Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/141

Rh that in the great treatise on moral and social ethics, composed by the poet Tiruvalluvar, during this period, one of the three parts of the work is devoted to love affairs. The custom has not yet died out entirely in Tamilakam, as it still survives to some extent on the Malabar Coast. The relations of the sexes can best be described in the words of the ancient poets themselves, and I therefore give below a translation of a few extracts from love poems.

The following words are addressed by a girl to her friend, who questions her on her conduct towards her lover :—“ Askest thou whether, as my neighbours say, I have given my heart to that noble youth, who watches me while I bathe in the river, visits me at my house, attends on me tenderly, sets right the jewels that I wear, and paints my shoulders with sandal paste. Listen to what I tell thee! Long I have strayed with him on the seashore, plucking the stout weeds that grow there, till the tips of my fingers became red, thou sayest: but it was all for a doll which he made with the weeds for me. It is strange that thou art so simple as to believe the tales of my neighbours, who are never happy when they cannot talk scandal. Afraid to meet thy curious eye, I retraced my steps from my house, and he, finding me come back, culled some flowers growing in the marsh and formed them into a garland, and offered it to me. Is it for this trivial mark of attention on his part that thou, without chiding those who sent thee here with false tales, hast come to question me? He did paint on my shoulders beautifully, with sandal paste, the figure of a stalk of sugarcane, telling me that I knew not how to paint it. Is it for this little act of courtesy, that thou gave ear to the idle gossip of my playmates, and worried thyself?”

Here is an example of a wayward and mischievous youth who develops into a violent lover, and of whom a girl speaks to her companion—” Listen to me, my friend I Knowest thou that wicked youth, who knocks down our toy houses, tears the garlands from our hair, snatches away the ball with which we play in the street, and gives us no end of trouble? One day, while I and my mother were busy in our house, he came in and said be was thirsty. ‘Give him a cup of water,’ said my mother, Rh