16 On certain Mediceval Apologues. [No. 1, 



His face pale with terror and both his lips blue, 



And Solomon said to him, " friend, what meaneth this ?" 



He answered, " The angel 'Izrail 



Hath just thrown on me a glance full of wrath and hatred." 



" Ask," said the king, "what boon thou desirest." 



" Oh thou refuge of the heart, command the wind 



That it bear me from hence to Hindustan, 



It may be that there I may save my life." 



Then Solomon gave to the wind its mission 



And it bore the man away to Somnath. — 



Thus too thou may'st see men flying from poverty, 



They are swallowed as victims by desire and hope, 



That fear of theirs is but like his in the story, 



And desire and its greed is their Hindustan ! — 



He commanded the wind that forthwith in haste 



It should bear him to Hindustan across the sea. 



The next day at the time of audience 



King Solomon spake unto 'Izrail, 



" Thou looked'st with wrath on a true believer, — 



Tell me wherefore, oh messenger of the Lord. 



'Twas a strange action, methinks, this of thine, 



To frighten him an exile from house and home." 



He answered, " Oh thou King of an unsetting empire, 



His fancy interpreted my action wrong. 



How should I have looked with anger on such as him ? 



I but cast a glance of wonder as I passed him in the road, 



For God had commanded me that very day 



To seize his soul in Hindustan. 



I saw him here and greatly did I marvel, 



And I lost myself in a maze of wonder. 



I said in my heart, Though he had an hundred wings 



He could never fly from hence to Hindustan in a day. 



But when I arrived, as God commanded, 



I found him there before me and took his soul." 



Few Oriental Apologues have a more striking outline than the 

 above, rising almost to the moral sublime ; but it is only one of the 

 many fine legends and fables which are scattered throughout the 



