‘And gave counsel--an old man’s counsel. Gobind, son of Gobind of the Chumi village in the Karaon tehsil, in the district of Mooltan. Will that be written also?’ ‘That will be written also.’ ‘And the book will go across the Black Water to the houses of your people, and all the Sahibs will know of me who am eighty years old?’ ‘All who read the book shall know. I cannot promise for the rest.’ ‘That is good talk. Call aloud to all who are in the monastery, and I will tell them this thing.’ They trooped up, faquirs, sadhus, sunnyasis, byragis, nihangs, and mullahs, priests of all faiths and every degree of raggedness, and Gobind, leaning upon his crutch, spoke so that they were visibly filled with envy, and a white-haired senior bade Gobind think of his latter end instead of transitory repute in the mouths of strangers. Then Gobind gave me his blessing and I came away. These tales have been collected from all places, and all sorts of people, from priests in the Chubara, from Ala Yar the carver, Jiwun Singh the carpenter, nameless men on steamers and trains round the world, women spinning outside their cottages in the twilight, officers and gentlemen now dead and buried, and a few, but these are the very best, my father gave me. The greater part of them have been published in magazines and newspapers, to whose editors I am indebted; but some are new on this side of the water, and some have not seen the light before. The most remarkable stories are, of course, those which do not appear--for obvious reasons. CONTENTS THE LANG MEN O’ LARUT REINGELDER AND THE GERMAN FLAG THE WANDERING JEW THROUGH THE FIRE THE FINANCES OF THE GODS THE AMIR’S HOMILY JEWS IN SHUSHAN THE LIMITATIONS OF PAMBE SERANG LITTLE TOBRAH BUBBLING WELL ROAD ‘THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT’ GEORGIE PORGIE NABOTH THE DREAM OF DUNCAN PARRENNESS THE INCARNATION OF KRISHNA MULVANEY THE COURTING OF DINAH SHADD ON GREENHOW HILL THE MAN WHO WAS THE HEAD OF THE DISTRICT WITHOUT BENEFIT OF CLERGY AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE THE MUTINY OF THE MAVERICKS THE MARK OF THE BEAST THE RETURN OF IMRAY NAMGAY DOOLA BERTRAN AND BIMI MOTI GUJ--MUTINEER THE LANG MEN O’ LARUT [Footnote: Copyright, 1891, by MACMILLAN & CO.] The Chief Engineer’s sleeping suit was of yellow striped with blue, and his speech was the speech of Aberdeen. They sluiced the deck under him, and he hopped on to the ornamental capstan, a black pipe between his teeth, though the hour was not seven of the morn. ‘Did you ever hear o’ the Lang Men o’ Larut?’ he asked when the Man from Orizava had finished a story of an aboriginal giant discovered in the wilds of Brazil. There was never story yet passed the lips of teller, but the Man from Orizava could cap it. ‘No, we never did,’ we responded with one voice. The Man from Orizava watched the Chief keenly, as a possible rival.