CHAPTER IV.

THE JANEO. *

AFTER Bandhu had eaten of the vile drug Superstition, he was more ready than before to fall into every species of evil. Also, like one whose natural thirst is increased by fever, Bandhu became more anxious than ever to obtain an honour for which he had longed for years. This honour was that of wearing a janeo. There had been nothing on the child, when found in the jungle, to denote to what caste he belonged; he had been almost destitute of clothing.

* The janeo is a cord which the two highest castes of Hindus, the Brahmins (priest) and Chhatri (warrior), are entitled to wear. It is generally, with some ceremonies, given to boys at the age of eight or nine. "This janeo has the two ends joined, goes over the right shoulder, and comes down to the waist on the left side. The time when the janeo is given is an important period in the life of a Brahmin; before this period he is considered a mere child, and as possessed of no religion, and he can eat without bathing, or performing puja or worship."—From Ishuree Dás's "Domestic Manners and Customs."

When Bandhu recovered from his illness, he remembered little of what had happened to him before it; of his native village he could only say that its name ended in pur; of his home, that there was a tall date-tree outside it, and some brazen vessels within. Bandhu recollected also that goats browsed near the place, and that sometimes a string of camels passed by. But one idea was rooted in the boy's mind; and that was, that his father had a janeo. This would, of course, give his son a right to wear the janeo also. But, for a long time, Farebwala kept the hopes of being invested with the coveted string before Bandhu as a prize is held before the scholar, or a reward before the soldier.

When Bandhu was almost fourteen, and therefore long past the age at which boys of the two highest castes usually receive the sacred cord, the lad could no longer endure to be fed only with hopes. Farebwala was about to go on a journey, and a fear arose in his mind that during his absence some message might reach his poor victim from the merciful king.

"Nothing will be more likely to keep Bandhu in my service," thought the tyrant, "than to invest him with the janeo. No one is suffered to wear such a thing at the court of the king; and if the weak-witted boy be suffered in this manner to have his own way, he will be more likely to be submissive to me in others."

So a Brahmin was consulted on the difficult question of Bandhu's caste. The Brahmin was the creature of Farebwala, and for a few rupees was ready to tell any amount of lies. After fasting and using arts of divination, the old man declared that the secret had been revealed to him. Bandhu was the son of a Chhatri, and as such might be invested with the holy string. The ceremony, accordingly, took place with all accustomed forms.

Farebwala took another precaution to prevent any chance of Bandhu's receiving a message from the king. He made the Brahmin recommend the young Chhatri to undertake a pilgrimage to some holy place about eighty miles distant. This would be at once a proof of his piety and of his manhood. Bandhu, whose head was almost turned by the dignity of wearing a string, and the effect of the tyrant's drug, would have agreed to the pilgrimage had he had to crawl on his chest all the way. It was therefore settled that on the day after that on which Farebwala should depart on his journey, the young pilgrim should start on his, going alone as far as a village some sixteen miles distant, where he would join a party, bound, like himself, for the holy place.

Soon after this arrangement was made, Farebwala set off to do mischief in some other place, for he never ceased from evil. As naturally as the king sought to make men happy, so naturally Farebwala tried to make them wretched. There are no means so certain to gain this end as that of leading men into sin.

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