Take them both, and use
them discreetly. When I am gone, I request you, my friend, to discharge
the last sad duties of humanity, and to see me buried according to the
usages of my caste. The simple beings around me will then behold that
I am mortal like themselves. And let this precious relic of female
loveliness and worth, (taking a small picture, set in gold, from his
bosom,) be buried with me. It has been warmed by my heart's blood for
twenty-five years: let it be still near that heart when it ceases
to beat. I have yet more to say to you; but my strength is too much
exhausted."
The good old man here closed his eyes, with an expression of patient
resignation, and rather as if he courted sleep than felt inclined to it:
and, after shutting the door of his cell, I repaired to his little
garden, to pass the allotted two hours. Left to my meditations, when
I thought that I was probably about to be deprived for ever of the
Hermit's conversation and society, I felt the wretchedness of my situation
recur with all its former force. I sat down on a smooth rock under a
tamarind tree, the scene of many an interesting conference between the
Brahmin and myself; and I cast my eyes around--but how changed was every
thing before me! I no longer regarded the sparkling eddies of the little
cascade which fell down a steep rock at the upper end of the garden, and
formed a pellucid basin below.
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