Travelers Read Free Page A

the deeper one penetrated into them. But Lee no longer got lost among them, and she had no hesitation in making her way through the most intricate alleys or disappearing inside the darkest doorways.
    But once something went wrong. She found the address but the place was in commotion. Women were screaming inside and outside the house while a crowd stood and watched. Lee couldn’t get through and had to crane her neck to see what was going on. Some men were arguing and giving each other contrary instructions, and after a time several bent down to heave something up and place it on the shoulders of several others. Then the women redoubled their cries. Lee saw that what they were carrying was a body on a plank. It was wound in a red cloth and secured to the plank with ropes; the face was uncovered and was that of a young woman. All the men fell behind the pallbearers and they walked away in procession. Lee joined them. They walked for quite a way, chanting as they went. In between chanting they carried on fairly normal conversation with each other. Lee was asked who she was and where she had come from and what she was doing in the town. She explained how she had been given this address to stay at. One of the men said that now that would no longer be possible because of thedeath in the family and so she had better come home with him. Lee said all right. They got to the river and there the body was placed on the pyre and a priest said prayers and the fire was lit and the body began to burn. Lee’s new host said that it would take a long time to burn, and that they had better leave now and go home for their evening meal.
    This new house was, like the other, in a lane off the bazaar. It was reached through a dank brick passage that opened out into a spacious courtyard. Here Lee sat crosslegged on a string cot to be served with food. She was hungry and ate a lot. Meanwhile people kept coming into the courtyard, and there was an air of excitement, of turmoil even. They were discussing and arguing with passion. Lee couldn’t follow what they were saying, and when she asked, they wouldn’t tell her. But the excited talk continued, and she began to realize that it was something to do with the death. She asked, “What did she die of?”
    At first no one would answer. She understood it was something mysterious and frightening and looked from face to face.
    At last they said, “They say she was poisoned.”
    Lee recalled the young woman’s dead face; also the pallbearers and the chanting and the women wailing. Then she recalled the flames that had been lit and had crackled and begun to rise above the body; by this time the body would have been mostly consumed. “And the inquest?” Lee asked. “The police?”
    She was agitated but her hosts remained calm. They shrugged. “What can be done? It’s too late.” They shook their heads in sorrow. It was such a pity. She was young, she had only been married seven months. But her dowry had not been very big; her father had not been as generous to the son-in-law as he might have been.
    Lee asked, “Is that why they poisoned her?”
    They said, “Such things happen”; they added, “Who knows what goes on?”
    When she left that small town, Lee went to Delhi to stay in a Christian mission run by an English missionary lady calledMiss Charlotte. Lee was very glad to be there. She stayed in a room with whitewashed walls which were bare except for a small icon of Christ on the cross. Another girl shared the room with her; she was called Margaret and was also traveling around India on her own. Meals were included in the price of the room and they had them in the dining room together with Miss Charlotte. There was a very old Christian bearer to serve them and the moment one meal was finished he laid the table for the next. He set out three crockery plates on the oilcloth, turning them upside down so that they wouldn’t catch