wo other
pupils of mine own age newly arrived, Hakim Omar Khayyam, and the ill-
fated Ben Sabbah. Both were endowed with sharpness of wit and the
highest natural powers; and we three formed a close friendship
together. When the Imam rose from his lectures, they used to join me,
and we repeated to each other the lessons we had heard. Now Omar was
a native of Naishapur, while Hasan Ben Sabbah's father was one Ali, a
man of austere life and practise, but heretical in his creed and
doctrine. One day Hasan said to me and to Khayyam, "It is a universal
belief that the pupils of the Imam Mowaffak will attain to fortune.
Now, even if we all do not attain thereto, without doubt one of us
will; what then shall be our mutual pledge and bond?" We answered,
"Be it what you please." "Well," he said, "let us make a vow, that to
whomsoever this fortune falls, he shall share it equally with the
rest, and reserve no pre-eminence for himself." "Be it so," we both
replied, and on those terms we mutually pledged our words. Years
rolled on, and I went from Khorassan to Transoxiana, and wandered to
Ghazni and Cabul; and when I returned, I was invested with office, and
rose to be administrator of affairs during the Sultanate of Sultan Alp
Arslan.'

"He goes on to state, that years passed by, and both his old school-
friends found him out, and came and claimed a share in his good
fortune, according to the school-day vow. The Vizier was generous and
kept his word. Hasan demanded a place in the government, which the
Sultan granted at the Vizier's request; but discontented with a
gradual rise, he plunged into the maze of intrigue of an oriental
court, and, failing in a base attempt to supplant his benefactor, he
was disgraced and fell. After many mishaps and wanderings, Hasan
became the head of the Persian sect of the Ismailians,--a party of
fanatics who had long murmured in obscurity, but rose to an evil
eminence under the guidance of his strong and evil will. In A.D.
1090, he seized the castle of Alamut, in the province of Rudbar, which
lies in the mountainous tract south of the Caspian Sea; and it was
from this mountain home he obtained that evil celebrity among the
Crusaders as the OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS, and spread terror through
the Mohammedan world; and it is yet disputed where the word Assassin,
which they have left in the language of modern Europe as their dark
memorial, is derived from the hashish, or opiate of hemp-leaves