San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-03-15
HEART OF TIE WORLD.
BY H. RIDER HAGdARD.
strange Story, Taken From a Manuscript Be.
qneathed by an Old Mexican Indian to His
Friend and Comrade, an English.
man Named Jones,

ously. IF you desire to know will
tell you. 1t is everything. How did
come to break my troth and to take
your daughter as a wife? Through
you, Natal, through you, the liar and
false prophet. Did you not swear to
me that Maya was dead yOnder in the
wilderness? And did you not, to
satisfy your own ambitions, force me
on to take your daughter to wife, ay,
and is not this marriage between the
Lady of the Heart and the white man
plot of yours, devised for the further
ing of your ends?"
Now, while all stood astoniShed, of a
sudden Nahua, who hitherto had lis
tened in stony silence, rose and said:
My lord Tikal forgets that common
courtesy should protect even an unwel-
come wife from public insult" Then
she turned and left the hall by the door
which was behind her.
Now a murmur of pity for the lady
and indignation against the man ran
through the company, and as it died
away Tikal said:
Evil will come of this nights work
and in it will have no hand. Do what
you will and abide the ISSUE" and be-
fore any could speak in answer he also
had left the hall followed by his guards.
For awhile there was silence, then
folk began to talk confusedly, and
some of the members of the Brother
hood of the Heart, rising from their
chairs, took hurried counsel together.
AT length they reseated themselves,
and, holding up his hand to secure
quiet, Natal spoke thus:
Forgive me-" he said, addressing the
audience, ''if my words seem few and
rough, but it is hard for me to be calm
in the face of the open insult which has
been put upon my daughter and myself
before you all. will not stoop to an
swer the charges that the lord Tikal
has brought against me in his rage.
Surely, some evil power must have af-
ficted him with madness, that, forget
ting his honor as a man and his duty as
a prince and priest, he should dare to
utter such 'calumnies against the god
we worship, the white man whom the
god has chosen to be a husband to the
Lady Maya, and myself, the keeper of
the sanctuary. There were many
among you who held me foolish when,
after much prayer and thought, to fur
ther what believed to be the true in
terests of the whole people, gave my
voice in favor of the lifting up of Tikal
to fill the place and honor of cacique
in room of our late prince, Zibalbay,
whom we thought dead with his daugh-
ter in the wilderness. Tonight l see
that they were right, and that was
foolish indeed.
But enough of regrets and bitter
talk that make i'll music at marriage
feast. Tikal, the head of our hierarchy,
has gone, but other priests are left, nor
e., l. e he rtyin 81 ha TA,,roi1 %
the People of the Heart, for whom the
Council Speaks. Their will it is that
this marriage should go forward. and
Dimas, my brother, as the Oldest
among US, l call upon you to celebrate
it."
Now the company shouted in ap-
plause, for they were set upon this
strange union of a white man with their
lady, if only because it was a new thing
and touched their imagination, and
even those of them who were of his party
were wroth with Tikal on account of
his i'll behavior and the cruel affront that
he had offered to his new-made wife.
So soon as the tumult had died away
the old priest, Dimas, rose, and taking
the hands of Maya and the senior, he
Joined them and said a very touching
and beautiful prayer over them, bless
ing them and entreating the spirit,
Heart of Heaven, and other gods to give
them increase and to make them happy
in each others love.
Lastly, he laid white silken cloth
which had been prepared upon their
heads as they knelt before him, and,
loosing the emerald girdle about the
waist of the bride, took her right hand
and placed it upon the arm of the
senior, then he bound the girdle round
wrist and arm, bucklsd it, and in few
solemn words declaPed these twain to
be man and wife in the face of Heaven
and earth till death undid them.
Now the cloth was lifted and the cir
die loos2d, and standing upon their feet
the new wed pair kissed each other be-
fore the people. A shout of Joy went
up that Shook the paneled roof, and
one by one. in order of their rank, the
guests pressed forward to wish Joy to
the bride and bridegroom, most of them
bringing some costly and beautiful
gift, which they gave into the charge of
the waiting ladies. Last of all came
the old priest, Dimas, and said:
Sweet bride, the gift that am COM
manded by the council to make to you,
though of little value in itself, is yet
one of the most precious to be found
within the walls of this ancient city,
being nothing less than the holy sym
boil of the all-seeing Eye of the Heart
of Heaven, which through you men be-
hold to-day for the first time for many
generations.
"Wear it always, lady, and remember
that, though this jewel has no sight,
yet that eye of which it is token from
hour to hour reads your most secret
soul and purpose. Make your thoughts,
then, as fair as your body, and let your
breast harbor neither guile nor evil, for
of all these things in day to come you
must surely give account.
AS he spoke he drew from the case
that hid it nothing less than that awful
eye which we had seen within the hol
low of the heart when with unhallowe6
hands we robbed it, substituting the
false for the true. Now it had been sci
in band of gold and hung to colder
chain which he placed about her neck
so that the red and cruel-loolzing gen
lay cleaning on her naked breast
Maya bowed and muttered some word!
of thanks, but 1 saw that her spirit
failed her at the touch of the ominou!
thing, for she turned faint and woulC
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