close the year's accounts at once.' " The father
says this bargain will ruin them, as it will
prevent them from growing rice; and, he adds,
"We have no chance in a dispute with the
Sahibs. They bind and beat us. It is for us
to suffer." Nobin says that, for his part, he
intends to bring the case into court. After
that, exeunt omnes to bathe.

The second scene is at the house of Sadhu
Churn. Ray Churn enters, with his plough,
and makes some remarks, apparently addressed
to that instrument, to the effect that the stupid
Amin (land-measurer) is a tiger: he having just
marked off five bigahs of his land to be sown
with indigo. This will ruin him, he says, and
his family will starve. He is interrupted in his
recital of the family prospects by the entrance
of Khetromani, Sadhu Churn's daughter, who,
however, answers no dramatic end by her
appearance, her mission being merely to say, in
reply to a question, that her father will be there
immediately, and to receive his respect for a
"little water, as his stomach is on the point of
bursting." She goes for the water; in the
mean time Sadhu enters; and the brothers then
proceed with the discussion of their grievances,
Sadhu especially apostrophising his "burnt
forehead," which is a metaphorical manner of
expressing ill-fortune. Khetromani now
returns with the water, and her uncle describes
the quarrel he has had with the Amin, whose
marking off of the ground was, he says, like
thrusting burnt sticks into his body. The
consultation is put an end to, by the appearance
of the Amin himself, with two servants, who
bind Ray Churn, and tell him he must go with
them to the factory, as he is wanted "to make
signatures in the account books" (forged
signatures of course): he being able to read and write,
and the object of the planter being to show that
contracts had been made for the cultivation of
indigo. Ray Churn drinks his water, and is
carried off; but not before the Amin has cast
eyes of admiration upon Khetromani, and made
the remark that, having sold his sister to the
Sahib for an overseer's post, he thinks he
should get higher promotion if he could get
Khetromani to sell also.

The scene then changes to the verandah of
the large bungalow belonging to the factory of
Begunbari. Here J. J. Wood, the proprietor,
is found with Gopi Churn Das, his dewan, or
head man, whom he is violently abusing for not
getting in more advances from the ryots, and
whom he threatens with a dose of " shamchand"
(a leather strap) for his pains: taking down that
instrument from the wall as an earnest of his
intention. The dewan excuses himself most
piteously, accusing his "evil forehead" (ill
fortune) for allowing him to work like a slave for
his master, without getting any credit for it.
And he adds; "Sahib, what sign of fear hast
thou seen in me? When I entered on the
indigo profession, I threw off all fear, shame, and
honour; and the destroying of cows, of Brahmins,
of women, have become my ornaments,
and I now lie down in bed keeping the jail as
my pillow,"—that is to say, thinking of the
jail, and expecting to go to it. While this
improving conversation is proceeding, the Amin
brings in Ray Churn, bound, with Sadhu
accompanying him. Some of the scene which
follows is worth giving textually:

Wood. Why are this wicked fool's hands bound
with cords?

Gopi. My lord, this Sadhu Churn is a head ryot;
but through the enticement of Nobin Madhab he has
been led to engage in the destruction of indigo.

Sadhu. My lord, I do nothing unjust against
your indigo, nor am I doing now, nor have I power
to do anything wrong; willingly or unwillingly I
have prepared the indigo, and also I am ready to
make it this time. But then everything has its
probability and improbability; if you want to make
powder of eight inches thickness to enter a pipe
half an inch thick, will it not burst? I am a poor
ryot, keep only one and a half ploughs, have only
twenty bigahs of land for cultivation; and now, if
I am to give nine bigahs out of that for indigo, that
must occasion my death. But, my lord, what is
that to you? It is only my death!

Gopi. The Sahib fears lest you keep him confined
in the godown of your eldest babu.

Sadhu. Now, Sir Dewanji, what you say is striking
a corpse (useless labour); what mite am I that I
should imprison the Sahib, mighty and glorious!

Gopi. Sadhu, now away with your high-flown
language; it does not sound well from the tongue of
a peasant; it is like a sweeper's broom touching the
body. (The sweeper is a pariah, and his touch is
contamination.)

Wood. Now the rascal has become very wise.

Amin. That fool explains the laws and
magistrate's orders to the common people, and thus raises
confusion. His brother draws the ploughshare, and
he uses the high word prátapsháli—glorious!

Gopi. The child of the preparer of cow-dung balls
(the cheapest kind of fuel) has become a court naeb
(legal officer). My lord, the establishment of schools
in the villages has increased the violence of the
ryots.

Wood. I shall write to our Indigo Planters'
Association, to make a petition to government for stopping
the schools in villages. We shall fight to secure
stopping the schools.

Amin. That fool wants to bring the case into
court.

Wood. (To Sadhu.) You are very wicked. You
have twenty bigahs, of which, if you employ nine
bigahs for indigo, why cannot you cultivate the
other nine bigahs [a little slip in arithmetic] for rice?

Gopi. My lord, the debt which is credited to him
can be made use of, for bringing the whole twenty
bigahs within our own power.

Sadhu. (To himself) O oh! The witness for the
spirit-seller is the drunkard! (Openly.) If the nine
bigahs, which are marked off for the cultivation of
the indigo, were worked by the plough and kine of
the factory, then could I use the other nine bigahs
for rice. The work which is to be done in the rice-
field is only a fourth of that which is necessary in
the indigo-field; consequently, if I am to remain
engaged in these nine bigahs, the remaining eleven
bigahs will be without cultivation.

Wood. You dolt! You are very wicked, you scoundrel!
[Háranijádá in the original, which is a stronger
epithet.] You must take the money in advance; you
must cultivate the land; you are a very scoundrel.
(Kicks him.) You shall leave off everything when