Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-19

feels that he is wounded ana that tney
have taken him prisoner.
Nine days he, with other captives. travels,
bound and guarded by the warriors OF As
sarkhadon On the tenth day he is brought
to Ninevah and placed in cage. Laii:e
suffers less from hunger and from his
wound than from shame and impotent
anger He feels that he is unable to
avenge himself on his enemy for all that
to give his enemies the pleasure of seeing
his sufferings; and he firmly resolves to en-
dure courageously. without murmur. all
they can do to him.
For twenty days he sits in his cage
awaiting execution. He sees his relations
and friends led to execution. He hears the
groans of those who are executed. Some
have their hands and feet cut off. others
are f1ayed alive, but he shows neither dis
quietude nor pity nor fear. He sees the
wife he loved bound and led away by the
eunuchs- He knows she is being taken as
slave to Assarkhadon. And he bears
that, too, without a murmur.
But now two executionerS open his cage
door, and, having strapped his arms tight
behind him, they lead him to the place of
execution, which is soaked with blood.
Lailie sees 4 sharp stake dripping with
blood from which the corpse of one of his
friends has just been wrenched, and he I'M
derstands that this has been done that the
stake may serve for his own execution.
Lailie is stripped of his clothes He is
startled at the leanness of his once strong,
handsome body. The two executioners
seize that body by it's lean thighs they lift
him up and are about to let him fall upon
the stake.
This is death, destruction" thinks Lailie,
and forgetful of his decision to remain
bravely calm to the end, he sobs and prays
for mercy. But no one listens to him.
But this cannot be- thinks he. Surely
am asleep. 1t is a dream" And he makes
an effort to rouse himself Surely / am
not Lailie but Assarkhadon."
You are both Laile and Assarkhadon,
declares a voice and he feels that his eyacu-
ton has begun. He cries out, and at the
same moment lifts his head out of the font.
The old man stands over him, pour
ing on to his head the last drops from the
jug.
''Oh, how terribly have I suffered! And
for how long!' said Assarkhadon
'Long?" replied the old man. You have
only dipped your head under water and
lifted it again. See, the water lis not yet
all out of the jug. Have you now under
stood?"
Assarkhadon did not reply, but only look
ed at the old man with terror
Have you now understood" continued
the old man, that Laiie is you, and the
warriors you put to death We're you also?
And not the warriors only, but the animals
you slew when hunting and ate at your
feasts were also you. You think life dwells
in you alone, but l have drawn aside the
veil of the delusion, and have let you see
that by doing evil to others you have done
1t to yourself also. Life is one in them all,
of this common life And only in that one
part of life that is in you can you make
HE better or worse, can you increase or
decrease it. You can only improve life in
yourself by destroying the barriers that
divide your life from that of others, and
by considering others yourself-and low
ing them. To destroy the life that dwelIs
in others is not in your power The life of
those you have slain has vanished from
your eyes. but it is not destroyed You
thought to lengthen your own life and to
shorten theirs but you cannot do this. Life
knows neither time nor space. The life of
a moment ard the life of thousand years
your life and the life of all the visible and
invisible beings in the world are equal,
10 destroy'lif or to alter it, is impossible.
lof NE Is the one thing that exists. All
else nut seems to us to be-
Having said this. the old man vanished
Next morning King Assarkhadon gave or
uerS that Lailie and all the prisoners should
De set at liberty, and that the executions
should cease.
On the third day he called his son Assur-
banlpal and gave the kingdom over into his
nands. and he himself first went into the
desert TO think over what he had learnt
+a1terWafd he began to go about as a wan
derer through the towns and villages
preaching to the people that all life is one,
ana that men only harm themselves when
'hey wish to do evil to others.