Murders in the meadow

Shortly before dying, the daughter of a local landlord confessed to an extraordinary tale of crimes. She had been found by neighbours, lying in a state of shock, between the corpses of her own mother and brother. She was still holding the blood-smeared iron pestle in her hands which apparently caused the death of both. Fingerprints however showed that the mother had initially beaten the boy to death with it. Then the woman and the girl struggled, and the girl, grabbing the weapon, killed her mother. It appears that the son had tried to reprimand his mother about an affair she was openly carrying on with a farm hand. The boy had just slaughtered the latter with an axe, in revenge for his having killed his father some months earlier, at the instigation of his mother. After these sensational revelations, the girl passed away.

Well, you may have guessed that this is not a quote from one of the gutter presses, but a somewhat altered Jain story. It is meant to illustrate what can happen when someone becomes addicted to the pleasures that the sense of touch can offer–which in our example is illustrated by what the farm hand granted to his mistress. This is a far cry from the frequently rather idyllic material we heard about in the previous chapter.