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the noose of God' is a quotation from the great ufee poet Abû Sa'id-born A.D. 968, died at the ge of 83. He is a mystical poet, and some I his expressions have been compared to our -eorge Herbert. Of Shaikh Abû Sa'id it is reorded that he said, 'when my affairs had reacht certain pitch I buried under the dust my books nd opened a shop on my own account (ie. egan to teach with authority), and verily men =presented me as that which I was not, until it ame to this, that they went to the Qadhi and estified against me of unbelieverhood; and omen got upon the roofs and cast unclean nings upon me.' (Vide reprint from article in Jational Review, March, 1891, by C. J. Pickring.)

Aziz. I am not aware that there is any recrd of such intrusion upon the king's privacy, ut the expressions in the text occur in a letter Ent by Akbar's foster-brother Aziz, who refused O come to court when summoned and threw up is government, and after writing an insolent nd reproachful letter to Akbar in which he sked him if he had received a book from heaven, r if he could work miracles like Mahomet that e presumed to introduce a new religion, warned im that he was on the way to eternal perdition, nd concluded with a prayer to God to bring him ack into the path of salvation' (Elphinstone).

'The Koran, the Old and New Testament, nd the Psalms of David are called books by way f excellence, and their followers "People of the Sook" (Elphinstone).

Akbar according to Abdel Kadir had his son Hurad instructed in the Gospel, and used to nake him begin his lessons In the name of Christ' instead of in the usual way 'In the name f God.'

To drive

people from the irancient fold of Truth, etc. Halleson says 'This must have happened because kbar states it, but of the forced conversions have found no record. This must have taken lace whilst he was still a minor, and whilst the hief authority was wielded by Bairam.'

reap no revenue from the field of unbelief? The Hindus are fond of pilgrimages, and Akbar emoved a remunerative tax raised by his predeessors on pilgrimages. He also abolished the Ezza or capitation tax on those who differed com the Mahomedan faith. He discouraged l excessive prayers, fasts and pilgrimages.

Sati. Akbar decreed that every widow who howed the least desire not to be burnt on her usband's funeral pyre, should be let go free and nharmed.

Baby-wife. He forbad marriage before the age of puberty.

Indian widow. Akbar ordained that remarriage was lawful.

Music. About a watch before daybreak,' says Abul Fazl, the musicians played to the king in the palace. His Majesty had such a knowledge of the science of music as trained musicians do not possess.'

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'The Divine Faith.' The Divine Faith slowly passed away under the immediate successors of Akbar. An idea of what the Divine Faith was may be gathered from the inscription at the head of the poem. The document referred to, Abul Fazl says brought about excellent results (1) the Court became a gathering place of the sages and learned of all creeds; the good doctrines of all religious systems were recognized, and their defects were not allowed to obscure their good features; (2) perfect toleration or peace with all was established; and (3) the perverse and evil. minded were covered with shame on seeing the disinterested motives of His Majesty, and these stood in the pillory of disgrace.' Dated September 1579-Ragab 987 (Blochmann xiv.).

THE BANDIT'S DEATH.*

TO SIR WALTER SCOTT.1

O GREAT AND GALLANT SCOTT,
TRUE GENTLEMAN HEART, BLOOD AND bone,
I WOULD IT HAD BEEN MY LOT
TO HAVE SEEN THEE, AND HEARD THEE, AND

KNOWN.

SIR, do you see this dagger? nay, why do you start aside?

I was not going to stab you, tho' I am the Bandit's bride.

You have set a price on his head: I may claim it without a lie.

What have I here in the cloth? I will show it you by-and-by.

Sir, I was once a wife. I had one brief summer of bliss

But the Bandit had woo'd me in vain, and he stabb'd my Piero with this.

1 I have adopted Sir Walter Scott's version of the following story as given in his last journal (Death of Il Bizarro)-but I have taken the liberty of making some slight alterations.

*Copyright, 1892, by Macmillan & Co.

And he dragg'd me up there to his cave in the mountain, and there one day

He had left his dagger behind him. I

found it. I hid it away.

For he reek'd with the blood of Piero; his kisses were red with his crime, And I cried to the Saints to avenge me. They heard, they bided their time.

In a while I bore him a son, and he loved to dandle the child,

And that was a link between us; but Ito be reconciled?

No, by the Mother of God, tho' I think I hated him less,

And-well, if I sinn'd last night, I will

find the Priest and confess.

Listen! we three were alone in the dell at the close of the day.

I was lilting a song to the babe, and it laugh'd like a dawn in May.

Then on a sudden we saw your soldiers

crossing the ridge,

And he caught my little one from me:

we dipt down under the bridge

By the great dead pine-you know it— and heard, as we crouch'd below, The clatter of arms, and voices, and men passing to and fro.

Black was the night when we crept away -not a star in the skyHush'd as the heart of the grave, till the little one utter'd a cry.

I whisper'd 'give it to me,' but he would

not answer me-then

He gript it so hard by the throat that the

boy never cried again.

We return'd to his cave-the link was

broken-he sobb'd and he wept, And cursed himself; then he yawn'd, for the wretch could sleep, and he slept

Ay, till dawn stole into the cave, and a ray red as blood

Glanced on the strangled face-I could make Sleep Death, if I would—

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III.

n' soä they've maäde tha a parson, an' thou'll git along, niver fear, Fur I beän chuch-warden mysen i' the parish fur fifteen year.

