Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/143

Rh “Thou damsel whose eyes are as dark as the flower of the Kaya! Many a day has a youth, decked with pretty garlands and armed with a bow, appeared before me, as if he was chasing some game, and gazed at me long and fondly, and vanished from my sight without ever uttering a word. The thought of him has driven sleep from my eyes, and I am pining with grief. He speaks not of his love, except with his eyes, and I being a woman am too shy to let him know how deeply I love him. Unable to bear the pangs of a secret love I did an act of which am ashamed. One day while I was seated on a swing, by the side of our farm, he appeared before me as usual, and I called out to him and said, “Sir, swing me a little while.” “I will do so, sweet maid” replied he, and was swinging me, when I pretended to slip from the swing, and fell on his shoulder. He caught me up in his arms at once, and I lay on his shoulder as if in a swoon. He held me fast and when at last I awoke, he bade me go, caressing me fondly and making me happy in the assurance that he loved me fervently.”

One of the most curious customs alluded to in ancient love poems is that of a disappointed lover proclaiming his love in the public streets and committing suicide. When a youth who had fallen desperately in love with a girl, found that she did not return his affections, he took the long stalk of a palmyra leaf and adorned it, like a horse, with a bell and peacock-feathers and garlands, and tying a string to one end of it, in the form of a bridle, he rode on it. through the streets singing the praises of the girl he loved Seeing this, the girl herself sometimes relented or her relations persuaded her to marry him; but if, notwithstanding this public exposure of his love, the girl remained indifferent towards him, he put an end to his life by throwing himself down from a precipice.

Every town and village had its street of harlots, and in !he great cities, there were also courtezans who were educated and accomplished women and were the mistresses of wealthy nobles. The courtezans honoured by the special regard of the king were allowed to travel in carriages or palanquins, to visit the royal parks, to use betel boxes made of gold and fans made of the