The Music of Hindostan c6.259

c6.259

The second woman began invariably by skipping a beat. This was the only song they knew. It was what they sang when they were tilling paddy, to this effect:—‘We were once slaves. There was a fire on the estate and the landlord stopped it with a spear. The fire got into the fort, and the landlord’s men stopped it with their pistols and shields. His women came out and stopped it with their broomsticks.’