St. Tammany farmer., 1914-10-10

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When the hunters arrived at the
portico Of the temple they found two
greatly terrified holy men. shrilline
their "Ai! All" in lamentation and
beating their foreheads against the
earth.
Holy men, what is wrong?" asked
one Of the hunters. respectfully.
".The lion has killed our priestess;
the sacred fires must die again! Al!
Ait"
where is the lion7"
'They fed toward the river. and
there he has doubtless destroyed her
for in evil silva, represented by the
lion, Is more powerful than Vishnu, re
incarnated in our priestess. Al! Al!
She Is dead and we are undone!"
Come" said the chief huntsman
Let t-us run to the river and see what
these qleer gods are doing. Wei
present the skin Of silva to our mas
teri" He laughed.
The leopard carriers deposited thei1
burden and all started of at q dog
trot. They had always been eager re
| garding this lion. In the temple he
was inviolable; but at large, that waa
q different matter.
Arriving at the river brink, they
saw the footprints Of the lion on the
wet sand which ran down to the wa
ter. To leap from this spot to the
water was not possible for any beast
Of the jungle. Yet the lion had van
ished completely. as though he had
been given wings. They stood about
in awe till one Of the older hunters
knelt reached out, and dug his hand
into the innocent looking sand. In
stantly he leaped. to his feet and
jumped back.
THE sucking sand!" he cried. ITO
the raft!"
They skirted the dangerous quick
sands and dashed along the banks to
discover that their raft was gone.
Vishnu, then, az reincarnated. required
solid transportation. after the man
ner Of human beings? They became
angry. A raft was q raft, substantial
necessary; and there was no reason
why god who had ten thousand tenn
pies for his own should stoop to rob
= poor man Of his wherewithal to
travel in safety.
THE muggeri" exclaimed one. "let
the high priestess beware Of the mug
ger. for he is strong enough to tip
over the raft!"
Nearly every village which lies
close to stream has its family croco-
die. He Is very sacred and thrives
comfortably upon suicides and tho
dead which are often cast into tho
river to be purified. The Hindus are.
suicidal race; the reverse Of the oc-
cidental conception. suicide IL . quick
and glorious route to heaven.
The current Of the stream carried
Kathlyn along at q fair pace: all she
had to do was to pole away from the
numerous sand bars and such boul-
ders as lifted their rugged heads above
the water.
Round bend the river wjdened and
grew correspondinsly sluggish. She
sounded with her pole. Something
hideous beyond words arose-a fat,
aged. crafty crocodile His corrugated
snout was thrust quickly over the
edge Of the raft. She struck at him
wildly with the pole, and In fury he
rushed the raft. upsetting Kathlyn.
The crocodile sank and for mo-
ment lost sight Of Kathlyn, who
waded frantically to the bank. up
which she scrambled. She turned In
time to see the crocodile's fearful
eyes staring up at her from the wa
ter's edge. He presently slid hack
into his Shiny bed; . few yellow hub
bles, and he was gone.
Kathlyn's heart became suddenly
and unaccountably swollen with rage;
she became primordial; she wanted
to hurt, main, Kill. Childishly she
stopped and picked up heavy stones
which she hurled into the water. The
instinct to live famed SO strongly In
her that the crust Of civilization fell
away like mist before the sun. and
for long time the pure savage (which
lies dormant in us ALL ruled her. She
would 1--we. live, live; she would live