Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1855-08-15
=
An Arab Ta,c.

sG1llu HOS lati NJ sufu upon suS VIE uuA sus
present condition Of the Crinea campaixn.--
IL was prstty well acquainted with the Roc
buck Commits, aai all the incid .nts Of the
expedition; though he hal never read the pa
pars he was aware of the crisis of the Turk
ish Empire, and Of all tho dangers Of its
present transitory statc: nor did he srem to
be blinded as regards the position OF the Al
lies. pressed him to tell me openly his
opinions about recent events, which he did
as follows:
sAliow me to tell you an old tale which |
read in our books, and of which am always
reminded whenever think of the allied ar
my in the Crimca. sYou know he contin-
ued, shat Allah gave power to the great
King and Prophet Suleiman (Solomon) over
nj living creatures; that he taught him to
understand the birds of the air, and of the
animals creeping on the earth. One day
Suleiman saw a splendid rainbow floating in
the skies, and the fancy took him to see the
wonders of the Allah closely, and to dwell on
the arch of the rainbow. He therefore sum
moned the birds ofthe air and sail to them,
Garry me to the rainbow, that may dwell
on it, And the birds nlighted upon the
earth aud pent their wings together, so as to
form boat. and Suloiman sat upon their
wings, aud they rose and flew with the ut
most raptdity, hut still it took three weeks be-
fore they reached the rainbow. When Su-
LEHMAN had rested himself on the brilliant
rays no said; q desire to know which Is the
point on earth over which am now seated.
Which OF all the birds has the clearcst sight
to look down and tell me where we are!-
And the vulture Ak Baba, that is to say
the white father, said: Sultan nv sight
reaches fuFthest.' Then look down. said
the Kino, tell me where we are, and what
also thou seest.' Ak Bahia looked down and
spake: sWe nre soaring just above Babylon,
close TO the principal gate of the town; see
fed in which the harvestcrs have left five
grains OF wheat, and two sparrows are fight
irg for the FIVE grains.' And Sulsiman
praised Allah that he had created the vul-
ture and endowed him with such fsrsighted-
ness. And the Sultan remained few weeks
on the rainbow, and one day he said; Il de-
sire to know what has happened ON earth
since left it?' Which is the bird with the
swiftest fight that may go down and look
ahoutP And the White Father came again
and spnke., q am the swiftest of oil BIRDS
'And how much time will it require for thee
to go down and return again?' asked Sulei-
man. 'Twenty-four hours, SULTAN was the
answer, sten to fly down, ten to return. and
four to lock aoout.' go. then, in the name
of Allah, said the Sultan, and Ak-Baba
went.
But twenty-four hours passed and he was
not yet back. And the third day dawned;
Suleiman shook his head, and on the fourth
he grew angry and said:
''Ak- Baba is a braggart.' At last, on the
fifth day, the White Father returned, buthow
did he look? His wings were pulled 20 pie
ces, his body bleeding, his claws blunted.-
sWhat is the matter with thee ?" asked Su-
lehman; sand why didst thou como four DAYS
later than thou promised?' sOh, Sultan
Ak Baba complained, Il met with an acci-
dent. When, after my flight of ten hours,
arrived on earth, felt hungry and looked
about for food, in order to strengthen myself
for the remainder of my enterprise; and
saw a garden with plentiful fruit in it, and
when came into it large iron trap caught
NE and broke my feathers and Clipped nv
laws. Il was IN vain to struggle against the
ron; l could not free myself. At last the |
gardner came and exulted when he saw me |
caught, and took me out of the trap. and
when | beat him with my wings his laborers
assisted him, and they carried me into the
louse and shut me up in a close room. There |
sat prisoner; the door was fastened the |
vail was thick, the window barred. At last
discovered the hues of the chimney, and
orced my way through it, and come now to |
ell you my misfortune. | could but slowly |
each your lofty seat, soaring with wounded |
wings"
"Ihus spake Ak-Baba, the vulture, and
'uleiman gravely and thoughtfully shook his
read, and said, Mash Allah! God is greatl !
Miracles everywhere! Miracles at every mo- |
nent! White Father, from here, Mt three
weeks distance from the earth, thou hast
zen the town of Babylon and its gate, and
lose to it the field, and on tho field the two
little sparrows, and by them the five grains
IT wheat about which they qunrrelcd, and
hou hast not seen the large iron trap in the
Garden when thou vert close by Indeed,
he larSightedness of him who is doomed to
nishap is turned into blindncsS'
Here llyder Ali stopped, and shook his
'rad slowly and thou"htfully in the same
way as >ueiman may have done. s'Well,
aid |, ''friend llyder Ali, how am to con.
lcct your excellent tale with the present
var.
"You are Frank, - said he, sand YOU do
ot see it, | will explain it to you The
'rench and Engiish.arc used to discover the
1ost remote stars and to determine their or
its; they have counted the drops of blood
4 the body OF the frog; they have weighed
nc destinies of Turkey and Russia as in
alance; but the large trap called Sebasto.
oil they seem not to have remarked - New
ork Tribune.