perament, doctor?" asked Caterna, "what is the right
quantity?"

"Fourteen ounces of solid or liquid--"

"An hour?"

"No, sir, a day," replied Tio-King. "And it was in this manner that the
illustrious Cornaro lived from the age of thirty-six, so as to leave
himself enough strength of body and mind to write his fourth treatise
when he was eighty-five, and to live to a hundred and two."

"In that case, give me my fifth cutlet," said Pan Ghao, with a burst of
laughter.

There is nothing more agreeable than to talk before a well-served
table; but I must not forget to complete my notes regarding Kokham. We
were not due there till nine o'clock, and that would be in the
nighttime. And so I asked the major to give me some information
regarding this town, which is the last of any importance in Russian
Turkestan.

"I know it all the better," said the major, "from having been in
garrison there for fifteen months. It is a pity you have not time to
visit it, for it remains very Asiatic, and there has not been time yet
for it to grow a modern town. There is a square there unrivalled in
Asia, a palace in great style, that of the old Khan of Khondajar,
situated on a mound about a hundred yards high, and in which the
governor has left his Sarthe artillery. It is considered wonderful, and
there is good reason for it. You will lose by not going there a rare
opportunity of bringing in the high-flown words of your language in
description: the reception hall transformed into a Russian church, a
labyrinth of rooms with the floors of the precious Karagatch wood, the
rose pavilion, in which visitors receive a truly Oriental hospitality,
the interior court of Moorish decoration recalling the adorable
architectural fancies of the Alhambra, the terraces with their splendid
views, the harem where the thousand wives of the Sultan--a hundred more
than Solomon--live in peace together, the lacework of the fronts, the
gardens with their shady walks under the ancient vines--that is what
you would have seen--"

"And which I have already seen with your eyes, dear major," said I. "My
readers will not complain. Pray tell me if there are any bazaars in ."

"A Turkestan town without bazaars would be like London without its
docks."

"And Paris without its theaters!" said the actor.

"Yes; there are bazaars at Kokhan, one of them on the Sokh bridge, the two
arms of which traverse the town and in it the finest fabrics of Asia
are sold for tillahs of