to the chieftain's arm, and speaking rapidly and has little power against the opinions of as she did so, with earnestness in every his people. But enough, my child; hither gesture, "if indeed you feel and think comes our honored guest, and 'twere well thus, why not exert your power and influ- to greet with smiles thy deliverer." ence against this dreadful sacrifice to Juggernath in the Orissan plain? why not teach our neighbors, the Khond zemindars, that they commit murder the most terrible, when, sacrificing their human victims to the goddess Komeswari, with yells of triumph, which, echoing over the deep waters of the Salki, reach my ears even in the harem of our palace? Oh, my father! can it be that sickness, death, and famine can be averted by the blood of man, shed by his brother's hand; the blood of the young, the innocent, the helpless, and the betrayed? Oh, no; never; and I do beseech thee, my dear and honored father, to save and protect these helpless victims." As Sidruja spoke, tears chased each other over her cheeks, and she bowed her head, as if exhausted by emotion, on the chieftain's shoulder. The maiden turned, and as she did so, drew close round her graceful form the embroidered veil that, until now, had hung loosely from her brow; but, could one have glanced beneath it, a smile might have been seen to steal over that lip, a light of tender happiness beam from that eye, which would have told how soon pleasure succeeds to pain with the young, the loving, and the innocent, and how needless, too, was the suggestion of the Goomsur chieftain to his child. Long, then, did the maiden and the patriarch's son linger in that fair scene, and the chieftain suffered it to be so, wandering onwards to the castle, for well did he love his child; and to him who had so lately saved her, what could the tender father venture to refuse? The chieftain saw, too, in the abaya's son, a man of rank, of honor, and of undoubted courage, "My child," replied her father, gently his noble bearing had won upon the father soothing her as he spoke, "you little know little less than it had done upon his daughthese Alpine Khonds. Believing as they ter, and had Khourou sought Sidruja's hand, do in the efficacy of sacrifice, and offering the chieftain could not have refused the oblations continually to the personifications boon. But the stranger sought it not, at of nature's attributes and the inferior de- least in form; yet his step was slower than ities, to the god of arms, the god of foun- of old, his voice lower in its tone, his love tains, the god of showers, and even to their of arms abated, his desire for conquest less; deceased ancestors, it follows, that, for the and now, as they stood together gazing on earth god, the great origin, as the Khonds the rapid waters of the Salki, the maiden's believe, of good and evil, of fertility and words were few, and tremulously spoken, famine, of disease and health, they should while Khourou seemed to half regret that deem that none but the worthiest sacrifices he had ventured here at all. And yet, would be accepted, and while the blood of when he had seen the fluttering veil of the goats and fowls proves libation great chieftain's daughter from the distant steep, enough for the inferior deities, the life of he had mounted in haste, nor checked his man alone can propitiate the earth god. steed until resting by her side. Courage You know, my child, how often I have came at length, however, to both; and given shelter to victims whom chance has when it was almost time to part, they chatsaved from their unhappy fate; even the ted rapidly of Rodungiah and her tribes, poor idiot Mala, as you know, was one of and then Sidruja's thanks came forth again these, stolen from the plains in childhood; amid tears and smiles, while, as the young wife and lands were given him, and he grew warrior closer drew, words of deep and in ignorance of his fate, till the time drew truthful love dropped from his lips, such as near, when they seized him, whom they a woman should hear but once, pledging had bought with a price for sacrifice; but her faith in answer, and dying in that as it proved that one of his kindred had faith. been offered at the tree before, Mala was deemed unworthy, and escaped the axe of the priest to become an innocent maniac for life, forgetful of all but the sacrifice, whose horrid ceremonies seem to have been stamped with characters of fire upon his brain. Grievous and terrible do I feel such things to be, but Dora Bissye stands alone, As the young chief spoke, he had taken Sidruja's hand in his, nor had he yet relinquished it when the poor maniac, long cherished by the castle lord, sprung suddenly