THE STORYTELLER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 84, 28 March 1908, Page 3

THE STORYTELLER.

fHE DA6GES DAHCE OF PESHAWAK u

(By 0. Whiteley Ward.) ,troUed leisu «ly from) Wf-w« rters senti „ Wope - Jußt at P^ db£Js . < ! ehn * particularly wtllamTw "wnWnd in general. ou»r£m» .1* u remote »t intention of SdW "¥■ W,tll his luck - A Depute•«S«£T P m i hMlth y district, a from » m«iden aunt J*®®, he had never seen, and tho °J th e loveliest UtUe gold £»« d houri to .11 India-well, tire S*W thing* Wee these do not arrive t< J? Anglo-Indian at twenty-eight. _./7 e y |*d each and all of them at to Bayliss, and he was as gratefu •» a young man not overweighted b< More than the ordinary learen of hu mility knows how to be. He had wedded the girl after the man ■*r of the Orient —where the women •re reckoned with the cattle, the cattle ranking somewhat first in estimation—«t the cost of very many rupees pan] to her avaricious old stepfather, a silversmith in a small way just outbids th» town on tie hill road leading northward to the Snows. Old Gunoo Chadni hid had manv caste scruples in transfewfao his daughter to an unbeliever; but ru E? Iff IT* 8 ' lnd fte silversmiths Mjl»e«l-«utbng business was not too """frhfog swee the "Europe shops' aad become «o many in the place. Uttle Janoo herself, t.i !■. eTer faUell aU the drudg- - IriU ■"WW*, "he was fiSk Wk »TH dwelling on the Boad for the daintiest maisonette imaginable at quite the •ther end of Allahpur. F»r such desirnUmi&JV leDty t0 641 «* almost fltantoUe clothes to wear, Janoo would «"*rfuUy have put op with the very Mew,.himself out of the English fair<-

As matters were, she very quickir ( i dorio « with ail her heart, and with til her tool, although she did not know for wrtam that ibe had one. Dick, 0 n his •Me, worshipped her more, if thkt were possible, than the did him. And, really, nam a certain point of view, the new »ie that he bad formed was not altogether disadvantageous to himselt He n*ed power, did Baylise, and he ruled knpreme lord—with Janoo for his queen ~-m the charming dwelling which Bad taken for a casket in whieh to keep J°. * i e *el; a casket of whioh hid jaithful henchman, Yakoob Khan, th" •arty, easy-natnred Sikh who smoked and dozed all day under the slim shade '?l peepui ® the well-court, was as the padlock on thk door. Not that Janoo wanted to get out. She was too happy where she was— Wn her Dick was with her, that is *° *ay—for at other times she hardly wnld be said to be alive at all. But when (he liad withdrawn with ner lord to the seclusion of the dim .it Inner chamber, with its faint scent of Jasmine btyssomg, its piles of fluffy cushions, and his most cherished gift, the tnrqnoise-itudden kaliun with the gold and amber lip-piece, in full blast on tile mat her—at such a moment she opened out like a lily to the sun, and became the living embodiment of witchery's own self.

Then it was that %he darned for hi® the aimiouK and seductive measures of bti own country, which are quite different, and very much more interesting, than anything in the Terpsicboreaa line that we hare on this side. Or she would take np her pearl-studded 'zittar* and to its accompaniment the drowsy Swing Song of the Krishna festivals, or one of the lilting beggar-lays of Ram fenhad, the king of all the beggars, in * voiee that sounded like a carillon of cHming silver bells. But best of all she loved to nestle at side upon the low divan, when Ac would wind her soft arms about his ■acfc, and lay her rounded cheek against hi* own, or. kneeling before him, would eiwp her leaf-light hands upon his kn-es .in the prettiest possible attitude of su'vpUeatum, until he stopped ber with .1 rain of kisses on her rosy mouth and amber neck.

