The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-07-11
BEYOND THE PALE.
By RUDYARD KIPLING.


A man should, whatever happens, keep
to his own caste race and breed, Let
the white go to the white and the black
to the black. Then whatever trouble
falls is in the ordinary course of things
neither sudden, alien nor unexpected.
This is the story Of q man who will
frlly stepped beyond the safe limits Of
decent everyday society and paid for it
heavily.
He kneu too much in the first in.
stance, and he saw too much in the
second. He took too deep an interest in
native life. But he will never do so
again.
Deep away in the heart of the city,
behind Jitha Megii's bustec, lies Amir
Mathis gully, which ends in dead
wall pierced by one grated window AT
the head of the gully is big cowbyre
and the walls on either side of the gully
are without windows. Neither Suchet
Singh nor Gaur Chand approves Of hi3
women folk looking into the world. .lf
Durga Charan had been of their o1}in
ion, he would have been a happieY man
today, and little Bisesa woulT have
been able to knead her own br1td. Her
room looked out through tHe grated
window into the narrow Ozark gully,
where the sun never came and where
the buffaloes walowed inIhe blue slime
She was widow, aboU 5 years old.
and she prayed the gP5ds day and night
to send her lover, .for she did not APP
prove Of living aloYe.
One day the mIn-T Trejago his name
was-came intpAmir Mathis gully on
an aimless waTdering and after he had
passed the brIfaloes stumbled over big
heap of cattle food
Then hI5 saw that the gully ended in
trap pmd heard little laugh from
behind/ the grated window. 1t was a
pretty little laugh, and Treiago, know
ing that for all practical purposes the
OLD "Araban Nights" are good guides,
Went forward to the window and whis-
pered that verse of "The Love Song of
Har Dyal, " which begins
Can man stand upright in tho face of the
naked sun or u lover i'll the presence of his be-
loved2
If my feet fail me, o heart of my heart, am
to blame, being blinded by the glimpse Of
your beauty
There came the faint tchinks Of a
woman's bracelets from behind the
grating, and little voice went on with
the song at the fifth verse:
Alas, nlas Can the moon tell tho Lotus of her
love when tho gate of heaven is shut and the
clouds gather for the rains2
They have taken my beloved and driven hor
with tho pnck horses to the north.
There arc iron chains on the feet that were
set on my heart
Call to the bowmen to make ready
The voice stopped suddenly, and Tre-
jago walked out of Amir Maths gully
wondering who in the world could have
capped "The Love Song of Har Dyal'
30 neatly.
4,
office, an old woman threw q packet
into his dogcart. In the packet was the
half Of a broken glass bangle one flower
Of the blood red dhak, a pinch of bhusa
or cattle food and Ii cardamoms That
packet was a letter-not a clumsy, com
promising letter, but an innocent unin-
telligible lovers epistle.
Trejago knew far too much about
these things, as | have said. No Eng
lishman should be able to translate OBJ
]ect letters. But Trejago spread all the
trit1es on the lid of his office box and
began to puzzle them out.
A broken glass bangle stands for q
Hindoo widow all India over. because,
when her husband dies, a woman's
bracelets are broken on her wrists Tre-
Jago saw tho meaning of the little bit
Of the glass The flower of the dhak
means diversely "desire," come"
write or danger" according to the
other things with it, One cardamom
means Jealousy" but when any arti-
Gle Is duplicated in an object letter it
loses it's symbolic meaning and stands
merely for one of Il number indicating
time, or, If incense curds or saffron be
sent also place. The message ran then
IA widow-dhak flower and bhusa-
at Ii o'clock. The pinch of bhusa en-
lightend Trejago. He saw-this kind Of
letter leaves much to instructive knowl-
edge-that the bhusa referred to the
big heap Of cattle food over which he
had fallen in Amir Mathis gully, and
that the message must come from the
person behind the grating, she being a
widow SO the message ran then: ga
widow. in the gully in which is the head
OF bhusa, desires you to come at II
o'clock.
So he went that very night at II into
Amir Mathis gully, clad in boorka,
which cloaks man as well as wom-
an Directly the gongs in the city made
the hour the little voice behind the
grating took up "The Love Song of Har
Dyal" at the verse where the Paythan
girl calls upon Har Dyal to return The
L.
In the English you miss the wall of it
1t runs something like this:
Alone upon the house tops, to the north
turn and watch the lightning in tho sky
The glamour # thy footsteps in the north
Come back to mo. beloved or de
Below my feet the still bazaar Is laid;
Ear, far below the weary camels lie
The camols and the captives of thy raid.
Como back to me. beloved, or de
My fathers wife is old and harsh with years
J And drudge OF all my fathers house am l.
MY bread Ia sorrow, and my drink Is teara
Come back to me, beloved. or de
AS the song stopped Trejago stepped
up under the grating and whispered,
II am here.
} Bisesa was good to look upon.
night Vas the beginning OF
& q. etge things and Of double
SO wild that Trejago today some
times wonders if it were not all a
dream Bisesa or her old handmaiden
who had thrown the object letter had
detached the heavy grating from the
brickwoIk OF the wall, 80 that the
window slid inside, leaving only a