Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-09

to turn the ring upon her left big toe twice around, then swallowed the re- maining contents of the glass.
 The sultan, in laconic way, muttered "Buss, upesi, vema, lema'-very good ; make no more hourishes; speak, speak the truth"
 Withdrawing the sillten scroll which unfurled itself like an endless serpent be- fore her, the sultana clasped her hands around her tented knees, and without once casting a glance upon its ribboned length, but, gazing with mellow occult eyes, strongly expressive behind their half-closed lids, she clucked her tongue in the oriental fashion, gave way to her reigning emotions-her breast heavng, her hands and body quivering, her atti- tude became languid and in droning tones of a Syble, this said she:
 Allah, Allah! bear witness whereof Aznida speaks. In country far from hence there loomed up giant mountain, granite hard as the Rock of Gibraltar. He dared kiss at monday time the sum- the regal moon condescended to loiter upon his noble brow when out of cres- cent; she gloriously grew to Spheric splen- dor and with prodigality flung her silver sheened robes about him to his very feet which were lapped by amorous blue sea. Thus imposingly robed in Heavenly mag nificence the poor, deluded sea saw him mirrowed upon her surface, and with swelling heart lost sense of place and ceased to remember that she was of the depths and he of the supernal heights, star-beslght and unattainable." Aznida dropper her eyes and moaned compass sionately. Alas, poor, poor sea! How well know I the measure of this cruel enchantment leading thee"
 Fuss! Buss! Buss!' calculated the sultan to silence Aznida's sentimental, personal drift. "The legend is set forth upon the scroll better than thy babbling. Go on"
 With a startled air she made a salaam to the sultan and resumed:
 Allah Allah! bear witness whereof Aznida speaks Daily, nightly, hourly the sea approached the mountains feet; anon and anon rippled, sang and sighed in love-sick manner. Crazed by his sol- emn indifference, she whipped herself in- to foamng rage; she dashed through the vast main and tossed herself in shat tered spray around his stolid feet. Un- moved he stood All her handmaidens marshalled she; first Lurline, with bland- ishments, fioatest in upon her breast; sung most bewitchingly of love- of des- tiny, of faithfulness, of mysteries close kept in grottoes of the sea-yet, created as was he in granite. impregnable stood the giant! Then summoned the sea her hordes of nereides, the forked lightning twisted like fiery SerpentS through their SeaWeeQ tTeSSeS, ana they nOWleu ana ut tered with breath of tempestuouS wind, imprecated him and made sinister threats against his foothold Still there fle stood untouched, unaffrighted, as had he stood since world was by Allah created Poor, dejected sea a lesson hard had learned, and in agony took counsel of Neptune, who sagely roared with paternal wisdom: Do thou as mortal woman-be sweet, be coy; do not bankrupt myself by thrift less giving of all myself unsought. Let the giant mountain yearn for thee, hun ger for one embrace, until in humble pleading he bends at thy feet. Play Ju- no! Set all thy would-be lovers at sword S point by thy coquetry, and, mark thee well, the giant mountain, with heart of stone, as thy lover will soon to confes- sion of his love come when rivalry waxes warm"
 Sea, most perplexed, tried arduously to play her new role, but patience failed her most disastrously, and when the mel low warmth of summer days was gone and winter chill succeeded the waning of autumn in bitterness of cold, her heart was stirred with vengeance. She then vowed if she could not rule she would ruin.
 "In thunderous mighty waves she mounted high; at first she only reached trifie above the mark of tides, but after many frantic efforts In gathered volume at last she spread up and over his breast and, tarrying moment. heard the throb of a volcanic fire surging deep down be- heath the frigid granite surface. Alas, unwary sea! Yearning still more for recognition, tarried she all too long, for the frost king discovered her lurking with unmaidenly curiosity in the crevices which wrinkled the giants crest, and with unabated tyranny demanded the penal ty. congealed her breast to breast against the giant. In agony of seeming death her tumultuous veins did swell in hot re- bellion and rent asunder from crest to foundation the giant rock, and both to- gether went crashing down to her native haunt, the giant shattered into countless myraids of glittering grains of sand, and the sea victorious. carried him beleaguer- ed in her resistless embrace from shore to shore until one day, so careless had she grown of her conquest, of her long, sought prize, feeling secure in her posses sion, that the single grain in which re- sided the very spark of the mountain g soul escaped her vigilance and sought hiding place of refuge in the shell domain of a mollusk, where even her insidious elements could not penetrate.
 This imprisoned gem, wearied with the darkness and monotony of its exiled life, estranged even from the obsequious sea, lay and festered in the heart of the unsel- fish oyster a decade after to be brought up in the net of a pearl fisherman, a very ingrate, having destroyed Its ben efactor.
 "A guerdon proved this gem of rare pink lustre and monster size, sought for and purchased by a satrap most rich, who bought it as gift of loyal subject to his sultan, who was my father, and with the behest that it might be some time bestowed upon the most beautiful, the loveliest, the purest woman of the race"
 The end of the silken scroll slipped from the sultan's hands and she turned her eyes upon the listeners and pathet- ically said:
 White woman, that pearl by my fa- ther was given me as a marriage gifti Do you marvel 1t breaks my heart to part with the insignia of my beauty, my puri- ty. my loveliness?"
 "BussI Buss! Stop! Hush" cried out the sultan, vexed at Aznda's persist ence Surely it is time thou holdeth