Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 5

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

IX

So Aulus was Dictator,
The man of seventy fights;
He made Æbutius Elva
His Master of the Knights.
On the third morn thereafter,
At downing of the day,
Did Aulus and Æbutius
Set forth with their array.
Sempronius Atratinus
Was left in charge at home
With boys, and with gray-headed men,
To keep the walls of Rome.
Hard by the Lake Regillus
Our camp was pitched at night:
Eastward a mile the Latines lay,
Under the Porcian height.
Far over hill and valley
Their mighty host was spread;
And with their thousand watch-fires
The midnight sky was red.

X

Up rose the golden morning
Over the Porcian height,
The proud Ides of Quintilis
Marked evermore in white.
Not without secret trouble
Our bravest saw the foe;
For girt by threescore thousand spears,
The thirty standards rose.
From every warlike city
That boasts the Latian name,
Fordoomed to dogs and vultures,
That gallant army came;
From Setia's purple vineyards,
From Norba's ancient wall,
From the white streets of Tusculum,
The proudust town of all;
From where the Witch's Fortress
O'er hangs the dark-blue seas;
From the still glassy lake that sleeps
Beneath Aricia's trees—
Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign,
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain;
From the drear banks of Ufens,
Where flights of marsh-fowl play,
And buffaloes lie wallowing
Through the hot summer's day;
From the gigantic watch-towers,
No work of earthly men,
Whence Cora's sentinels o'erlook
The never-ending fen;
From the Laurentian jungle,
The wild hog's reedy home;
From the green steeps whence Anio leaps
In floods of snow-white foam.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 5

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong



10
Just as they were catching up, Zhao Hong and Sun Zhong led their bandit army in an attack on Jun. Jun saw that Hong's army was powerful, and withdrew for the time being. Hong took advantage of the situation and again took control of Wancheng. Jun traveled about ten li, then made camp. Just as he was about to mount an attack, he suddenly saw a group of horses and men approaching from due east. In the lead was a man with a wide forehead and broad face, a torso like a tiger's, and a waist like a bear's; he was from Fuchun in the Wu Commandery. His surname was Sun, his given name was Jian, and his style name was Wentai; he was a descendant of Sun Wuzi. When he was seventeen years old, he traveled with his father to Qiantang. Along the way, they spotted more than ten pirates who had robbed some merchants, and were now on shore dividing up the loot. Jian said to his father, "I must arrest these pirates." He then took out his sword, and made his way onto shore with much bravado, screaming and shouting, and giving commands to his east and to his west, as if giving instructions to a bunch of men. The pirates assumed that government troops had arrived, ditched all of their loot, and fled the scene. Jian chased after them and killed one of the pirates. Because of this, he became somewhat of a local celebrity, and was recommended for the position of captain. Later on, the evil bandit Xu Chang from Guiji started a rebellion, calling himself the Yangming Emperor, and had amassed a force of tens of thousands. Jian and the commandery's military clerk recruited a force of more than one thousand brave men. They came together from the various cities and counties in order to quash the rebels, and to behead Xu Chang and his son Xu Shao. Provincial governor Zang Min wrote a glowing letter of praise to the emperor; as a result, Jian was made an assistant governor of Yandu, Xuyi and Xiapi Counties. Recently, he saw that the Yellow Turban bandits had staged an uprising, so he gathered together all of the local youths and traveling merchants, along with more than 1,500 elite troops from the area around the Huai and Si Rivers, and set out to intercept them.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Four - 7

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

"`I wonder if that farmer thought to fool me in this clumsy manner. Any crow of sense could see that you are only stuffed with straw.' Then he hopped down at my feet and ate all the corn he wanted. The other birds, seeing he was not harmed by me, came to eat the corn too, so in a short time there was a great flock of them about me.

"I felt sad at this, for it showed I was not such a good Scarecrow after all; but the old crow comforted me, saying, `If you only had brains in your head you would be as good a man as any of them, and a better man than some of them. Brains are the only things worth having in this world, no matter whether one is a crow or a man.'

"After the crows had gone I thought this over, and decided I would try hard to get some brains. By good luck you came along and pulled me off the stake, and from what you say I am sure the Great Oz will give me brains as soon as we get to the Emerald City."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

The trailer of Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Innocents Abroad - Chapter Five - 2

by Mark Twain

Young Mr. Blucher, who is from the Far West and is on his first voyage, was a good deal worried by the constantly changing "ship time." He was proud of his new watch at first and used to drag it out promptly when eight bells struck at noon, but he came to look after a while as if he were losing confidence in it. Seven days out from New York he came on deck and said with great decision:

"This thing's a swindle!"

"What's a swindle?"

