A PRECIOUS CASKET.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3765, 16 May 1907, Page 3

A PRECIOUS CASKET.

A true fairy tale concerning an Oriental casket sold by an antiquary to a Parisian amateur is related by a correspondent of a London paper. The casket is of a beautiful artistic workmanship, of olive wood, with incrustation. It was evidently a wedding present such as it is the custom to be given to a bride im Mohammedan countries. There is a perfume ot roseleaves, a- delicate far-away fragrance of the distant Last, when the cover is lifted. The antiquary bought it at a general sale long ago, and offered it to purchasers amid Louis XVI. clocks, old ribbons and out of date decorations. A lover of quaint antiques, M. Maurice, saw the casket and bought it. As it had been knocked about a good deal in its long journey, it stood in need of repairs, and M. Maurice gave it to an expert workman to restore. The workman tapped it, and was surprised to notice a metallic sound inside. He found that the jewel box had a double bottom, and when opened there w r ere rows of old and odd coins, which glittered faintly, but enough to show at once that they were of pure gold. A numismatist declared they were gold sequins, and worth about young bride a hundred or two hundred years ago, represented perhaps a fortune. The workman informed M. Maurice, and the latter told the antiquary. As they were all three honest men, each washed that the other should claim the bride’s treasure. They referred the matter to the police commissary, who gave a decision worthy of Solomon. He divided the gold coins into two equal piles, and told M- Maurice and the antiquary to take each a pile, and then left it to their combined generosity to reward the honest workman. This they did, each giving him a few T sequins, so that all had about an even share in the treasure of the bride.