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Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"From Mine Own People"

"
"Certainly," said "Very Young" Gayerson. "I am going down tomorrow morning. My
ponies are at your service, Sir."
The Venus Annodomini looked at him across the half-light of the room, and her
big gray eyes filled with moisture. She rose and shook hands with him.
"Goodbye, Tom," whispered the Venus Annodomini.

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, where the eleven-
inch Temple Sapphire is. Others that it was made at the Devil-Shrine of Ao-
Chung in Thibet, was stolen by a Kafir, from him by a Gurkha, from him again by
a Lahouli, from him by a khitmatgar, and by this latter sold to an Englishman,
so all its virtue was lost: because, to work properly, the Bisara of Pooree
must be stolen--with bloodshed if possible, but, at any rate, stolen.
These stories of the coming into India are all false. It was made at Pooree
ages since--the manner of its making would fill a small book--was stolen by one
of the Temple dancing-girls there, for her own purposes, and then passed on
from hand to hand, steadily northward, till it reached Hanla: always bearing
the same name--the Bisara of Pooree.


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