"Why, this watch. I bought her out in Illinois--gave $150 for her--and I thought she was good. And, by George, she is good onshore, but somehow she don't keep up her lick here on the water--gets seasick may be. She skips; she runs along regular enough till half-past eleven, and then, all of a sudden, she lets down. I've set that old regulator up faster and faster, till I've shoved it clear around, but it don't do any good; she just distances every watch in the ship, and clatters along in a way that's astonishing till it is noon, but them eight bells always gets in about ten minutes ahead of her anyway. I don't know what to do with her now. She's doing all she can--she's going her best gait, but it won't save her. Now, don't you know, there ain't a watch in the ship that's making better time than she is, but what does it signify? When you hear them eight bells you'll find her just about ten minutes short of her score sure."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: The Pilgrims Becoming Domesticated--Pilgrim Life at Sea--"Horse-Billiards"--The "Synagogue"--The Writing School--Jack's "Journal"--The "Q. C. Club"--The Magic Lantern--State Ball on Deck--Mock Trials--Charades--Pilgrim Solemnity--Slow Music--The Executive Officer Delivers an Opinion

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Kim - Chapter One - 39

by Rudyard Kipling

The horse-trader, his deep, embroidered Bokhariot belt unloosed, was lying on a pair of silk carpet saddle-bags, pulling lazily at an immense silver hookah. He turned his head very slightly at the cry; and seeing only the tall silent figure, chuckled in his deep chest.

'Allah! A lama! A Red Lama! It is far from Lahore to the Passes. What dost thou do here?'

The lama held out the begging-bowl mechanically.

'God's curse on all unbelievers!' said Mahbub. 'I do not give to a lousy Tibetan; but ask my Baltis over yonder behind the camels. They may value your blessings. Oh, horseboys, here is a countryman of yours. See if he be hungry.'

A shaven, crouching Balti, who had come down with the horses, and who was nominally some sort of degraded Buddhist, fawned upon the priest, and in thick gutturals besought the Holy One to sit at the horseboys' fire.

'Go!' said Kim, pushing him lightly, and the lama strode away, leaving Kim at the edge of the cloister.

'Go!' said Mahbub Ali, returning to his hookah. 'Little Hindu, run away. God's curse on all unbelievers! Beg from those of my tail who are of thy faith.'

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

Kipling's novel of India and the British empire, published in 1900. Illustration was done for the book by Kipling's father.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

The Illiad - Book Two - 39

by Homer

Minerva was not slack to do her bidding. Down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus, and in a moment she was at the ships of the Achaeans. There she found Ulysses, peer of Jove in counsel, standing alone. He had not as yet laid a hand upon his ship, for he was grieved and sorry; so she went close up to him and said, "Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, are you going to fling yourselves into your ships and be off home to your own land in this way? Will you leave Priam and the Trojans the glory of still keeping Helen, for whose sake so many of the Achaeans have died at Troy, far from their homes? Go about at once among the host, and speak fairly to them, man by man, that they draw not their ships into the sea."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of First Book: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans--Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

Thousand and One Nights - Physician Douban - 3

The Physician Douban

Presently, the physician Douban presented himself and kissed the earth before the king and repeated the following verses:

The virtues all exalted are, when thou art styled their sire:
None else the title dares accept, of all that men admire.
Lord of the radiant brow, whose light dispels the mists of doubt
From every goal of high emprize whereunto folk aspire,
Ne'er may thy visage cease to shine with glory and with joy,
Although the face of Fate should gloom with unremitting ire!
Even as the clouds pour down their dews upon the thirsting hills,
Thy grace pours favour on my head, outrunning my desire.
With liberal hand thou casteth forth thy bounties far and nigh,
And so hast won those heights of fame thou soughtest to
acquire.

The King rose to him in haste and embraced him and made him sit down and clad him in a splendid dress of honour. Then tables of rich food were brought in, and Douban ate with the King and ceased not to bear him company all that day.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 4

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

VII

Then spake the Consul Aulus,
He spake a bitter jest:
"Once the jays sent a message
Unto the eagle's nest:—
Now yield thou up thine eyrie
Unto the carrion-kite,
Or come forth valiantly, and face
The jays in deadly fight.—
Forth looked in wrath the eagle;
And carrion-kite and jay,
Soon as they saw his beak and claw,
Fled screaming far away."

