{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/lcc/lcc08.htm","path":"hin/lcc/lcc08.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/lcc/lcc08.htm","text":"[Enter a maid.]\nMaid.\nI AM sent with a message to my mistress by her mother. I must go in and find my mistress. [She walks about and looks around her.] There is my mistress. She is painting a picture, and putting her whole heart into it. I must go and speak to her.\n[Then appear the love-lorn Vasantasen\u0101, seated, and Madanik\u0101.]\nVasantasen\u0101. Well, girl, and then\u2014\nMadanik\u0101. But mistress, you were not speaking of anything. What do you mean?\nVasantasen\u0101. Why, what did I say?\nMadanik\u0101. You said, \"and then\"\u2014\nVasantasen\u0101. [Puckering her brows.] Oh, yes. So I did.\nMaid. [Approaching.] Mistress, your mother sends word that you should bathe and then offer worship to the gods.\nVasantasen\u0101. You may tell my mother that I shall not take the ceremonial bath to-day. A Brahman must offer worship in my place.\nMaid. Yes, mistress.\n[Exit.\nMadanik\u0101. My dear mistress, it is love, not naughtiness, that asks the question\u2014but what does this mean?\nVasantasen\u0101. Tell me, Madanik\u0101. How do I seem to you?\nMadanik\u0101. My mistress is so absent-minded that I know her heart is filled with longing for somebody.\nVasantasen\u0101. Well guessed. My Madanik\u0101 is quick to fathom another's heart.\nMadanik\u0101. I am very, very glad. Yes, K\u0101ma is indeed mighty, and\nhis great festival is welcome when one is young. But tell me, mistress, is it a king, or a king's favorite, whom you worship?\nVasantasen\u0101. Girl, I wish to love, not to worship.\nMadanik\u0101. Is it a Brahman that excites your passion, some youth distinguished for very particular learning?\nVasantasen\u0101. A Brahman I should have to reverence.\nMadanik\u0101. Or is it some young merchant, grown enormously wealthy from visiting many cities?\nVasantasen\u0101. A merchant, girl, must go to other countries and leave you behind, no matter how much you love him. And the separation makes you very sad.\nMadanik\u0101. It isn't a king, nor a favorite, nor a Brahman, nor a merchant. Who is it then that the princess loves?\nVasantasen\u0101. Girl! Girl! You went with me to the park where K\u0101ma's temple stands?\nMadanik\u0101. Yes, mistress.\nVasantasen\u0101. And yet you ask, as if you were a perfect stranger.\nMadanik\u0101. Now I know. Is it the man who comforted you when you asked to be protected?\nVasantasen\u0101. Well, what was his name?\nMadanik\u0101. Why, he lives in the merchants\u2019 quarter.\nVasantasen\u0101. But I asked you for his name.\nMadanik\u0101. His name, mistress, is a good omen in itself. His name is Ch\u0101rudatta.\nVasantasen\u0101. [Joyfully.] Good, Madanik\u0101, good. You have guessed it.\nMadanik\u0101. [Aside.] So much for that. [Aloud.] Mistress, they say he is poor.\nVasantasen\u0101. That is the very reason why I love him. For a courtezan who sets her heart on a poor man is blameless in the eyes of the world.\nMadanik\u0101. But mistress, do the butterflies visit the mango-tree when its blossoms have fallen?\nVasantasen\u0101. That is just why we call that sort of a girl a butterfly.\nMadanik\u0101. Well, mistress, if you love him, why don't you go and visit him at once?\nVasantasen\u0101. Girl, if I should visit him at once, then, because he can't make any return\u2014no, I don't mean that, but it would be hard to see him.\nMadanik\u0101. Is that the reason why you left your jewels with him?\nVasantasen\u0101. You have guessed it.\nA voice 1 behind the scenes. Oh, sir, a shampooer owes me ten gold-pieces, and he got away from us. Hold him, hold him! [To the fleeing shampooer.] Stop, stop! I see you from here. [Enter hurriedly a frightened shampooer.]\nShampooer. Oh, confound this gambling business!\nWhile the keeper and the gambler are looking somewhere else for me, I'll just walk backwards into this empty temple and turn goddess. [He makes all sorts of gestures, takes his place, and waits. Enter M\u0101thura and the gambler.]\nM\u0101thura. Oh, sir, a shampooer owes me ten gold-pieces, and he got away from us. Hold him, hold him! Stop, stop! I see you from here.