fierce and fiery, whom even the Deevs dared not face. When it beheld the sleeping hero and the steed close beside him, it came boldly towards them, its breath being poison.

Rakush saw it. He stamped his hoofs upon the ground and beat the air with his tail, so that the unwonted noise awoke Rustem. He sprang to his feet, but the dragon had vanished, and no cause for fear could be seen. The hero was angry, and he berated the beast and hurled hard words at him:

"It is thy fault, O unkind beast, that slumber is fled from me."

Then he turned him to sleep again.

Soon the dragon came forth once more, and once more did Rakush waken his master, and once more did the dragon vanish ere the eyes of Rustem were opened. Three times did this happen, and Rustem was beside himself with anger. He piled reproaches upon the horse, and declared that if he acted thus again he would slay him with his arm of power and travel on foot into Mazinderan.

Then, at length, he drew his leopard skin about him and lay down again to get a little sleep. But the steed Rakush was pained in his spirit and pawed the ground in vexation.

Scarcely was Rustem asleep when the dragon came out for the fourth time. The steed saw him and was sore distressed, not knowing what to do. But he took courage and ran up beside Rustem and neighed and

wakened him. Rustem sprang up in great fury; but this time he beheld the dragon, and knew that Rakush had done that which was right. He drew his armor about him, unsheathed his sword, and went forth to meet the fiery beast.

The dragon also advanced and cried out to Rustem, "What is thy name, little stranger? Tell me who thou art that dost think to withstand me. Run back to thy mother, or surely she will weep for thee."

And the hero answered, "I am Rustem, the son of Zal. I am by myself a host, and no dragon nor Deev can stand against me.”

The dragon laughed. Then he rushed forward and fell upon Rustem, and wound himself about his body, and would have crushed him with his writhings had not help come. But Rakush was close at hand. He sprang upon the fiery beast, and tore him as he had torn the lion; and Rustem, freeing himself, pierced the dragon with his sword. Thus the two, by their might, delivered the world from this horrible Scourge.

Then Rustem was glad. He praised Rakush and spoke loving words to him, and washed him at the gushing spring; and, all the time, he gave thanks to God who had helped him to gain the victory.

When he had so done, he sprang into his saddle, and rode onward until they were come into the land of Mazinderan.

Retold from the "Shah-Nameh" of Firdusí.

T

RIDING IN THE DESERT

HE pace of the camel is irksome. The peculiar way in which the rider is obliged to suit himself to the movements of the beast makes his shoulders and loins ache. But soon one becomes used to it, and after my first two days, this way of traveling became so familiar to me that (poor sleeper as I am) I now and then dropped to sleep on the back of my camel.

On the fifth day of my journey the air above lay dead, and all the whole earth that I could reach with

my utmost sight and keenest listening was still and lifeless, as some dispeopled world that rolls round and round in the heavens through wasted floods of light.

The sun grew fiercer and fiercer, shining down more mightily now than ever on me he shone before. I dropped my head under his fire, and closed my eyes against the glare that surrounded me. Soon I fell asleep for how many minutes or moments I slumbered, I cannot tell. But after a while I was gently awakened by a peal of church bells - my native bells

the innocent bells of Marlen, that never before sent forth their music beyond the Blaygon hills!

My first idea naturally was that I still remained fast under the power of a dream. I roused myself, and drew aside the silk that covered my eyes, and plunged my bare face into the light. Then at least I was well enough awakened; but still those old Marlen bells rang on, not ringing for joy, but properly, prosily, steadily, merrily ringing "for church."

After a while the sound died away slowly. It happened that neither I nor any of my party had a watch by which to measure the exact time of its lasting, but it seemed to me that about ten minutes had passed before the bells ceased. I attributed the effect to the great heat of the sun, the perfect dryness of the clear air through which I moved, and the deep stillness of all around me.

The day was Sunday, and roughly allowing for the difference of longitude, I concluded that at the moment

of my hearing that strange peal, the church-going bells of Marlen must have been actually calling the prim congregation of the parish to morning prayer. The coincidence amused me faintly, but I could not allow myself a hope that the effect I had experienced was anything other than an illusion. It would have been sweeter to believe that my kneeling mother, by some pious enchantment, had asked and found this spell to rouse me from my forgetfulness of God's holy day; but my fancy was too weak to carry a faith like that.

a

After the fifth day of my journey I no longer traveled over shifting hills, but came upon a dead level dead level bed of sand, quite hard, and studded with small shining pebbles.

The heat grew fierce. There was no valley nor hollow, no hill, no mound- no shadow of hill or of mound by which I could mark the way I was going. Hour by hour I advanced, and saw no change - I was still the very center of a round horizon. Hour by hour I advanced, and still there was the same, and the same, and the same the same circle of flaming sky the same circle of sand still glaring with light and fire.

Over all the heaven above, over all the earth beneath, there was no visible power that could balk the fierce will of the Sun. I was alone before him. There were these two pitted together, and face to face the mighty Sun for one, and for the other, this poor,