VIII

The Herald of the Latines
Hath hied him back in state:
The Fathers of the City
Are met in high debate.
Then spake the elder Consul,
And ancient man and wise:
"Now harken, Conscript Fathers,
To that which I advise.
In seasons of great peril
'Tis good that one bear sway;
Then choose we a Dictator,
Whom all men shall obey.
Camerium knows how deeply
The sword of Aulus bites,
And all our city calls him
The man of seventy fights.
Then let him be Dictator
For six months and no more,
And have a Master of the Knights,
And axes twenty-four."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 4

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

8
Xuande asked, "In the days of old, when Gaozu took over the world, did he not entice his enemies to surrender and allow those who obeyed his governance to rejoin society; why do you refuse Han Zhong?"[3] Jun replied, "That was then, this is now. In the days of old, during the time of Qin and Xiang, the world was in chaos, and the people had not chosen a leader. Therefore, enticing the enemy to surrender with the promise of a reward made sense. Nowadays, the country is united, with the exception of the Yellow Turbans who are in rebellion; if we were to allow them to surrender, nothing good would come from it. If we give the bandit rebels a leg up, they will rob and plunder at will; if we cause them to lose the advantage, they can simply surrender; this emboldens the will of the bandit rebels, so it is not a good strategy." Xuande said, "We will not allow the thugs to surrender, and that's that. We now have them surrounded as if they were in an iron barrel; even if they beg to surrender, they will receive no quarter, this will inevitably be a fight to the death. Ten thousand people are of the same mind; resistance is futile. At any rate, doesn't this mean that tens of thousands of city residents now have a death sentence? It would be better to withdraw our forces from the southeast, and focus our attack on the northwest. The bandit rebels will be forced to abandon the city and leave. They will unintentionally get caught up in the heat of battle, and then we can nab them."

9
Jun concurred with him, and they withdrew the forces from the southeast; the two forces, now united, attacked the northwest in unison. As expected, Han Zhong abandoned the city and fled with his army. Jun, along with Xuande, Guan and Zhang, led the three armies on a surprise attack. Han Zhong was killed by an arrow, and the rest scattered in all four directions.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Four - 6

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

"`This fellow will scare the crows fast enough,' said the farmer. `He looks just like a man.'

"`Why, he is a man,' said the other, and I quite agreed with him. The farmer carried me under his arm to the cornfield, and set me up on a tall stick, where you found me. He and his friend soon after walked away and left me alone.

"I did not like to be deserted this way. So I tried to walk after them. But my feet would not touch the ground, and I was forced to stay on that pole. It was a lonely life to lead, for I had nothing to think of, having been made such a little while before. Many crows and other birds flew into the cornfield, but as soon as they saw me they flew away again, thinking I was a Munchkin; and this pleased me and made me feel that I was quite an important person. By and by an old crow flew near me, and after looking at me carefully he perched upon my shoulder and said:

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

The trailer of Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Innocents Abroad - Chapter Five - 1

by Mark Twain

CHAPTER V.

Taking it "by and large," as the sailors say, we had a pleasant ten days' run from New York to the Azores islands--not a fast run, for the distance is only twenty-four hundred miles, but a right pleasant one in the main. True, we had head winds all the time, and several stormy experiences which sent fifty percent of the passengers to bed sick and made the ship look dismal and deserted--stormy experiences that all will remember who weathered them on the tumbling deck and caught the vast sheets of spray that every now and then sprang high in air from the weather bow and swept the ship like a thunder-shower; but for the most part we had balmy summer weather and nights that were even finer than the days. We had the phenomenon of a full moon located just in the same spot in the heavens at the same hour every night. The reason of this singular conduct on the part of the moon did not occur to us at first, but it did afterward when we reflected that we were gaining about twenty minutes every day because we were going east so fast--we gained just about enough every day to keep along with the moon. It was becoming an old moon to the friends we had left behind us, but to us Joshuas it stood still in the same place and remained always the same.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: The Pilgrims Becoming Domesticated--Pilgrim Life at Sea--"Horse-Billiards"--The "Synagogue"--The Writing School--Jack's "Journal"--The "Q. C. Club"--The Magic Lantern--State Ball on Deck--Mock Trials--Charades--Pilgrim Solemnity--Slow Music--The Executive Officer Delivers an Opinion

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Kim - Chapter One - 38

by Rudyard Kipling

Kim, fending the lama between excited men and excited beasts, sidled along the cloisters to the far end, nearest therailway station, where Mahbub Ali, the horse-trader, lived when he came in from that mysterious land beyond the Passes of the North.

Kim had had many dealings with Mahbub in his little life, especially between his tenth and his thirteenth year--and the big burly Afghan, his beard dyed scarlet with lime (for he was elderly and did not wish his grey hairs to show), knew the boy's value as a gossip. Sometimes he would tell Kim to watch a man who had nothing whatever to do with horses: to follow him for one whole day and report every soul with whom he talked. Kim would deliver himself of his tale at evening, and Mahbub would listen without a word or gesture. It was intrigue of some kind, Kim knew; but its worth lay in saying nothing whatever to anyone
except Mahbub, who gave him beautiful meals all hot from the cookshop at the head of the serai, and once as much as eight annas in money.

