Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-05-28

| talking about all these changes: See
that one is just like the white church in
Debreczin. There is one just like the
watch-tower in Grosswardein. The roof
| is split in just the same way.n
Girls, girls!" cried out young moth
er, who was at the foot of the hill, hush
ing her chubby baby, cit isn't good to
play with witchcraft Twill bring no
blessing to the house when you make it
out in the Delibab; it's bad luck for any
city to be copied in the sky. Be still
with your goddess chatterp'
"Hushm cried suddenly all Of them to-
gether; and then the words died away
upon their lips; they all looked speech
less, with eyes amazed.
What was it that they saw in the sky?
In the direction of Hadhaz, high above
the sea of the mirage, there was the image
OF hOrseman which appeared suddenly
upon the pale sky. a hOrseman, not to
be mistaken, Of colossal proportions, with
! a culver over his shoulder, with a pointed
turban on his head, and with the reins in
his hand, rose in one instant above the
broad ocean. The feet of the horse did
not touch the earth; the whole was like a
Hghtblue shadow of phantom thrown
across the yellow heaven.
Jesus Christ, do not forsake us!" cried
out these poor frightened folk, as they
saw this shadOwy phantom pass by-a
phantom not terrible to US with all our
science, but which they had never seen
nor heard Of. This form Of warrior far
away moved across the heavens as large
as the cloudy ghost of a giant; in the next
moment a crowd Of new forms passed
across the sky-all armed giants. Some
stood resting against their horses over the
mirror of the deceitful sea; of some you
could only see the heads and loulders;
but there were some where you could see
the whole body, and these would be
fastened TO other bodies. You would see
two shadows sticking together, and the
heads, arms, and weapons stretching up
and down from the point where they
united. Suddenly all this disappeared;
and nothing was left in the heaven ssbut
two broad rays Of light and two light blue
strips OF ribbon upon the cloudy back
ground, extending down to the very
horizon.
Turks and Tartars are on the watch
for usI'
This was the cry of the crowd of women
as they huddIed all together, without
help and without counsel, there in the
midst of the great desert.
The mothers clasped their babies in
their arms and rushed with them to the
wagons. The maidens scattered on the
road even their beloved scarfs and their
earrings, thinking that while the robbers
stopped to collect these they could be
Fastening on their fight: for they all
knew that the troop must be watching for
them.
away, away! To Bossormeny! Haste,
haste! We must leave she track. Haste!'
So the poor army of women, in terrible
fear, turned aside from their way. All the
line Of wagons followed at the risk of the
very lives of the beasts, as they went over
the prairies where there was no track.
Nobody sang any more; but many
psalm came to them as they rode; and
many heart sighed to itself as they
looked back upon the frightfuI distance,
and would cry out to Heaven:
90 merciful God above! protect us
from our cursed enemy, as Thou hast re-
vealed him to US so wonderfully; save
Thy poor handmaidenS from his pursuit;
for we have no one but Thee to rest upon,
0 Lord, God of Heavenp'
And the Lord had indeed another mira
Gle in store for that day.
As the frightened women looked back
from moment to moment, the whole sky
behind them grew black where they had
seen the terrible phantoms. Instead Of
the giant ghosts which had been chasing
each other, the whole horizon between
the heaven and earth, and all the birch
wood Of HadhaZ, were dark as night in
the distance. First the mountains of
clouds stood sharp against the sky; then
the wind hurled them up higher and
oh, ~,
black pile stretched as far as you could
see; then there moved across it other
masses of a dead blue gray; and you
could hear the muttering of a giants
voice, which said, R-r-r-un! r.r-r.unr'
The wagons rumbled on with the horses
at a gallOp till they found rest at the vii
lage of BOssOrmeny.
Badrul Bey waited two days in his am
bush in the Hadhaz woods. He had done
to the letter all that Kuzuk Pacha had
hidden him do. If he asked the way
from anybody he sabered him at once, by
way Of thanks, so that he might tell no
tales. Every troop kept the very place
appointed to it; and, if any unwilling
wayfarer stumbled upon them, Badrul
Bey and his men made an end of him in
no time. For this they used their silent
arrows, not choosing to risk the report of
their noisy muskets.
Nobody could discover them; and no
body could warn the girls and the women
of Debreczin that they were so near. No.
And God? He saw them; and in the
mirror of the Delibab He revealed them
to the poor women rushing on their de
struction, and stretched out the whole
display of this hidden treachery before
them. Praised be His holy name!
At noon of the third day the scouts of
BadruI Bey came into the thick of the
wood to announce to him that in the dis
lance, on the prairie, there was a long
train in sight, which threw up a perfect
cloud of dust, as hundreds of wagons,
one after another, came trailing on.
Badrul Bey himself rushed to the top
of a little hill to look around him. Was
he, perhaps, the enormous giant whose
shadow appeared on the heavens, with his
CULVER on his back and the pointed tur-
ban on his head?
"That is they! Let them come near.
Nobody can put them on their guard
nobodyr"
Of sudden the dust-cloud that was
approaching wavered for a moment, and
then, instead of approaching leisurely, as
before, turned hastily on one side; and
the carriages could be seen, with the poor
beasts, galloping away from the morass.
Badrul Bey looked on in rage. "Who
could have betrayed us?"
Then, as if in answer to his question, a
rustling swept through the wood, the high
beech-treeS all bent, grooming, down; and
most terrible gale swept bowling over
the plain; and cloud of thick yellow
n ct oil