“Thank heaven, our father is safe!” I exclaimed; but scarcely had the words left my lips, when I stumbled—nay, fell—putting forth one hand to save myself. Imagine my horror to find it upon the cold, clammy skin of the reptile. It lifted its crest, and put forth its fang with a hiss; but, luckily, Prabu was at my heels: for, as the hiss issued from its jaws, his glittering creese at one blow divided its head from its body. But an instant after I envied the reptile its death-wound. A wild, prolonged shriek from Martin proclaimed the saddest incident of my life. Our parent was dead.
“The poor Sahib! my poor young master!” cried Prabu, looking upon the bed. “It is the cobra’s bite.”
“No, not dead! say not dead, good Prabu! Send for a doctor; my father may have swooned; he cannot be dead!” I cried, giving way to the wildest grief.
But my brother’s conduct surprised me. He, so passionate, so impulsive, after his first outburst of agony, said not a word. For a few minutes he stared wildly in our parent’s face, then, throwing himself upon the body and embracing him, he prayed of him to awake; but, seeming to have realized the truth, he exclaimed, “My father has been murdered! I will kill that hunchback!” and snatching the creese out of Prabu’s hand, he darted off towards the spot where we had left the snake-charmer; but the fellow had fled, mysteriously fled. Almost bereft of his senses by grief, Martin rushed into the presence of our aunt.
“Wicked woman!” he exclaimed, “it is you who have killed my father.”
“Hush! hush! my dear boy,” she replied, kindly, affectionately, taking his hand and drawing him towards her; “you must not say such words; but I wonder not, for this great calamity has well-nigh deprived me of my senses. It is terrible, very terrible; but, my dear boy, you must not give way to this wild grief, it will kill you. Come, come,” and she ran her soft white hand through his chestnut locks. Still, notwithstanding her affectionate manner, apparent grief at my father’s death, her expressed indignation at the hunchback, and the large sum she offered for his apprehension (although, except for carelessness, for what crime he was to be apprehended I could not imagine), she did not succeed in winning our love. Nay, even if we had not at the first entertained a kind of instinctive dislike to her, we, who had been brought up under the eye of an American mother, could never have been brought to respect, not to say love, “my lady.” Her habits, her behavior to her slaves and servants, were repugnant to our feelings. Of these habits and ways the reader may judge from the following sketch of the class of which she was to the full a representative:—
“The lip-lap ladies, i. e., natives of Batavia, are of a listless and lazy temperament, not quitting their beds till about half-past seven or eight o’clock (a late hour in the East). They spend the forenoon in laughing, talking, and playing with their female slaves, who, perhaps, a few minutes afterwards, they will have whipped most unmercifully for the merest trifle. The greater portion of the day, attired in a cool, airy dress, they lounge upon sofas or sit upon the ground, with their legs crossed under them, chewing betel—a habit with which, like most Indian women, they are infatuated. Not content with this, they masticate the Java tobacco, which evil practice encrimsons the saliva, and in time fringes their lips with a black border, and causes their teeth to become black; the great excuse for the use of the betel being that it purifies the mouth, and preserves them from the toothache. To do them justice, these ladies are really not deficient in powers of understanding, and would become very useful members of society, endearing wives and good mothers, if they were but kept from familiarity with the slaves in their infancy, and educated under the immediate eye of their parents, who should be assiduous to inculcate in their tender minds the principles of true morality and polished manners. But, alas! the parents are far from taking such a burdensome task upon themselves. As soon as the child is born, they abandon it to the care of a female slave, by whom it is reared, till it attains the age of nine or ten years. These nurses, being most frequently but one remove above brutes in intellect, instil into the minds of their charges prejudices and superstitions, which, increasing as they grow to maturity, seem to stamp them rather as the progeny of half-witted, mischievous slaves, than of civilized beings.
“In common with most of the women in India, they are excessively jealous of their husbands and of their female slaves; and upon the slightest pretext, they will have these poor bondswomen whipped with rods and beaten with rattans till they sink down before them nearly exhausted. Among other methods of torturing, they make the poor girls sit before them in such a posture that they can pinch them with their toes, with such cruel ingenuity that they faint away from excess of pain. Yet are these lip-lap ladies much sought after by the Dutch colonists for wives; for as soon as one of them becomes a widow, and the body of her husband is interred (which is generally done the day after his decease), she has immediately a number of suitors.
“Their dress is very light and airy. They have a piece of cotton cloth wrapped round the body, and fastened under the arms next to the skin; over it they wear a jacket and a chintz petticoat, which is all covered by a long gown, or kabay, as it is called, which hangs loose; the sleeves come down to the wrists, where they are fastened close, with six or seven little gold or diamond buttons. When they go out in state, or to a company where they expect the presence of a lady of a councilor of India, they put on a very fine muslin kabay. They all go with their heads uncovered. The hair, which is perfectly black, is worn in a wreath, fastened with gold and diamond hair-pins, which they call a condé. In the front, and on the sides of the head, it is stroked smooth, and rendered shining by being anointed with cocoa-nut oil.
“They are particularly partial to this head-dress, and the girl who can arrange their hair the most to their liking is the chief favorite among their slaves. On Sundays they sometimes dress in the European style, with stays and other fashionable incumbrances, which, however, they do not like at all, being accustomed to an attire so much looser and more pleasant in this torrid clime.