Show cinderella IN EGYPT U JL I 1 J a we may find sermons in stones but who would look for fairy tales in 4 band heap never helass in the last tomb of the last kin of the twenty sixth dynasty lies bun I 1 the original story of cinderella and IT slipper there is indeed only one variation of 0 any consequence between the two versions and the ancient one is certainly the more romantic Cinde rellas princely admirer finds finda in her lost shoe a clew clev to his hia vanished enchantress but king asam falls over head and ears in love with lio lie know kno s not whom from only see lug ins her sandal the ancient cinderella was a beautiful greek sappho calls her doricha and that was most likely her premier name but the greek people with whom fairness of skin was one of the hig highest hest qualities of female beauty named her trona froin the loveliness of her complexion Rhodo pis rosy cheeks and as rosy cheeks she is known in history she is mentioned by several writers but the slipper story rests on the authority of X elian lian lie ile relates it as having occurred to there were three kings ot of the name and lie he probably meant the third ade or the sculptures the last of jhc thc dynasty of tho the baiter kings who was cou con ab oseg U its e persa persian an was originally a slave and a fellow bondswoman of X aesop sop the writer of tables fables in fit the house of ladmon of samos and like the heroine of the modern tale a menial and a drudge so the parallel holds good from the beginning like cinderella too she lad had a fairy godmother but a more powerful powers ill and lavish one and her name was aphrodite anis patroness procured red her liberty and heaped ved upon her richess and to ninko make her name immortal by an offering mach inch us as had never been made before dedicated with a tenth part of her property i quantity of iron spits in the temple of apollo at delphi and this extraordinary gift was still to be seen there in herodotus time some also say that she built one of the pyramids of egypt but as Hers herodotus dotus remarks those who say so evidently know nothing about it and however this may be if Rhodo pis was not so simple as our own cinderella sho she wits was at all events more jacky and it if her coachman and horses and chariots were really rats and mice and pumpkins they never resumed their proper shape and no dis enchanting clock sent her hurrying back to her scullery ery one cue shoe off and one shoe on midnight never struck for or her and she lost her shoe in quite another way at the time I 1 speak of sho she was said 1 I to he be the most beautiful woman irk in egypt and she lived at Nau cratis a port on tho the branch of the nile founded in the preceding reign by colonists from miletus and though a born greek living in a greek city it pleased her now and then to play the Egypt egyptian lan and to adopt tho the manners and fashions of her new country and so it came about that ono rooming morning before the sun was yet high site she went ent down just as did pharaohs Phara laugh daugh N nile i i le the me at a short distance from the bank banh she left her litter and sought a secluded creek where screened in by the feathering papyrus she would be undisturbed nud and unseen from the busy river and there her ber girls unmade her toilet now tile the banks of tile the father of rivers are hard in places a mixture of sand and clay halted by the scorching chInK suit and rough to delicate feet so did not quit her sandals until the moment when she stepped down into the still cool water ter herself as 09 white and rosy roay us as the lott lotuses euseb around her there halt wading and halt swimming blie played and frolicked happy in tho the pure joy of living like tho the gay butterflies that fluttered about the rushes she gathered handfuls of lotuses lot uses and threw them away again and then in fix a lazy fit she he floated on oil her back and gave herself up to thoughts on oil things in general and on herself iu in particular but to return to her sandals band als which sho she had kicked off on tho the rivers brink they lay as sho she had bad left them a pair of dainty shoes fit alt tor for such dainty feet they were embroidered broi brol dered lit in gold and brilliant colors with it a quaint pattern and with tho the ever present lotus and most curious of all the t b e upper p p e r surface rk 0 of 0 f the t h e sole ol 01 e on which w 1 i her b e r fo foot 0 t rented 2 asu te le bore b 0 e the t h e figure fig n r e cief ot a cap c a ich tl re with bound arms ou on one ne sandal au an egyptian on tile the other a greek a fanciful elf ul way of suggesting the dominion of their owner over the hearts of two nations now it chanced that just above sailing bailing round in his vast circle a mere speck iq in the dancing blue sky was an eagle and as the sandals glittered by the waters edge they caught his eye now whether he thought they were good to eat or whether lie ho was a bird of cultivated taste I 1 know not net but straightway he swooped and seized one it roused from her reverie by the rush of wings cli caught light sight of the great bail as it llew off and frightened set to screaming and then ducked by the time slie she had recovered herself and taken it in what had happened the eagle cagle and her bar sandal were in the next parish 0 of course directly it was ali ah over her girls who had been busy telling ore oce another ariot ber secrets began in their alarm to hide everything away in a place ot of safety as if they expected a whole phalanx ot of ea eagles 1 leg were coming to carry off their ails tr tress e sl clothes and no doubt they had some reason tor for their conecin conc cin ein tor for ancient anc lent ladies had bad a variety of arni amiable able little ways of producing sympathy in their slaves when things went wrong and Rhodo pis sweet as she was to look at was like the rest but after all it was not a very serious matter for rosy cheeks had bad boap iap hoards board f till full of sandals at home and besides her litter was waa only round the corner so af after ter lier her first astonishment and fright were over she thought little more albut it now this event was wag in reality the turning point of her life tor for what did this mysterious bird do but fly straight away with his prey over the delta far up tho the long oil river to memphis and there as it if his mission ended he dropped the sandal before the judgment seat of king asam chus the king was sitting I 1 in a the open air close to the city gate dispensing justice tollis to his subjects the sun was hot and the imaginations of plaintiff and defendant equally inventive and inexhaustible so was bored his bis thoughts wandered tar far away and he tell fell to building castles in the air now no oriental could ever budd a castle in the iha air or r otherwise without giving it a mistress so BO he pleased himself by imagining tor for bis bia ideal palace an ideal beauty he pictured her with the eyes of the gazelle the voice of the the litheness of the panther the tread of a goddess and as his thoughts dwelt saillon still on the dainty toes that hardly pressed the ground they rested on the sandal fell from heaven plump at his royal feet astonished out of all dignity he jumped up stared up into the sky and down at the slipper and then stooped and picked tt it up for noone had dared to touch ouch it was it a goddess no tr it vas I as a lovely little littie shoe but certainly in earthly one V i t U th t of five little toor marked tr oss alft hs hoit just been dreaming camias dr ov of then of a sudden it became plain to him it was an answer from the gods to the wishes he had just been indulging in he be had bad planned a castle here was a mistress for it let search be made 11 cried he be for her who owns this sandal and by these signs shall you know her whomsoever the shoe fits and who has the fellow shoe and who can explain the symbol ou on the sole she is the rightful owned owner bring her to me that I 1 I 1 may make her my queen to hear was to obey and the messenger started on its his search many days lie he traveled down the nile making proclamation of the will of as he v went ent bearing tile the sandal on a cushion and wherever lie he came through flie whole land of egypt there was a routing out ot of cupboards clipboards and a hunting bunting up of left oil off shoes in case by chance there might be found among them a match for the wonderful sandal but none came to light and the maidens were left forlorn at last lie he came to Nau cratis and when the proclamation reached the ears cars of Rhodo pis she remembered the rape of her sandal and knew herself the one sought for by the king tile the ambassador was admitted to her presence and then at last the shoe fitted and here cried rhod odis is the fellow shoe and this Is why I 1 wear these symbols on the soles as greece is captive to my beauty so shall egypt be and egypto master and aid then she went with him to X naphis nip his and when the king whose heart was sick with waiting saw her ho he succumbed at once to the charm of her loveliness he did as he had promised and made her his queen and the rosy checked cheeked greek slave sat ba bide on oil the throne of pharaoh Ilar harpers pers bazar |