"My heart is already too hot! I have swallowed the red-hot balls that Yama prepares for the cursed after death. I want for nothing but relief from my pain; and who can give that?" "Lying here with a broken spirit will not bring relief. It is a mistake to grieve while there is hope, unless it be for an hour or two as I and my women lamented last night. This morning I rise refreshed and ready to do battle with the evil. The struggle has begun and it has begun well. The boy broke the waterpot, struck the sweeper and commanded him to get out of his sight. He also refused his food last night. It must have tempted him sorely for I superintended the preparation of it myself; and I have not forgotten his tastes." She sat down by the recumbent figure and passed her long soft hands over his limbs with a soothing touch. "My boy went starving to bed?" "As an ill-behaved son should!" "He ate very little in the train, saying that he would the better enjoy his mother's curry. Eiheu!" he drew in his breath and breathed it out in a sigh. "He must have suffered in his hunger!" Gunga's eyes flashed angrily, the lids closing quickly with an ominous snapping movement. "Let him suffer! His troubles and his hunger have only just begun. They are nothing to what will follow if he remains obstinate," she said vindictively. "With your brother's help we shall bring down his pride in time." Pantulu moved his hand as if in protestation. "Is it necessary? Can we not try other means first?" The thought of cruelties practised upon his son was unbearable. "Get up and speak to him yourself. Perhaps he will listen and then there will be no need for punishment. Point out how he has sinned, not only against us, his parents, but against your dead father, your grandfather and his father. The shraddah ceremonies have been faithfully performed by you. Through your good offices the spirits of your ancestors rest in peace; but when you die, who is to perform the rites by which your spirit will find happiness? Your great-great-grandfather will not suffer; your ceremonies have released him; but if your son cannot and will not perform the necessary rites, you and three generations behind you will remain in the power of Yama to be plagued as the god of death wills. What does that mean but rebirths innumerable to a life of suffering and degradation? Is the peace of four departed members of the family to be imperilled because a wilful son refuses to do his duty? He must be forced to abandon his strange opinions. He must be obliged by some means or other to perform the rites for the restitution of his caste; and he must and shall be the chief mourner at the death of his father whenever that may be."