The Dispatch. [volume] (Provo City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1891-05-27
THE BISARA OF POOREE.

TThe author of this story, Rudyard Kipling, is a
young EngliShmau who has lived most of his life
In British India. His stories of that country,
written during personal contact with its people
and the British army, have recently attracted a
great deal of attention both in England and
America.
Some natives say that it came from the
other side of Kulu. where the eleven inch
temple Sapphire is. Others that it was
made at the devil shrine of Ao-Chung in
Thibet, was stolen by Kafr, from him by
Gurkha, from him again by a Lahouli,
from him by a khitmatgar, and by this
latter sold to an Englishman, so all its vir-
tue was lost; because, to work properly,
the Bisara of Pooree must be stolen-with
bloodshed if possible, but, at any rate,
stolen.
These stories Of the coming into India
are all false. 1t was made at Pooree ages
since-the manner of its mai ing would fill
small book-was stolen 10y one of the
temple dancing girls there, for her own
purposes, and then passed on from hand to
hand, steadily northward till it reached
Hanla; always bearing the same name
the Bisara of Pooree. In shape it is tiny
eight small bslas rubies. Inside the box,
which opens with a spring, is little eye
less fish, carved from some sort of dark
shiny nut, and wrapped in a shred of faded
gold cloth. That is the Bisara of Pooree,
and it were better for man to take king
cobra in his hand than to touch the 3isara
of Pooree.
All kinds of magic are out of date, and
done away with except in India. where
nothing changes in spite of the shiny, toy
scum stuff that people call civilization. ;"
Any man who knows about the Bisara Of
Pooree will tell you what its powers are
always supposing that it has been honestly
stolen. 1t is the olly regularly working,
trustworthy love charm in the country,
with one exception.
The other charm is in the hands of a
trooper of the Nizams Horse at place
called Tuprani, due north of Hyderabad. ]
This can be depended upon for a fact
Some one else may explain it.
If the Bisara be not stolen, but given or
bought or found, it turns against It's owner
in three years, and leads to ruin or death
This is another fact which you may ex-
plain when you have time. Meanwhile,
! you can laugh at it. AT present the Bisara
is safe on an ekka pony's neck, inside the
blue bead necklace that keeps off the evil
eye. If the ekka driver ever finds it, and
wears it or gives it to his wife, | am sorry
for him.
A very dirty hill-cooly woman, with
goiter, owned it at Theog in 1884 1t came
into Simla from the north before Churton's s
khitmatgar bought it, and sold it for three
times its silver value, to Churton, who col
lected curiosities. The servant knew no
more what he had bought than the master;
but man looking over Churton's collec-
ton of uriosities-Churton was an assist
ant commissioner, by the way-saw and
held his tongue. he was an Englishman,
but knew how to believe. Which shows
that he was different from most English
men. He knew that it was dangerous to
have any share in the little box when work
| ing or dormant; for unsought love is a ter
rible gift
Pack-"Grubby" Pack, as we used to
call him-was in every way nasty little
man, who must have crawled into the army
| by mistake. He was three inches taller
than his sword, but not half so strong.
And the sword was a fifty-shilling, tailor
made one. Nobody liked him, and l sup
pose it was his wizenedness and worthless
ness that made him fall so hopelessly in
love with Miss Hollis, who was good and
sweet and five foot seven in her tennis
shoes. He was not content with falling in
love quietly, but brought all the strength
of his miserable little nature into the busi-
ness.
If he had not been so Objectionable, one
might have pitied him He vapored, and
fretted and fumed, and trotted up and
down, and tried to make himself pleasing
in Miss Hollis big, quiet, gray eyes, and
failed. 1t was one of the cases that you
sometimes meet even in this country
where we marry by CODE of really blind
attachment all on one side, without the
faintest possibility of return. Miss Hollis
looked on Pack as some sort Of vermin run
ming about the road. He had no prospects
beyond captains pay, and no wits to help
that out by one anna. In a large sized man
love like his would have been touching In
good man it would have been grand. He
being what he was it was only nuisance.
You will believe this much. What you
will not believe is what follows: Churton
and The Man Who Knew what the Bisara
was were lunching at the Simla club to-
gether. Churton was complaining of life
in general. His best mare had rolled out
of stable down the hill and had broken her
back; his decisions were being reversed by
the upper courts more than an assistant
commissioner of eight years standing has
a right to expect; he knew liver and fever,
and for weeks past had felt out of sorts
Altogether he was disgusted and disheart-
ened.
Simla club dining room is built, as all
the world knows, in two sections, with an
arch arrangement dividing them Come
in, turn to your left, take the table under
the window, and you cannot see any one
who has come il, turned to the right and
taken table on the right side Of the arch.
Curiously enough, every word that You
say can he heard not only by the otl,er
diner b;r bT the servants beyond the
screen through which they bring dinner.
This li worth knowing, An echoing room
is trap to be forewarned against.
Half in fun and half hoping to be be-
heved, The Ian Who Knew told Churton
the story of the Bisara of Pooree at rather
greater length than | have told it to YOU
In this place; winding up with a sugges-
tion that Churton might as well throw the
little box down the hill and see whether
all his troubles would go with it. In ordi-
nary ears, English ears the tale was only
an interesting bit of folk lore Churton
laughed, said that he felt better for his
tiflin, and went out. Pack had been tiffin-
ing by himself to the rightof the arch, and
hpl rn.-1-