"And dost thou truly, truly love me!" ftlWwould ask him at these times, jnst like any English maiden, only with a

passionate vibration thrilling in her Toiee such as but few Englishmen, probably, are privileged to hear. "And art thou very sure that thou wilt never leave me, lord of my heart, and master of my life!" The word*

hale ■ much more caressing sound in Hindustani than in the cold English. And Dick would answer, playing with her heavy liraids of night-black hair: "Never while the day-dawn follow*

the dark, 0 Empress of my soul." He meant it, too, quite seriously. "But," she would insist, "if *o-ne white maiden of thine own race should

oome to thee upon a day and say to thee: 'Pat away this dark woman and

take me for thy newer wife,' would,t thou order me outside to fill the pipe for thee and her, while the new wife

, lay against thy breast within 1" I 1 "Nay, heart's delight, thou knowe-,t that I would not. There will not ever lie a co-wife to thee in this thy house, which is thine own house, and not mine .•tall." Then Dick would in hiß turn b e rewarded with many kisses from the Charming rpsebud mouth. The foregoing is but an example of numberless little contests of affection in which Dick Bayliss and Janoo indulged on every possible occasion. They always had the same conclnsion. The little face would oe caught between his big, brown hands and smothered with nasaionata kisses until Janoo would free liendf, gasping for breath, but ha'fdelirkms with sheer delight for thougnt Oat her Dick was hers for ever and •nr.

Meanwhile the faithful Yakoib snored thickly beneath the peepul in the welltonrt. He was a phlegmatic Individual, this wire-bearded Sikh; paid to hold his honour's stirrup when he mounted, to fetch the daily provisions for the housebald from the bazaar, and,- more thin all, to hold his tongue. He acquitted himself admirably in all these capacities. A very treasure of a servant was Qfakoob Khan, until It had been at the beginning of the "cold weather" when Dkk and little EJaooo began to play at matrimony on a doll's house basis. The monsoon rairs had already broken when Mrs. OrmeiJfodrell, accompanied by her daughter, arrived in Allahpur from the reeking plains below. Mrs. Orme-Yodrell was the reliet of the la(e Colonel Orro.?EV'odrell, C.8., who bad departed this life two seasons previously after filling for several before that a lucrative staff appointment in the Viceregal entourage. His widow also possesed money in her own right, so that the Orme-Yodrell establishment was conducted upon a very comfortable, not to say luxurious, Scale. By virtue of. her expectations, May Orme-Yodrell could look to make a mort satisfactory match from the purely urorldly and maternal point of view. By reason of her own good looks, which

trere undeniable, she might mate on terms of absolute equality with any man in near or further Ind, a lieutenant-Governor downward-, \Miica —the sex being proverbially contrary—is probably the reason why, two wvkafter their mutual introduction at a liovernm«*nt House garden party, she capitulated unconditionally to Dick Baylies.

Her mother was not too pleased at first. A Deputy-Collector's pay, while fairly adequate, is not prinoely considering the importance of the work he has to do.' All the Deputy-Collectors in India will bear me out in this. Now, let it be thoroughly well understood that I h«v« not the smallest intention of defending Dick's conduct in the matter. By every law of divine, if not of human origin, he waa a married man already. Truly, he had not elected to enter the bonds of wedlock by the broad gateway of the official English code. I But married he was nevertheless, anj.

being so, hail no more right to go dangling after May Orme-Yodrell than would liave had the colonel, eommanling the station himself, who boasted a large wife and five grown-up gijls (a'i red-haired) of his own. Yet Bayliss did dangle; and just as surely as'that same word rhymes with "tangle,' it was not a month before a!i 'Allahpur, -who, of course, knew nothing of Janoo, regarded Bayliss and May as a semi-engaged couple, and chaffed him noisily and enviously upon the fact. May Orme-YoJrell heard of the congratulations, and smiled -oftlv to h-r pretty self. She believed that s!i« would make an ideal Depiity-OllertorV wife, with the major po«t i" f"H°*°; ' difficulty with the mother she '-'i no: regard *aa very serious. l)i<k-' peonie came of county st«x-k. and he woii'd tome in for at least C2.iN*t a year whenever old Mr. ISaylis". a leather merchant of the City of London, -ItouM be '_ r .'ii ' «d to his father*. It has been observed here tint :l " ,koob Khau »u- an easy-going win.

