In this act, Amal mentions to Gaffer about
Champa and his six brothers. Translator error?]
GAFFER. How delicious! The prospect tempts even me, a hermit!
But never mind, dear, about this wedding. Let it be. I tell you
when you wed there'll be no lack of nieces in his household.
MADHAV. Shut up! This is more than I can stand. [Exit]
AMAL. Fakir, now that Uncle's off, just tell me, has the King
sent me a letter to the Post Office?
GAFFER. I gather that his letter has already started; but it's
still on the way.
AMAL. On the way? Where is it? Is it on that road winding
through the trees which you can follow to the end of the forest
when the sky is quite clear after rain?
GAFFER. That's so. You know all about it already.
AMAL. I do, everything.
GAFFER. So I see, but how?
AMAL. I can't say; but it's quite clear to me. I fancy I've
seen it often in days long gone by. How long ago I can't tell.
Do you know when? I can see it all: there, the King's postman
coming down the hillside alone, a lantern in his left hand and on
his back a bag of letters climbing down for ever so long, for
days and nights, and where at the foot of the mountain the
waterfall becomes a stream he takes to the footpath on the bank
and walks on through the rye; then comes the sugarcane field and
he disappears into the narrow lane cutting through the tall stems
of sugarcanes; then he reaches the open meadow where the cricket
chirps and where there is not a single man to be seen, only the
snipe wagging their tails and poking at the mud with their bills.
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