Darobti stooped to pick it up; but the eager lady was quicker than she. Alicia was breathless with excitement; she actually held in her hand the two things that might prove to others the fact of which she had now not the slightest doubt—that Premi was her own cousin. “I have you, and I’ll keep you,” thought Alicia, after hastily ascertaining that there was an inscription on the locket, and initials marked in red thread on the sock. “Give that back!” cried Darobti. Alicia clenched her prize tightly in her left hand, then with her right unfastened her own silver brooch, and held it out to Darobti. “Exchange, exchange,” said the lady. Alicia’s very eagerness was the thing to defeat her own object. Her anxiety awoke in the Hindus both suspicion and that spirit of covetousness which has such power over the Oriental. Why should the Mem desire that little black charm? There must be witchcraft. “It’s a spell to make us all Karanis” (Christians) said Darobti. “I’d rather throw the black thing down the well than let it get into the hands of a Feringhi” (European).[7] “It brought no luck when the girl had it,” cried the one-eyed Jai Dé. “It may have had something to do with the death of Premi’s husband. Let the black charm be taken away!” “Daughter of an owl, you know nothing!” screamed out Darobti; and an abuse-match began between the two women, carried on in voices so shrill and loud that Alicia would fain have stopped her ears. A Hindu bibi in a passion could probably, in noisy volubility, hold her own amongst women of any other nationality in the world. Footnote 7: To show how strong this fear of witchcraft is amongst Hindu women, I will give another extract, almost as curious as the first, from the public address of the Christian gentleman and converted Brahmin, T. K. Chatterji. Speaking of his mother he says,— “She was very much afraid of the witches, and to protect me from their evil influences she used to fast often, and make vows to gods and goddesses. If any devotee happened to visit our village, one of the first things that she would ask him was, whether he knew anything that would keep me from the evil influence of the witches. She would pay him money with which to make puja [worship], and would not mind undergoing any amount of penances for my good. She was not content doing this only, but procured a costly gold chain, and enclosed in its links little pieces of the roots of some wild trees which she thought had the virtue of driving away witches and evil spirits, and she took great care to hang this chain round my neck. She used to spit on my forehead whenever I went out to play with other boys or to the village school, and would not eat anything until I returned home safe.”