At Govardhan, where Krishna had passed on his way home, some kumkum was left on the grass — the very kumkum that had been on the breast of one gopi, passed onto Krishna's feet, and from his feet onto the roadside grass. And two wild Pulindi girls, aboriginal tribal women of the forest named Mali and Bringi, who were roaming there gathering firewood, came upon that red powder in the grass. They did not even need to touch it — only to smell it, and a burning, unbearable longing to meet Krishna blazed up in them. They seized that kumkum and, crudely, in their rough primitive way, smeared it all over their faces and all over their bodies — and by the single touch of that powder every last one of their desires was fulfilled. Simple forest girls who knew no manners, no rites, no scripture — and the refined gopis in their homes gaze after them and sigh: