condescension of his highness;
yet would I fain do his bidding and depart, for a vow to the prophet is
sacred, and it is written in the Koran----"

"Never mind the Koran just now, good Menouni; we ask of thee a proof of
thy art. Tell me a story."

"Most proud shall I be of the honour. Will not my face be whitened to
all eternity? Shall your slave relate the loves of Leilah and Majnoun?"

"No, no," replied the pacha; "something that will interest me."

"Then will I narrate the history of the Scarred Lover."

"That sounds well, Mustapha," observed the pacha.

"Who can foresee so well as your sublime highness?" replied Mustapha.
"Menouni, it is the pleasure of the pacha that you proceed."

"Your slave obeys. Your sublime perspicuity is but too well acquainted
with geography----?"

"Not that I know of. Hath he ever left his slippers at our threshold,
Mustapha?"

"I suspect," replied Mustapha, "that he goes all over the world, and
therefore he must have been here. Proceed, Menouni, and ask not such
questions. By virtue of his office, his sublime highness knows every
thing."

"True," said the pacha, shaking his beard with great dignity and
satisfaction.

"I did but presume to put the question," replied Menouni, whose voice
was soft and silvery as a flute on a summer's silent eve, "as, to
perfectly understand the part of the world from which my tale has been
transmitted, I thought a knowledge of that science was required; but I
have eaten dirt, and am covered with shame at my indiscretion, which
would not have occurred, had it not been that the sublime sultan, when I
last had the honour to narrate the story, was pleased to interrupt me,
from his not being quite convinced that the parts of the world were
known to him. But I will now proceed with my tale, which shall go
forward with the majestic pace of the camel, proud in his pilgrimage
over the desert, towards the shrine of our holy prophet."

THE SCARRED LOVER.

In the north-eastern parts of the vast peninsula of India, there did
exist a flourishing and extended kingdom, eminent for the beauty of the
country, the fertility of the soil, and the salubrity of the climate.
This kingdom was bounded on the east by a country named Lusitania, that
lies northerly towards the coast of Iceland, so called from the
excessive heat of the winter. On the south it was bounded by a slip of
land, the name of which has slipped my memory; but it runs into the seas
under the d