The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1893-10-07
SAILED THE PACIFIC
ROMANTIC TALE OF A NAVIGATOR
Wonderful Book of EARLY Travels Now
at The Fair-Fact and Fiction
Beautifully XnterwoNen.

the other day, as II rang IN celebration
of the discovery of the Pacific ocean by
Balboa. He was interested as to the
cause of the ringing.
When told the date of the discovery,
ne shrugged his shoulders scornfully and
said: "Come, I show you something,
the first man that ever rode on the
ocean"
He led the way to the India building
over by the lake and took from one of
mis- trunks book that is 100 years old.
It is yellow and widowed with age, and
some of the pictures and writing are
half blotted out. 1t contains the won
derful story in the old Hindoo language,
with crude colored illustrations, of the
first man who ever went forth on the
surface of the unknown deep.
A woman was the cause.
AS the old priest explained in his bro
ken English the meaning Of the pictures
without perspectives, an additional
charm was lent to this original attempt
at fiction. The unlearned natives of
India vet believe it to be real history.
The book was saved from the sack of
priests house during the Lepoy mutiny.
The first picture represents four wo-
men. wading out into the sea. The first
has resting on her extended hand large
green parrot. She was the daughter of
the king of an island 1000 miles from
India. The other women were her
maids. The princess though most beau
tiful was 90 years old and unmarried.
This is an unusual circumstance in the
orient, where most girls are married at
- and IA years of age. But the beauti-
full princess saw no man on her fathers
island whom she could love, So she sent
the parrot, which she had taught to
talk, to a distant land to find her a hus-
band. The picture represents her car
rying the bird the first few steps of the
journey.
PAUL MADE A LONG FLIGHT.
The parrot went over the 1000 miles
of water to India. 1t accosted a ser
want of the rajah of India, who caught
it, aud gave it to his master. The king
put it in big cage, and hung the cage
in his favorite wife's room. One day
the wife dressed herself in her finest
robes, and asked her maid If she was
beautiful, The maid, using the fulsome
language of the East and its extrava-
giant hyperbole, told her that she was
most beautiful. The vain woman turned
to the parrot and asked if she were not
beautiful. The bird told her no; that
she was ugly, and that she was like
little taper light to the great sun when
compared with its former mistress.
The queen ordered the maid to take
the parrot out and kill it at once, but
the maid knew that the king was fond
Of the bird and did not kill 1t.
When the king came home he inquired
for the parrot, and his queen told him
that she had killed it.
He was so grieved that the maid told
him the bird was not dead. The king
confronted the queen with it and asked
why they had quarreled The parrot
told him, and also dwelt upon the charms
of the beautiful princess in her island
home. The king resolved to find her,
and guided by the parrot, he built "a big
boat with a prov like horses head
and sailed for the first time in history
out of sight of land. Landing on the
island he disguised himself as beggar.
The bird led the way flying and the beg
gar king followed.
The princess and her mother had gone
TO the temple to worship the idols to
whom the mother lamented that her
daughter was nearly p years old and
still had no husband. The god of love,
who did not look al all like Cupid, told
her that husband for her daughter was
outside.
When the princess came out into the
daylight the king of India tainted, she
was so exceedingly beautiful. The next !
day, despairing of winning her, he
tried to burn himself to death, but god !
appeared as he lay on the self-built |
funeral pyre and told him the princess
would love him in few days.. After he !
had won her hand he told her father that
he was king of India. So they were
married, and sailed over the ocean for
India.
FIRST OF THE SEA SERPENT.