he wanted there, or on what he lived. The mayor, to be sure,
had seen his passport, a paper that every one is compelled to have in
our country----

"Is it, then, so unsafe on the street," interrupted the sheik, "that
you must have a firman from your sultan in order lo protect yourselves
from robbers?"

No, Sire, (replied the slave); these passports do not protect us from
thieves, but are only a regulation by which the identity of the holder
is every-where established. Well, the mayor had investigated this
strange man's passport and at a gathering at the doctor's house had
said that it had been found all right from Berlin to Gruenwiesel, but
there must be some cheat in it, as the man was a suspicious-looking
character. The mayor's opinion being entitled to great weight in
Gruenwiesel, it is no wonder that from that time forth the stranger
was looked upon with suspicion. And his course of life was not adapted
to change this opinion of my countrymen. The stranger rented an entire
house that had formerly been unoccupied, had a whole wagon full of
singular furniture--such as stoves, ranges, frying-pans, and the
like--put in there, and lived there alone by himself. Yes, he even
cooked for himself; and not a single soul entered his house, with the
exception of an old man living in Gruenwiesel, who made purchases for
him of bread, meat, and vegetables. Still, even this old man was only
allowed to step inside the door, where he was always met by the
stranger, who relieved him of his bundles.

I was ten years of age when this man came to our town, and I can to-day
recall the uneasiness which his presence caused, as clearly as though
it had all happened yesterday. He did not come in the afternoon, like
the other men, to the bowling alley; nor did he visit the inn in the
evening, to discuss the news over a pipe of tobacco. It was in vain
that, one after another, the mayor, the 'squire, the doctor, and the
minister invited him to dinner or to lunch; he always excused himself.
Thus it was that some believed him crazy; others took him to be a Jew;
while a third party firmly insisted that he was a magician or sorcerer.

I grew to be eighteen, twenty years old, and still this man passed
under the name of "the strange gentleman." There came a day, however,
on which some fellows came to our town leading a number of strange
animals. They were a rough lot of vagrants, who had a camel that would
kneel, a bear that danced, some dogs and m