Spirit Of The Age

AN EARLY BIBLICAL ROMANCE

First Popular Story In Literature World is Discovered In Elephantine.

Assouan.—What is declared to be the earliest popular romance in the literature of the world has come to light in Elephantine, an ancient island in the Nile, near Assouan. This tale, bearing the title "Achikar," is found in an ancient African manuscript. It was written about 500 B. C. The tale is referred to by the author of the Book of Tobias, and later it appears in a modified form in the Arabian Nights. The manuscript has been restored by a German translator, who gives an entertaining synopsis of its contents:

"The wise Achikar is the vizier of the king Sinacherib and his son Asurachiddin. He is extraordinarily rich, but has no son. When he complains of this to the gods he receives the advice to adopt his nephew Nadan in place of a son. He follows the advice and instructs Nadan in all wisdom—the romance gives his precepts in detail—and then commends his foster-son to the king as his own successor. Asurachiddin agrees, but Nadan misuses his position, and when Achikar rebukes him for it he slanders the wise old man, denouncing him to the king as a traitor. Achikar is so stunned with horror that he is unable to utter a word in his own defense, whereupon the ruler gives orders to Nabusamach to put him to death. But Nabusamach, who had once been saved from death by Achikar, kills a slave in his place and hides the old man in a secret dungeon.

"The Egyptian Pharaoh hears of the vizier's downfall and promptly declares war on the Babylonian unless he shall ransom himself by the performance of a heavy task. The king's councillors are at a loss for words of advice. In this dire need Nabusamach confesses that Achikar still lives and the king may avail himself of his counsel. The old vizier promptly rescues the king, to the great annoyance of the Pharaoh.

"The conclusion of the tale is as naive as it is amusing in its oriental viewpoint. Nadan is deposed and brought in chains before Achikar, who has him incarcerated and fed on bread and water. Meanwhile he daily regales him with intellectual sustenance in the shape of stories and fables which are packed with both worldly wisdom and spiritual edification. This is especially interesting because it recalls the plan of the ancient Sanskrit collection of instructive tales known as the Hitopadesa.

"The wretched Nadan takes the treatment very ill. Overcome with anger and chagrin and possibly ennui—he 'swells up and bursts'!

"This history was widely known in the Orient and was piously commented on by the writer of the Book of Tobias as follows:

"'Behold, my son, how Nadab (Nadan) dealt with Achikar, that he brought him alive into a dungeon under the earth. But God recompensed him for his sorrow. He came again unto the light and Nadab went hence into eternal darkness.'"