Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant Part 38

The bones of his cheeks stood out, his eyes were sunk in their sockets, and his face and body were black from the dust of the highway, which nearly choked him. Given barely sufficient water to sustain life, he constantly suffered from thirst, and in a parched voice mumbled half unconscious prayers: "Cast me not off, Oh G.o.d! for no one else can help me. Grant that in my affliction my eyes shall not grow blind to Thy goodness! Feeble as I am, Thou only art my refuge."

The man was nearly mad; the elephant ate his rushes in contentment.

Once, when the sirocco blew so fiercely that the beggars sought shelter behind the angles of the city wall and the highway was deserted, a bunch of blue lotus flowers rolled at the King's feet and a familiar voice whispered his name. He rose from his corner and peering through a crevice between the stones saw the face of the beggar woman whom he had seen pa.s.s and repa.s.s so often, always carrying on her hip a little boy or now and again feeding a handful of green rushes to Gisco. Reaching out his grimy hand and arm he touched the tips of her fingers, and when his eyes had grown accustomed to the light, he saw beside her face, that of his little son. Think you they cared for the sandstorm?

The baby slept and woke and spoke of being hungry and the wind blew on.

The woman, because the jailer would shortly come, bringing a small earthen jar of water and a cake of bread made of millet seed, was forced to leave. From a small leather bag, hidden in the breast of her dress she took several priceless gems and tossed them through to the king, retaining several less valuable ones; then saying she would return between midnight and morning she went to a hovel built against the outer wall, in the beggar colony and prepared food for her boy. When the morning star showed itself, lifting the sleeping boy she came again to the prison, bringing a small skin of water and a bag of dried fruit.

From that day she rose with the morning star and visiting her husband, brought water and food. When the boy slept in the afternoon, she sat in the narrow shade of the prison and held him, but dared not speak a word.

In time, other beggars seeing the beggar woman resting in the shade of the prison came there to rest and talk, and they came to know the king and talk with him, telling him what had occurred throughout the kingdom.

The captain of the gate guard, who had supervision of the king and Gisco, noticed that the beggar children played with and climbed over the elephant and fed him gra.s.s and bits of bread, though he would not let one of Chalginna's troopers approach him. He also noticed that the beggars were beginning to gather about the king's prison and to talk with him. This he thought to forbid, but before doing so asked Chalginna for instructions. He thought it a great joke, saying: "It seems the inscription is to be fulfilled. The prison is being converted into the palace of the king of the beggars. Do not interfere with the king's court, let his subjects render obeisance. How have the mighty fallen."

One day a beggar from a far country resting against the prison wall, heard the king bemoaning his fate and asked:

"Why weepest thou?"

"Once I was king of this country, but now I am a beggar and a prisoner."

"What matter it? G.o.d giveth to one man a diadem and a throne; another as great in his sight, sitteth in the dust at the gate of the city and soliciteth alms; time may s.h.i.+ft the one to the other's place, and one is as well off as the other. If you would have peace, strike not the feeble, soothe the afflicted, do good as it is offered to your hand. If you would make the night of your prison as bright as day, light it with the lamp of your good works. The less you have here, the smoother your road to paradise. A camel carrying only his hump of curses and blessings makes the best time. You see before you a beggar who would not exchange his peace of mind for the sceptre of Chalginna. A king must be a light sleeper or lose his head with his crown."

The king thought over this counsel. A few days later he asked the beggar woman to bring him a bag of silver coins, and among them she placed a few gold ones.

Thereafter, when a beggar spoke to the king of being hungry-after he had promised not to mention the gift-a silver coin found its way into his hand. A poor water carrier with a large family, who had lost his donkey, received a gold coin to buy another. A mother of three small children was given one with which to buy a goat and some food. A crippled beggar, forced to visit a far country, was given two gold coins, with which he purchased an old but serviceable camel.

The king advised with and comforted all who sought him. His subjects grew in number, the homage they rendered was prompted by affection and the tribute they paid was love.

On his birthday, in the second year of his imprisonment, the prison house was dressed in blue lotus flowers and wreathed with palm leaves, and a great collar of flowers was placed about the neck of Gisco.

Chalginna, riding in state beyond the great gate, was impressed by the decorations and the gathering. More than three hundred beggars, mainly women and children, bearing palm branches, were gathered around the little prison house and on a throne covered with goat skins, just under the inscription, sat a little boy, wearing a crown of blue lotus flowers and holding a palm branch sceptre.

Contemptuously curious, he asked the child's name and was told, "He is the son of a beggar woman, probably a leper, that lives in a hovel near the gate," whereat he laughed and rode on.

The celebration ended by the planting of a thrifty young palm to the right of the prison. From the day of its planting, each beggar when he had water to spare, poured it about its root, and the tree grew rugged and thrifty from these libations.

