"What!" they exclaimed, "was it for a leaf of betel that you have
spread this alarm through your own house and the whole village?--for a
leaf of betel that you showed such constancy, and suffered burning from
the feet to the head upwards? Never in the world was there seen such
folly!" And so, from that time, I have been constantly known by the name
of Betel Anantya.
The narrative being finished, the court were of opinion that so
transcendent a piece of folly gave him high pretensions in the depending
suit; but it was necessary also to hear the fourth and last of the
suitors, who thus addressed them:
_Story of the Fourth Brahman_.
The maiden to whom I was betrothed, having remained six or seven years
at her father's house, on account of her youth, we were at last apprised
that she was become marriageable; and her parents informed mine that she
was in a situation to fulfil all the duties of a wife, and might
therefore join her husband. My mother being at that time sick, and the
house of my father-in-law being at the distance of five or six leagues
from ours, she was not able to undertake the journey. She therefore
committed to myself the duty of bringing home my wife, and counselled me
so to conduct myself, in words and actions, that they might not see that
I was only a brute. "Knowing thee as I do," said my mother, as I took
leave of her, "I am very distrustful of thee.
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