'He is here,' said Kim, hitting a bad-tempered camel on the nose. 'Ohe. Mahbub Ali!' He halted at a dark arch and slipped behind the bewildered lama.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

Kipling's novel of India and the British empire, published in 1900. Illustration was done for the book by Kipling's father.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

The Illiad - Book Two - 38

by Homer

Then surely the Argives would have returned after a fashion that was not fated. But Juno said to Minerva, "Alas, daughter of aegis-bearing Jove, untiring, shall the Argives fly home to their own land over the broad sea, and leave Priam and the Trojans the glory of still keeping Helen, for whose sake so many of the Achaeans have died at Troy, far from their homes? Go about at once among the host, and speak fairly to them, man by man, that they draw not their ships into the sea."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of First Book: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans--Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

Thousand and One Nights - Physician Douban - 2

The Physician Douban

Then he told him who he was and said to him, "O King, I have learnt what has befallen thee in thy person and how a multitude of physicians have failed to find a means of ridding thee of it: but I will cure thee, O King, and that without giving thee to drink of medicine or anointing thee with ointment." When the King heard this, he wondered and said to him, "How wilt thou do this? By Allah, if thou cure me, I will enrich thee, even to thy children's children, and I will heap favours on thee, and whatever thou desirest shalt be shine, and thou shalt be my companion and my friend." Then he gave him a dress of honour and made much of him, saying, "Wilt thou indeed cure me without drugs or ointment?" "Yes," answered Douban, "I will cure thee from without."

Whereat the King marvelled exceedingly and said, "O physician, when wilt thou do as thou hast said? Make haste, O my son!" Quoth Douban, "I hear and obey: it shall be done tomorrow." And he went down into the city and hired a house, in which he deposited his books and medicines. Then he took certain drugs and simples and fashioned them into a mall, which he hollowed out and made thereto a handle and a ball, adapted to it by his art. Next morning he presented himself before the King and kissing the ground before him, ordered him to repair to the tilting ground and play at mall there. So the King mounted and repaired thither with his amirs and chamberlains and viziers, and hardly had he reached the appointed place when the physician Douban came up and presented him with the mall and ball he had prepared, saying, "Take this mall and grip the handle thus and drive into the plain and stretch thyself well and strike this ball till thy hand and thy body sweat, when the drugs will penetrate thy hand and permeate thy body. When thou hast done and the medicine has entered into thee, return to thy palace and enter the bath and wash. Then sleep awhile and thou wilt awake cured, and peace be on thee!" The King took the mall and mounting a swift horse, threw the ball before him and drove after it with all his might and smote it: and his hand gripped the mall firmly. And he ceased not to drive after the bail and strike it, till his hand and all his body sweated, and Douban knew that the drugs had taken effect upon him and ordered him to return and enter the bath at once. So the King returned immediately and ordered the bath to be emptied for him. They turned the people out of the bath, and his servants and attendants hastened thither and made him ready change of linen and all that was necessary: and he went in and washed himself well and put on his clothes. Then he came out of the bath and went up to his palace and slept there. When he awoke, he looked at his body and found it clean as virgin silver, having no trace left of the leprosy: whereat he rejoiced exceedingly and his breast expanded with gladness. Next morning, he repaired to the Divan and sat down on his chair of estate, and the chamberlains and grandees attended on him.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 3

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

V

Since last the Great Twin Brethren
Of mortal eyes were seen,
Have years gone by an hundred
And fourscore and thirteen.
That summer a Virginius
Was Consul first in place;
The second was stout Aulus,
Of the Posthumian race.
The Herald of the Latines
From Gabii came in state:
The Herald of the Latines
Passed through Rome's Eastern Gate:
The Herald of the Latines
Did in our Forum stand;
And there he did his office,
A sceptre in his hand.

VI

"Hear, Senators and people
Of the good town of Rome,
The Thirty Cities charge you
To bring the Tarquins home:
And if ye still be stubborn
To work the Tarquins wrong,
The Thirty Cities warn you,
Look your walls be strong."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 3

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

6
After Zhu Jun listened to the report, he pressed his army to attack Yangcheng with all their might. The bandit rebels' situation was desperate. The bandit rebel leaders were exceedingly harsh in their governance; Zhang Bao was assassinated, and his head was offered as proof of his followers' sincerity in wanting to surrender. Thus, Zhu Jun pacified several commanderies; he submitted a report to the emperor which listed all of the loot obtained from the campaign.

