A TURKISH LEGEND.

Kumara Times, Issue 671, 21 November 1878, Page 2

A TURKISH LEGEND.

On a rock opposite Scutari,'.'fading tbe entrance to the Bosphorus, stands a) tower which is often, without reason, called the ToWer of Leander.” .The? Turks call it “ the Tower of the Virgin.’’* In it, according to a Turkish legend, was confined the lovely' daughter of Mohammed-Sultah, MChar-Schegid by name, of whom it had been predicted by a mysterious gipsy that she should diet by the bit& of a ’ serpent. MCharSch&gid’s reputation for beauty spread until it reached the ears of the Prince of Persia, who came to Constantinople determined by some means 1 to gain admission' to the tower. He contrived,by bribing her attendants,- to get conveyed to her a bouquet of symbolical flowers expressing to her in a language? she perfectly understood the passioa

Vith which she had ift,s|>ired him. But-, like Cleopatra’s basket of fruit, jVßharSchdgid’s launch of flowers concealed an asp. M6har-Schdgid Was stung. Her servant’s remembering the gipsy’s prophecy, uttered loud cries of distress, and, throwing open the doors of the tower, rushed ,out frantically, exclaiming that all waMost. ’then the Prince 'of Persia rushed in, seized M6harScWgid in : his .arms, and sucked the wound in her shoulder until he had extracted from it iall the venom left there by the asp. The Sultan, when he heard of the young man’s nowe and devoted conduct, declared that he should be his Uon-in-law • and the Prince of Persia M&har-Sch£gid his wife, and lived With hcfc Very happily for a great nurnyears, and had many children.