Rajkumar

So the prince, not without some fear, prepared to obey; but first he drank

his sherbet, and handed over the golden cup to the old man by way of

recompense; then he reclined beside the chafing-dish and inhaled the

heavy perfume till he became overpowered with sleep, and sank down

upon the carpet in a dream.

The prince knew not where he was, but a green country was floating

before him, and he found himself standing in a marshy valley where a few

wretched cottages were scattered here and there with no means of

communication. There was a river, but it had overflowed its banks and

made the central land impassable, the fences had been broken down by

it, and the fields of corn laid low; a few wretched peasants were

wandering about there; they looked half-clad and half-starved. "A

miserable valley, indeed!" exclaimed the prince; but as he said it a man

came down from the hills with a great bag of gold in his hand.

"This valley is mine," said he to the people; "I have bought it for gold.

Now make banks that the river may not overflow, and I will give you

gold; also make fences and plant fields, and cover in the roofs of your

houses, and buy yourselves richer clothing." So the people did so, and as

the gold got lower in the bag the valley grew fairer and greener, till the

prince exclaimed, "O gold, I see your value now! O wonderful, beneficent

gold!"

But presently the valley melted away like a mist, and the prince saw an

army besieging a city; he heard a general haranguing his soldiers to urge

them on, and the soldiers shouting and battering the walls; but shortly,

when the city was well-nigh taken, he saw some men secretly giving gold

among the soldiers, so much of it that they threw down their arms to pick

it up, and said that the walls were so strong that they could not throw

them down. "O powerful gold!" thought the prince; "thou art stronger

than the city walls!"

After that it seemed to him that he was walking about in a desert country,

and in his dream he thought, "Now I know what labor is, for I have seen

it, and its benefits; and I know what liberty is, for I have tasted it; I can

wander where I will, and no man questions me; but gold is more strange

to me than ever, for I have seen it buy both liberty and labor." Shortly

after this he saw a great crowd digging upon a barren hill, and when he

drew near he understood that he was to see the place whence the gold

came.

He came up and stood a long time watching the people as they toiled

ready to faint in the sun, so great was the labor of digging up the gold.

He saw some who had much and could not trust any one to help them to

carry it, binding it in bundles over their shoulders, and bending and

groaning under its weight; he saw others hide it in the ground, and watch

the place clothed in rags, that none might suspect that they were rich;

but some, on the contrary, who had dug up an unusual quantity, he saw

dancing and singing, and vaunting their success, till robbers waylaid them

when they slept, and rifled their bundles and carried their golden sand

away.

"All these men are mad," thought the prince, "and this pernicious gold has

made them so."

After this, as he wandered here and there, he saw groups of people

smelting the gold under the shadow of the trees, and he observed that a

dancing, quivering vapor rose up from it which dazzled their eyes, and

distorted everything that they looked at; arraying it also in different

colors from the true one. He observed that this vapor from the gold

caused all things to rock and reel before the eyes of those who looked

through it, and also, by some strange affinity, it drew their hearts toward

those who carried much gold on their persons, so that they called them

good and beautiful; it also caused them to see darkness and dulness in

the faces of those who had carried none. "This," thought the prince, "is

very strange;" but not being able to explain it, he went still farther, and

there he saw more people. Each of these had adorned himself with a

broad golden girdle, and was sitting in the shade, while other men waited

on them.

"What ails these people?" he inquired of one who was looking on, for he

observed a peculiar air of weariness and dulness in their faces. He was

answered that the girdles were very tight and heavy, and being bound

over the regions of the heart, were supposed to impede its action, and

prevent it from beating high, and also to chill the wearer, as, being of

opaque material, the warm sunshine of the earth could not get through to

warm them.