stead of having this chain round my leg, and that confounded chiaous, with his long stick, for my sole visitor. "At the time I speak of, I was the most highly reputed dervish in Stamboul. I was on the top of the minaret of ambition. That detestable Goddess Beltha again shed her calamitous influence on my head: I was hurled from the summit of the crescent to the depths of despair. "For the third time in my life I fell in love, and for the third time I was ruined. In an evil hour, it occurred to me to visit the spot where I had made my first essay in the way of howling, and where I believed the Ulema resided who was to have wedded the little manslayer. I recognised the house; it was the day on which the women visit the bath; I resolved to lurk about the premises till such time as I should see either the slave, with whom I had before spoken, or her mistress. I had not waited above an hour before I saw the slave approaching the house, and beckoning to her to follow me, I entered the shop of a rayah, where I had an opportunity of conversing with her, 6 without exciting observation. She told me, neither her mistress nor any of the inmates of the harem were suffered to go out, not even to the bath. I asked her to be the bearer of a message to her mistress. She stared in my face, and then told me she was not mad. I put a ten-piastre piece into her hand, and had an instantaneous proof of her good sense. She said I spoke like a reasonable man: she consented to deliver any message I might honour her with the conveyance of to her poor mistress, whose heart was very sick.-'I was aware of her illness,' said I, therefore have I sought you; tell her the Dervish said she was very ill, worse than she imagines, but not so bad as she ought to be. Tell her, this night her horoscope indicates a sudden indisposition, which, to resist, would be to fly in the face of the planets. Tell her, moreover, the physician of her heart is he who reads the stars, and understands the giam, in which her destiny is written. That physician am I, the Dervish Ali, who is to be sought for in the convent of Scutari, and who is known to the husband of every sick woman who desires to be healed.' I endeavoured to impress these words on the mind of the slave by several repetitions, and having duly tutored her, I returned to the convent." Here Michelaki interrupted the Dervish; "To-morrow, my friend," said he, "I trust you will get to the end of your interminable story." CHAPTER XI. Alas! good fathers, human passions THE Dervish having resumed his story, proceeded to relate his interview with the manslayer. "The following morning," continued he, "I was summoned to the house of the Ulema, who was called Abdallah, or the Slave of God. Being ushered into his divan, I seated myself, and after the customary pause, which courtesy has established, to allow a visitor time to draw his breath, the Ulema salaamed me with marked respect. 66 6 Dervish,' said he, you cannot be igno rant of the bad favour in which your commu nity are with the regular ministers of the law. You may therefore wonder at my sending for you. Your fame, however, as a hakkim, and a man of science, is spread over the world, and having a sick wife, I have sent for you to cure her.' 66 6 May your condescension never be less! venerable Ulema,' I replied: it is very true the slanderers and the liars always seek their victims among the virtuous, therefore have the poor dervishes been misrepresented to the pillars of the faith, your venerable corps. But that my poor name should be known to one who is the burning light of Islam, is truly wonderful.-Alas, Effendi! I am a simple man, unworthy to kiss your honoured footsteps; unfit to be called the meanest of the servants who breathe the air your Excellency respires.' 6 "Wallah-el-Nebi!" exclaimed the Ulema, by Allah and the Prophet! (blessed be his name!) you speak like a man of understanding. You have heard, no doubt, of my name in the world, of the five-and-twenty Commentaries I have written on the first verse of the first |