LITERATURE. 65 



'■ Hast thou.'' " brcathrd 1 iiiui m almost inaudible tones; then gathermg the whole 

 ot his strength he shouted, shutting his eyes and clenchmg his fists, "Out, out of my sight, 

 thou reckless fool ! " and poor Karooja, her head bent and her arms hanging, went slowly 

 away whilst the first tears she had ever shed dropped and fell diamond-like on her wrinkled 

 cheeks. 



EXPELLED. 



The stars were almost hidden by a vi'il of minuti', shapeless clouds, everywhere was grey 

 and indistinct, shrouded in a pall of mist; hi-re and there, in every direction, might be seen 

 undefined forms floating in the air, peeping out .... then disappearing again, all 

 seeming to drift towards the abode of Timu. 



Awful and frowning he sat, with his heatl resting on his right hand, his elbow on his knee, 

 whilst his left arm hung at his side and his hand seemed with its long nails to claw the bloom 

 of the clouds on which he was seated. The stillness which surrounded him was frightful, 

 not a breath of air, not a sound to break the gloom, except the faint cracking of his joints 

 and the barely audilile beating of his heart, scarcely enough light to show the white of his 

 beard and the grey look of his withered eye. " Woe ! Woe ! " did he mutter. " Woe ! 

 Woe ! " . . . . Poor old Karooja ! Poor me ! . . . . Old age ! Decrepitude ! 

 Ending .... Karooja ! Karooja ! Woe on the forever — to the end of the endless 

 ages ! ^Malediction on all ! .... then bringing his clenched fists on to his knees 

 he sat erect and defiant. " No, it shall not be ! " said he, shaking his head " Rather would 

 I destroy everything and start afresh for the conquest of the universe. Never ! Never ! 

 As though I had been born to die and my omnipotence were but a dream. I shall soon show 

 its reality. By my will, I shall ! " and so saying he stood up and was going to shake his 

 limbs, when he saw around him, crouching in the clouds, the forms of his attendants who 

 had been laid low by the breath of his wrath as the bush of the heath under the breath of the 

 hurricane. 



" Get up, all of you, get up ! " did he grumble, resuming his seat. " What news? What 

 do I read on your dismal faces? Speak out!" 



" I cannot, for fear of offending Timu," said out- old man grovelling on the earth, 

 without raising his head. 



" What ! Thou my eldest son, thou darest to disobey me? Speak, spea^k out ! " 



" Thy youngest son, my own l)rother, it grieves me to speak against him." 



" What has he done now? 



" He has revolted, he has dared to raise his arm against all the heavenly powers as 

 regulated by thy wisdom, and we are come here to implore thy protection agauist him. 

 If he be not repressed at once, all that is will be overthrown, and disorder and riot will 

 reign supreme from one end of thine empire to the other." 



" The rebel ! I knew I was right ! " muttered Tinau to himself. " l^roceed Mawarra," 

 said he to his son. " Explain thyself, or rather stay. Do not— do not open thy mouth. 

 I am Timu the Just, and I want to hear other reports than it be not thought that the slightest 

 prejudice has anything to do with my decrees. Who art thou? " continued he, addressing 

 the youngest among the host. " What dost thou know of the Ijehaviour of War? " 



" I am the son of Poura, one of thy followers, and I have been blessed with the under- 

 standing which is despised by War. I have been brought up to listen to the advice of the 

 aged and to submit to their wisdom. I have sometimes been tempted to disobey, but I have 

 never done so; I have always remembered in time that my duty forbade that I should go 

 out of the limits fixed by the elders. Why has not War done the same ? Instead of breaking 

 off from all that is respectable and holy, of running riot, and being a living scandal, a lament- 

 able shame to his father and mother, and a scourge to all the inhabitants of thy dominions, 



I 



