Marauder

“ In no instance is he an organic machine. Far from it; this prowling marauder is the fiercest and most adventurous of wild beasts, astute to a degree, capable of using every faculty to its fullest extent, well able to take care of itself, and fatally skilful in compassing the destruction of others; a being in every way qualified to design and execute its projects, to achieve all those ends which courage and cunning enable it to attain, and quite fit to meet the ordinary emergencies that may arise during the perpetration of its acts of rapine and bloodshed. ”

“ But after that time, when they get among strangers and there's nobody with an eye on them, they fall as victims—if you choose to call it so—to the first marauder—to the young master, the nephew home for his Christmas holidays, or the man who comes to tune the piano. ”

“ But man proposes, God disposes, for many an ominous growl of pain distinctly told that the old marauder was not in a frame of mind or body to enjoy the feast. The night was so intensely dark that it would have been utter madness to have risked my life or any of my people's to drive the lions from their prey, so we satisfied ourselves by piling on fresh fuel and firing an occasional shot in the direction in which we knew the feast was taking place. ”

“ In this wretched country, where every one lives on from day to day without quitting his little inclosure, without even hearing an echo from afar, four bearded marauders like ourselves, avoiding the beaten road, and marching rapidly across stubble and thicket, presented no ordinary rencontre. ”

“ His people are born marauders, and will continue to plunder and murder until he is captured or shot. He will break out in a fresh place before long. Strange that we can never catch him! He really seems to lead a charmed existence. ”

“ Then I bored a hole with an instrument which happened to be handy, and seizing a brand ran to the walls. I know these marauders. Death has no favours for them. They are bold where there is no danger to themselves, and cruel to a degree ”

“ Rock, and forest, and water, but no living creature save wild beasts, such as the wolf, the fox, the wolverine, the lynx and the bear, with the weaker animals upon which they preyed. So then the beasts had it all their own way, till there settled here—so runs the legend—a band of marauders, from no one knows where, but it was thought that their own land was in the far south. ”

“ Gidgiddoni, learning of their intentions, and knowing their feeble bodily condition through lack of food, determined to intercept them. This he successfully accomplished, thousands of the marauders were slain. ”

“ For a whole month everyone of them had been living disguised in the most humble clothes, escaping over back walls directly news was brought that marauders were at their front doors; offer [426] ing their very women up so as to escape themselves; living in all truth the most wretched lives. ”

“ No longer are hosts of marauders like the Pindarees, who scarcely professed to be anything else than marauders, allowed to roam over fertile and populous regions in their robbing and murdering expeditions. ”

“ Time, while I spoke, with his wings resting o'er me,
Heard me say, "Where are those visions, oh where?"
And pointing his wand to the sunset before me,
Said, with a voice like the hollow wind, "There."
Fondly I looked, when the wizard had spoken,
And there, mid the dim-shining ruins of day,
Saw, by their light, like a talisman broken,
The last golden fragments of hope melt away.
WIND THY HORN, MY HUNTER BOY. Wind thy horn, my hunter boy,
And leave thy lute's inglorious sighs;
Hunting is the hero's joy,
Till war his nobler game supplies. ”

“ Like steers in rapid motion they advance and overtake the nights; And thus the Maruts' power in heaven and on the earth we celebrate. 4. With boldness to your Maruts let us offer laud and sacrifice: Who all, through ages of mankind, guard mortal man from injury. 5. Praiseworthy, givers of good gifts, Heroes with full and perfect strength - To Maruts, Holy Ones of heaven, will I extol the sacrifice. 6. The lofty Heroes cast their spears and weapons bright with gleaming gold. After these Maruts followed close, like laughing lightning from the sky, a splendour of its own accord. ”

“ The Maruts watch the man who sings their praises, promoters of the thought of him who worships. Seat you on sacred grass in our assembly, this day, with friendly minds, to share the banquet. 3. No others gleam so brightly as these Maruts with their own forms, their golden gauds, their weapons. With all adornments, decking earth and heaven, they heighten, for bright show, their common splendour. 4. Far from us be your blazing dart, O Maruts, when we, through human frailty, sin against you. ”

