Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1900-08-25
The LLAMA'S CURSE.
A Story of Thibetan MAGIC.

! eign. pushed the latter over toward
him with my left hand, and with my
right raised the water bottle to dilute
my whisky.
Your change, Tom said /.
Eyes. of course" said Tom, who was
absorbed in the story he was telling me-
lie put out his hand as If to pick the
money up, but seemed to remember some
thing, for he drew his hand back sud
denly.
Good heaven" said he, ''and / had
! forgotten that
lie took out his handkerchief, wrapped
| 1t around the forefnger of his right
hand, and then, with the forefinger so
covered, gently scraped the money to-
wards him, riece by piece, and earnestly
! looked at each coin.
| Now, look here, Tom" said T, "this
| Is a very pretty story that You have been
| telling me, but don't try and give it an
air Of reality by a performance like
that"
You can believe it or not. just as you
like" said Tom, but l tell you, Fred,
that piece of money is coming along this
way some day. | have seen it once,
and--I left it on the table. You don't
catch me touching any coin while / am
certain that one is i'll circulation But
"Urga is one of the most peculiar
places you could think of, and one of our
first duties was ~ present ourselves to
the Grand Llama. We had to get
palanquin, for it was only meet that
Europeans of our importance should @,
Ill state, and it was while en- route that
we suddenly came to the praying mill.
This was sort of roundabout, with
huge wooden posts sticking out at the
side, which every Bhuddist passing was
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 it around at its topmost pace
! The square where the mill was erected
was pretty well filed with people, and
| when some of those saw what had. been
| done they came rushing toward us, shout
| ing and gesticulating. Phil had undoubt-
| eddy committed n Sacrllege, and | was
fearful for his safety. These fanatical
| Mongolians, once their religion is assaulted
have no mercy upon the assailant.
Phil came hurriedly back to me.
! jumped into the palanquin, and ordered
| the bearers to get on. But they were
| struck dumb with terror. The mob came
for us. smashed in the doors of the
| pdIdHIulH, uIdSSCu IT'S out, anu LOT LWl
minutes there was the liveliest fight on
record going on. We got the worst of it,
| and bruised, bleeding and insensible, were
carted off to prison.
I'VE 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 es-
cort of soldiers, and it was not long be-
| fore we arrived at the frontier, the town
of Miamatshin, which really is the Mon
golian portion of Kiakta. We were TAX
en- 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 carried. and were
! commanded to sit down few yards
from the posts. Not twenty feet away
were the black and white posts of the
| Russians, and it was indeed something
to gladden. our eyes to see the brown coat
| and the astrachan feZ of the Russian
Cossack who stood there on sentry.
Our guards spread themselves out
| then there came forward Bhuddist
priest, who began to talk to us in Il
| jargon which, of course, we could not
understand. He finished at length and
produced from his robe wire on which
were threaded some hundreds of brass
cash, which the Chinese always carry.
He took two of the cash off the wire
and laid them i'll 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 be-
fore us.
"Th,t was all. The priest departed.
the So ldicr escorted us to the posts. the
Russian sentry presented his rifle and we
presented our passports. We passed over
and brcathed the comparatively free air
| of Russia Our first duty when we were
III klakta was to so straight TO the gov
ernor and lay orr complaint before him,
! He was a.itatcd when ne heard of the
| ceremony NJ the frontier, and told us that
the Buddhist priest had put into circula-
| ton two coins which had received the
sun gods curse. and that these coins
would circulate throughout the world,
harmless 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--,he coins might not
! come To us as brass cash. they might
como 20 Ms as Il kopeck piece, or as :,
! rouhic; rs marks or pfennlgS, as francs
or centimCS, as ANYTHING, wherever We
! might he We should nrvCs know when
they were coming; we should take them
! in the ordinary way; we should handle
them. hut only for one moment; the next
moment we should bc dead"
One day Tom sent for me. and il was ~
/ tell me that he was going 10 be married.
I This struck me rs something peculiar. for
had thought Tom Morton was one az
/ the last men likely 10 fall in love. The
wedding duly came Of. everybody was
/ pleased, and Tom and his bride went
away 10 the south Of France. \ few
/ more weeks rolled ny and Tom returned.
! There was TO be q reception ut their
/ London house. and the invitation which
. Was sent me was one which l could not
/ we'll refuse
/ In the evening l had tho opportunity as
chat with Tom. We had gone out on