through the brushwood, and with wild and mirthful gestures came dancing on towards the lovers. Sidruja felt no alarm, for from a child she had been accustomed to chance encounters with this unhappy maiden's lips, and bending down she pluckbeing; but now, as he noted the clasped ed one of the wild but brilliant blossoms hands of the fair daughter of his protector which enamel her native land, and gazed on with the strange chief, his eye flashed, his it as if in admiration of its beauty; but it was brow knit, and bounding forward with a not so, for in a moment more the flower fell loud cry, he violently disengaged them. upon the tangled verdure at her feet, and "No!" shouted the maniac, "not so, lady! the eyes of the chieftain's daughter, streamthe stranger is not for thee; why hast thou ing with tears, were lifted towards her fathnot fetters?" he cried, addressing Khou-er's fort. "Dora Bissye," she sighed forth, rou; "go, seek them out, they will need" is the noblest in his land, and powerful thee soon-ha! ha! yes, thou art the fav- to save; what then can we have to fear? ored of the goddess, and men will honor I will tell my dear father all, and never can thee to the last; see, the Meria, does so he refuse protection to the deliverer of his even now," and bending down, he kissed child. The great zemindars of Orissa may the chieftain's foot, then fled swiftly to- war against each other, and struggle as of wards the castle, shrieking as he went- old to cast off the authority of the Delhi sov"They have bought me with a price! ereignty; destruction and anarchy may haThey have bought me with a price." rass and lay waste the lesser districts, and Rodungiah, with the rest, fall in the struggle; but what is that to us? Khourou in yon walls has a defence against them all." As the maiden spoke, a light of triumph shone in her dark eye; but in a moment more, her brow was shadowed, and her countenance marked by despondency. "Alas! not so," she sighed, "not so. The danger seemed present of which Mala spoke. He asked why he had not fetters, and said they would need him soon. Alas, alas!" she cried, clasping her hands in half-phrenzied emotion, how little did I know till now, the power, the misery of love! But let the worst arrive, danger, aye death, I will share all with him, to whom I have pledged my faith. The torrent flows swiftly that courses its way from yonder ghaut, but Sidruja may find in its cold waters surer protection than within her father's fort." Sidruja uttered a faint cry, clung to the patriarch's son. What can this mean?" she asked, in trembling accents, still gazing on the receding figure of Mala. "This is terrible indeed. I have noted at times a sense of truth, break like the lightning's ray from a storm-cloud, across the darkened mind of this poor creature, but never did I see him in mood like this. What said he, Khourou? What danger could he mean to thee, and why severed he our hands with such wild violence while even he, poor grateful fellow, wept tears of joy when learning the escape of his protector's child from the attack of the Daspallah hordes?" Sidruja, as she pondered, grew yet more pale and troubled; but Khourou sought to reassure her, for knowing less than her he loved of this wild being, he saw little in his manner but the result of one of the many strange illusions likely to occupy a mind whose powers had thus been shaken. And as Khourou spoke, and soothed the object of his love, she grew more calm, and happy hopes, while yet he rested near, played in sunshine over the thoughts of the innocent girl; but when Khourou left her, as soon as he did, to join a hunting party of the neighboring Sourahs, a strange anxiety gathered on her thoughts, and though she sought to chase away the new-born care, by memories of the sweet words so lately murmured in her ear, and by girlish anticipations of a blissful future, yet still, again, dread, like an armed man, forced away all other objects, and the threatening words of the wild maniac came ever and again to terrify and appal her with fears, the greater, perhaps, in their effects, because their forms were vague and shadowy. At length, a heavy sigh burst from the Alas! this was the first thorn that had been planted in that young and innocent heart, and in anguish it bent beneath it. "Doubt you that the time is come, or are not the signs visible enough for thy dull brain? Pestilence is among us; our harvests of tumeric and rice have failed; the only child of my brother Singa was carried off from my father's fields, last night, by the tiger that has so long, as the form of Komeswari, harassed the neighborhood of our village, and can you yet doubt that the earth god cries aloud