eyes are long and languishing, very black and very white; her forehead, adorned by beautiful curls, resembles a piece of the moon; her ears are delicately formed, and well set off by the ear-rings; her hair is glossy black, brown at the ends—­long, thick, and not too much curled.  My heart seems to be drawn towards her; if she is what she seems to be, I will certainly marry her; but I must not act rashly; I will first try her with my test.  Then approaching her with a polite salutation, he said:  ’My dear, are you clever enough to make a good dinner out of this bag of rice;’ Without answering a word, she looked significantly at her old nurse, and taking the rice from his hand, signed him to sit down on a terrace close by; and sat down herself near him.  Then, first spreading out the rice in the, sun that it might be quite dry, she rubbed it gently between her hands, so as to get off the husk unbroken, and giving it to the nurse, she said:  ’Take this to some goldsmith; they use it when prepared in this way for polishing their gold, and you will get a few pence for it—­with them buy a little firewood, a few cheap dishes, and an earthen pipkin, and bring also a wooden mortar with a long pestle.’  On this errand the old woman departed, and soon returned, bringing the things required.

“Then the girl put the rice into the mortar, and very gracefully moving the pestle up and down, separated the rice thoroughly from the remaining particles of husk and awns; which she carefully winnowed away.

“After this she washed the rice thoroughly, and the old woman having meanwhile lighted a fire and placed the pipkin full of water on it, she threw the rice into the water as soon as it boiled, in such a manner that the grains lay loose and separate.  When they began to swell and burst, she took the pot from the fire, which she raked together, and set it with the lid downwards near the embers, first carefully draining off the rice liquor, and stirring the grains several times with a spoon to prevent their sticking together.

“After this she put out the fire by throwing water on it, and taking the charcoal, sent the old woman to sell it, and with the money to procure some herbs, ghee, curds, tamarind fruit, spices, salt, myrobalan, and sesamum oil.  When these things were brought, she mixed the myrobalan, finely pounded, with salt, and desired the nurse to give it with the sesamum oil to the young brahman, and tell him to go and bathe and anoint himself; and he having received these things, went to bathe.

“When he was returned and comfortably seated, she gave him to drink rice liquor, mixed with spices and cooled by fanning, and he was much refreshed by it; afterwards, soup made with some of the liquor, a few spoonfuls of rice, butter, and spices; and, lastly, the rest of the rice mixed with curds, buttermilk, and several condiments, and he had plenty, though some was left.

“When he had finished, he asked for drink.  She gave him water in a new cooler, sweetened and perfumed with lotus and other flowers; and it looked and felt so cool, gurgled so pleasantly, and tasted so sweet, that all his senses were gratified, and he drank eagerly again and again.