“How wonderful is this legend!” thought Io; “it describes the Fall far more naturally than our great Milton ever did. One could fancy that in exactly such words Eve told the sad story to her two little boys, Cain and Abel.” Then the lady said aloud, “Did your great old father tell you anything of the Flood?”
“I don’t know much about that, only very little,” replied Maha. “There is one song something like this: ‘It thundered; tempests followed; it rained three days and three nights, and the waters covered all the mountains.’ I did not like that story so well as that of the woman and man.”
Io asked a few more questions, but found Maha utterly ignorant of anything else contained in the Scriptures, except some dim tradition of men separating because they did not love each other. “Their language became different,” said the girl, resuming her chanting tone, “and they became enemies to each other and fought.”
Io kissed her little pupil, and sent her to play with a kitten. “It is I, not Maha, who have been the learner to-day,” thought the lady.
CHAPTER VI.
MODERN THEORIES.
On that day the dinner of the Coldstreams, partaken of an hour or two before sunset, was shared by the chaplain and the doctor. Conversation flowed freely before the party sat down to the meal, Pinfold and Thud, as usual, taking a prominent part; but when the actual business of eating commenced, the two, being the most busily engaged with their knives and forks, became the most silent of those at the table. During the latter part of the social meal Io gave a rather full account of the traditions embodied in the song of the young Karen. She was listened to with an amount of interest varying with the different characters of those who heard her.
“This is most curious, most interesting,” observed Coldstream. “To have such a full, independent account of the Fall is such a confirmation of the record contained in the book of Genesis as may well silence infidel objections.”
“I don’t see that,” quoth pragmatical Thud, speakingwith his mouth full of pudding. “Of course these Karens got that story of theirs from Christians.”
“Pardon me,” said Mr. Lawrence politely; “the tradition of the Fall, and a good many others, existed before a Christian had set his foot in Burmah, Siam, or Pegu.”