7
At that time, there were still three remaining Yellow Turban diehards, --- Zhao Hong, Han Zhong and Sun Zhong, --- who had gathered between twenty to thirty thousand troops. Following in the footsteps laid out by their illustrious former leader, they burned and pillaged, saying that it was in the name of avenging Zhang Jue. The court ordered Zhu Jun to immediately prosecute, using his army which was now flush with victory. Jun obeyed the imperial edict, and led his army on an advance. At the time, the bandit rebels were occupying Wancheng. Jun led his army on an attack, while Zhao Hong sent Han Zhong out to fight. Jun sent Xuande, Guan and Zhang to attack the southwest corner of the city. Han Zhong gathered up all of his best troops, and deployed them to the southwest corner to defend against the enemy. In the meantime, Zhu Jun set loose a force of 2,000 armored cavalry, and made a direct play for the northeast corner. The bandit rebels feared that they would lose the city, and immediately abandoned the southwest corner so that they could regroup. Xuande took them by surprise from the rear; having suffered a major defeat, the bandit rebels now retreated into Wancheng as fast as possible. Zhu Jun divided his forces, and surrounded the city on all sides. The city was now cut off from any new food supplies, so Han Zhong sent someone out of the city to say that they were ready to surrender. However, Jun would not allow it.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.
More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Four - 5

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

"`Now I'll make the eyes,'" said the farmer. So he painted my right eye, and as soon as it was finished I found myself looking at him and at everything around me with a great deal of curiosity, for this was my first glimpse of the world.

"`That's a rather pretty eye,'" remarked the Munchkin who was watching the farmer. "`Blue paint is just the color for eyes.'

"`I think I'll make the other a little bigger,'" said the farmer. And when the second eye was done I could see much better than before. Then he made my nose and my mouth. But I did not speak, because at that time I didn't know what a mouth was for. I had the fun of watching them make my body and my arms and legs; and when they fastened on my head, at last, I felt very proud, for I thought I was just as good a man as anyone.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

The trailer of Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Innocents Abroad - Chapter Four - 37

by Mark Twain

There were those among the unregenerated who attributed the unceasing head-winds to our distressing choir-music. There were those who said openly that it was taking chances enough to have such ghastly music going on, even when it was at its best; and that to exaggerate the crime by letting George help was simply flying in the face of Providence. These said that the choir would keep up their lacerating attempts at melody until they would bring down a storm some day that would sink the ship.

There were even grumblers at the prayers. The executive officer said the pilgrims had no charity:

"There they are, down there every night at eight bells, praying for fair winds--when they know as well as I do that this is the only ship going east this time of the year, but there's a thousand coming west--what's a fair wind for us is a head wind to them--the Almighty's blowing a fair wind for a thousand vessels, and this tribe wants him to turn it clear around so as to accommodate one--and she a steamship at that! It ain't good sense, it ain't good reason, it ain't good Christianity, it ain't common human charity. Avast with such nonsense!"

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: The Pilgrims Becoming Domesticated--Pilgrim Life at Sea--"Horse-Billiards"--The "Synagogue"--The Writing School--Jack's "Journal"--The "Q. C. Club"--The Magic Lantern--State Ball on Deck--Mock Trials--Charades--Pilgrim Solemnity--Slow Music--The Executive Officer Delivers an Opinion

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Kim - Chapter One - 37

by Rudyard Kipling

The hot and crowded bazars blazed with light as they made their way through the press of all the races in Upper India, and the lama mooned through it like a man in a dream. It was his first experience of a large manufacturing city, and the crowded tram-car with its continually squealing brakes frightened him. Half pushed, half towed, he arrived at the high gate of the Kashmir Serai: that huge open square over against the railway station, surrounded with arched cloisters, where the camel and horse caravans put up on their return from Central Asia. Here were all manner of Northern folk, tending tethered ponies and kneeling camels; loading and unloading bales and bundles; drawing water for the evening meal at the creaking well-windlasses; piling grass before the shrieking, wild-eyed stallions; cuffing the surly caravan dogs; paying off camel-drivers; taking on new grooms; swearing, shouting, arguing, and chaffering in the packed square. The cloisters, reached by three or four masonry steps, made a haven of refuge around this turbulent sea. Most of them were rented to traders, as we rent the arches of a viaduct; the space between pillar and pillar being bricked or boarded off into rooms, which were guarded by heavy wooden doors and cumbrous native padlocks. Locked doors showed that the owner was away, and a few rude--sometimes very rude--chalk or paint scratches told where he had gone. Thus: 'Lutuf Ullah is gone to Kurdistan.' Below, in coarse verse: 'O Allah, who sufferest lice to live on the coat of a Kabuli, why hast thou allowed this louse Lutuf to live so long?'