\nGambler. You may run to hell, if they'll take you in;\nM\u0101thura. Oh, whither flee you, nimble rambler,\nGambler. [Examining the footprints.] Here he goes. And here the tracks are lost.\nM\u0101thura. [Gazes at the footprints. Reflectively.] Look! The feet are turned around. And the temple hasn't any image. [After a moment's thought.] That rogue of a shampooer has gone into the temple with his feet turned around.\nGambler. Let's follow him.\nM\u0101thura. All right. [They enter the temple and take a good look, then make signs to each other.]\nGambler. What! a wooden image?\nM\u0101thura. Of course not. It's stone. [He shakes it with all his might, then makes signs.] What do we care? Come, let's have a game. [He starts to gamble as hard as he can.]\nShampooer. [Trying with all his might to repress the gambling fever. Aside.] Oh, oh!\nFor gamblers leap down a mountain steep\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0I know I shall not play.\n Yet the rattle of dice is as sweet as the peep\n \u00a0\u00a0Of nightingales in May.6\nGambler. My turn, my turn!\nM\u0101thura. Not much! it's my turn.\nShampooer. [Coming up quickly from behind.] Isn't it my turn?\nGambler. We've got our man.\nM\u0101thura. [Seizing him.] You jail-bird, you're caught. Pay me my ten gold-pieces.\nShampooer. I'll pay you this very day.\nM\u0101thura. Pay me this very minute!\nShampooer. I'll pay you. Only have mercy!\nM\u0101thura. Come, will you pay me now?\nShampooer. My head is getting dizzy. [He falls to the ground. The others beat him with all their might.]\nM\u0101thura. There [drawing the gamblers\u2019 ring] you're bound by the gamblers\u2019 ring.\nShampooer. [Rises. Despairingly.] What! bound by the gamblers\u2019 ring? Confound it! That is a limit which we gamblers can't pass. Where can I get the money to pay him?\nM\u0101thura. Well then, you must give surety.\nShampooer. I have an idea. [He nudges the gambler.] I'll give you half, if you'll forgive me the other half.\nGambler. All right.\nShampooer. [To M\u0101thura.] I'll give you surety for a half. You might forgive me the other half.\nM\u0101thura. All right. Where's the harm?\nShampooer. [Aloud.] You forgave me a half, sir?\nM\u0101thura. Yes.\nShampooer. [To the gambler.] And you forgave me a half?\nGambler. Yes.\nShampooer. Then I think I'll be going.\nM\u0101thura. Pay me my ten gold-pieces! Where are you going?\nShampooer. Look at this, gentlemen, look at this! Here I just gave surety to one of them for a half, and the other forgave me a half. And even after that he is dunning me, poor helpless me!\nM\u0101thura. [Seizing him.] My name is M\u0101thura, the clever swindler, and you're not going to swindle me this time. Pay up, jail-bird, every bit of my money, and this minute, too.\nShampooer. How can I pay?\nM\u0101thura. Sell your father and pay.\nShampooer. Where can I get a father?\nM\u0101thura. Sell your mother and pay.\nShampooer. Where can I get a mother?\nM\u0101thura. Sell yourself and pay.\nShampooer. Have mercy! Lead me to the king's highway.\nM\u0101thura. Go ahead.\nShampooer. If it must be. [He walks about.] Gentlemen, will you buy me for ten gold-pieces from this gambling-master? [He sees a passer-by and calls out.] What is that? You wish to know what I can do? I will be your house-servant. What! he has gone without even answering. Well, here's another. I'll speak to him. [He repeats his offer.] What! this one too takes no notice of me. He is gone. Confound it! I've had hard luck ever since Ch\u0101rudatta lost his fortune.\nM\u0101thura. Will you pay?\nShampooer. How can I pay? [He falls down. M\u0101thura drags him about.] Good gentlemen, save me, save me! [Enter Darduraka.]\nDarduraka. Yes, gambling is a kingdom without a throne.\nAnd again:\n[He looks before him.] Here comes M\u0101thura, our sometime gambling-master. Well, as I can't escape, I think I'll put on my veil. [He makes any number of gestures with his cloak, then examines it.]\nYet after all, what more could a poor saint do? For you see,\nM\u0101thura. Pay, pay!\nShampooer. How can I pay? [M\u0101thura drags him about.]\nDarduraka. Well, well, what is this I see? [He addresses a bystander.] What did you say, sir? \"This shampooer is being maltreated by the gambling-master, and no one will save him\"? I'll save him myself. [He presses forward.] Stand back, stand back!