AN EASTERN STORY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 228, 13 June 1872, Page 9

AN EASTERN STORY.

Kara Kalpat fell ill, and everybody, from the beautiful city of Teheran, which stands upon the plain to the south of the Domawend hills, eastward to the famous and renowned city of Balkh, which is about a day's journey from the stream of Shibbergan, was astonished. Lest our readers should be led by the grandeur of the oriental style and their own intensitive genius to mistake the above sentence, we beg leave to qualify it. Everybody who heard that Kara Kalpat had fallen ill was astonished ; and, of course, those who did not hear it said nothing at all on the subject, but went about their business as usual, as if nothing had happened.

Kara Kalpat was a King, and the son of a king. He was very great, as his father had heen before him ; and he expected to be greater than his father. Such was his faith in the law of progression, and such was his great ambition.

Kara Kalpat lay upon a couch in the pink chamber. His fine face was pale, his lovely eyes dim, and his long eyelashes hung over them as if he did not care whether the latter rose or the former opened any more. The rich silken coverlet, sparkling with golden tissue and gems, lay over the fine form of the prince, revealing his proportions as distinctly as if he had been clad in a robe of rose-leaves. The pink curtains that hung around his bed just seemed like floating gossamer, waving gently backward and forward as the beautiful slaves, moved their censors to and fro. On a stand beside his bed stood medicaments in bottles, which were covered with gold fretted work and set with onyx and topaz 'stones. And there lay his turban, glittering with a galaxy, as the beautiful creatures that watched his bed fanned him with their fans of ivory and peacock feathers, and jx r utned his apartment with myrrh and frankincense, and flitted round about him like angels in a vision. Kara Kalpat, in tho midst of all this magnificence, and wealth,

and power, and glory, and beauty, and homage, and servility, lay stretched upon his bed, however. He had pains in his limbs and shoulders, and in his brow; and he groaned and moaned like any mere mendicant ; for, be it recorded in all the mosques of« the east and remembered by everybody that can remember, that Kara Kalpat was after all only a man.

To the physicians of Teheran the illness of Kara Kalpat was inexplicable; no two of the faculty could agree upon the precise name and nature of the disease, although each of them had taken perhaps twenty diagnoses. They had not of course gone to Kara for an explanation of his trouble, for he had still the terror of kinghood floating round his chamber door ; but they had bribed his nurse and attendants, and scrupulously written down the symptoms which these particular observers had noted, and, when they met in consultation, Kara Kalpat was declared to have all the troubles, as, a week previous, he was declared to have all the beauties and virtues, vouchsafed to mortality. They could not agree upon his disease ; and perhaps they did not want to do so. Three members of the profession had made up their minds regarding Kalput Mushed, the father of their present prince, and, because he died a jcording to their piogiostication, they had been beheaded for being too wise. If Kara dies while we are in consultation, thought the physicians, nobody can be blamed ; if be recovers in the mcant'rae, Allah be praised. Physicians consulted, and bribed, and diagnosed, but still Kara did not recover, at last the word went forth that Kara was about to die.

Just when this rumour was circulating through the streets and lanes of Teheran, an aged, venerable man, with long white hair and venerable aspect, stood before the gate of Kara's palace. It was Nooshky 800100, the dervish. Nooshky had travelled much, seen much, and suffered much, aud he had thought much too ; so that he was much superior in wisdom to those pedestrian beggars . who assume the dervish habit and ask alms under a false pretence, Nooshky was wise and modest, and old, so that when he knocked at the portal .of the palace the porter salaamed and told him to pass on.

" You think that you are ill, mighty prince," said Nooshky, after looking at the young man for some time in silence. "Everybody knows that I am ill," said Kara, in a feeble voice. Nooshky did not reply • but he clid what is very unusual even for a sage in a king's palace, he laughed. "Do you not think that I am ill ?" asked Kara, rising from his prostrate posture to his elbow, and looking fixedly at Nooshky. "Oh! I know that you are ill," i*eplied the dervish, gravely ; " very ill," he continued, " because you think you are."

" Sun, moon, and stars listen to me!" cried K-ira in amazement ; "he believes that my disease is only suppositions." " You are right to invoke the great suii — that source of light and heat — that minister to the visible beautiful — that giver of the invisible warmth," replied the dervish, gravely; "you are right to invoke the pale, cold moon, and the winding, blinking stars, for I have lately held converse with them, and

they have told me the only way in which Kai'a can be cured."

"Oh ! name it, then, venerable and well-beloved father of wisdom and son of years," said the prince, eagerly; '-tell it me, and 1 will share half my kingdom with you."

