Caunter, John Hobart [Hrsg.]: The oriental annual: containing a series of tales, legends, & historical romances (1840)

HERAT.

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blessing, it will, perchance, be well to seize the
present opportunity of securing some relic of his
inestimably precious person; if it were no more
than one of the hairs which you see growing so
profusely about him."

Krishnaraia being greatly delighted at this
thoughtful suggestion, commended his buhkshi, and
immediately advancing with suitable awe, plucked
a hair from the shaggy breast of the Jogi. He pressed
it to his lips, and kissed it fervently, saying—" I
will enshrine it in an amulet of pure gold, set with
the most costly gems; and I will always wear it
suspended from my neck, as the most precious of my
ornaments. It shall be an heir-loom in our house,
a talisman against all evil, the source of perpetual
prosperity."

Now the ministers and courtiers who attended the
Raja could not refrain from possessing themselves of
a similar treasure; and each plucked a hair from the
breast of the meditative Jogi, to be preserved as a
sacred relic for future generations. Likewise the
vast multitude who now filled the plain, hearing, by
degrees, what had been passing in the cave, thronged
around the entrance, burning with anxiety to secure
a similar advantage; and when the Raja had de-
parted, each plucked his treasure, until scarce a hair
was left upon the tortured o-oatherd—the sanctified
penitent. But he endured all with utter indifference ;
nor winced, nor sighed, nor faltered in his steadfast
gaze.