RODOPE.-AN EGYPTIAN LEGEND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 28, 27 November 1877, Page 2

RODOPE.-AN EGYPTIAN LEGEND.

[A gentleman from Nelson wa3 recently weatherbound for several days at an upcountry accommodation house, where the only book to be found was a volume of the Family Retold, in which he met with an Egyptian legend, which . is evidently the origiual of the well-known fairy tale "Cinderella." To while away the weary hours he amused himself by composiug a ballad upon the ancient legend; which runs as follows: — ] "As Rodope was bathing in the Nile the current carried one of her sandals downwards to a place where the Kiug of Egypt was holding a court of justice iv the open air. Struck with the singularity of the circumstance, aud the elegance of the sandal, the Kiug offered a reward for the discovery of its owner. Rodope claimed it, aud it was found to fit her exactly. She was very beautiful, aud the Kiug married her. She was known ever after as * the rosy-cheeked Queen,' and is said to have lived about B.C. 20.J0."

Fair Rodope" was bathing four thousand years ago, And wist not Father Nile had caught her sandal in his flow, And had borne it with him merrily past mauy a league of land, Till, weary of his plaything, he cast it on the strand. On the strand the King was sitting, a thousand lords around, And they all looked on and marvelled at what the King had found, For the daintiest little plaything that ever had been known Was the rosy-cheeked one's sandal thus wafted to the throne. "Now surely, 1 ' cried the monarch, " she is the fairest of the fair, The maiden who thi3 sandal on her ivory foot can wear; He shall have a robe of purple, he shall hare a golden crown, Who brings this sandal's wearer before, the I sun goes down." Then up sprang many a noble, full fain that prize to win, And the banks of Nile re-echoed to the busy searchers' din, Till, lo! a drooping palm-tree, and a drooping maiden there,. One tiny foot was sandalled — its tiny fellow j bare. Before the throne they brought her, downcast, her cheek aflame, Kneeling she strove her naked foot to hide for very shame, But the King's face caught a kindred glow i when gazing on her face, j Right tenderly he raised her, aud spoke with kindly grace. "On that foot this missing sandal no hand but mine shall bind, Father Nile meant when I found it I then a bride should find; And as I bind this sandal I bind thee to mv throne, In all the land of Egypt thou shalt be Queen alone. Here a temple I will build me, where Nile goes murmuring by, And the sandal that ha wafted to my feet shall hang on high, That still to future ages the story may go down, How a maiden lost a sandal, and how she won a crown."