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

Kipling's novel of India and the British empire, published in 1900. Illustration was done for the book by Kipling's father.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

The Illiad - Book Two - 37

by Homer

With these words he moved the hearts of the multitude, so many of them as knew not the cunning counsel of Agamemnon. They surged to and fro like the waves of the Icarian Sea, when the east and south winds break from heaven's clouds to lash them; or as when the west wind sweeps over a field of corn and the ears bow
beneath the blast, even so were they swayed as they flew with loud cries towards the ships, and the dust from under their feet rose heavenward. They cheered each other on to draw the ships into the sea; they cleared the channels in front of them; they began taking away the stays from underneath them, and the welkin rang with their glad cries, so eager were they to return.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of First Book: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans--Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

Thousand and One Nights - Physician Douban - 1

The Physician Douban

There was once in a city of Persia a powerful and wealthy king, named Younan, who had guards and troops and auxiliaries of every kind: but he was afflicted with a leprosy, which defied the efforts of his physicians and wise men. He took potions and powders and used ointments, but all to no avail, and not one of the doctors could cure him. At last, there came to the King's capital city a great physician, stricken in years, whose name was Douban: and he had studied many books, Greek, ancient and modern, and Persian and Turkish and Arabic and Syriac and Hebrew, and was skilled in medicine and astrology, both theoretical and practical. Moreover he was familiar with all plants and herbs and grasses, whether harmful or beneficial, and was versed in the learning of the philosophers; in brief, he had made himself master of all sciences, medical and other.

He had not been long in the town before he heard of the leprosy with which God had afflicted the King, and of the failure of the physicians and men of science to cure him; whereupon he passed the night in study; and when the day broke and the morning appeared and shone, he donned his richest apparel and went in to the King and kissing the ground before him, wished him enduring honour and fair fortune, in the choicest words at his command.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 2

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

III

Now on the place of slaughter
Are cots and sheepfolds seen,
And rows of vines, and fields of wheat,
And apple-orchards green;
The swine crush the big acorns
That fall from Corne's oaks.
Upon the turf by the Fair Fount
The reaper's pottage smokes.
The fisher baits his angle;
The hunter twangs his bow;
Little they think on those strong limbs
That moulder deep below.
Little they think how sternly
That day the trumpets pealed;
How in the slippery swamp of blood
Warrior and war-horse reeled;
How wolves came with fierce gallops,
And crows on eager wings,
To tear the flesh of captains,
And peck the eyes of kings;
How thick the dead lay scattered
Under the Porcian height;
How through the gates of Tusculum
Raved the wild stream of flight;
And how the Lake Regillus
Bubbled with crimson foam,
What time the Thirty Cities
Came forth to war with Rome.

IV

But Roman, when thou standest
Upon that holy ground,
Look thou with heed on the dark rock
That girds the dark lake round.
So shalt thou see a hoof-mark
Stamped deep into the flint:
It was not hoof of mortal steed
That made so strange a dint:
There to the Great Twin Brethren
Vow thou thy vows, and pray
That they, in tempest and in flight,
Will keep thy head alway.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 2

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

4
Xuande followed orders, and allocated 1,000 soldiers each to Lord Guan and Zhang Fei. They were both to hide their troops high up on a ridge, and prepare the contaminant made from the blood of pigs, rams and dogs. The following day, Zhang Bao led his men, waving their banners and beating their war drums, out to pick a fight. Xuande rode out to meet them. Just as the two armies began to cross swords, Zhang Bao performed his sorcery. The wind howled and the thunder roared; dust and debris was kicked up by the wind, and a black haze enveloped the sky. A steady stream of people and horses appeared from nowhere. Xuande wheeled his horse around and took off in a dead run. Zhang Bao ordered his soldiers to give chase. As soon as they passed by the hilltop, Guan and Zhang's hidden armies ignited their signal flares, and began pouring down the contaminant in unison. After that, all they could see were paper men and straw horses falling to the ground in great numbers. The wind and thunder stopped in an instant, and sand no longer flew all over the place. Zhang Bao saw that his magic spell had been broken and hurried to recall his troops. With Lord Guan on the left, and Zhang Fei on the right, both armies came out of hiding, while Xuande and Zhu Jun brought up the rear. The bandit rebel army suffered a major defeat. Xuande saw the general of the earth banners, and raced his horse in that direction. Zhang Bao fled the scene, avoiding the well-traveled routes. Xuande shot an arrow at him, which pierced his left arm. Zhang Bao escaped with the arrow still in him; he entered the city of Yangcheng, and dug in. Zhu Jun had his army surround Yangcheng, and then launched an attack. He also sent someone to bring back news of Huangfu Song.