for sacrifice?" The speaker was a Khond, of middle age, a powerful and active man; to his dependents he was merciful, to his family kind and tender; yet the expression of his eye would have told one little experienced in physiognomy, that Silenda seldom wavered in his decision, | grisly form of deathly sickness shake his or failed in carrying out any purpose he hand over your devoted dwellings from desired. yonder moss-grown rock, and yon village- "How can we know?" was the reply made by a calm-eyed and aged man, to whom the observation was addressed; "it is, my brother, as you say; and, moreover, the time has come for sowing our autumnal crop, and yet I doubt what offerings of sacrifice we can command. True, at the late feast of Juggernath, our Tukhis (weavers) brought up captive, from the Orissa plains, two victims to the patriarch's house, mere infants-but yet-" "Enough, enough," exclaimed Silenda; "we live as did our forefathers, and may our children hereafter live as we do! These are matters for the patriarch and the priest; let us seek the The priest, in a state of utter exhaustion, house of Pedda Dehri, our wise abbaya, and fell heavily upon the ground, and while his fear not but he will order the sacrifice aright." votaries plied him freely with strong spirit, The patriarch of Rodungiah was readily as the only restorative not deemed unworthy found, and the Kuttagotaree, or priest, was of his use, Silenda, with the chief persons of also there. It seemed that some charms or the village, gathered round the abbaya, deincantations had been lately made, and manding an immediate sacrifice. "We dethose, too, in favor of the sick, for on a low mand it," they cried, "to save Rodungiah charpoi was stretched an aged man, as if from sure destruction. Great have been engaged in the last struggle for existence, our crimes; great is the wrath of the earth and by his side sat the priest, surrounded god upon us. Now has our priest spoken, by little heaps of uncooked rice. Each pile and instantly shall he be obeyed. We will go was dedicated to a particular god, and as forth even now; we will slay a goat on the Silenda entered, the priest had balanced a altar of Bera Pennee, and, ere this moon sickle by a fine cotton thread, with a grain grows old, the pledge must be redeemed by of rice at either end, and was repeating the the worthiest of our victims; you undername and attributes of the gods to whom stand me; the time is come-look you to it." they had been dedicated. The sickle was The abbaya raised his hand towards the now slightly agitated, the effect, as was be-mountain-altar of the god, and slowly saylieved, of the presence of the god alighting near his grain of rice, to declare his will. The face of the priest became at this crisis wildly agitated; he shrieked forth sentences in an unknown tongue, shook the dishevelled masses of his dark hair until they fell low upon his shoulders, and shouted forth the denunciations of the deity. Even Silenda, the proud, the bold, the unsparing leader of Rodungiah's tribes, stepped back aghast before the energy of the priest; the dying man seemed to gain strength from this impassioned violence, and, raising himself upon his couch, humbly inquired the cause of the sudden wrath of the divinity. ing, "Those to whom the gods listen. let men obey," he bent his head before the priest, and passed forth from the sacrificial chamber. The fort of Kuli Dora Bissye presented a scene of joy, festivity, and hope. The mowi tree had blossomed, and the hand of the chieftain's danghter was that night to be bestowed on the brave son of the patriarch of Rodungiah. Around the castle walls might be seen the soldiers andret ainers of the various nobles bidden to the feast, "Where have been your sacrifices, where while within the private apartments, the your oblations?" exclaimed the priest? slave-girls of Sidruja, surrounded by groups The earth god thirsteth, he crieth aloud of friends, were yet busily engaged in prepfor blood, and who hath poured it forth be-arations for the joyful ceremony. Instrufore him? Tremble, tremble, for your de- ments of music, vinas and sitarrs, with cosstruction cometh! I see gaunt famine peer-metics, golaubdanis, and articles of rich ing from yon cloud upon you, and the god attire, were mingled carelessly together, of showers shrinks back aghast. I see the while they, whose care should have been The heavens in their arrangement, passed the hours in gay | the beauty of the scene. laughter and merry gossip, their mirth being were cloudless, and the moon, like a huge perhaps the greater that it was without re- ball of light, rose high over the black forstraint, for the fair bride had