Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-06-27
FEIZULlAH.KHkN

He was beating lis wife: an Occupa-
ton which annihilates time, dissolve
the crust of cultures, and reduces hu-
manity in both hemiSpheres to a state
of original sin. 1t is, therefore, imna-
terial what FaiZullah and Haiyat Bib
did or said during the actual chas Use
ment, for they behaved themselves as
other people in the same circumstances
!, would have done; that is to say, after
the manner of two animals-one in
Jured in his feelings, the other in her
body.
She screamed vocnerously, but for all
that took her punishment with
methodical endurance; indeed, there
was a distinct air of duty on both sides
which went far towards Disgusting the
actual violence. Finally he let her
drop, decisively but gently, in one of
the dark corners of the low window
less room, and laid aside the bamboo
in another From a third crept an
older woman, silent but sympathetic,
carrying lotah full of water With
which she administered comfort TO he
crushed victim. Faizullah Khan
watched the gradual subsistence of his
Wlfe'S SobS with evident satisfaction.
Hast had enough for this time, o
HaiyatI' he asked mildly. "Or shall L
catch thee peeping through the door
at the men-folk again like a cat after
mouse? True, it's the way thou
caughtest me for husband, Light of
mine Eyes; but l viii have none Of it
with other men. Or rather thou shall
pay for the pleasure. Ay! every time,
surely as the farmer pays the uSurer
for having good crop. And if there
be more than peeping, then | will Kill
thee. Think not to escape as a mere
noseless one; some may care to keep a
MANNED wife, secure that none will
seek her; but not |, Faizullah Khan,
Belooch of Birokzai. Did / not marry
thee. o Haiyat, Marrow of my bones,
because of thy fair face? Then what
good WOuldst thou be to me without q
nose? Therefore be wise, my heart, or
shall have to kill thee some day."
The Sahibs will hang thee in pigskin
if thou dost," Whimpered the woman
yiEdictively. Yes, | would die gladly
to see thee swing like the wild beast
thou artr'
The sense Of coercion was evidently
passing away, nor were there wanting
signs that ere long tears would be-
dried at the flame of wrath fast kind
ling in Haiyats big black eyes. Faizul-
lah, standing at the open door, through
which the yellow sunshine streamed
in broad bar of light, looked across
the mud roof of the lower story, past
the sandy stretches and broken rocky
distance to where a low line of SER
rated blue mountains block the bor-
ION. They were the Takt-i-Sulaiman,
and beyond their peaks and passes lay
Beloochistan.
There are 10 SahibS yOnder,' heI
said, stretching his hand toward the
hills; mo one to come between man
and his right of faithful wife God
knows l ann ready for my fathers
house again; tits only thy beauty, Skin
of my Soul! Core Of my Heart! that
keeps me dawGliT g here stranger In
the house of mine ancient enemies.
Why wilt thou not come with me to the
mountains, o Haiyat?'
Il am not a wild beast as thou art
sic ICtOlitb. sui Will SDeOCll CutJheO
by sobs. II will stay here and setI
thee swung, for the sahib-logues wor-
ship a woman away over the black
water and do her bidding. They will
fill thy mouth with dirt, and burn THY
body, and curse thy soul to the
neither
NAY! innermoSt Apple of mine EyelI
do | not worship thee? And art thou
not a BelOoch also by race, though
thy people have dug the grave of their
courage with the plough, and tethered
their freedom beside their bullocks?
They were not always dirt-eaters,
mean-spirited, big-bellied-"
Hal! Hair That was the beginning
of the storm. What followed drove
big Faizullah into the court below,
where the voices of the two women
ceased to be articulate: for it is une
thing to beat the wife of your bosom
in order to correct a trifiing indiscre-
ton, another to deny her and her at
tendant the right of subsequent abuse.
So he smoked his pipe placidly and
amused himself with polishing his
well-beloved sword, which he kept in
defiance of the Arms Act
The poorer women of the village
nodded at each other as the shrill
clamor floating over the high encir-
cling wall, reached the we'll where they
came to draw water.
1.-THE stranger hath big hands,
chuckled one; yet are they smaller
than Haiyat's eye. That comes of he
ing a widow so long"
There will be murder some day,
mark my words" muttered an old hag
with n toothless leer. What else canSt
thou expect from a Belooch of Birok-
zsi? Peace! Peace! that is what cur
men say nowadays In my time, if a
man of his race had laid a finger on a
woman of ours, there would have been
flames over the border, and bio III
enough to quench them afterward.
But they are afraid of the sahibs and
the pigskin; not so Faizullah he is of
the old sort knowing how to keep his
Wife
''He will not keep her for all that
mai" sneered a strapping girl, who
by the handsome water vessels she
carried showed herself to be a servant
in one of the richer houses. eve shall
get her back some day, despite bel
father-in-law's wickedness in letting
her marry a good-for-nothing soldier