Storia do Mogor 265.3.3

265.3.3

These Marava women are very brave and faithful to their husbands. There was once a woman of this race who lived in a house outside the village. Her husband was away, and she had an unweaned infant. By chance a faqir arrived and asked for alms. Seeing her beauty, and that the house stood at a distance from the village, he formed designs against her, and shut the garden-gate from inside. The woman became aware of the faqir's evil thoughts and ran for her room, fastening the door on the inside. In her hurry she had left her child outside. On reaching the door the faqir prayed her to open, saying thousands of amorous words, to which the woman did not reply. On finding that she did not answer, the faqir threatened her that if she did not open the door he would kill the infant. She uttered not a sound. In a rage the faqir cut off one of the infant's arms, and through a hole there was threw it inside. In spite of this she did not open her mouth. The faqir went on severing the child's limbs, and threw the pieces in as he had done the first. Finally he decided to get into the room by mining under the threshold enough to let his body through. Seeing the faqir's deliberate attack, and the danger to her honour, the woman placed herself close to the hole with a large stick in her hand, so that when the faqir's head emerged she applied the stick with such energy that his brains came out. Thus did she inflict justice for the death of her son. Towards evening the husband returned.