stolen from them all, and with her soft hair braided with fragrant blossoms, and her fine veil of Dacca muslin drawn but lightly around her form, she now stood on the terrace of the castle-keep, gazing on the star-lit heavens while her hand was fondly clasped in that of him she loved. See," ests of the upper land, and threw its broad and radiant beams on the dancing waters of the foaming Salki. The maiden had witnessed the same effects a thousand times before, but they had seemed to her far less beautiful, and so she lingered until a shadow falling on the marble terrace roused her from the delicious reverie. It was that of "And you promise," she gently whisper- Mala, the prophetic maniac, and as memoed, "not to leave me then; you promise, ries of the past came painfully to her mind, that no cause but the battle-field shall take the maiden snatched a bracelet from her you from my father's castle; tell me this arm, and held it towards him. "Take again, and then again, that my heart may this, good Mala," she exclaimed; "take it, rest in peace." Khourou drew nearer to and hasten to the festal hall. I know you his bride, and with a gentle caress renewed wish me well, and thank you for the wish; his promise. "Dearest," he said, "it shall but indeed I may not tarry." "Ha! ha! be as you will. Thenceforth, my home is ha!" shrieked the hapless creature, laying thine; but when thy noble father requires his hand on the veil of the terrified girl; my arm to aid his cause, then must not "there is no haste now; your bridegroom the sword of Khourou linger in its scab- travels faster than you can follow. bard. Yet, grieved as I am to learn the he continued, dragging her forward to the misery that has fallen upon my hapless parapet, and extending his hand towards land, I will not leave thee to become coun- Rodungiah, "they want him there-aye, sellor where all are wise, nor could I hope and by the bright moonlight, will have him my aid to be welcome there, while my too. Lady, he is a noble's son, but not father holds opinions which will not suffer the dread abbaya's of yonder mountain me to assist my people even in peace or Bandri, the weaver, stole him, as a babe, war. I have pondered much upon the from the nurse's arms in Orissa, and sold him cause of this, and ere I loved thee, Sidruja, to the Khonds, as a child of the tree and it caused me an agony of spirit that none the axe! He will have a feast there still; can know; but that is passed; at times I but Komeswari will be his bride; for thy remember the strangeness of the fact, but lover, maiden, is a Meria victim, and the it grieves me now no more." "Nay, dear earth god sweeps across Rodungiah's mounKhourou," remarked Sidruja, "call it not tains, shrieking for his blood." strange; thy father loved thee well, and With a piercing cry, Sidruja fell sensesought that thou shouldst live ever free less upon the marble terrace, and when from danger. Ah! how well can I judge her maidens bore her to her couch, and her his thoughts! the very dream of losing father watched beside her, Khourou was thee, if but for an hour, is so terrible to nowhere to be found. The retainers of a me, that didst thou go to battle, I should chief, indeed, who had been chatting over surely die ere thou set forth." "Sweet a fire beyond the castle walls, told a wild one, was the reply, "you feel the trem- tale of having seen the stranger noble bling hopes and fears that ever agitate a loving woman's heart; but man has duties to perform of a fiercer nature, and to enable him to fulfil them is steeled against such soft emotions. Seldom is a father prouder than when his son first mounts his war-horse for the fray, for the courage that has made the sire noble, seems renewed in the youthful energy of his offspring. But see, Sidruja, the moon rises over yonder forest, tipping the Alpine firs with her silvery light; I must to the banquet-hall, my love, there to await our friends. Sidruja, however, still lingered to admire bound to a horse, and forced onwards, with great speed, by a group of armed men. No one heeded them, however, for it is known that men, under the influence of kusumba and palm-wine, see strange things. But still Sidruja lay, surrounded by her maidens, at times insensible to all around, and then again raving wildly of that which seemed but words of incoherent madness to those who listened. It was the Meria grove, the grove of sacrifice; the mango, the ber, the dammar, they kneel before their victim; they struggle to touch his hands, his feet; they pluck the flowers from about his brow, to guard as charms; they offer him palm-wine and milk, and snatch the bowl eagerly from his lips to drain the valued drops; and now