THE BISARA OF POOREE.
Little Blind Fish, thou art marvellous wise, Little Blind Fish, who put out thy eyes? Open thine ears while I whisper my wish-- Bring me a lover, thou little Blind Fish.
The Charm of the Bisara.
Some natives say that it came from the other side of Kulu, wherethe eleven-inch Temple Sapphire is. Others that it was made at theDevil-Shrine of Ao-Chung in Thibet, was stolen by a Kafir, from him bya Gurkha, from him again by a Lahouli, from him by a khitmatgar, and bythis latter sold to an Englishman, so all its virtue was lost: because,to work properly, the Bisara of Pooree must be stolen--with bloodshed ifpossible, but, at any rate, stolen.
These stories of the coming into India are all false. It was made atPooree ages since--the manner of its making would fill a small book--wasstolen by one of the Temple dancing-girls there, for her own purposes,and then passed on from hand to hand, steadily northward, till itreached Hanla: always bearing the same name--the Bisara of Pooree. Inshape it is a tiny, square box of silver, studded outside with eightsmall balas-rubies. Inside the box, which opens with a spring, isa little eyeless fish, carved from some sort of dark, shiny nut andwrapped in a shred of faded gold-cloth. That is the Bisara of Pooree,and it were better for a man to take a king cobra in his hand than totouch the Bisara of Pooree.
All kinds of magic are out of date and done away with except in Indiawhere nothing changes in spite of the shiny, toy-scum stuff that peoplecall "civilization." Any man who knows about the Bisara of Pooree willtell you what its powers are--always supposing that it has been honestlystolen. It is the only regularly working, trustworthy love-charm in thecountry, with one exception.
[The other charm is in the hands of a trooper of the Nizam's Horse, at aplace called Tuprani, due north of Hyderabad.] This can be depended uponfor a fact. Some one else may explain it.
If the Bisara be not stolen, but given or bought or found, it turnsagainst its owner in three years, and leads to ruin or death. This isanother fact which you may explain when you have time. Meanwhile, youcan laugh at it. At present, the Bisara is safe on an ekka-pony'sneck, inside the blue bead-necklace that keeps off the Evil-eye. If theekka-driver ever finds it, and wears it, or gives it to his wife, I amsorry for him.
A very dirty hill-cooly woman, with goitre, owned it at Theog in 1884.It came into Simla from the north before Churton's khitmatgar bought it,and sold it, for three times its silver-value, to Churton, who collectedcuriosities. The servant knew no more what he had bought thanthe master; but a man looking over Churton's collection ofcuriosities--Churton was an Assistant Commissioner by the way--saw andheld his tongue. He was an Englishman; but knew how to believe. Whichshows that he was different from most Englishmen. He knew that it wasdangerous to have any share in the little box when working or dormant;for unsought Love is a terrible gift.
Pack--"Grubby" Pack, as we used to call him--was, in every way, a nastylittle man who must have crawled into the Army by mistake. He was threeinches taller than his sword, but not half so strong. And the sword wasa fifty-shilling, tailor-made one. Nobody liked him, and, I suppose, itwas his wizenedness and worthlessness that made him fall so hopelesslyin love with Miss Hollis, who was good and sweet, and five foot seven inher tennis shoes. He was not content with falling in love quietly,but brought all the strength of his miserable little nature into thebusiness. If he had not been so objectionable, one might have pitiedhim. He vapored, and fretted, and fumed, and trotted up and down, andtried to make himself pleasing in Miss Hollis's big, quiet, gray eyes,and failed. It was one of the cases that you sometimes meet, even inthis country where we marry by Code, of a really blind attachment all onone side, without the faintest possibility of return. Miss Hollislooked on Pack as some sort of vermin running about the road. He hadno prospects beyond Captain's pay, and no wits to help that out by oneanna. In a large-sized man, love like his would have been touching. Ina good man it would have been grand. He being what he was, it was only anuisance.
You will believe this much. What you will not believe, is what follows:Churton, and The Man who Knew that the Bisara was, were lunching at theSimla Club together. Churton was complaining of life in general. Hisbest mare had rolled out of stable down the hill and had broken herback; his decisions were being reversed by the upper Courts, morethan an Assistant Commissioner of eight years' standing has a right toexpect; he knew liver and fever, and, for weeks past, had felt out ofsorts. Altogether, he was disgusted and disheartened.
Simla Club dining-room is built, as all the world knows, in twosections, with an arch-arrangement dividing them. Come in, turn to yourown left, take the table under the window, and you cannot see any onewho has come in, turning to the right, and taken a table on the rightside of the arch. Curiously enough, every word that you say can beheard, not only by the other diner, but by the servants beyond thescreen through which they bring dinner. This is worth knowing: anechoing-room is a trap to be forewarned against.
