The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1880-12-22
ODDS N ENDS
Of Literary Bric-a-Brac from Chambers
Journal.

VI Literary Dflc-a-DraC IRON UuauU6TS
Journal.
'tTaste and try, before you buy" is 8
very wise rule, it it could only be follow.
ed bnt il this world most things must be
taken on trust; infallible tests are as rare as
infallible remedies.
1t was the custom among the HISTORIAN
Christians, Immediately upon the conclusion
of the marriage ceremony, to carry a newly
made wife to the house of her husbands
parents, and place an infant in her arms and
three sets of baby clothes before her. II she
succeeded in dressing and undressing baby
three times to the satisfaction Of the critical
matrons there assembled, we'll and good but
if she failed she was sent to her old home
again, to stay there, a wife and no wife, un-
til able to face and pass q second trial.
Sakti Kumara, the hero Of q curious Hindu
stani story, preferred testing a damsels capa-
bility before tying the knot. Master of a
prosperous and profitable business, he came
to the conclusion that q wife was wanted to
complete his happiness, and determined to 60
in search Of one. Adopting the guise of a
fortune-teller, and carrying some rice bound
up in his cloth, he started on his travels.
Whenever he encountered q girl that pleased
his eye, he asked her to cook his rice for
him. Some laughed at him, some reviled
him, none seemed inclined to comply with
his modest request, and it seemed as though
he would have to take his rice home uncook-
ed. At last he reached Swira, where he be-
held a beautiful girl, who, instead of ridicul-
ing or abusing the strange traveller, relieved
him Of the rice, and babe him be rested.
Then the kindly maiden set about prepar-
ing the rice. First she stepped it in water,
then dried it in the sun, and, that accomplish
ed, rubbed the grains gently on the ground,
removing the avn without breaking the rice.
Calling her nurse, she despatched her to sell
the bran, and with the proceeds purchase an
earthen boiler, two p%latters and some fuel.
By the time this commission was executed,
the rice had been brayed in a mortar, win
moved and washed, and was ready to be put
in the boiler with five times its bulko Of water.
AS soon as it had swollen sufficiently, the
boiler was taken from the fire, the water
cleared of the scum, and the boiler put back,
and the rice constantly stirred by the pretty
cook until she was satisfied it was properly
done.
BY turning the boiler mouth ~downwards
she e%xtinguished the fire, and, collecting the
unconsumed fuel, despatched the old woman
to convert it into butter, curas, oil, and tam
arinds. This achieved, she told the enrap-
tured Sakti Kumara to 60 and battle, and not
to omit rubbing himself with oil.
Having obeyed orders, the wife-seeker was
directed to seat himself upon q plank on the
Well-sWept floor, on which were already laid
alarge plantain leaf and two platters. His
charming hostess then brought him water ia
q perfumed jug, and administered two spoon
fuls OF well-seasoned rice and ghee, prepara-
tory to serving up the remainder of the rice
mixed with spices, curds, butter and milk;
of which Sakti Kumara ate his fill, and then
knowing bis quest was ended.
AS soon as he woke he asked the girl to
become his wife, and she being willing, the
necessary ceremony was gone through with
out delay and the supposed fortune-teller
took his bride home, to astonish her as the
Lord of Burleigh astonished his rustic love
but the Hindu lass was luckier than TennY-
sons heroine, for we are assured that she lived
long to worship her husband as O god, to pay
the most assiduous attention to his household
affairs, to superintend the regulation OF the
family coming in due course, and made her
house such an abode of bliss, Sakti Kumara
was we'll paid for the trouble he had taken to
get q good wife, and tasted in his Well-ordered
home the joys of Paradise.
Some people are never satisfied, however
fortunate they may be. Anursemaid IN the
service of an English family in Russia, left
her place to get married, but had not been
long welded ere she complained to the Nat
chalaish of the district in which she was
domiciled, that her husband did not love her
as he should do and on the official inqniring
how she knew ii, replied: Because be never
whips me. Doubtless the disappointed one
meant what she said, but she might have
changed her note had her desire been graft
fed like the young wife suddenly bereayed