\n[He takes a look.] Well, if this isn't that swindler M\u0101thura. And here is the poor saintly shampooer; a saint to be sure,\nWell, I must pacify M\u0101thura. [He approaches.] How do you do, M\u0101thura? [M\u0101thura returns the greeting.]\nDarduraka. What does this mean?\nM\u0101thura. He owes me ten gold-pieces.\nDarduraka. A mere bagatelle!\nM\u0101thura. [Pulling the rolled-up cloak from under Darduraka's arm.] Look, gentlemen, look! The man in the ragged cloak calls ten gold-pieces a mere bagatelle.\nDarduraka. My good fool, don't I risk ten gold-pieces on a cast of the dice? Suppose a man has money\u2014is that any reason why he should put it in his bosom and show it? But you,\nM\u0101thura. Ten gold-pieces may be a mere bagatelle to you, sir. To me they are a fortune.\nDarduraka. Well then, listen to me. Just give him ten more, and let him go to gambling again.\nM\u0101thura. And what then?\nDarduraka. If he wins, he will pay you.\nM\u0101thura. And if he doesn't win?\nDarduraka. Then he won't pay you.\nM\u0101thura. This is no time for nonsense. If you say that, you can give him the money yourself. My name is M\u0101thura. I'm a swindler and I play a crooked game, and I'm not afraid of anybody. You are an immoral scoundrel.\nDarduraka. Who did you say was immoral?\nM\u0101thura. You're immoral.\nDarduraka. Your father is immoral. [He gives the shampooer a sign to escape.]\nM\u0101thura. You cur! That is just the way that you gamble.\nDarduraka. That is the way I gamble?\nM\u0101thura. Come, shampooer, pay me my ten gold-pieces.\nShampooer. I'll pay you this very day. I'll pay at once. [M\u0101thura drags him about.]\nDarduraka. Fool! You may maltreat him when I am away, but not before my eyes.\n[M\u0101thura seizes the shampooer and hits him on the nose. The shampooer bleeds, faints, and falls flat. Darduraka approaches and interferes. M\u0101thura strikes Darduraka, and Darduraka strikes back.]\nM\u0101thura. Oh, oh, you accurs\u00e8d hound! But I'll pay you for this.\nDarduraka. My good fool, I was walking peaceably along the street, and you struck me. If you strike me to-morrow in court, then you will open your eyes.\nM\u0101thura. Yes, I'll open my eyes.\nDarduraka. How will you open your eyes?\nM\u0101thura. [Opening his eyes wide.] This is the way I'll open my eyes. [Darduraka throws dust in M\u0101thura's eyes, and gives the shampooer a sign to escape. M\u0101thura shuts his eyes and falls down. The shampooer escapes.]\nDarduraka. [Aside.] I have made an enemy of the influential gambling-master M\u0101thura. I had better not stay here. Besides, my good friend Sharvilaka told me that a young herdsman named Aryaka has been designated by a soothsayer as our future king. Now everybody in my condition is running after him. I think I will join myself to him.\nShampooer. [Trembles as he walks away and looks about him.] Here is a house where somebody has left the side-door open. I will go in. [He enters and perceives Vasantasen\u0101.] Madam, I throw myself upon your protection.\nVasantasen\u0101. He who throws himself upon my protection shall be safe. Close the door, girl. [The maid does so.]\nVasantasen\u0101. What do you fear?\nShampooer. A creditor, madam.\nVasantasen\u0101. You may open the door now, girl.\nShampooer. [To himself.] Ah! Her reasons for not fearing a creditor are in proportion to her innocence. The proverb is right:\nThat means me.\nM\u0101thura. [Wiping his eyes. To the gambler.] Pay, pay!\nGambler. While we were quarreling with Darduraka, sir, the man escaped.\nM\u0101thura. I broke that shampooer's nose for him with my fist. Come on! Let's trace him by the blood. [They do so.]\nGambler. He went into Vasantasen\u0101's house, sir.\nM\u0101thura. Then that is the end of the gold-pieces.\nGambler. Let's go to court and lodge a complaint.\nM\u0101thura. The swindler would leave the house and escape. No, we must besiege him and so capture him.\n[Vasantasen\u0101 gives Madanik\u0101 a sign.]\nMadanik\u0101. Whence are you, sir? or who are you, sir? or whose son are you, sir? or what is your business, sir? or what are you afraid of?\nShampooer. Listen, madam. My birthplace is P\u0101taliputra, madam. I am the son of a householder. I practise the trade of a shampooer. Vasantasen\u0101. It is a very dainty art, sir, which you have mastered.