“ Those who have grown up on earth, or in the wide sky, or in the realm of the rivers, or in the abode of the great heaven, praise that host of the Maruts, endowed with true strength and boldness, whether those rushing heroes have by themselves harnessed their horses for triumph, or whether these brilliant Maruts have in the speckled cloud clothed themselves in wool, or whether by their strength they cut the mountain asunder with the tire of their chariot ”

“ All beings who dwell in houses are afraid of you, your march is brilliant with your spears thrust forth. When they whose march is terrible have caused the rocks to tremble, or when the manly Maruts have shaken the back of heaven, then every lord of the forest fears at your racing, each shrub flies out of your way, whirling like chariot-wheels. You, O terrible Maruts, whose ranks are never broken, favorably fulfil our prayer! Wherever your glory-toothed lightning bites, it crunches cattle, like a well-aimed bolt. ”

“ Free for the Maruts is the earth with sloping ways, free for the rushing Ones is heaven with steep descents. The paths of air's mid-region are precipitous, precipitous the mountains with their running streams. 10. When, as the Sun hath risen up, ye take delight, O bounteous radiant Maruts, Heroes of the sky, Your coursers weary not when speeding on their way, and rapidly ye reach the end of this your path. 11. Lances are on your shoulders, anklets on your feet, gold chains are on your breasts, gems, Maruts, on your car. ”

“ The child is interested, too, in the strange people he meets in the fairy tales: the clever little elves who lived in the groves and danced on the grass; the dwarfs who inhabited the earth-rocks and the hills; the trolls who dwelt in the wild pine forest or the rocky spurs, who ate men or porridge, and who fled at the noise of bells; the fairies who pleased with their red caps, green jackets, and sprightly ways; the beautiful fairy godmother who waved her wonderful wand ”

“ When I walk out in the woods, or ramble through the fields alone, the objects which appear ordinary and commonplace to people who have, unhappily for themselves, neglected to study Fairy Lore, bear to me quite a different appearance. I see traces of the little beings which are not visible to the careless, still less to the unbelieving eye. I hear voices which are inaudible to the ear of the incredulous; and even without this, Fancy—free, glorious Fancy—clothes the grass, the flowers, the bushes, the trees, with a beauty of her own, and peoples every fairy haunt with a spirit company. ”

“ Your greatness, O Maruts, is to be honored, it is to be yearned for like the sight of the sun. Place us also in immortality;—when they went in triumph, the chariots followed. O Maruts, you raise the rain from the sea, and rain it down, O yeomen! Your milch-cows, O destroyers, are never destroyed;—when they went in triumph, the chariots followed. When you have joined the deer as horses to the shafts, and have clothed yourselves in golden garments, then, O Maruts, you scatter all enemies;—when they went in triumph, the chariots followed. ”

“ Especially hateful to these earnest people was the open gaiety and sensuous refinement of the Moors; their enjoyment of life and all its pleasure, their music and singing, their very learning and science, were abhorrent to these ascetics. Life, to the true believer, meant only scourges and fasts, penances and confessions, purification through suffering, the mortifying of the flesh and sanctifying of the spirit. ”

“ THEY who are glancing forth, like women, on their way, doers of mighty deeds, swift racers, Rudra's Sons, The Maruts have made heaven and earth increase and grow: in sacrifices they delight, the strong and wild. 2. Grown to their perfect strength greatness have they attained ”

“ Is fairies' night when they receive
All their friends and all their slaves,
The goblins, witches, trollish knaves.
And if the olden tales be true,
All men and maids have cause to rue,
Who on this night dare go abroad
And touch a foot to fairy sod;
For naught will save them but to jump
Right o'er a fire or blazing stump.
But if you're brave and do not fear
That for your rashness you'll pay dear,
Then stand beneath an elder tree
And King of Fairies you may see. ”

“ The Moorman replied, "And what may that be?" So she said to him: "At the end of supper each lover in turn taketh the cup of the beloved and drinketh it off." And at once she crowned one with wine and bade the handmaid carry to him her cup, wherein the drink was blended with the bhang. Now she had taught the slave girl what to do, and all the handmaids and eunuchs in the pavilion longed for the sorcerer's slaughter and in that matter were one with the Princess. ”

