BYRAM AND GHOPAL. 



II. 



GHOPAL BECOMES A FAQUIR. 



LITTLE sleep had Ghopal that night, 

 for he determined on a change of 

 hfe, and lay long indulging in waking 

 dreams. Before daybreak he started up, 

 fastened on his dhoty,* took a small supply 

 of unleavened bread, for he was afraid to 

 beg anywhere near his own Home, put on a 

 new pair of yellow slippers, ornamented 

 with red morocco, which did not exactly 

 correspond with his Faquir's habit, and be- 

 fore the day had fairly broken, he was on 

 the road, staff in hand, and passed the 

 pottery without a pang of regret. On the 

 morning of the third day, he reached the 

 city of Halla with one solitary pief in his 

 girdle. He had asked for alms from village 

 to village, and got sufficient bread and rice 

 for his needs, and a pull of the hookah in 

 every village, but of money no one gave 

 him; he found the pie on the road. "After 

 all," said Ghopal, "What does a man need 

 more, that he should consume his days in 

 toiling for it? Clothes are not pleasant to 

 wear this hot weather, and having food 

 and a charpoyj on which to lie down at 

 night, let me be a philosopher and content." 



Ghopal made these reflections as he sat 

 on his charpoy in the Halla Caravanserai 

 preparatory to lying down for the night. 

 Then taking off his slippers, and leaving 

 them under his bed, he was soon fast 

 asleep. 



In the morning he was awakened by the 

 sound of voices, and of travelers moving to 

 and fro preparing for their day's journey, 

 and sitting up in bed, he reached out his 

 hand and took his slippers. But imagine 



* A strip of rag or sash that is tied around the waist, and 

 the free end passed from behind between the legs and fastened 

 at the girdle in front. 



t A quarter of a cent. 



i A light bedstead made of sacking on a frame. 



his consternation when he saw that they 

 were alive with white ants, which had eaten 

 hundreds of holes through the uppers, 

 which now required very little to separate 

 them from the soles. "Oh, Brahma!" ex- 

 claimed he, as he held up his slippers and 

 looked at them, "how men flatter thee when 

 they say that thou art the friend of men and 

 omnipotent. If thou wert omnipotent thou 

 couldst easily eradicate these destructive 

 pests from the face of the earth, and if thou 

 wert the friend of man thou wouldst do so, 

 for they make all his labors vain, and 

 nothing is safe from their attacks." 



"Silence, oh thou impious and foolish 

 one!" exclaimed a voice from a neighbor- 

 ing charpoy, and Ghopal, looking round, 

 perceived a Faquir past middle age, with 

 open, intelligent face, long, iron gray beard, 

 and his head covered with what might have 

 been mistaken for a horse hair rope, but 

 which was really his own long iron gray 

 hair twisted into ropes, and fastened round 

 his head like a turban. Legs he had none, 

 his stumps terminated at the knee. 



"Foolish thyself," replied Ghopal, "if 

 thou assertest that the white ant is not a 

 pest without one redeeming quality." 



"Oh, ignorant one," exclaimed the 

 Faquir, " What knowest thou of the white 

 ant and the task assigned to him by 

 Brahma? Go and study nature and learn 

 that all living creatures are the friends of 

 man and necessary to his existence." 



"Assertion is not argument," said 

 Ghopal, "and I think I know something 

 about the white ant, and need not go far to 

 find a few more living creatures whose 

 friendship I would rather be without. If 

 to get into the beams and rafters of a house 

 and eat out all the inside of them, leavino; 