5
The messenger reported back, saying, "Huangfu Song won a major victory, and because of Dong Zhuo's numerous defeats, the court ordered that Song replace him. When Song arrived, Zhang Jue was already dead. Zhang Liang was now the leader, and was locked in battle with our forces. Zhang Liang lost seven straight battles to Huangfu Song, and was beheaded in Quyang. They recovered Zhang Jue's casket; then they mutilated his body, and sent the head back to the capital so that it could be posted high on a wooden pole for all to see. All of the remaining followers surrendered. The court granted Huangfu Song the title of general of chariots and cavalry, and made him overlord of Jizhou. Also, Huangfu Song submitted a petition to the emperor on behalf of Lu Zhi, emphasizing his innocence and his achievements. The court restored Lu Zhi to his original position. Cao Cao was awarded with a new post as well, thanks to his own achievements. He was made minister of Jinan; he disbanded his army that very day, and departed for his new post."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Four - 4

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

The Scarecrow looked at her reproachfully, and answered:

"My life has been so short that I really know nothing whatever. I was only made day before yesterday. What happened in the world before that time is all unknown to me. Luckily, when the farmer made my head, one of the first things he did was to paint my ears, so that I heard what was going on. There was another Munchkin with him, and the first thing I heard was the farmer saying, `How do you like those ears?'

"`They aren't straight,'" answered the other.

"`Never mind,'" said the farmer. "`They are ears just the same,'"which was true enough.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

The trailer of Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Innocents Abroad - Chapter Four - 36

by Mark Twain

We all enjoyed ourselves--I think I can safely say that, but it was in a rather quiet way. We very, very seldom played the piano; we played the flute and the clarinet together, and made good music, too, what there was of it, but we always played the same old tune; it was a very pretty tune --how well I remember it--I wonder when I shall ever get rid of it. We never played either the melodeon or the organ except at devotions--but I am too fast: young Albert did know part of a tune something about "O Something-Or-Other How Sweet It Is to Know That He's His What's-his-Name" (I do not remember the exact title of it, but it was very plaintive and full of sentiment); Albert played that pretty much all the time until we contracted with him to restrain himself. But nobody ever sang by moonlight on the upper deck, and the congregational singing at church and prayers was not of a superior order of architecture. I put up with it as long as I could and then joined in and tried to improve it, but this encouraged young George to join in too, and that made a failure of it; because George's voice was just "turning," and when he was singing a dismal sort of bass it was apt to fly off the handle and startle everybody with a most discordant cackle on the upper notes. George didn't know the tunes, either, which was also a drawback to his performances. I said:

"Come, now, George, don't improvise. It looks too egotistical. It will provoke remark. Just stick to 'Coronation,' like the others. It is a good tune--you can't improve it any, just off-hand, in this way."

"Why, I'm not trying to improve it--and I am singing like the others --just as it is in the notes."

And he honestly thought he was, too; and so he had no one to blame but himself when his voice caught on the center occasionally and gave him the lockjaw.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: The Pilgrims Becoming Domesticated--Pilgrim Life at Sea--"Horse-Billiards"--The "Synagogue"--The Writing School--Jack's "Journal"--The "Q. C. Club"--The Magic Lantern--State Ball on Deck--Mock Trials--Charades--Pilgrim Solemnity--Slow Music--The Executive Officer Delivers an Opinion

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Kim - Chapter One - 36

by Rudyard Kipling

'God knows, but so my father told me'. I heard thy talk in the Wonder House of all those new strange places in the Hills, and if one so old and so little--so used to truth-telling--may go out for the small
matter of a river, it seemed to me that I too must go a-travelling. If
it is our fate to find those things we shall find them--thou, thy
River; and I, my Bull, and the Strong Pillars and some other matters
that I forget.'

'It is not pillars but a Wheel from which I would be free,' said the
lama.

'That is all one. Perhaps they will make me a king,' said Kim,
serenely prepared for anything.

'I will teach thee other and better desires upon the road,' the lama
replied in the voice of authority. 'Let us go to Benares.'

'Not by night. Thieves are abroad. Wait till the day.'

'But there is no place to sleep.' The old man was used to the order of
his monastery, and though he slept on the ground, as the Rule decrees,
preferred a decency in these things.

'We shall get good lodging at the Kashmir Serai,' said Kim, laughing at
his perplexity. 'I have a friend there. Come!'

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

Kipling's novel of India and the British empire, published in 1900. Illustration was done for the book by Kipling's father.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

The Illiad - Book Two - 36

by Homer

[Agamemnon continues speaking] “Think that the Achaeans and Trojans have sworn to a solemn covenant, and that they have each been numbered--the Trojans by the roll of their householders, and we by companies of ten; think further that each of our companies desired to have a Trojan householder to pour out their wine; we are so greatly more in number that full many a company would have to go without its cup-bearer. But they have in the town allies from other places, and it is these that hinder me from being able to sack the rich city of Ilius. Nine of Jove's years are gone; the timbers of our ships have rotted; their tackling is sound no longer. Our wives and little ones at home look anxiously for our coming, but the work that we came hither to do has not been done. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say: let us sail back to our own land, for we shall not take Troy."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of First Book: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans--Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

Thousand and One Nights - 36

The Fisherman and the Genie

When the Afrit heard this and found himself shut up in the vessel, he knew that the fisherman had outwitted him and strove to get out, but could not, for Solomon's seal prevented him; so he said to the fisherman, 'I did but jest with thee.' 'Thou liest, O vilest and meanest and foulest of Afrits!' answered he, and rolled the vessel to the brink of the sea; which when the Afrit felt, he cried out, 'No! No!' And the fisherman said, 'Yes! Yes!'

