silindu made the journey to kamburupitiya, obtained the licence for his gun and some grain, but life continued to become harder for him. the headman's ill-feeling worked against him unostentatiously, and in all sorts of little things. he never thought about the motives and intentions of those around him, and babehami always had some excuse for refusing a loan or pressing for payment of the body tax. he did not become conscious of babehami's enmity, or aware that many of the difficulties of his life were due to it.
the collection of the body tax was a good example of the way in which the headman worked against him. every villager had to pay the three-shilling tax or do work on the roads, work which was the worst of hardships to them. it had always been babehami's custom to pay himself the tax for each villager, and then recover what he had paid, with heavy interest, out of the crops at the time of reaping. but for some years after dingihami's death, silindu found that when the time to pay the tax came round, babehami was always short of money. silindu never had any money himself, and he was therefore compelled to work upon the roads.
as the years passed he became more sullen, more taciturn, and more lazy. some evil power—one of the unseen powers which he could not understand—was, he felt, perpetually working against him. he tried to escape from it, or at any rate to forget it by leaving the village for the jungle. he would disappear for days together into the jungle, living upon roots and the fruit of jungle trees, and anything which might fall to his gun. he talked with no one except punchi menika and hinnihami. for them he never had a harsh word, and it was seldom that he returned to the hut without bringing them some wild fruit or a comb of the wild honey.
gradually the hut of the veddas, as they were nicknamed, seemed to the other villagers to fall under a cloud. the headman's enmity and the strange ways of silindu formed a bar to intercourse. and so it came about that punchi menika and hinnihami grew up somewhat outside the ordinary life of the village. the strangeness and wildness of their father hung about them: as the other women said of them, they grew up in the jungle and not in the village. but with their strangeness and wildness went a simplicity of mind and of speech, which showed in many ways, but above all in their love for silindu and each other.
their lives were harder even than those of the other village women. as they became older the fear of hunger became more and more present with them. when silindu was away from the village they were often compelled to live upon the fruits and leaves and roots, which they gathered themselves in the jungle. and when the chena season began, they worked like the men and boys in the chenas. they cut down the undergrowth and burnt it; they cleared the ground and sowed the grain; they lay out all night in the watch huts to scare away the deer and wild pig which came to damage the crop.
when they were fifteen, babun appu, the brother of nanchohami, came to live in his brother-in-law's, the headman's, house. he had previously lived in another house with his father, an old man, toothless and brainless. when the old man whom he had supported died, he abandoned his hut and came to live with his sister and her husband. the number of houses in the village thus sank to eight.
at that time babun appu was twenty-one years old. he was tall for a sinhalese, broad-shouldered, and big-boned. his skin was a dark chocolate-brown, his face oval, his nose small, his lips full and sensual. his expression was curiously virile and simple; but his brown eyes, which were large and oval-shaped, swept it at moments with something soft, languorous, and feminine. this impression of a mixture of virility and femininity was heightened by the long hair, which he tied in a knot at the back of his head after the custom of villagers. he was noted for his strength, his energy, and his good humour. the minds of most villagers are extraordinarily tortuous and suspicious, but babun was remarkable for his simplicity. it used to be said of him in the village, 'babun's appu could not cheat a child; but a child, who had not learnt to talk, could cheat babun appu.'
for two years babun had lived in the hut adjoining silindu's without ever speaking more than a word or two to punchi menika. but her presence began to move him strongly. his lips parted, and his breathing became fast and deep as he saw her move about the compound. he watched in painful excitement her swelling breasts and the fair skin, which went into soft folds at her hips when she bent down for anything.
one night in the chena season punchi menika had been watching the crop of her father's chena. it lay three miles away from the village, at some distance from any other chena. the track therefore which led from it to the village was used by no one except herself, her father, and sister. in the early morning she started back to the hut.
there had been rain during the night, and the jungle was fresh and green. that freshness, which the time of rain brings for so brief a time, was upon all things. the jungle was golden with the great hanging clusters of the cassia flowers. the bushes were starred with the white karambu flowers, and splashed with masses of white and purple kettan. the grey monkeys leapt, shrieking and mocking, from bough to bough; the jungle was filled with the calling of the jungle fowl and the wild cries of the peacocks. from the distance came the trumpeting and shrieking of a herd of elephants. as punchi menika passed a bush she heard from behind it the clashing of horns. very quietly she peered round. two stags were fighting, the tines of the horns interlocked; up and down, backwards and forwards, snorting, panting, and straining they struggled for the doe which stood grazing quietly beside. punchi menika had crept up very quietly; but the doe became uneasy, lifted her head, and looked intently at the bush behind which punchi menika crouched. she approached the bush slowly, stamping the ground angrily from time to time, and uttering the sharp shrill call of alarm. but the bucks fought on, up and down the open space. punchi menika laughed as she turned away. 'fear nothing, sister,' she said, 'there is no leopard crouching for you. fight on, brothers, for the prize is fair.'
punchi menika walked slowly on down the track. the blood in her veins moved strangely, stirred by the stirring life around her. the trumpet call of the sambur blared through the jungle, a terrific cry of desire. the girl, who had heard it unmoved thousands of times before, started at the sound of it. a sense of uneasiness came over her. suddenly she stopped at the sight of something which moved behind a bush down the track.
she stood trembling as babun came out of the jungle and walked towards her. his eyes were very bright; his teeth showed white between his parted lips; the long black hair upon his breast glistened with sweat. he stood in front of her.
'punchi menika,' he said, 'i have come to you.'
'aiyo!' she answered. 'i was very frightened. i thought you were a devil of the trees crouching there for me behind the bushes. even when we were little children our father warned us against the devils that would leap upon us from the bushes.'
'i have come to you. come with me out of the path into the thick jungle. last night i could not sleep for thinking of you. so i came in the early morning along the path to meet you on your way from the chena. i cannot sleep, punchi menika, for thinking of you. i have watched you in the compound and at the tank—your fair skin and the little breasts. do not fear, i will not hurt you, punchi menika; but come, come quickly, out of the path.'
a strange feeling of excitement came over the girl, of joy and fear, as babun leant towards her, and put out his hand to take her by the wrist. a great desire to fly from him, and at the same time to be caught by him came over her. she stood looking down until his fingers touched her skin; then with a cry she broke from him, and ran down the track to the village. she heard his breathing very close to her as she ran; and when she looked round over her shoulder she felt his breath on her face, saw his bright eyes and great lips, through which the teeth shone white. another moment and she felt the great strength of his arms as he seized her. he held her close to him by the wrists.
'why do you run, why are you frightened, punchi menika? i will not hurt you.'
she allowed him to take her into the thick jungle, but she struggled with him, and her whole body shook with fear and desire as she felt his hands upon her breasts. a cry broke from her, in which joy and desire mingled with the fear and the pain:
'aiyo! aiyo!'