On each succeeding birthday the same ceremony was repeated, until a grove of fifteen thrifty young palms shaded the prison and made a comfortable resting place for the beggars and the traveling poor.

The boy who took the part of king, now almost a man, continued in that character. The a.s.sembly of beggars at these birthday ceremonies now numbered thousands. They looked upon the imprisoned king with more favor than on Chalginna, who to feed his extravagances, became an extortionist and was fast making beggars of even his most loyal subjects. It was beginning to be whispered about that many of those who partic.i.p.ated in the ceremony were not really beggars, and the captain of the gate suggested to Chalginna that the crowd was growing dangerous. He rode out to see and, impressed by its proportions, determined in the future to forbid the ceremony.

Ants ate to a mere sh.e.l.l the stake to which the chain that bound Gisco was attached, and it parted almost of its own accord. He was a great overfed elephant, ponderous in bulk and frame, weighing more than seven tons, and at last grown as tractable and lazy as a puppy.

When the stake parted, he had no thought to move beyond the radius of the circle of the chain, but continued to walk the old beat, or stand and sway his great bulk as he had done for so many, many days. He no longer struck at or trumpeted with rage when Chalginna's troopers rode within reach, but ate nuts and dates from their hand.

His old mahout visiting the spot and seeing how the long imprisonment had affected the elephant was moved to tears. He made up his mind, by some expedient, to rouse the spirit of the great beast. Coming through the gate before it was closed, he spent the night without the city and after midnight mounting to the old place on the elephant's head, sought to ride him to the river pastures; but he circled the old limit of his chain and could not be budged beyond.

As the beggars looked after the material wants of Gisco, so they had cared for the king; and he within the confines of his prison, which was a s.p.a.ce not a fiftieth as great as Gisco's circle, had found room to exercise and keep his body in condition. Gradually, the wants and wrongs of his subjects, which were many, forced upon him the resumption of the cares of a sovereign, until he was now the servant of the beggars, though he advised, counciled and commanded them.

The man had lived above his environment, the elephant had not.

Environment tended to Chalginna's destruction; he was too primitive by nature to be the king of a great city. Had he been as capable as when he took the city, he would long since have been alarmed by the influence of Erigalla, and have placed him where deposed kings are harmless; but power and the vices of the city had ruined a great nomad chieftain. He was ambitious now only to indulge new vices and extravagances, and energetic only in the collection of tribute.

In the sixteenth year of Erigalla's imprisonment the beggars with certain of his former subjects, men who could remain loyal to a deposed king, if he were a just man, made extensive preparations to celebrate his birthday. Many who heretofore had worn disguises as beggars, came this time armed and habited in their usual garb. More than ten thousand gathered without the gates to celebrate the occasion.

Chalginna had forgotten his resolve to forbid the ceremony. In these days he forgot many things. When told of the great gathering, he called together his personal guard and rode out, curious to see and if he should deem it expedient, forbid the ceremony.

He was scarcely noticed by the mult.i.tude, though a few, feeling safe in the crowd, hooted their derision.

As he approached the prison, three strange elephants drew a derrick against the wall and the great cap stone was lifted half off. The captive king, wearing the crown which Chalginna had never found, and dressed as was his wont in the olden days, was lifted over the wall and took his seat on a throne in the palm grove in front of the prison.

Gisco, whose neck was bound about with a great wreath of lotus flowers, seeing his old master or disturbed by the three strange elephants, stepped gingerly beyond the circle of his captivity and came slowly towards them, giving low trumpetings of joy.

Chalginna, who a.s.sumed to treat the king's temporary release as a part of a farcical ceremony, but was so exercised by it as to determine upon his death that night, was incensed beyond self-control when the elephant which had disabled his arm, pa.s.sing near seemed to sneeze contemptuously in his very face.

He struck at the great beast with his short sword, and though he did little more than scratch through the thick hide, he severed the wreath of lotus flowers and it dropped to the ground.

Gisco the spiritless, the lazy, for a moment was transformed into Gisco the war elephant. He struck the king's horse lifeless; grasped the king about the middle and lifting him high above the heads of the astonished mult.i.tude, dropped him head down, through the roof of the prison; then shoving the half removed cap stone into place, slowly walked back to his old circle and began eating from his rack of rushes.

While yet the mult.i.tude stood apathetic in astonishment, the beggar seer, who was consulted as an oracle, the same who had advised the captive king in the early days of his imprisonment, climbed upon the cap stone of the prison and addressed the mult.i.tude: "Let no one oppose the decree of G.o.d. Chalginna is deposed." And the people echoed: "It is the will of G.o.d! Long live King Erigalla! Long live the King!"

And he reigned in peace sixty and seven years from that day, saw his son's sons and their children, died in honor and full of days, and was succeeded by his son, the beggar boy, known as Surgulla the Great, who for forty and three years ruled all the land from the Red Sea east to the Persian Gulf and from the Black Sea south to the Gulf of Aden.

The End