her Majesty,

at the Edinburgh University Press.