\nShampooer. Madam, as an art I mastered it. It has now become a mere trade.\nMadanik\u0101. Your answers are most disconsolate, sir. Pray continue.\nShampooer. Yes, madam. When I was at home, I used to hear travelers tell tales, and I wanted to see new countries, and so I came here. And when I had come here to Ujjayin\u012b, I became the servant of a noble gentleman. Such a handsome, courteous gentleman! When he gave money away, he did not boast; when he was injured, he forgot it. To cut a long story short: he was so courteous that he regarded his own person as the possession of others, and had compassion on all who sought his protection.\nMadanik\u0101. Who may it be that adorns Ujjayin\u012b with the virtues which he has stolen from the object of my mistress\u2019 desires?\nVasantasen\u0101. Good, girl, good! I had the same thought in mind.\nMadanik\u0101. But to continue, sir\nShampooer. Madam, he was so compassionate and so generous that now\u2014\nVasantasen\u0101. His riches have vanished?\nShampooer. I didn't say it. How did you guess it, madam?\nVasantasen\u0101. What was there to guess? Virtue and money seldom keep company. In the pools from which men cannot drink there is so much the more water.\nMadanik\u0101. But sir, what is his name?\nShampooer. Madam, who does not know the name of this moon of the whole world? He lives in the merchants\u2019 quarter. He whose name is worthy of all honor is named Ch\u0101rudatta.\nVasantasen\u0101. [Joyfully rising from her seat.] Sir, this house is your own. Give him a seat, girl, and take this fan. The gentleman is weary. [Madanik\u0101 does as she is bid.]\nShampooer. [Aside.] What! so much honor because I mentioned Ch\u0101rudatta's name? Heaven bless you, Ch\u0101rudatta! You are the only man in the world who really lives. All others merely breathe. [He falls at Vasantasen\u0101's feet.] Enough, madam, enough. Pray be seated, madam.\nVasantasen\u0101. [Seating herself.] Where is he who is so richly your creditor, sir?\nShamp. The good man's wealth consists in kindly deeds;\nVasantasen\u0101. But to continue\u2014\nShampooer. So I became a servant in his employ. And when his wealth was reduced to his virtue, I began to live by gambling. But fate was cruel, and I lost ten gold-pieces.\nM\u0101thura. I am ruined! I am robbed!\nShampooer. There are the gambling-master and the gambler, looking for me. You have heard my story, madam. The rest is your affair.\nVasantasen\u0101. Madanik\u0101, the birds fly everywhither when the tree is shaken in which they have their nests. Go, girl, and give the gambling-master and the gambler this bracelet. And tell them that this gentleman sends it. [She removes a bracelet from her arm, and gives it to Madanik\u0101.]\nMadanik\u0101. [Receiving the bracelet.] Yes, mistress. [She goes out.]\nMadanik\u0101. Inasmuch as these two are looking up to heaven, and sighing, and chattering, and fastening their eyes on the door, I conclude that they must be the gambling-master and the gambler. [Approaching.] I salute you, sir.\nM\u0101thura. May happiness be yours.\nMadanik\u0101. Sir, which of you is the gambling-master?\nM\u0101th. O maiden, fair but something less than shy,\nI haven't got any money. You'll have to look somewhere else.\nMadanik\u0101. You are certainly no gambler, if you talk that way. Is there any one who owes you money?\nM\u0101thura. There is. He owes ten gold-pieces. What of him?\nMadanik\u0101. In his behalf my mistress sends you this bracelet. No, no! He sends it himself.\nM\u0101thura. [Seizing it joyfully.] Well, well, you may tell the noble youth that his account is squared. Let him come and seek delight again in gambling.\n[Exeunt M\u0101thura and the gambler.\nMadanik\u0101. [Returning to Vasantasen\u0101.] Mistress, the gambling-master and the gambler have gone away well-pleased.\nVasantasen\u0101. Go, sir, and comfort your kinsfolk.\nShampooer. Ah, madam, if it may be, these hands would gladly practise their art in your service.\nVasantasen\u0101. But sir, he for whose sake you mastered the art, who first received your service, he should have your service still.