Well-sin ther beä chuch-wardens, ther mun be parsons an' all,

An' if t'one stick alongside t'uther the chuch weänt happen a fall.

IV.

Fur I wur a Baptis wonst, an' ageän the toithe an' the raäte,

Cill I fun that it warn't not the gaäinist

waäy to the narra Gaäte.

An' I can't abeär 'em, I can't, fur a lot on 'em coom'd ta-yearwur down wi' the rheumatis then-to

my pond to wesh thessens theereSa I sticks like the ivin as long as I lives to the owd chuch now,

Fur they wesh'd their sins i' my pond, an' I doubts they poison'd the cow.

V.

Ay, an' ya seed the Bishop. They says 'at he coom'd fra nowt

Burn i' traäde. Sa I warrants 'e niver said haäfe wot 'e thowt, But 'e creeäpt an' 'e crawl'd along, till 'e feeäld 'e could howd 'is oän, Then 'e married a greät Yerl's darter, an' sits o' the Bishop's throän.

VI.

Now I'll gie tha a bit o' my mind an' tha

weant be taäkin' offence,

Fur thou be a big scholard now wi' a hoonderd haäcre o' sense3ut sich an obstropulous lad-naäy, naäy

-fur I minds tha sa well, Tha'd niver not hopple thy tongue, an' the tongue's sit afire o' Hell, As I says to my missis to-daäy, when she hurl'd a plaäte at the cat An' anoother ageän my noäse. Ya was niver sa bad as that.

VII.

But I minds when i' Howlaby beck won daäy ya was ticklin' o' trout,

An' keeäper 'e seed ya an roon'd, an' 'e beal'd to ya 'Lad coom hout'

An' ya stood oop maäkt i' the beck, an' tell'd 'im to knaw his awn plaäce ya An' ya call'd 'im a clown, ya did, an' ya thraw'd the fish i' 'is faäce, An' 'e torn'd as red as a stag-tuckey's wattles, but theer an' then I coämb'd 'im down, fur I promised ya'd niver not do it ageän.

VIII.

An' I cotch'd tha wonst i' my garden, when thou was a height-year-howd, An' I fun thy pockets as full o' my pippins as iver they'd 'owd,

An' thou was as peärky as owt, an' tha maäde me as mad as mad,

But I says to tha 'keeäp 'em, an' welcome' fur thou was the parson's lad.

IX.

An' Parson 'e 'ears on it all, an' then taäkes kindly to me,

An' then I wur chose Chuch-warden an' coom'd to the top o' the tree, Fur Quoloty's hall my friends, an' they maäkes ma a help to the poor, When I gits the plaäte fuller o' Soondays nor ony chuch-warden afoor, Fur if iver thy feyther 'ed riled me I kep' mysen meeäk as a lamb, An' saw by the Graäce o' the Lord, Mr. Harry, I ham wot I ham.

X.

But Parson 'e will speäk out, saw, now 'e be sixty-seven,

He'll niver swap Owlby an' Scratby fur owt but the Kingdom o' Heaven; An' thou'll be 'is Curate 'ere, but, if iver tha means to git 'igher,

Tha mun tackle the sins o' the Wo'ld, an' not the faults o' the Squire.

An' I reckons tha'll light of a livin' somewheers i' the Wowd or the Fen, If tha cottons down to thy betters, an' keeäps thysen to thysen.

But niver not speäk plaäin out, if the wants to git forrards a bit, But creeäp along the hedge-bottoms, an' thou'll be a Bishop yit.

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Will you move a little that way? your shadow falls on the grave.

X1.

Two trains clash'd: then and there he was crush'd in a moment and died, But the new-wedded wife was unharm'd, tho' sitting close at his side.

XII.

She found my letter upon him, my wail of reproach and scorn;

I had cursed the woman he married, and him, and the day I was born.

XIII.

They put him aside for ever, and after a week-no more

A stranger as welcome as Satan-a widow came to my door:

XIV.

So I turn'd my face to the wall, I was mad, I was raving-wild,

I was close on that hour of dishonour, the birth of a baseborn child.

XV.

O you that can flatter your victims, and juggle, and lie and cajole, Man, can you even guess at the love of a soul for a soul?

XVI.

I had cursed her as woman and wife, and in wife and woman I found

The tenderest Christ-like creature that ever stept on the ground.

XVII.

She watch'd me, she nursed me, she fed me, she sat day and night by my bed, Till the joyless birthday came of a boy born happily dead.

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Kapiolani was a great chieftainess who lived in the Sandwich Islands at the beginning of this century. She won the cause of Christianity by openly defying the priests of the terrible goddess Peele. In spite of their threats of vengeance she ascended the volcano Mauna-Loa, then clambered down over a bank of cinders 400 feet high to the great lake of fire (nine miles round)-Kilaueathe home and haunt of the goddess, and flung into the boiling lava the consecrated berries which it was sacrilege for a woman to handle.

I.

WHEN from the terrors of Nature a people have fashion'd and worship a Spirit of Evil,

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