Then the Afrit made his voice small and humbled himself and said, 'What wilt thou do with me, O fisherman?' 'I mean to throw thee back into the sea,' replied he; 'since thou hast lain there already eighteen hundred years, thou shalt lie there now till the hour of judgment. Did I not say to thee, "Spare me, so God may spare thee; and do not kill me, lest God kill thee?" but thou spurnedst my prayers and wouldst deal with me no otherwise than perfidiously. So I used cunning with thee and now God has delivered thee into my hand.' Said the Afrit, 'Let me out, that I may confer benefits on thee.' The fisherman answered, 'Thou liest, O accursed one! Thou and I are like King Younan's Vizier and the physician Douban.' 'Who are they,' asked the Afrit, 'and what is their story?' Then said the fisherman, 'Know, O Afrit, that

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 1

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

I

Ho, trumpets, sound a war-note!
Ho, lictors, clear the way!
The Knights will ride, in all their pride,
Along the streets to-day.
To-day the doors and windows
Are hung with garlands all,
From Castor in the Forum,
To Mars without the wall.
Each Knight is robed in purple,
With olive each is crowned;
A gallant war-horse under each
Paws haughtily the ground.
While flows the Yellow River,
While stands the Sacred Hill,
The proud Ides of Quintilis
Shall have such honor still.
Gay are the Martian Kalends,
December's Nones are gay,
But the proud Ides, when the squadron rides,
Shall be Rome's whitest day.

II

Unto the Great Twin Brethren
We keep this solemn feast.
Swift, swift, the Great Twin Brethren
Came spurring from the east.
They came o'er wild Parthenius
Tossing in waves of pine,
O'er Cirrha's dome, o'er Adria's foam,
O'er purple Apennine,
From where with flutes and dances
Their ancient mansion rings,
In lordly Lacedæmon,
The City of two kings,
To where, by Lake Regillus,
Under the Porcian height,
All in the lands of Tusculum,
Was fought the glorious fight.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 1

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

Let us now take a moment to talk about Dong Zhuo, whose style name was Zhongying, and was from Lintao in Longxi. His official title was governor of Hedong Commandery, and he had always been arrogant. On the day that he slighted Xuande, Zhang Fei flew into a rage, and wanted to kill him. Xuande and Lord Guan rushed to stop him, saying, "He is an official appointed by the court, how can you take matters into your own hands and kill him?" Fei replied, "If I don't kill this scoundrel, I will end up under his command and have to take orders from him; in all honesty, I have no desire to do that! If you two brothers of mine would like to stay here, I will go it alone somewhere else!" Xuande said, "We three are bound by oath to live and die together, how can we part from each other? It would be better for all three of us to go elsewhere." Fei replied, "If that is the case, it would abate my anger somewhat.

The three of them then led their troops night and day toward Zhu Jun's position. Jun was very gracious; he combined the two groups, and together they went after Zhang Bao. At this point in time, Cao Cao had joined Huangfu Song in going after Zhang Liang; they were engaged in a major battle in Quyang. Meanwhile, Zhu Jun launched an attack against Zhang Bao. Zhang Bao was in command of eighty to ninety thousand troops. They were holed up in the mountains. Jun ordered Xuande to take point, and engage with the bandit rebel force. Zhang Bao sent his second in command, Gao Sheng, to ride out on horseback and pick a fight; Xuande directed Zhang Fei to attack him. Fei raced out on his horse, his long lance raised, and engaged Sheng in combat. After not more than a couple of passes, Sheng was skewered, and fell from his horse. Xuande commanded his troops to charge. Zhang Bao hastily raised his straight sword, and began performing sorcery. All one could see was a large amount of wind and thunder, and then a black haze emerged from out of nowhere. Emerging out of the black haze was a countless number of soldiers on horseback, who killed everyone in their path. Xuande quickly ordered his army to retreat, but the rank and file descended into chaos. Having been soundly beaten, he returned to confer with Zhu Jun. Jun said, "He is using sorcery; tomorrow I will slaughter pigs, rams and dogs for their blood. I will order my troops to hide on the hilltops. They will wait for the bandit rebels to rush in, then pour blood on them from above. This should nullify their magic."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.