The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-30
A NYMPH OF FIRE.

memory-came into our fair country, when
all our people worshiped the blessed Christ,
there stood upon the slopes of Ararat, apart
from all other habitations, little cottage
nesting in flowers and EMPOWERED by the
trees of the forest.
Its inhabitants were an old man of Per
sian face and priestly dress and a young
| girl of whose appearance little was known,
for although most unmaidenly she roamed
the wooded slopes Of the mountains, she
| nevertheless fed from the presence of our
young Armenian hunters more swiftly
than the deer which they there pursued.
The women of our country, however, If
they do differ in reserve from their western
kinswomen, still have their full share of
curiosity, and are as artful as any in salts
flying it. Thus they soon reported, with
unconscious malice, that the girl Stunned
comparison with our dark eyed country
maidens, with their ripened color and
raven hair, because her face possessed no
beauty, but was pale as marble, and that
the wave of gold which the hunters de-
scribed as following her fight was mass
| of unbound hair of the reddest sortl
Soon whispers spread the rumor that
this old man and his daughter were heather
/ "Gragabashd"-as in our tongue We call
those whom you more pleasingly denomi-
nate Guebers or fire worshipers.
! Why he had chosen Ararat for his home
remained mystery, yet therein the shadow
of that holy mount he lived and practiced
his dark rites. Surely no man but stony
hearted Gueber could dwell in such IA
vored spot and remain infideL Above him,
far in the blue deep Of heaven, pointing
with its snowy finger higher and still
higher, until it would seem that the strong
est eye must fail to follow its glittering in
! dex, and that the stiffest neck must bow
/ in awe of the Creator, rose the grand old
/ peak of Ararat. Down through the green
of the tree tops its white splendor cleaned
upon the cottage of the Persian. Yet he
/ looked not up, save to salute the sun in his
meridian glory.
Here, in the very center of the world,
perchance on the very spot where the
smoke Of the first sacrifice Of a purified
world arose to Noah's God he made his
unholy alterations to the same false deity
whom the wicked worshiped before the
avenging deluge swept them away. Even
when his god of day was passing away
/ in the evening and the shadows of the
sacred mountain, immutable, eternal, fell
| upon his home-even then unholy prayers
and chantings were heard by the chance
/ pasSer by, who crossed himself and hur-
! ried on in terror. None dared put them
selves in reach of his COMPUTATIONS and all
Stunned the neighborhood.
Then the war with our Persian oppres-
sors came on, and the righteously indig-
nant Armenians would have risen and put
| him and his daughter to death, and sacri-
! feed his cottage to his god of fire, had they
not been restrained by the only friend the
old Persian could count in all the valley,
| young Vahan, the bravest youth of the
realm, the son of our leader, Vartan.
| | said that Prince Vahan was friend of
the Persian; he was more truthfully the
| lover of his daughter. One day before the
outbreak of the war he had been hunting
on the slopes of Ararat. His thoughts had
wandered from the chase, and plunged In
reverie he had allowed his horse to drop
| into a slow and noiseless walk over the
thick carpet of fallen leaves, the work Of
| all the centuries since the flood. Sudden
| ly he heard voice, "What shall / suffer to
rid my father OF his terrible c1rse" Turn
| ing toward the place whence came the
voice he beheld standing underneath a pine
on a brook side, with hands uplifted to a
ray of sunlight which streamed down
through the green roof above, being who
seemed TO Vahan's deluded eyes the ideal
of all beauty, purity and truth.
"0h, spirit of the earth, or air, or light
or water, for thou seemest to be the soul of
ALL" be cried; "oh, dryad Of the pine or
naiad of the brook, or sylph of the sun
beam, what can Vahan do to reverence, or
If thou perchsnce be mortal, TO aid theep
Perhaps it was his noble face and earnest
mien as well as poetic language-for he
had been reared in Athens-thst assured
her that he was not of the rough peasant
lads from whom she had eften fed, or per-
chance the beautiful WITCH had already be-
gun TO practice her evil entertainments; be
this as it may. she listened to his words
and told her name and condition.
Thenceforth NRhan spent his days in
hunting and his nightsin dreaming of the
maiden whom be daily met by the brook
under the great pine on the mountain side.
His dreams were of maiden fair and holy
featured as the Virgin, and rich in a flood
of hair, fine as though spun Of sunbeams
and soft as Magdalen's locks that wiped
the feet Of our Lord
Oh, the craft of a wicked womani How
she seemed TO love himl Then the Persian
war began. How her tenderness increased
The youth Of Armenia FASTENED with ar
dor 10 the frontier, but Vahan still wasted
his DAYS in the chase of love. His parents
upb-aided him, his companions entreated,
the old men reminded him Of his former
deeds and the present need OF his valor TO
lead the Armenians to victory; but still he
would not 60 Often be said, Il viii go
tomorrow" but tomorrow found him still
delaying by the brook, and again tO-mor-
row found him on his steed Pricking fast
TO the mountain cottage. earnestly resolved
70 take that farewell embrace which an
other tomorrow again renewed. Perhaps
at that time the girl really loved Vahan,
and wished him safe from the dangers OF
war; yet the outcome seems 10 indicate
that love for her fellow countrymen, the
Persian Guebers, prompted her allure
ments TO delay the departure Of the young
Armenian hero, the flower Of the army.
Entreaties Of parents and friends at last
prevailed. and Vahsn departed TO the war.
Before his coming the Persisns bad been
almost uniformly victorious, but now the
bravery and generalship of the new leader
aroused the despairing Armenians to re-
newed courage. and the tide Of victory was
turned.
Meanwhile spies hsd discovered in the
mountain cottage the cause Of the princes
long delay TheRceforth it was continu-
ally watched One night man was capt
ured while stealthily departing from the
place. His speech and brave attempt 10
.-,-, .ba horxe-nrr rrav.d hsr, "a -