Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

DECEMBER 1924 Picture s and Picture poer 37 And next came the Prince of Hindustani, his staff and his retainers, with, fifty men marching and the rest on back of the six most wondrous elephants of the east. Jewels glittered and incense gladdened the nostrils of the watchers as the Prince of Hindustani's procession went by. And last to pass through the palace gates was the caravan of the Prince of the Seven Isles, a modest procession, true, but seeming the gladdest of the lot. " The Prince of the Seven Isles," said someone. "Who can he be?" For never before had they beard of the Prince of the Seven Isles. They nor any man Yet here he was and this was his rank and into the Palace he passed. "True to the custom of this ancient land the princes passed at once to the presence of the Princess. She surveyed them graciously as they moved before her, but for only the Prince of the Seven Isles had she a smile. To her the Mongol Prince seemed too cruel, the Indian Prince too old and the Persian Prince too gross. But the Prince of the Seven Isles was good to her eyes and she knew that never in life could she love another man. Asked for her choice by her father, the Caliph, she put out her hand to the Prince of the Seven Isles and said "I choose him." With ill-grace did the others take their defeat, and one at least — the Mongol Prince — seemed ill-disposed to take the decision. " The Prince of the Seven Isles?" he said in a low and even voice. " What Isles of the damned are these? In what courts is the upstart known? Strange that no other prince has ever heard of him." And then to the Mongol Prince's side came the Mongol Slave of the Princess and craved a word. " He is no Prince," she whispered, " but a low fellow who is known as the Thief of Bagdad. Last night it was he who robbed the Palace." And at once the alarm was set about. IWIeantime the truth was known to the Princess herself and from the lips of none other than the Thief. " I thought to love you and be loved by you," he said as he sat beside her on the balcony above the sunken garden. " But when I see you and speak to you I feel that it can never be. I am no prince. I am but a common thief from the streets who, seeing you, has lost his heart to you. God knows I love you too much to be your lover. I will only ask forgiveness and will not crave to be allowed to hope. I will go, and in some far land, in some small way, attempt to be worthy of the love that might have been ours. Princess, good-bye." He sprang below and was gone but a second before the curtains from the Princess's room were parted and the guard came through, followed by the Caliph and the suitor Princes. In anger at learning that his man had escaped him, the Caliph vowed that he would now himself make choice of a husband for his daughter, but before he could do this she held up a hand and begged everyone to listen. " Let them," she said, " choose for themselves by their deeds." " What can you mean," the Caliph askted Well did she know what she meant. She meant to gain time, that in some magic way her lover might come back to her, an outcast no longer. But what she said was this : " Let each take his separate way to some far land and bring back to me some rare treasure that he may find. Let him do this by the passing of seven moons. To him that brings the rarest gift I will give my hand and heart. Let each Prince by his prowess thus seek to earn his reward." This seemed but fair to all of them and was agreed upon. Or so did it appear. But the Prince of Mongolia was a crafty man and once his heart was set upon a thing nothing on earth could shake him from the acquisition of it. His heart was now set upon the throne of Bagdad and the hand of Bagdad's Princess and if he seemed to agree to the course now suggested it was but that his plans might the better fructify. " Cee that the city is ours upon my return," he said to an ally. "Have a thousand men come hither with gifts and let them remain. Have them fully armed, and when I return and give the word, seize the city. Having said which, he drove off with the others. Meantime the Thief in great humility, and for the first time in all his life, had turned aside into the temple and sought the balm of the Holy Man, being broken-hearted. " If thou art truly humble," said the Holy Man, " thou canst come to thy reward." " But how?" the Thief demanded "I am still a thief, still an outcast, and only a prince may claim the hand ol she whom I love." " ETarn thy Princedom," said the Holy Man. " Go far away and return a prince by your own right. Listen. I have looked in your eyes and found you humble in heart. For all your ei you arc now one of God's men. I will help thee. Go from hen to a place that I will tell thee of. It is the Wood of the Mystic Trees, three days march from here. Penetrate to its depths and touch the innermost tree. Thy next course shall then be disclosed to thee. Dread things are before thee, but be of stout and humble heart, and love shall yet be thine. Go now, and my blessings be upon ihee." And so did the Thief of Bagdad set forth to earn the hand of the Princess. Various success attended the efforts of the three princely suitors. The Prince of Persia, as became a loyal Persian, turned his steps to his own land, convinced that the rarest treasure of the world must be there. He sought for many days and at last, in an obscure bazaar, he found that which he was convinced must be the rarest thing in all the universe. He found, and purchased for his own, the Magic Flying Carpet of a thousand legends. Well satisfied, at the fifth moon he turned his mules about and made ready to return. The Prince of Hindustan, as became a loyal Hindu, returned to India and from the socket of a mighty statue of Buddha that was the greatest thing in all the world, caused to be plucked the eye that was in fact the Magic Crystal. " What," he thought, " can be rarer e Princess," said the Mongol " Because