\nShampooer. [Aside.] A very pretty way to decline my services. How shall I repay her kindness? [Aloud.] Madam, thus dishonored as a gambler, I shall become a Buddhist monk. And so,\nmadam, treasure these words in your memory: \"He was a shampooer, a gambler, a Buddhist monk.\"\nVasantasen\u0101. Sir, you must not act too precipitately.\nShampooer. Madam, my mind is made up. [He walks about.]\n[Tumultuous cries behind the scenes.]\nShampooer. [Listening.] What is this? What is this? [Addressing some one behind the scenes.] What did you say? \"Post-breaker, Vasantasen\u0101's rogue elephant, is at liberty!\" Hurrah! I must go and see the lady's best elephant. No, no! What have I to do with these things? I must hold to my resolution.\n[Then enter hastily Karnap\u016braka, highly delighted, wearing a gorgeous mantle.]\nKarnap\u016braka. Where is she? Where is my mistress?\nMadanik\u0101. Insolent! What can it be that so excites you? You do not see your mistress before your very eyes.\nKarnap\u016braka. [Perceiving Vasantasen\u0101.] Mistress, my service to you.\nVasantasen\u0101. Karnap\u016braka, your face is beaming. What is it?\nKarnap\u016braka. [Proudly.] Oh, mistress! You missed it! You didn't see Karnap\u016braka's heroism to-day!\nVasantasen\u0101. What, Karnap\u016braka, what?\nKarnap\u016braka. Listen. Post-breaker, my mistress\u2019 rogue elephant, broke the stake he was tied to, killed his keeper, and ran into the street, making a terrible commotion. You should have heard the people shriek,\nAnd:\nAs they stumble, trip, and blunder,\n See the bracelets snap asunder,\n Each a tangled, pearly wonder!19\nAnd that rogue of an elephant dives with his trunk and his feet and his tusks into the city of Ujjayin\u012b, as if it were a lotus-pond in full flower. At last he comes upon a Buddhist monk. 1 And while the man's staff and his water jar and his begging-bowl fly every which way, he drizzles water over him and gets him between his tusks. The people see him and begin to shriek again, crying \"Oh, oh, the monk is killed!\"\nVasantasen\u0101. [Anxiously.] Oh, what carelessness, what carelessness!\nKarnap\u016braka. Don't be frightened. Just listen, mistress. Then, with a big piece of the broken chain dangling about him, he picked him up, picked up the monk between his tusks, and just then Karnap\u016braka saw him, I saw him, no, no! the slave who grows fat on my mistress' rice-cakes saw him, stumbled with his left foot over a gambler's score, grabbed up an iron pole out of a shop, and challenged the mad elephant\u2014\nVasantasen\u0101. Go on! Go on!\nKarnap. I hit him\u2014in a fit of passion, too\u2014\nVasantasen\u0101. Splendid, splendid! But go on!\nKarnap\u016braka. Then, mistress, all Ujjayin\u012b tipped over to one side,\nlike a ship loaded unevenly, and you could hear nothing but \"Hurrah, hurrah for Karnap\u016braka!\" Then, mistress, a man touched the places where he ought to have ornaments, and, finding that he hadn't any, looked up, heaved a long sigh, and threw this mantle over me.\nVasantasen\u0101. Find out, Karnap\u016braka, whether the mantle is perfumed with jasmine or not.\nKarnap\u016braka. Mistress, the elephant perfume is so strong that I can't tell for sure.\nVasantasen\u0101. Then look at the name.\nKarnap\u016braka. Here is the name. You may read it, mistress. [He hands her the mantle.]\nVasantasen\u0101. [Reads.] Ch\u0101rudatta. [She seizes the mantle eagerly and wraps it about her.]\nMadanik\u0101. The mantle is very becoming to her, Karnap\u016braka.\nKarnap\u016braka. Oh, yes, the mantle is becoming enough.\nVasantasen\u0101. Here is your reward, Karnap\u016braka. [She gives him a gem.]\nKarnap\u016braka. [Taking it and bowing low.] Now the mantle is most wonderfully becoming.\nVasantasen\u0101. Karnap\u016braka, where is Ch\u0101rudatta now?\nKarnap\u016braka. He started to go home along this very street.\nVasantasen\u0101. Come, girl! Let us go to the upper balcony and see Ch\u0101rudatta.\n[Exeunt omnes.\n27:1 Perhaps masseur would be more accurate.\n29:1 That of M\u0101thura, the keeper of the gambling-house.\n33:1 A humorously exaggerated reference to Indian ascetic practices.\n41:1 The shampooer, whose transformation is astonishingly sudden.","title":"The Little Clay Cart: Act the Second: The Shampooer Who Gambled","type":"page"}