The Morris County chronicle., 1908-06-02
THE PROLOGUE.
Scene, India. Time, Eighteenth Cen.
tury.

NAOAC SAA1A q JCaA6 dHO dA
elderly priest was sitting under the
pilastered portico of little temple
just outside the village of Chandra-
curry, in Southern Mysore.
1t was the ordinary village of the
place and period, fortified by low
mud wall, and consisted of lines of
two-storied houses, gay with broad
vertical stripes of red and white and
rooted with tile or ragged Palmyra
leaves.
The temple was the private proper
ty of the old priest, Acharya Chick,
who, though subject to the super
vision and control of the head guru
of the Jains, was free in most re-
spects to conduct his ministrations
as he pleased.
Chick, however, being a good and
earnest old man, with the simplicity
of child, was strictly conscientious
in the performance of his duties, took
an honest pride in the appointments
OF his temple and derived no more
than a modest livelihood from his
priestly calling
AS he sat outside ON the stone
bench, where he was accustomed to
collect his thoughts for the service
which began the working day, he was
troubled by doubts and perplexities
which had only of late begun to assail
his tranquil faith.
Quite recently he had been called
upon to include q new saint in his
pantheon, and to one of his consery-
atiye instincts this was disturbing,
1t came about in this wise. Some
twenty years or SO before a lad had
run wild in the village bazaar: he
was OF unknown parentage and
adopted by one of the workers in
brass who formed a section of the
inhabitants and were Jains to a man.
There was nothing, to an uniniti-
ated eye, to distinguish him from
other naked children, unless it was
the superior force of will and ingen-
uity which procured him the leader
ship in all mischievous enterprises.
until one day when the guru from the
Jain headquarters at BelIigola came
over on his periodical visit of inspec-
ton and made a startling discovery.
1t was two thousand years since
the last tirthanker of the present era
has passed away, and the first of the
succeeding one was already consider
ably overdue.
Now the guru had perceived that
this expected tirthankar had actually
taken up his mortal habitation in the
body of this lad There could he NO
possible mistake on this point, for
the body bore every one of the mystic
signs and marks which denoted his
high mission.
This revelation, as might be ex-
pected, made all the difference in the
world to the youths prospects. For
ne could not be left to develop un-
aided-since he might conceiyably
rail-, and then all the business of in
carnating tirthankar would have
TO be gone through over again; he
must be trained, and trained care
fully.
So they put him under fit teach
ers, and the mystic name of Chalanka
was conferred upon him, and he
studied natural magic, in which he
soon became proficient, at the feet
OF an eminent yogi of great sanctitv
and uncleanliness.
1t was said, indeed, that Chalanka
ala not invariably make the highest
use OF his occult knowledge, and that
MS miracles to the end of his days
rather resembled the more ill-natured
kind of practical jokes; but these
miracles will have that tendency
when the saint is enthusiastic and
young.
Chalanka grew up strong, bold. by
no means uncomely, and in time he
passed his novitiate, becoming await
or ascetic Of the first class: he emf
on his hair, wore robes of a tawny
hue-which became much tawnier-
and confined his personal luggage to
bundle of peacock's feathers and
an earthern pot
Years went on and his wisdom
was pronounced ripe for gathering,
ne had his remaining hairs plucked
out by the roots; he unrobed at his
simple meals, and disciples were told
on TO attend upon him, to hearken
to his discourse and store them up
Tor future transmission.
Another period elapsed and Cha
lanka dismissed his grateful diseinles
and established himself in a sort ne
hermitage up among the rocks.
where he was to remain for years.
silent, in seIf-centered contemplation
He was not often to be seen there
by the curious, for he possessed the
power of making himself invisible.
Sometimes at night in the thicket
near the Brahman temple a shadowy
form was seen gliding and prowling,
the projection from the holy hermit
who sat like stone in the cell far
above among the heights; some
times a fierce wild laugh rang out
over the crags and cliffs, and those
who heard knew then that Chalanka
was in one of his holy frenzies, and
would not have disturbed him for
their lives.
And then In the most unforeseen
way-he died. They found his
corpse lying stiff and frozen at the
foot of a precipice, which, had he
been an ordinary person, 1t would
nave been said that he had fallen
over.
Now nobody had expected him to
die for years to come, still less to
CO from ovfete,,oa ,...4t. ....