" Pooh, pooh !" said Nooshky, with a smile ; " when will men learn wisdom? Kai*a, thou knovvest that the kingdom has not brought thee happiness, and yet the vain imagination fills thee that it could compensate an old man for knowledge which kingdoms cannot give. No, no ; I have watched the stars in their mysterious courses, wheeling their devious flights through the paths of space, and ruling the destines of men, while, at the same time, they sing to the wise man's ear the song that they caught up at the creation. I heard them whispering as the)/ looked down from the blue concave on thy bed of pink and brow of suffering, and they said that Kara would only be happy when he had worn, warm from the wearer's body, the shirt of a perfectly happy man."

Karasprangfrom his bed in a moment, and, before JSTooshky could have calculated the revolutions of a binary system, he ordered a cavalcade to accompany him, and was away on his search for a happy man, with all the speed that horse and man were capable of.

Kara Kalpat and his gallant band left Teheran by the south-east gate amidst the wonder of the three dervishes, fi ve date venders and their asses, two chabock merchants, and a watercarrier. " Where can they be going?" inquired the merchants, in great apparent surprise. " To Mecca," answered the dervishes ; and this answer apparently satisfying the gazers, they turned into the city to tell their friends and customers that Kara had recovered from his illness, and was away to visit the tomb of the Prophet.

" Whete shall I find a happy man f exclaimed Kara, as he rode along the road to Kanabad, and his attendants came scouring after him on ther fleet steeds ; " Where shall I find a happy man ?"

"In the house of Abdin Hadda, which stands by the brook Ava, amongst the acacia-trees that are ever green, and the yellow flowering olives," answered a camel-driver, who was resting on a green bank at the roadside, while his beast cropped some herbage ; " that's where you'll find a happy man."

" And where is the house of Abdin Hadda and the brook Ava ? " asked Kara, eagerly.

" Just a league on this side of Kanabad," replied the camel driver, as the prince bounded away.

Abdin Hadda was neither old nor young, nor very rich, nor was he poor. He was healthy, wise, and contented with his fortune. He had three sons, and fine youths they wore; and a daughter and a wife beautiful as Peris. He was sitting at his cottage door when Kara rode up to it ; and as the smoke from his amber chabouk passed coolly into his mouth, then issued in aromatic clouds from it and mingled with the breath of flowers, a smile played upon his face,' which was lighted up with a sunbeam, as if he were happy, happy indeed. Kara felt a strong inclination to rush at once upon him and divest him of his garment. He checked himself, however, and approaching Abdin, gave him a respectful salaam.

" How beautiful is this cottage ! how fair and sweet the trees, and streams, and flowers !" said the prince ; <: and, oh ! how happy is Abdin !" " Happy as the blue butterfly that dusts its wings with the pollen of peach blossoms," said Abdin, with a smile ; happy as the sunbeams that tremblingly kiss the amber waters of Ava ; but " and Abdin paused. "But what?" asked Kara, in an anxious tone ; *' why this reservation ?"

" Oh, I have only ninety-nine coffeetrees in my grove," said Abdin, with a sigh ; "my joy would be complete if I had the hundredth." Kara crossed his hands upon his breast, and bent his head in unfeigned humility and sorrow, then raising his eyes, he said : " Canst thou tell me of a happy man ?"

" Yes," replied Abdin ; Sirra Killa, who lives on the plain of Mahran and keeps the gardens of the Mosque of Omar, is assuredly happy. He dwells amongst flowers, and spices, beautiful birds, and clear waters ; and he hears the iinaums and mollahs chanting their prayers and reciting the law. He is young, and beautiful, and good ; his children are as fair as angels ;" his wifa bright and warm as a sunbeam ; and he has one hundred coffee-trees. Oh, yes," cried Abdin,' "Sirra Killa is happy !"

Kara mounted his horse eagerly, and, waving his hand to his followers, bounded away towards Mahran. The Mosque of Omar at Mahran was called the beautiful, and it deserved to be so denominated. It was an octagon whose walls were built of white marble ; its cornice was of red and blue. The pavement and steps of the piazza .were black as ebony ; the pillars were yellow, grained with black and red , and the- lofty dome green. Around the mosque were all the floral attributes of beauty — trees and flowers that twined in loving fondness together and bloomed in fragrant luxuriance, Kara did not take time to visit tha mollahs of the mosque ; he sent the captain of his guard, Dera Killa, to pay his respects to them, but, opening a little side wicket, he bounded

along the walks until his steps were arrested by the voice of a man who was reciting some lines from the poetry of the immortal Ferdusi, in the seclusion of a lovely arbour. The vines hung pendant from the branches of palm-trees, and the large flowers of the Camilla and aloe laid their calyxes together as if they had been lovers who kissed each other and pledged never to part. Around, on terraces, grew geraniums of every flower ami nature, and exotic treasures of every colour. Seated in this bower was Sirra Killa, and his face shone like a mirror of peace.

