A STORY BY:
NAME: ENI, NDODEYE IKPI
REG NO. 12/MAC/045:
Long, long ago there lived a man called Ego. His surname meant millionaire, ” but although he was not rice as that, he was still very far from being poor. He had inherited a small fortune from his father and lived on that, spending his time carelessly without any serious thoughts of work, until he was about thirty-two years of age.
One day, without any reason whatsoever, the thought of death and sickness came to him. The idea of falling ill or dying made him very wretched.
” i should like to live,” he said to himself, till i am five or six hundred years old at least, free from all sickness. The ordinary span of a man’s live is very short.
He wondered whether it were possible by living simply and frugally henceforth, to prolong his life as long as he wished.
He knew there were many stories in ancient history of emperors who had lived a thousand years, and there was a princess of Yamato, who, it was said, died at the age of five hundred. This was the latest story of a very long life record.
Ego had often heard that the tale of Chinese King named Shin-no-Shiko. He was one of the most able and powerful rulers in Chinese history. He built all the large palaces, and also the famous Great Wall of China. He had everything in the world he could wish for, but in spite of all his happiness, the luxury, the splendor of his Court, the wisdom of his councilors and the glory of his reign, he was miserable because he knew that one day he would die and leave it all.
Shin-no-Shiko went to bed at night and rose the next morning, the thought of death occurred to him. He could not get away from it. Ah! if only he could find the “Elixir of life, he would be happy. The emperor at last called a meeting of his Courtiers and asked them all if they could not find for him the ” Elixir of life” of which he had so often read and heard.
One old courtiers, Jofuku by name, said that far away across the seas there was a country called horaizan, and the certain hermits lived there who possessed the secret of the “Elixir of Life”whoever drank some of this wonderful draught lived forever. The Emperor ordered Jofuku to set out for the land of Horaizan, to find the hermits, and to bring him a phial of the magic elixir. He gave Jofuku one of his best junks, fitted it out for him, and loaded it with great quantities of treasures and precious stones for Jofuku to take as present to the hermits. Jofuk sailed for the land of Horaizan, but he never returned to the waiting Emperor; ever since that time Mount Fuji has been said to be the fabled Horaizan and the home of hermits who had the secret of elixir, and Jofuku has been worshiped as their patron god.
Now Ego was determined to set out to find the hermits, and if he could, become one, so that he might obtain the water of perpetual life.He remembered that as a child he had been told that not only did this hermit live on mount fuji, but that there were said to inhabit the very high peaks. so he left his own home in the care of his elatives, and started out on his quest. He traveled through all the mountainous regions of the land, climbing to the top of the highest peaks, but never did he find the hermit.
At last, after wandering in a unknown region for many days he came back without the elixir of life.
THE END
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