has always two horses, of which he leads
one in hand. The Kalpeck is a bonnet made of the skin of a
sheep or other animal. The part of the head covered by this
bonnet is shaved, with the exception of a tuft, about the
size of a crown piece, and which is suffered to grow to the
length of seven or eight inches, precisely where our priests
place their tonsure. It is by this tuft of hair, worn by
the majority of Mussulmen, that the angel of the tomb is to
take the elect and carry them into paradise.

Not yet, replied the Genius; this is only a preliminary. These Tartars
have been, and might still he troublesome neighbors. The Muscovites are
driving them off, finding their country would be a convenient extension
of their own limits; and as a prelude to another revolution, the throne
of the Guerais is destroyed.

And in fact, I saw the Russian standards floating over the Crimea: and
soon after their flag waving on the Euxine.

Meanwhile, at the cry of the flying Tartars, the Mussulman empire was
in commotion. They are driving off our brethren, cried the children
of Mahomet: the people of the prophet are outraged! infidels occupy a
consecrated land and profane the temples of Islamism.* Let us arm; let
us rush to combat, to avenge the glory of God and our own cause.

* It is not in the power of the Sultan to cede to a foreign
power a province inhabited by true believers. The people,
instigated by the lawyers, would not fail to revolt. This
is one reason which has led those who know the Turks, to
regard as chimerical the ceding of Candia, Cyprus, and
Egypt, projected by certain European potentates.

And a general movement of war took place in both empires. In every part
armed men assembled. Provisions, stores, and all the murderous apparatus
of battle were displayed. The temples of both nations, besieged by an
immense multitude, presented a spectacle which fixed all my attention.

On one side, the Mussulmen gathered before their mosques, washed
their hands and feet, pared their nails, and combed their beards; then
spreading carpets upon the ground, and turning towards the south,
with their arms sometimes crossed and sometimes extended, they made
genuflexions and prostrations, and recollecting the disasters of the
late war, they exclaimed:

God of mercy and clemency! hast thou then abandoned thy faithful people?
Thou who hast promised to thy Prophe