"And our men are unmatched for size and strength," pursued the speaker, using a good deal of gesticulation. "I am one of a family of ten sons; and not one of my brothers but is taller and stronger than I am. What would you say to our bihisti? He is some eight feet in height, and carries a mushak made of the hide of an ox, which, when full, five of your ordinary men could not lift!"
"Wah! Wah!" exclaimed the listeners.
The sage old Sikh rather incredulously shook his head, and muttered, "I should like to see such a bihisti."
Then spake a fine tall Afghan. "I could tell you of a bihisti," he said, "compared to whom your bihisti is but an emmet. I know one who can carry a mushak big as a mountain, and white as the snows on the Himalayas. This water-carrier can travel thousands of miles without stopping or feeling weary, sometimes whistling, and sometimes howling as he goes."
"Wah! Wah!" cried those around him.
But the Persian rather angrily said, "I will never believe such a pack of lies!"
"Oh, brother," said the old Sikh smiling, "there is more truth in the Afghan's tale than in thine. Look yonder," he continued, as a white cloud passed over the face of the moon, "and listen to the rushing blast which is shaking the leaves of yon palms. The wind is the mighty bihisti whom the great Creator employs to bear swiftly the huge white mushaks which convey His gift of rain. The words of the Pathan are not the words of folly."
"Thou art wise, O father!" said the youngest man in the group, who had hitherto spoken but little. "Now listen whilst I tell of a third bihisti; not tall like the first, nor strong like the second, but bearing a more wonderful mushak than either. This mushak is small, not longer than my hand; it is very old too, and it is carried by a very feeble man."
"Useless! Good for nothing!" exclaimed the Persian.
"Listen before you say so. In this mushak is water of such wonderful virtue, that if but a few drops fall on good soil, a spring of surpassing sweetness bursts forth, sometimes spreading and spreading: till first a brook; then a wide stream; then a glorious river—appears. The most learned cannot calculate, nor ages on ages limit, the effects of a few living drops from that blessed mushak!"