“ They tell of enchanted princes and princesses, of brave and wonderful deeds, of magic worked by evil demons and overcome by the greater power of good spirits.
Sometimes there is a beautiful princess to be rescued; sometimes a fortune to be won; sometimes a hard task to be performed,—an impossible feat for ordinary lads and lassies. But in fairy tales nothing is impossible to youth and beauty and courage, so these shepherd lads and princesses, kings’ sons and peasant maidens set forth on their wonderful adventures with brave hearts, and always win through to safety. ”

“ Self-yoked they have descended lightly from the sky. With your own lash, Immortals, urge yourselves to speed. Unstained by dust the Maruts, mighty in their strength, have cast down e'en firm things, armed with their shining spears. 5. Who among you, O Maruts armed with lightning-spears, moveth you by himself, as with the tongue his jaws? Ye rush from heaven's floor as though ye sought for food, on many errands like the Sun's diurnal Steed. ”

“ But how can one tie oneself down, Madame? Each minute should bring its own joy,—and a different one.’
“This combination of intelligence and the greed of a young animal in one and the same being seemed so strange to me that I listened without interrupting him. Yes, I was certainly fascinated: cheaply enough, in all conscience, but I was. I remember the trampling of hooves, the tinkling of bells, the wild cries of the shepherds which announced the approach of a herd of cattle. ”

“ It is amazing with what profound knowledge of the human heart he not only portrays the passion of jealousy,—first slumbering, then gradually awaking, and ending in madness; but with what wondrous accuracy he catches the Southern nature of the Moor,—the peculiar characteristics of the race, and never for a moment loses sight of them. ”

“ The Moor seems noble, frank, confiding, grateful for the love shown him; and he is all this, and, moreover, a hero who spurns at danger, a worthy leader of an army, a faithful servant of the state; but the mere physical force of passion puts to flight in one moment all his acquired and mere habitual virtues, and gives the upper hand to the savage over the moral man. ”

“ They themselves said to me when day by day they came to the feast with their birds: they are manly youths and blameless; seeing them, praise them thus; they who shine by themselves in their ornaments, their daggers, their garlands, their golden chains, their rings, going on their chariots and on dry land. O Maruts, givers of quickening rain, I am made to rejoice, following after your chariots, as after days going with rain. The bucket which the bounteous heroes shook down from heaven for their worshipper, that cloud they send along heaven and earth, and showers follow on the dry land. ”

“ To lend free course, O Maruts, to your furious rush, heaven high and higher still gives way, Where they, the Heroes mighty with their arms, display their gleaming ornaments on their forms. 7. After their Godlike nature they, the bull. like Heroes, dazzling and impetuous, wear Great splendour as they show erect. ”

“ What it presently came to in truth was that poor Marcher waded through his beaten grass, where no life stirred, where no breath sounded, where no evil eye seemed to gleam from a possible lair, very much as if vaguely looking for the Beast, and still more as if acutely missing it. ”

“ These Maruts bring the swift man to a stand-still, and strength with mightier strength they break and humble These guard the singer from the man who hates him and lay their sore displeasure on the wicked. ”

“ For a time these spindle-shanked, goggle-eyed puppets could be seen in every household, in picture-books, on book covers, in the newspapers—in short, everywhere. Should the children be told that there never were any such creatures as fairies or brownies, there would be an end to all the charm they possess; for, unquestionably, their only hold upon the popular mind rests upon the association with olden superstition. ”

“ It has survived its own success, and has entered into literature. It has become a classic. The young marooners themselves have reached middle age, and some of them have passed away, but their adventures are as fresh and as entertaining as ever. ”

“ There is in us all an instinctive admiration for the adventurous spirit of the fairy tale which challenges the might that is cruel and devastating, and for the good offices of the fairies which help to vindicate the cause of the noble in its conflict with the ignoble, right with wrong. ”

“ There are other spheres also in which the puppets have an advantage over mere mortal actors. Fairy stories, legends of miraculous adventure, metamorphoses are tremendously heightened by the quality of strangeness inherent in the marionettes. “For puppet plays,” says Professor Pischel, “are fairy-tales and the fairy-tale is nourished by strangeness.” Transformations, animal fables, fairy flittings in scenes of mysterious glamour are obviously more easily presented by fleshless dolls than by heavy, panting and perspiring actors tricked out in unnatural and unearthly raiment. ”