Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-16
CHAPTER |.


1t WAS common talk in the bazaars when
Yah MaEommed came to town; the Mussul-
man grew a little more truculent, and the
patient Hindu a trife more obsequious. A
thousand men at a thousand city gates
would bow the nselyes to the very ground
when the great old Moslem passed out or
in Probably one man in the thousand
knew why he bowed so low. but Mahom-
med's keen gray eyes ever sought out the
one Perchance a glance flashed and was
lost ere the rest had time to see, and then
well strange things happen unaccounta-
hly in this hoary land. things seeming to
the uninitiated without cause or sequence
such as the sudden rising of some mad
Mul'ah who, without rhyme or reason
runs amuck in his little mud fort and keeps
the border all astir; or the Kyberie police
grow reslive. and close the pass to Afghan
ard Hindu alike, till recalled to their
senses by the sight of a mountain battery
and a few score little brown Goorkhas
creeping over the ghauts below
But these. and such things-what were
they 20 Yah Mahommed?
All the way from Cahu to Bombay there
was hardly a better known name or a less
known man. The magic in his mere name
had been recognized SO long and banded
back and forth much that it was quite
inuossible To separate the true from the
false One day he was heard of over on
the northwest frontier leading some wild
tribesmans rush. or at least inspiring II;
yet the very next morning he would be
seen in the Bombay horse market. peace
fully haEgling over his Baluchi mares with
Jnrahiee Hortibhoy. the ParSee banker.
There was never a rising from the Great
Nutiny down to Il fractional holiday night in
the slums, that did Tot claim him for lis
sponsor Some even whispered of the Mana
OF Pithdur- But pShaw, we all know he
died like u dog in the Terai. official docu-
mcnts Notwithstanding. There were others
who swore he was the great Aurunzemund
himself. back in the flesh. while north ana
south and east and west men lied and
claimed to lie akin to him: fal<irs and beg
gars alike treasured the coin he had care
IeSSIy flung in the duSt-tredSured it though
their knees were trembling and their eyes
dim for lack of the little rice the coin
would have bought.
Such according to the gossip of the ba-
zaars was Yah Mahommed. And he? Well,
he smiled in his long white beard and held
his peace.
As a matter of TACT. the real Mahommed
was as far beyond the ken of the wonder
Inongers Of the Chandi Chauk and the Ben
di Bazaar as is possible to ina ine. A
scattered few-pTiests, fakirs and the like
perhaps knew the manner of man he truly
was. and these few naturally followed the
Now. there was Il woman in BOmbay-a
woman of the baZaars-whose fame in
lesser manner had also spread to the Chan
di Chauk and beyond by reason of her gift
of divination and her ability to cast spells.
There are. or were. many native sOrceresses
in the town. of more or less dSrepute: but
odl was unique. First, she was neither
old nor ugly; secondly, she wasn't diSrepu-
table; and thirdly, she saw through men
and things though the veil which ordi-
narily hides their real inwardness had been
of clear glass. And she moved them. too,
even as she listed: so that she stood first
and alone of her kind, even before the whis-
per grew that Yah Mahommed had set the
seal of his approval on her. After that
men. Bent to touch the hem of her robe
she passed them in the cool of the evening
and would possibly have annoyed her with
their abiect devotion but for the grim
watch dog. Ben Israel Ben Alif the huge
n,isshapen dwarf. very Son of Sheitan
who followed always at the ladys heels
and made no bones of hustling the faithful
and dccursed alike into the gutter if they
drew too near the "Chand XII Beu" Oaugh
ter of the Noon. And they mad SO often
witnessed his prowess that they rarely at
tempted reprsals. or did aught but snarl