Page:Shubala - a child-mother (IA shubalachildmoth00soraiala).pdf/22

 said, "Neglect is the only treatment, the gods are jealous: the demons have come to dwell in them: we must not attend to them, lest we entertain demons, and lest the gods be jealous." So an old maid-servant carried out some filthy bedding to the edge of a cesspool, and there the three children, adorable little people beautifully made, and with the loveliest eyes and deep fringes of eyelash, were left to their fate.

The maid-servant confessed to me that contrary to orders she had crept out to give them water from time to time, as they thirsted.

But the water was from the drain itself.

Here again, was it not the God of little children alone, who kept them alive at all through such an experience? When I found them the littlest one was all but gone, all three had ceased to cry even for water. They were terribly still, having passed also the delirium of the raging fever which held them…

Or here is another memory from a