Half in fun, and half hoping to be believed, The Man who Knew toldChurton the story of the Bisara of Pooree at rather greater length thanI have told it to you in this place; winding up with the suggestion thatChurton might as well throw the little box down the hill and see whetherall his troubles would go with it. In ordinary ears, English ears, thetale was only an interesting bit of folk-lore. Churton laughed,said that he felt better for his tiffin, and went out. Pack had beentiffining by himself to the right of the arch, and had heard everything.He was nearly mad with his absurd infatuation for Miss Hollis that allSimla had been laughing about.
It is a curious thing that, when a man hates or loves beyond reason, heis ready to go beyond reason to gratify his feelings. Which he would notdo for money or power merely. Depend upon it, Solomon would never havebuilt altars to Ashtaroth and all those ladies with queer names, ifthere had not been trouble of some kind in his zenana, and nowhere else.But this is beside the story. The facts of the case are these: Packcalled on Churton next day when Churton was out, left his card, andSTOLE the Bisara of Pooree from its place under the clock on themantelpiece! Stole it like the thief he was by nature. Three days later,all Simla was electrified by the news that Miss Hollis had acceptedPack--the shrivelled rat, Pack! Do you desire clearer evidence thanthis? The Bisara of Pooree had been stolen, and it worked as it hadalways done when won by foul means.
There are three or four times in a man's life-when he is justified inmeddling with other people's affairs to play Providence.
The Man who Knew felt that he WAS justified; but believing and acting ona belief are quite different things. The insolent satisfaction of Packas he ambled by the side of Miss Hollis, and Churton's striking releasefrom liver, as soon as the Bisara of Pooree had gone, decided the Man.He explained to Churton and Churton laughed, because he was not broughtup to believe that men on the Government House List steal--at leastlittle things. But the miraculous acceptance by Miss Hollis of thattailor, Pack, decided him to take steps on suspicion. He vowed that heonly wanted to find out where his ruby-studded silver box had vanishedto. You cannot accuse a man on the Government House List of stealing.And if you rifle his room you are a thief yourself. Churton, promptedby The Man who Knew, decided on burglary. If he found nothing in Pack'sroom.... but it is not nice to think of what would have happened in thatcase.
Pack went to a dance at Benmore--Benmore WAS Benmore in those days, andnot an office--and danced fifteen waltzes out of twenty-two with MissHollis. Churton and The Man took all the keys that they could lay handson, and went to Pack's room in the hotel, certain that his servantswould be away. Pack was a cheap soul. He had not purchased a decentcash-box to keep his papers in, but one of those native imitations thatyou buy for ten rupees. It opened to any sort of key, and there at thebottom, under Pack's Insurance Policy, lay the Bisara of Pooree!
Churton called Pack names, put the Bisara of Pooree in his pocket, andwent to the dance with The Man. At least, he came in time for supper,and saw the beginning of the end in Mi
ss Hollis's eyes. She washysterical after supper, and was taken away by her Mamma.
At the dance, with the abominable Bisara in his pocket, Churton twistedhis foot on one of the steps leading down to the old Rink, and had to besent home in a rickshaw, grumbling. He did not believe in the Bisara ofPooree any the more for this manifestation, but he sought out Pack andcalled him some ugly names; and "thief" was the mildest of them. Packtook the names with the nervous smile of a little man who wants bothsoul and body to resent an insult, and went his way. There was no publicscandal.
A week later, Pack got his definite dismissal from Miss Hollis. Therehad been a mistake in the placing of her affections, she said. So hewent away to Madras, where he can do no great harm even if he lives tobe a Colonel.
Churton insisted upon The Man who Knew taking the Bisara of Pooree as agift. The Man took it, went down to the Cart Road at once, found an ekkapony with a blue head-necklace, fastened the Bisara of Pooree inside thenecklace with a piece of shoe-string and thanked Heaven that he wasrid of a danger. Remember, in case you ever find it, that you must notdestroy the Bisara of Pooree. I have not time to explain why just now,but the power lies in the little wooden fish. Mister Gubernatis or MaxMuller could tell you more about it than I.
You will say that all this story is made up. Very well. If ever you comeacross a little silver, ruby-studded box, seven-eighths of an inch longby three-quarters wide, with a dark-brown wooden fish, wrapped in goldcloth, inside it, keep it. Keep it for three years, and then you willdiscover for yourself whether my story is true or false.
Better still, steal it as Pack did, and you will be sorry that you hadnot killed yourself in the beginning.