Page:Bierce - Collected Works - Volume 01.djvu/161

Rh

HROUGH the happy accident of having a mole on the left side of my nose, as had also a cousin of the Prime Minister, I obtained a royal rescript permitting me to speak to the great Juptka-Getch, and went humbly to his dwelling, which, to my astonishment, I found to be an unfurnished cave in the side of a mountain. Inexpressibly surprised to observe that a favorite of the sovereign and the people was so meanly housed, I ventured, after my salutation, to ask how this could be so. Regarding me with an indulgent smile, the venerable man, who was about two hundred and fifty years old and entirely bald, explained.

"In one of our Sacred Books, of which we have three thousand," said he, "it is written, Golooloo ek wakwah betenka and in another, 'Jebeb uq seedroy im aboltraqu ocrux ti smelkit.

Translated, these mean, respectively, "The poor are blessed," and, "Heaven is not easily entered by those who are rich."