-FLASH AND FIRE-FADE (_Japanese_)

PANCH-PHUL RANEE (_Southern Indian_)

SCHIPPEITARO (_Japanese_)

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I WONDER!

I wonder if in Samarcand
Grave camels kneel in golden sand,
Still lading bales of magic spells
And charms a lover's wisdom tells,
To fare across the desert main
And bring the Princess home again--
I wonder!

I wonder in Japan to-day
If grateful beasts find out the way
To those who succoured them in pain,
And bring their blessings back again;
If cranes and sparrows take the shape
And all the ways of mortals ape--
I wonder!

In Bagdad, may there still be found
That potent powder, finely ground,
Which changes all who on it feast,
Monarch or slave, to bird or beast?
Do Caliphs taste and unafraid,
Turn storks, and weeping night-owls aid?
I wonder!

I wonder if in far Cathay
The nightingale still trills her lay
Beside the Porcelain Palace door,
And courtiers praise her as before I
If emperors dream of bygone things
And musing, weep the while she sings--
I wonder!

Such things have never chanced to me.
I wonder if to eyes that see
These magic visions still appear
In daily living, now and here;
If every flower is touched with glory,
If e'en the grass-blades tell a story--
I wonder
N. A. S.

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_INTRODUCTION_

There is a Chinese tale, known as "The Singing Prisoner," in which a
friendless man is bound hand and foot and thrown into a dungeon, where
he lies on the cold stones unfed and untended.

He has no hope of freedom and as complaint will avail him nothing, he
begins to while away the hours by reciting poems and stories that he
had learned in youth. So happily does he vary the tones of the
speakers, feigning in turn the voices of kings and courtiers, lovers
and princesses, birds and beasts, that he speedily draws all his
fellow-prisoners around him, beguiling them by the spell of his
genius.

Those who have food, eagerly press it upon him that his strength may
be replenished; the jailer, who has been drawn into the charmed
circle, loosens his bonds that he may move more freely, and finally
grants him better quarters that the stories may be heard to greater
advantage. Next