Chapter VI.
AFTER her husband’s return there was no change so for the better in Kamala’s lot, only the daily routine of work became harder and she was kept more in the background. Kamala’s duties commenced very early in the morning. In one of the niches were kept her simple toilet things, a kunkun box, a shell-comb, and a hand mirror. In another were placed wreaths of flowers of jessamine, or shivanti, and a betel-nut box and tray. Her clothes were hung on a rod which was fastened across the room; and two wooden boxes formed the only furniture. In the darkest corner were Kamala’s own little bundle of clothes and her mattress rolled up by it. In the morning, long before day-break, there was a stir in the house, and the mother-in-law would wake the girl who slept near her. Thus aroused Kamala hurried out through the quadrangle to the back of the house, for it was her duty to get the water vessels ready and fill them with water for the morning ablutions. Then came the cow-dunging of the kitchen and front yard, and the working out of various flower designs on the cow-dunged floor with white shell powder, at which difficult feat every Hindu girl is an expert. Next came the buying of vegetables and other things from street vendors and the work in the kitchen, where she was expected to help in cooking. She was also required to prepare the baths, keep the ointments and other things ready, and if anything was missing a shower of abuse was hurled upon her. The food was served by Ramabai while Kamala stood looking on from behind a door. In the afternoons the older members of the family generally rested, whilst the girls attended to their toilet. They arranged their hair, wearing flowers in their tresses, and put kunkun on their foreheads. The hardest share of work fell on Kamala. She went through it willingly but she felt hurt when, after doing all that she could possibly do, her mother-in-law would come and say that poor Gungi’s back was broken with work, and that Kamala required somebody to attend on her instead of taking her share in the general work and thus lightening the load of her sister-in-law. Then would come complaints from Ramabai that Kamala did not eat all the food that was served on her leaf. “She wants others to think that we starve her and that we are cruel to her. She puts on such an air of martyrdom before people that one feels inclined to scoop her eyes out.” And the mother would pass Kamala with a scowl and a withering look and say: “Yes! the Kydashin will create more mischief still.” Thus was kept up a long misunderstanding; and poor Kamala knew not how to defend herself or what to say.
Somehow Kamala became resigned to her lot, and it was her crude religious convictions that enabled her to do so. She had sat at the puranicbava's feet and had imbibed the teachings taught by the heroic tales of Seeta, Rama, and the Pandavas. She had heard many a legend of demons and their power over human beings. The dreamy melodies of the Sanskrit sh