128 GENTLENESS IS POWER. 
remains of Sufeika were brought to the princess, who, with a deep 
sigh, enshrined them in the earthen pitcher, the early companion and 
expiring gift of her noble parent. As she prepared to return home, 
an affectionate ‘ Farewell” rose from the multitude. Caranza’s 
heart melted with tenderness at this devotion to the memory of her 
mother, and for the first time in her young life she felt the value of 
a good name. And so, with her simple pitcher (now rendered ines- 
timably precious to her) she walked back to the palace, followed by 
that grateful people. 
Very shortly after this event, Azum became involved in war with a 
neighbouring potentate, whose name was Aborzuf, a man endowed 
with a lion's heart anda lion’s strength. Like the lion, too, he glo- 
ried in contention and existed by strife. Slaughter and blood were 
his pastime ; blood was his daily food ; blood was in his thoughts, 
his nightly dreams, and his waking acts sounded of blood: he 
ramped in blood. His power and bold ferocious daring made him 
an object of awe to the surrounding princes ; while his own people 
never mentioned his name but under their breath. When he ap- 
peared abroad he was clad in armour and thronged with soldiery. 
They who should have been as his children fled at the sight of him, 
and huddled like a flock of sheep when the butcher enters the fold. 
Terror was the principle of his government ; and by terror, and by 
fostering the instruments of tyranny, his soldiers, he ruled, or rather 
murdered, the wretched creatures who lay prostrate beneath his 
sword. But Aborzuf was not only a monster in mind—as a man, 
he was monstrous. When a child, his form was airy, frank, and 
noble—it was angelic ; his disposition was mild, generous, and even 
magnanimous. “ Oh, fairest flower! no sooner blown than blasted.” 
We are but as we are fashioned; and it was the evil destiny of 
Aborzuf to be placed under the instruction and moral guidance of a 
demon in the outward form of God’s fairest creation. This bad 
spirit, who had gained absolute dominion over the mind of his vic- 
tim-pupil, had so perverted the early tendencies of his nature, that 
“ evil had become his good,” and deformity his loveliness. He had 
instilled into him the belief that, in order to hold, as it were, in the 
hollow of his hand, the wills and the lives of his subjects, he must 
be to them outwardly, as well as mentally, of another creation ; he 
must terrify, and not assimilate. He therefore fashioned his body 
to correspond with his mind, and that was of hideous proportion and 
aspect. It was covered with a grisly hair; and to any one who 
could attentively look upon his face, that was evidently but a fright- 
ful mask—a loathsome scurf, that had crept over the young fresh- 
