Page:The Spoilt Child.djvu/151

 thing to have the opinion of a Mahomedan hakim: they often effect wonderful cures, and their drugs are all as pleasant to take as that delicious sweetmeat the mohanbhog." Another said: "You may say what you will, but doctors who treat on English methods give instantaneous relief in all such cases of sickness, as if by the repetition of a mantra: a cure will be very difficult without proper medical treatment." The sick man kept repeatedly asking for water. Brojonath Raya, the old kabiraj, who was sitting by him at the time, said: "The case is a very serious one: it is not a good thing to be constantly giving him water: we must give him a little of the juice of the bael. We are none of us his enemies, I should imagine, that we should be giving him just now as much water as he wants." All this wrangling was going on by Baburam Babu's bedside. The next room was filled with a number of pandits, who, of course, regarded as of chief importance the performance of sacrifices to Shiva, the worship of the sun, the offering of a million of hibiscus flowers at Kali's shrine at Kalighat, and all such religious ceremonials. Beni Babu had been standing listening to the discussion going on round Baburam Babu, but everybody was talking at once and nobody listening to anybody else. "Many sages many opinions" says the old proverb, and each man thought his words as infallible as the mystic mantra possessed by Druva. Though Beni Babu attempted once or twice to express his own opinion, his words were lost almost before he had opened his lips[36], and being unable to get a word in edgewise, he took Becharam Babu outside with him.

Just then Thakchacha approached them, limping painfully along: he was exceedingly anxious on account of Baburam Babu's illness, reflecting that all his chances of gain had slipped away. Beni Babu, seeing him, said: "Thakchacha,