The reference is to a rich merchant, who, having on one of his journeys seen Durga sitting in the form of a woman on a lotus, in the sea off Ceylon, was punished with solitary confinement for some time; he was at length released through his son’s efforts and returned home with all his wealth.
Literally— “Their luck is a covering of leaves,”— the idea being that as leaves are easily blown about, so any slight circumstances may cause an Englishman’s luck to turn: he may be in bad luck at one moment, but he will be in good luck the next moment.
There is a reference here to a popular belief that Ravan’s funeral pile is ever blazing and in Bengal people closing their ears can imagine that they hear the sound of the blazing and crackling, just as children in England imagine they can hear the sound of the ocean waves that encircle the island, when they apply a shell to the ear.
“Don’t talk to me of Khod-kast and Pai-kast: I will make them all Ek-kast.”
The remark shows utter ignorance on the part of Matilall of terms used in connection with landed property in Bengal. Khod-kast is a cultivator who cultivates his own land: Pai-kast is one who cultivates land for another: Ek-kast is simply a term invented by Matilall, and would mean one who cultivates for one.
These are all signs of poverty in the East: oil has always been regarded in the East as a sign of prosperity, and we find it constantly referred to in the Hebrew Bible— “It is like the precious ointment upon the head.”