He was; but it chaneed that aforetime, in his hot youth, during a brief service in a British regiment on th« liordcr, lie had, from one cause and another, come into too frequent collision with the authorities as represented by the t-oluiicl sahib and the orderiy-room sergeam. Consequently, lie hated anything niilitantly Itriti-Ij. Jhe Orine-Yodb'lU 1'• presented the military, for l akooii Khan,

When, therefore. the news of Dick'; ' affair with ili-s Urine \ i><lrc|] tiltori-1 down to the maisonette »|>un the hillside, Yakoob, taking counsel of )ih water-pipe beneath the peepul tree, decided that this thing must never be; the more so since marriage with an interfering mem-sahib must of necessity mean a speedy and entiro subversion ol the pleasant conditions under which ho earned and ate his daily rice at present. As for poor little Janoo, she was :it first stupefied with sheer dumb misery. Then she fired up and vehemently declined to believe the news at all. Four | days afterwards (he had never left her for so many hours previously) Dick came down and was immediately taxed with hi* perfidy. He neither exactly confirmed nor yet exactly denied th> rumours, but sought to make amends to to own conscience by being extra nice to Janoo. e

He produced a lovelv set of pcaris, and tried to swear unalterable devotijn as he clasped them round her delieat" throat

Janoo affected to be satisfied with the protestations, but when he had go.v «w«y sh e knew that the old-time love, had gone out of the door with him, and guessed that it would never return.

So she sat down in the little inner chamber that had witnessed all their mutual happiness— and hatched a plot. Also, after carefully sounding him upon, the matter, she admitted Yakoob to a portion of her confidence. But not to all. Yakoob returned to his quarters two hours later imbued with the first impression that" the marriage t»tween his master and the daughter of the deceased colonel sahib would Wit come off.

He understood it. further, to be a definitely settled thing that Janoo and her various belongings in cash and valuables were to revert to himself, Vakoob Khan, so soon as this other affair had been settled satisfactorily. -Meantime? the little house on the Slope leading down to the lower city was not given up, indeed. But Dick visited it less and less frequently as the weeks went on, and when he "did come his visits were shorter and ever shorter. Not that he did not behave well to poor little Janoo from the mere pecuniary standpoint. He was, in fact, liberality itself to her, and flattered himself perhaps that the jingling of the many rupees that he poured into her lap would help U> heal the hurt to *ier pride when the final wrench should come.

Hii engagement to May Orme-Yodr-ll had now been publicly announced, ind Dick was officially entitled, in his character as husband-elect, to ten dances on the programme of every ball they met at, as well as to the further privilege of riding with her each afternoon upon the Mall, or walking beside her rickshaw when she took the air in that way. Hi' bill at the best jeweller's in tlio town was by now a thing to make jou stagger when you saw it. Nevertheless, with the exception of an occasional un-

easy feeling about poor little .lanoo, who seemed to hlive grown thinner, and consequently less attractive, every time he saw her. he was supremely happy; much more so than be deserved. Eventually, Dick's wedding-day witn May Orme-Yodrell was actually fixed, and it became necessary to explain the fact to Janoo. She took it much better than he had expected. There was no

" scene " at all. He told her how more than grateful he was fot all her goodness to him in the past months, and ueut on to say that it was her love which had real'y purified him and enabled him to win bis

bride. A remark which, in our opinio,] was in the most execrable taste. Little Janoo received the news very quietly.

A well-brought-up English girl coul.l not have been more self-possessed. She

had always known, sbe said, that one day lie would go back to his own people. She herself had never l>eeilmore than his devoted slave, and she thanked her lord, with a faint echo of the old gaiety and mock humility in ber voice, for all the favours he had heaped upon her. This made Dick feci meaner than before, if that were possible.

