Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1900-09-06
THE LLAlLA'S CURSE
A Story of Tibetan Magic.


The waiter brought us drink and the
change out of Tom Martins half soy
ereign. l pushed the latter over to
ward him with my left hand, and will
the right raised the water bottle tC
dilute my whisky.
'Your change, Tom," said 1.
"Yes, of course" said Tom, who was
absorbed in the story he was telling
me- He put out his hand as if to picE
the money up, but seemed to remember
something, for he drew his hand bach
suddenly.
Good heavenw said he, "and 1 had
forgotten that"
He took out his handkerchief, wrap
ped it around the forefnger of his
right hand and then, with the fore
finger so covered, gently scraped the
money toward him, piece by piece, and
earnestly looked at each coin.
"Now, look here, Tom," said l, ''this
is a very pretty story that you have
been telling me, but don't try and give
it an air of reality by performance
like that"
"You can believe it or not, just as
you like" said Tom, 'but 1 tell you
Fred, that piece of money is coming
along this way some day. l have seen
it once and-I left it on the table
You don't catch me touching any coin
while l am certain that one is in cir
culation. But let me conclude what
was telling you.
"Urga is one of the most peculiar
places you could think of, and one OF
our first duties was to present our
selves to the grand llama. We had to
get palanquin, for it was only meet
that Europeans of our Importance
should go in state, and it was while en-
route that we suddenly came to the
praying mill. This was a sort of
roundabout with huge wooden posts
sticking out at the side. which every
Buddhist passing ~as supposed to take
hold of and push the mill round at
least once.
what caused Phil to do what he
did then I don't know, but something
seemed to impel him to get out of the
palanquin, make run over to the mill
catch hold of one Of the wooden posts
and commence to push 1t around at Its
topmost pace. The square where the
mill was erected was pretty well filled
with people, and when some of those
saw what had been done they came
rushing toward us, shouting and ges-
ticulating. Phil had undoubtedly com
mitted a sacrilege, and 1 was fearful
for his safety. These fanatical Mon
golians, once their religion is assailed
in any shape or form, would certainly
have no mercy upon the assailant.
"Phil came burYiedly back to me,
jumped into the palanquin and order
ed the bearers to get on. But they
were struck dumb with terror. The
mob came for us, smashed in the doors
of the palanquin, dragged us out, and
for two minutes there was the liveliest
fight on record going on. We got the
worst of it and, bruised, bleeding and
insensible, were carted of to prison.
eve were taken before the grand
llama, and then and there he ordered
US to be sent across the Siberian from
tier with the utmost dispatch. The
next day we were hurried along under
an escort of soldiers, and it was not
long before we arrived at the frontier,
the town of Miamatshin, which really
is the Mongolian portion of Kiakta.
We were taken along to the yellow
posts which marked the actual frontier,
and there the soldiers of the llama
stopped. We were removed from the
palanquin in which we had been car
ried and were commanded to sit down
a few yards from the posts. Not 20
feet away were the black and white
posts of the Russians, and 1t was in
deed something to gladden. our eyes 70
see the brown coat and the astrakhan
feZ of the Russian Cossack who stood
there on sentry.
"Our guards spread themselves out,
then there came forward q Buddhist
priest, who began to talk to us in a
iargon which, of course, we could not
understand. He finished at length and
produced from his robe a wire on
which were threaded some hundreds
of brass cash which the Chinese al
ways carry. He took two of the cash
off the wire and laid them in front of
us on the ground.
"Then the priest began waving his
arms about, and the Mongolians took
out their hand prayer mills and began
turning them for all they were worth.
The voice Of the priest then rose on
the air. He said three or four words
and spat deliberately at each of the
coins which had been put on the
ground before US.
"That was all. The priest departed,
the soldier escorted us to the posts, the
Russian sentry presented his rifle and
we presented our passports. we pass
ed over and breathed the comparative
ly free air of Russia. Our first duty
when we were in Kiakta was to go
straight to the governor and lay our
complaint before him. He was agitat-
ed when he heard of the ceremony at
the frontier, and told us that the Bud
dhist priest had put into circulation two
coins which had received the sun god s
course and that these coins would
circulate throughout the world, harm
less to everybody except the two they
were destined for. The instant pos
session of either of these by the person
cursed would mean immediate destruc-
ton.
''Nor was this all, the coins might not
come to us as brass cash. they might
come to us as a kopeck piece, or as
ruble, as marks or pfennlgs, as francs
or centimes, as anything, wherever 1t
might be- We should never know
when they were coming; we should
take them in the ordinary way; we
should handle them, but only for one
moment, the next moment we should
be dead"
One day Tom sent for me, and 1t was
to tell me that he was going TO be
married. This struck me as something
peculiar, for | had thought Tom Nor
ton was one Of the last men likely to
fall in love TlAe wedding duly came