" I have him now," thought Kara ; and he would have sprung upon the gardener in a moment.'had not a sudden expression of care, like a shade over a mountain's brow, passed across that of the horticulturist.

" Ah !" sighed Sirra ' Killa, " this is a world of cares after all, to the great majority. I sometimes wish that I were the philosopher Eababa who lives on Mount Elwund. He has no thought, no care, no toil, no anxiety , he looks at the stars, and he sees beauty and happiness ; and at the earth and he sess the same. He looka around on the hills and plains, ane still he sees joy and peace. Heigho!" sighed Sirra, " he has no grief like mine, who have not a son to cheer my hope. Daughters I have who are as fair as the roses of Gul, and whose voices are as soft as the bulbul, but son have I none. Heigho !"

Kara bent his head to the ground, then, wheeling on his heel, he silently retreated from the garden without speaking to Sirra, and, mounting his stead once more, dashed onward for the Mount of Elwund, in order that he might possess himself of the magic garment of Eababa.

The Mount of Elmond is rather a lonely hill, which stands near to the town of Hamadan, overlooking the valley of that name and the stream Bistum. In a little, lojielv pagoda on Mount Elwund, Eababa dwelt alone. He came forth in the morning to be greeted by the first sunbeams and the songs of the birds, and to bathe his face in the fresh waters of his own mountain stream. He looked into himself and outward to nature alternately, and being reflective and full of health, his face for ever wore a bennig expression. When men saw Eababa looking at the blue heavens and smiling in their face, they shook their heads and wished that they were he. When they peeped into his little home at night, and saw him gazing up at the stars, they would smile, and wish that they only knew as much as he did.

'• The way of knowledge is beautiful, father," said Kara, as he eyed Eababa keenly, like a tiger that meditates to spring upon its prey, " and communion with nature sweet— the spirit grows on the first, it lives in the love of the second. Though art happy Kibnba." "My s 3n, deceive not thyself," said the sage, calmly — " deceive not thyself with vain imaginings. Recollect that our own desires may become sophisters, and lime the wings of our thoughts much more potently than the thoughts and words of men may. You desire to to be happy, in order that I may impart my wisdom and experience to thee ; but there is no such thing as happiness on earth that I know of. None ! f have been eleven years calculating the precise perihelion of yon fixed star, but, as I have not yet been able to fix its parallax, I am unsuccessful and unhippy."

Kara turned away in despair, .and rode sadly along among his men for days, until at last he found himself at the good city of Bagdad. Beautiful Bagdad ! he had crossed the hill of Rudbar to look upon it often before, but he was very sad now, and he did nob care for its bazzirs and coffee-houses. He bent his head to the ground, and thought of even passing on to Mecca, when, all of a sudden, the sound of a tabor fell upon his ear, and a light cheery song mingled with 'it. There was so much clear good humour, such a a thorough abandonment of joyous glee, in the voice of the musician, that Kara started from his reverie and listened:— "Let the wind blow, let the tide How, Still there is rest for Babouk ; Let the flower blow, anil the fruit grow — The flower and the fruit are for Babouk. 1 am poor, 1 am mean, and scouted I've been By the lord of the plain and the paddock ; But while I ha-ve eyes, and can look on the skies, The sun shine 3in glory for Babouk. This world is my own ; tfiough I'm deem'd poor and lone, 1 am king of all Bagdad and Babouk ; While I lilt an 1 1 sing, a poor penny to bring, Ha ! ha ! where's the king that's like Babouk ? The morrow may come with a palace for home

Or my bed may be still by the low brvok : But, however the wind blowd — however the world goes, There's peace and contentment for Baboulc ! I look to the sky with a satisfied 1 eye — To the earth I can turn with a fond look : I am envied by none, and I envy no man — Oil ! am I not happy king Babouk ? "

" Seize him. ! seize him ! " cried Kara, springing upon the poor, musician, while his guards eagerly assisted. They caught the astonished songster — gently, it is true — and begun most unceremoniously to disrobe him, while Kara threw his splendid vestment at his feet. They tore the ragged tunic from the poor man's back, and they grasped for his shirt ; but, alas ! the happiest man in the world had not a shirt wherewithal to clothe himself!