He proceeded to apply salve to thiit uneasy thing men call a " conscience " by presenting ■Tanoo with the title-dee Is of the hou-e where they had dwelt lo-

"ether, informing her at the same time that he had arranged for her to receive an annuity of aOO rupees, payable monthly. Janoo expressed herself as more thin satisfied with his lilx-rality, and l)i>:W shortly left. Y'akoob Khan was to lollow him as soon as Janoo had got another servant.

A few evenings later —the last, in fact | before the wedding day—Dick ga o | a farewell supper at the club to a party of his bachelor friends. . It was a very cheery gathering, and the host made a particularly effective! little speech in response to the t<>a*t »t his health, proposed by Hal Collyer, his oldest chum. In the course of it he remarked that although by that hour on the day following he would have joined the ranks of the Benedicks, this fact would no difference at all in hi- affection for every member of the company then aod there assembled. He should ever ehevish a warm corner in his heart of hearts (here Dick's voice trembled slightly) for the friends of his unregenerate bachelor davs, and was quite sure that when his dear wife that was to be came to know them all, as he knew them, Mrs. Richard Bay lis s would like and admire them, individually an^collectively, every bit as much as he did. It was really a most artistic litt.o address, and more than one " unregensrate" felt a lump rise in his throat as he listened to it. Dick proceeded to tell them that aa a grand wind-up and finale to this th« last evening he should ever spend wiui them as a bachelor, he had engaged tne services of a celebrated troupe of Nautch dancers from the temple of Bunoor, and hoped his guests would lie amused. He now gave th e signal to Yakooo. who, clothed in spotless raiment stood behind his master's chair, for the admittance of the troupe: and after a few minutes' delay they tiled into the room. The partv consisted of a couple of male tom-tom players—no tamasha in India could go off successfully without the assistance of the tom-tom two performer- on the zittar, and a corpulent person armed with a large kind of tam-

bouriae. . Four veiled and shapeless bundles w id nifct shuffled in were obviously t lie Naoteh girls. Dick and his friends sat in a semi-circle at the upper end of th? room, which had been cleared. A tall, grey-bearded individual stepped forward "and expressed, lb Hindustani, the gratification it gave his coinpanv to perform before thp " Humors. aft»"r whkb the musician* commenced *«»rt of overture. At it* on- Oi the -hapeless Ixin.tK-s. -.platting by t1... wall. rose. and. -I»pine off it- rauniiny-wrappmg-- Waina tall, handsome girl attired ill li" 1 Xautch costume—which might be 1 trifle ' decoletee ' for British taste. The voung woman now proceeded to bo through the complicated series •>' ] muscular contortions and posturing | which compose the dance. It was a bold performance in every heme of t term, and won considerable applause. T.; n the lady retired, grat.fied bowings. into her winding-sheet, andtae musicians struck up another Belect '™ n one of those Oriental which ever seem as if they were• ; to break into an air and never do. A it- conclusion two other* 01 advanced into the centre of the roan. Thev were attired jointly in what appealed to be a single voluminous wrap of -almon-coloured Tussore Bilk. ' _\imin the tom-toms and zittars throbbed and hummed, and to their music tic dancers began to twirl in opposite di""lTthev gvrated. with heads thrown | back and arms uplifted thc s'lk rolled itself in fold on I" 1 ' - ' more clearly cad, mstan the grace u curves and contour- of the girls .li.n contours. Then, ju-t as the performance w '"s becoming. a- Hal Collycr said, '•reallv interesting" the dancers stnpm..l dead, the tune changed, and th. y commenced to turn in the contrary clr rwtion. rewinding the sail as they spun. I»«'l applause again -ucceed■■!. -ind th* iN*rformanw—an mtoio>tui„ , \ ,riant «>n tliat of tin- Con-tantinopv 1 j.-rvi'li*' to acconiinniiuent .if -brill cries by the party with the tamliouriue. More inu-ic from the baud, alter which the headman of the temple once mnre stepped forward and impressively announced that the Beel.ee Mok. t c' nwH fmi.il, Sautcli girls m northern

