Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents remain.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.

THE FLAME-GATHERERS

THE FLAME-GATHERERS

BY

MARGARET HORTON POTTER

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1904

_All rights reserved_

COPYRIGHT, 1904,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1904.
Reprinted September, 1904.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

TO

Gerhardt Hauptmann

WITH THE PROFOUND ADMIRATION

OF THE AUTHOR

PRELUDE

“UP FROM EARTH’S CENTRE THROUGH THE SEVENTH GATE
I ROSE, AND ON THE THRONE OF SATURN SATE;
AND MANY A KNOT UNRAVELLED BY THE ROAD,
BUT NOT THE MASTER KNOT OF HUMAN FATE.”[1]

GREAT OMAR, THIS VAGUE TALE RETOLD CONTAINS
PART ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE. ALLAH DEIGNS
A LITTLE WISDOM THROUGH THE MOST UNWISE:
THE SECRET OF THE UNIVERSE IN CHAINS.

BEHOLD IT, WRITTEN FOR THE OCCIDENT.
AH! WILL THEY SEE, ALTHOUGH THE VEIL IS RENT?
OR WILL NOT ONE BELIEVER PAUSE BEFORE
THE TATTERED GLORIES OF THE ORIENT?
M. H. P.

[1] “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,” Ed. Fitzgerald, trans.

CONTENTS

BOOK I

FLESH-FIRE

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE CONQUEROR 3

II. THE INCEPTION OF A FLAME 22

III. AHALYA 39

IV. THE ASRA RUBY 58

V. POPPIES 74

VI. CHURI 88

VII. THE POWER OF THE FLAME 109

VIII. THE CURSE 134

IX. ASRA FIGHTS AGAIN 150

X. THE SONG OF NARMÁDA 163