the priest strikes with his axe the branch of a young green tree, and the crowd affix a rope to the opening of the rift; the victim hears that blow, and well he knows that, bound in yonder branch, all fettered as he is, the crowd that now honor him as a god, will tear his quivering flesh, and bear it in triumph to their fields; and yet, not one pang of anguish can be seen to agitate the Meria's frame, but a wild light gleams from his eye, and with a firm voice, he claims the attention of the crowd. and the pipala, the mightiest of India's for- manding sacrifice. And now, with slow and est trees, lent their shadows to a spot, awful, solemn pace, the elders of Rodungiah adindeed, in its solemnities. No woodman vance from the village to the grove; the ventured hither to lay his axe to the tortu- crowd are silent; a way is opened; the ous branches sacred to the dread-inspiring priest advances, and stands beside the rod; goddess; no bird of sweet song or gay plu- suddenly, he raises his hand on high, the mage ever sought shelter here; no timid elders fall back, and there, crowned and animal here rested in safety from its pur- adorned with flowers, decked with rich suer, neither did any blossom of fragrance jewels, and fettered every limb, stands Khouever bloom among its rank, tangled, un-rou, the Meria victim, doomed to be the earth wholesome verdure. There was a stream, god's sacrifice! Stunning shouts of approindeed, that made its way from the higher bation burst from the assembled crowds; ghauts through this fear-inspiring spot, but it crept sluggishly on, without one merry ripple or tone of murmuring music to refresh the ear, until, having passed this grove, it leaped, as if in bright and joyful mood, over the moss-grown rocks of the Salki river. In the centre of the grove was an aged tree, scathed as if by lightning; a deep rift was through the trunk, and a much-rotted rope fell from the yawning fissure of the upper branches. On the ground beneath, which was bare and rugged, lay some whitened bones, with a few rude images of birds and beasts, figured in potter's clay. It was a hideous and revolting sight; for here, even in the once-green rift of that old tree, had a fair child, a Meria victim, bought with a price at the inhuman festival of Juggernath, been made a sacrifice for sin by the murderous people of Rodungiah, to propitiate the favor of the earth god, and his blessing upon the produce of their lands. And now -why, so near the same dread spot, is seen a slight rod, surrounded by four tall poles, inserted in the newly-turned soil of the Meria grove? Alas! as the moon last night rose over the dark foliage, the priest came forth to seek the spot for the coming sacrifice demanded by Bera Pennee; the rod and poles bespeak his will, and now that the sun has risen, peals of mad laughter, loud song, and the confused clang of many instruments, reach the ear, and echo through the grove; and it seems, too, that echo has a strange and startling sound, as if the earth-fiend held his court, rejoicing in the madness and cruelty of man. But soon the voice of drunken riot nearer and nearer comes, emerging from the village, and a crowd dash into the grove, with loud shrieks of triumph, rushing to the blasted tree. Aged men, youthful women, and young children, the noble and his serf, all are there; they shout, they dance, they strew flowers, with oil and turmeric, upon the ground; they tear up branches of the sankissa and bazardanti shrubs, and wave them in the air, loudly de 66 The My friends," he cried, "I feel upon me the power of the earth god; I know myself his accepted sacrifice. Give me again of yonder bowl; unbind my limbs, and let me share with thee this joyous festival. crowd loudly applaud their victim's resolution, his fetters are struck off, and with wild songs and shouts of triumph he dances among the people But ere long, the priest and the abbaya approach the Meria sacrifice, warning him the hour has come, commanded by the earth god. The victim pauses, the dance has once again rendered supple his cramped limbs; the juice of the palm has renovated his diminished powers. "Tis well," he cries, "but ere I enter yonder rift, give me an axe and bow, that, once again, as a free man, I may join my companions in the war-dance of our tribe." ""Tis well," they cry; "a willing victim is acceptable to the gods; render him the axe and bow." 'Tis done; Khourou eagerly seizes them from the priest, he dances wildly forward, he turns again, he shouts in wild triumph, he whirls the weapon high above his head; in another moment the blow is struck, and the brain of the priest is cleft in twain. Appalled for a moment, the crowd favor the |