, India, would next have the honour of . performing the celebrated Dagger Dame nl I'eshawar. Kvidcntly this was to lie tioniiithing superfine, and everybody got ready to watch it carefully; Jilt* fourth bundle of feiiiininitv notv lose from her place, anil, removing her cloak, disclosed the inugniticent Tire-, of the head dancer of a liigh-cbiss temple. The soft, raw-silk vesture-, j glittering with gold and jewels, outlined ill perfection her lithe and gracet'i.l form. Around her rosy unkies were clasped many rows of little golden balls that tinkled tiny music as she walkedher anus were bare from wrist to ' w^ eMept f ° r th " he " Ty 50ft -« 0 "' White jasmine flowers crowned her bla ? k hair, and her gauzy boorka—tile semi-diaphanous face veil of the * t' vas secured b.v an ornament contaming a pigeon-blood ruby of enormous

She came forward, and, with a low I excpwHrM t0 Bayliss ' wll ° wa9 lookil| g danw f uncomfortable > Iwgaii to | The idea embodied in the Dance of the Pathan Hills win p f ob . ably be unfamiliar to non-Indian reader; but the general plan and notion of It IS to the effect that a Kuli maid»n had a, lover who, madly devoted to her at lirst, gradually grows colder in his attentions. The scorned but highspirited girl vows revenge, and unl.r pretence of dancing for his pleasure stabs her faithless lover to the heart. In successive movements the performer, who was obviously a past-mistress u: her art, depicted clearly as words wouid have done the motif of the scene. First her dancing showed the proud voting beauty, happy in her lover's worship; next the poor heart, agonised and to'-n by doubts, but yet loth to believe the taje of a man's perfidy; anon, the wild fury born of a knowledge that she is scorned and abandoned; and, lastly th" denouement of the tragedy-revenge at the dagger's point. As she reached the culminating catastrophe the dancer produced from her bejewelled girdle a glittering, curved canjar, which spit-out wicked gleams ot light as it whirled above her head. The

music quickened suddenly—everyone leaned forward breathless with excitement, and there came the snap of a breaking wineglass stem. Higher and higher rose the din. Now the dancer's great black eyes wove flashing fire as fierce as that which glanced off the keen knife-blade, wh'!ii with a shrill "Heh!" she darted forward, aimed a lightning stroke at Dick, and, recoiling, pluuged the dagger once and again into her own side! Instantly the room was in an uproar. But, before the servants entered, fie girl, her oyes already glazing, had been lifted by Dick and tenderly laid upon a pile of cushions, where "the station doctor, disturbed at his whist downstairs in the smoking-room, saw her directly.

Xo, there was not the slightest chance for her, he subsequently informed the scared group which had'gathered under the flogging punkah. The girl was n, good as dead already. As nearly as he could judge th e da'gger strokes must have gone half-way through her bojy.

In another quarter of an hour Dick himself came down with a face rather

whiter, if anything, than his own collar, and a clean-cut rent in the breast of bis dress waistcoat.

He said, in answer to tlieir inquiries that he was not hurt. Then he drank

off a couple of stiff brandy " pegs," and, after apologising to his guests for the unpleasant "accident" that had spoilt their evening, went home by himself. The body was fetched awav an hour later for interment, according to the Mahommedan rites.

No one ever blew what happened between tlm doctor's leaving the dying

girl and Dick's return from that upstairs room, with its table glittering

with glass and silver, and the dark red puddle slowly wiping out the pattern at the carpet. ' His wedding with May Ornie-YodreM was solemnised the next day, and every-

l>odv noticed that the bridegroou looked more than a little " stale." Ilis

appearance was attributed by some of the ooffipany present to the shock resulting from his narrow escapes on the

previous evening. Others, less charitable, put his paleness down to late hours and too many

" pegs," and opined that he badly needed a wife to look after him. Neither ->t

these was the true reason, I believe. The little house down the hillsi.le towards the lower town remained without an occupant for several months, after 'which it was pulled down by order of the Street Commissioners to make room for a new road across that po 1 . -

tion of the Slope. " The last news of Yakool) Khan was to the effect that he was living—in considerable style for a native of lus position —in a biggish house at Rawal l'iudi. I think that is aliout all.