"Alas!" answered the man, "all the barns will break down under the weight of the sheaves. The grain will be sold at a low price. This fine harvest will make me sit on ashes."
While he was speaking, the devil had taken an ear of corn from the ground and was crushing it in his hand, and as soon as he blew on the grains they all turned into pure gold. The peasant took up one and examined it attentively on all sides, and then in a despairing tone cried out: "Oh, my G.o.d! I must spend money to melt all these and send them to the mint."
The devil wrung his hands in despair. He had lost his wager. He could do everything, but he could not make a contented man.
THE EFFECTS OF RAKI
Bekri Mustafe, who lived during the reign of Sultan Selim, was a celebrated toper, and perhaps at that time the only Moslem drunkard in Turkey. Consequently, he was often the subject of conversation in circles both high and low. It happened that his Majesty the Sultan had occasion to speak to Bekri one day, and he asked him what pleasure he found in drinking so much raki, and why he disobeyed the laws of the Prophet. Bekri replied that raki was a boon to man; that it made the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the poor rich, and that he, Bekri, when drunk, could hear, see, and walk like two Bekris. The Sultan, to verify the truth of this statement, sent his servants into the highways to bring four men, the one blind, the other deaf, the third lame, and the fourth poor. Directly these were brought, his Majesty ordered raki to be served to them in company with Bekri. They had not been drinking long when, to the glory of Bekri, the deaf man said: "I hear the sound of great rumbling."
And the blind man replied: "I can see him; it is an enemy who seeks our destruction."
The lame man asked where he was, saying, "Show him to me, and I will quickly despatch him."
And the poor man called out: "Don"t be afraid to kill him; I"ve got his blood money in my pocket."
Just then a funeral happened to pa.s.s by the Palace buildings, and Bekri got up and ordered the solemn procession to stop. Removing the lid of the coffin, he whispered a few words into the ear of the dead man, and then putting his ear to the dead man"s mouth, vented an exclamation of surprise. He then ordered the funeral to proceed, and returned to the Palace.
The Sultan asked him what he had said to the dead man, and what the dead man replied.
"I simply asked him where he was going and from what he had died, and he replied he was going to Paradise, and that he had died from drinking raki without a meze."
Whereupon the Sultan understanding what he wanted, ordered that the meze should be immediately served.
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS.
By FLORA ANNIE STEEL, _Author of "Miss Stuart"s Legacy," "Flower of Forgiveness,"
"Red Rowans," "Tales from the Punjab," etc., etc._
12mo. Cloth. $1.50.
"We have read Mrs. Steel"s book with ever-increasing surprise and admiration. It is the most wonderful picture. We know that none who lived through the mutiny will lay it down without a gasp of admiration, and believe that the same emotion will be felt by thousands to whom the scenes depicted are but lurid phantasmagoria."--_The Spectator._
TALES OF THE PUNJAB
TOLD BY THE PEOPLE.
By MRS. F. A. STEEL.
With Ill.u.s.trations by J. LOCKWOOD KIPLING, C.I.E., and Notes by R. C. TEMPLE.
16mo. Cloth, Gilt. $2.00.
"A book that will be welcomed no less eagerly by the children than by students of folklore from a scientific standpoint is Mrs. Steel"s collection of Indian stories, ent.i.tled "Tales of the Punjab." They were taken down by her from the very lips of the natives in some of the most primitive districts in India. Yet these tales, handed down solely by word of mouth from one generation to another, could hardly be distinguished from those in a Teutonic collection like that of the Brothers Grimm; and even closer examination serves only to impress upon us more strongly than ever before the unity of the great Indo-European family of nations."--_Nashville Banner._
UNIFORM EDITION OF THE STORIES AND POEMS OF RUDYARD KIPLING.
Seven Volumes. 12mo. Cloth. $1.25 each.
PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS.
"Mr. Kipling knows and appreciates the English in India, and is a born story-teller and a man of humor into the bargain.... It would be hard to find better reading."--_The Sat.u.r.day Review, London._
THE LIGHT THAT FAILED.
""The Light that Failed" is an organic whole--a book with a backbone--and stands out boldly among the nerveless, flaccid, invertebrate things that enjoy an expensive but ephemeral existence in the circulating libraries."--_The Athenaeum._
LIFE"S HANDICAP.
Stories of Mine Own People.
"No volume of his yet published gives a better ill.u.s.tration of his genius, and of the weird charm which has given his stories such deserved popularity."--_Boston Daily Traveler._
THE NAULAHKA.
A Story of East and West.
By RUDYARD KIPLING and WOLCOTT BALESTIER.
"What is the most surprising, and at the same time most admirable in this book, is the manner in which Mr. Kipling seems to grasp the character of the native women; we know of nothing in the English language of its kind to compare with chapter xx. in its delicacy and genuine sympathy."
UNDER THE DEODARS, THE PHANTOM "RICKSHAW, AND WEE WILLIE WINKIE.
With additional matter, now published for the first time.
SOLDIERS THREE, THE STORY OF THE GADSBYS, and BLACK AND WHITE.
Also together with additional matter.