A History of Pantomime eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 186 pages of information about A History of Pantomime.

A History of Pantomime eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 186 pages of information about A History of Pantomime.

A good natured looking old man one day knocks at the door of a poor tailor out of work; his son, opening the door, is told by the old man that he is his uncle, and he gives him half a piastre to buy a good dinner.  When the tailor comes home—­he was absent at the time—­he is surprised to hear the old man claim him as a brother, but finding him so rich he does not dispute the matter.  After the old man had lived some time with the tailor and his family, literally defraying all the household expenses, he finds it necessary to depart, and with the tailor’s consent takes the boy Cajusse with him, in order that he may learn some useful business.  But no sooner do they get outside the town than he tells Cajusse that it is all a dodge.  “I’m not your uncle,” he says, “I want a strong, daring boy to do something I am too old to do.  I’m a wizard—­don’t attempt to escape for you can’t.”  Cajusse, not a bit frightened, asks him what it is he wants him to do; and the wizard raises a flat stone from the ground, and orders him to go down, and after he gets to the bottom of the cave to proceed until he comes to a beautiful garden, where he will see a fierce dog keeping watch.  “Here’s bread for him.  Don’t look back when you hear sounds behind you.  On a shelf you will see an old lantern; take it down, and bring it to me.”  So saying the wizard gave Cajusse a ring, in case anything awkward should happen to him after he had got the lantern, when he had only to rub the ring, and wish for deliverance.  Cajusse finds precious stones hanging like frost from the trees in the garden underground, and he fills his pocket with them.  Returning to the entrance of the cave, he refuses to give up the lantern till he has been drawn out; so the wizard thinking merely to frighten him replaces the stone.  Cajusse finding himself thus entrapped rubs the ring, when instantly the Slave of the Ring appears, and the youth at once orders the table to be laid for dinner.  He then calls for his mother and father, and they all have an unusually good meal.  Some time afterwards, Cajusse had returned home, the town was illuminated, one day in honour of the marriage of the Sultan’s daughter to the Vizier’s son.  He sends his mother to the palace with a basket of jewels, and, to demand the Sultan’s daughter in marriage.  The Sultan is astounded at the purity of the gems, and says he will give his answer in a month.  At the end of the same week the Grand Vizier’s son is married to the Princess.  Cajusse rubs his lantern and says “Go to-night and take the daughter of the Sultan and lay her on a poor pallet in our outhouse.”  This is done, and Cajusse begins to talk to her, but she is far too frightened to answer.  The Sultan learns of his daughter’s whereabouts, and does not know what to make of the strange business.  The son of the Vizier complains to his father that his wife disappears every night, and comes back just before dawn.  Cajusse now sends his mother to the Sultan with three more baskets full

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A History of Pantomime from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.