The rattling was repeated twice, and then the door was opened just widely enough to let two dogs, furiously barking, rush out. The doli-men, called kahars, threatened the animals with their staves; one threw a stone at the fiercer dog, and made him go limping and howling away.
“I don’t like this,” said Alicia timidly. “Perhaps the dogs may come back, or there may be others inside. Robin, please go in first.”
“Go in!” repeated Robin in affected horror. “I would rather venture into a bear’s den than into a zenana. It is only open to lady visitors, you know.”
“But can’t I send in the kahars to see that the way is clear?”
“No; the kahars, being men, must remain outside. See, there are girls within the court-yard peeping curiously at you. They will show you the way to the ladies. You have really nothing to fear.”
Alicia, a good deal against her will, had to enter the court-yard alone. The kahars remained outside with the doli, and Robin went back to the bungalow. Brown girls, with a profusion of metal ornaments on their heads and a wondrous number of rings in their ears, called to the English lady to come on. They stood in a doorway at the other side of the court-yard,—a doorway which evidently led to the interior of the large building. As Alicia hesitated, the Hindu girls called more loudly, giggled and laughed, but did not attempt to approach the lonely stranger.
“How can I possibly cross the yard with that horrible cow and calf and two hideous black buffaloes right in my way?” thought the frightened girl. “I have always been warned not to go near a cow with a calf. I see that the creature is tied, but she looks fierce, and I doubt that there is safe room for me to pass her. What shall I do! what on earth shall I do!”
At last Alicia called out in her best Urdu to the girls, “Send man animals take away,” enforcing her demand by signs; but neither words nor signs had the slightest effect. Whether the Hindus understood the lady is a matter of doubt. They certainly took no measures to obey her; they merely saw that she looked frightened, and her misery rather amused them.
Alicia saw that she must either go back or go on; the latter course she deemed dangerous, the former dreadfully disgraceful.
“I think that there is just room to pass the cow; and as the buffaloes are resting on the ground, I am not so much afraid of them: besides, buffaloes’ horns bend backwards—they do not look made for goring.”