THE EMPEROR OF AURIA

Once upon a time there was a magnificent kingdom called Auria. It had streets paved with gold, marble houses and a splendid silver bridge.

The kingdom was ruled by a very old emperor. His people, after their day's work was done, loved to feast on exquisite foods and wines and collect treasures for their grand houses. All that was missing from this splendid kingdom were the sounds of piping laughter and scampering feet. The people were so busy working and feasting that they had no time for children. Indeed, they shunned parenthood. They noticed the few who did become parents having less time to spend feasting and luxuriating at the fabulous boat races and glittering parties. The emperor did not like children so he worried little about this shortage of infants. But the chancellor of the treasury warned the emperor that unless there were children, there would be nobody to look after the people when they grew old. He had consulted a fortune-teller, whose crystal ball showed unploughed fields, broken-down houses and frail white-haired people limping in search of food.

So the emperor anyone who bore a child would be given a bag of diamonds. The next day a man borrowed his neighbour's baby and showed it to the chancellor, saying it was his. He got a bag of diamonds. Soon everyone was borrowing the baby, everybody had diamonds and the chancellor thought happily of the growing number of subjects who would work in the future when he, perhaps, would be emperor . . .

Across the water was a tiny land called Omad which was beset with strife. It had been invaded by barbarians and there was not enough to eat. The Omad people gathered their children and set out to seek a better life. At last they reached the silver bridge to Auria, weary and ragged. They implored the guards in the silver gatehouse to let them into the kingdom. They claimed to be clever and industrious. They spoke among each other in a strange tongue and their robes were garish. Their one thousand children gazed at the guards with big dark eyes.

The guards sent a messenger to the emperor. The emperor summoned his vizier and his wazoo. Soon the vizier appeared on the palace balcony. He pointed across the water, and in a stern voice he told the Omad and their thousand children to return to their own land. The Omad fell to their knees and wailed. The barbarians would kill them if they returned. The emperor became angered. He called on the wazoo to imprison the Omad in the dungeons. He sent messengers abroad warning that anyone who tried to cross the silver bridge would be imprisoned. The riches of Auria were for the Aurian people only. If people in other lands desired such riches, they would have to work for them in their own lands.

The people of Auria cheered at the emperor's wisdom and kept feasting. They continued to borrow the baby to show the chancellor. The Omad people and their children wept in the dungeons. And the fortune-teller sighed in her darkened room as she watched the crystal ball.