'Did you bring the girl up or only filth, as the saying is? They are called twins, but the one has been married a year and the other has not flowered yet!'

'Vederala! I would give the girl, but she is unwilling. She told me last night that you had spoken to her. She is of the jungle, wild, not fit for your house. She was very frightened and angry.'

For a moment Punchirala was disconcerted that his rebuff was known. But anger came to his rescue.

'Am I to ask the girl then when I want a wife? Can the father not give his child? So the child is angry, and the father obeys! Ohé! strange customs spring up! You are a fool, Silindu. If you tell the child to obey, there is no more to be said.'

'The girl is a wild thing, I tell you. I cannot give her against her will.'

The vederala got up. He smiled at Silindu, who watched him anxiously.

'You will not give the girl, Silindu?'

'I cannot, I cannot.'

'You will not give her? Remember the man of Sinhala, who taught my father.'

'Aiyo! how can I do this?'

'And the headman of Bogama, and the devil that still dances beneath the trees.'

Silindu's face worked with excitement.

'Ask anything else of me, vederala. I cannot do this, I cannot do this.'

Punchirala walked away. The others watched him in silence. When he got to the fence of the compound, he turned round and smiled at them again.

'And don't forget,' he called out, 'to tell the girl about the Malay girl who came to the Korala Mahatmaya in the cave. A black-faced man and big-bellied, but she came, she came. I am an ugly man, and the bear's claws have made me uglier; a poor bed-fellow for a girl! And so was he, black as a Tamil, and a great belly swaying as he walked. But she came to the cave, to the calling of my father's charm. Oh yes, she came, she came.'

Punchirala walked away 

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