ia,
from the city of Teheran, where for many generations my ancestors were
profound students of astrology, some of them famous men because of their
skilful divinations, with reputations that reached even to Stamboul. For
thither in my early boyhood to the court of the Sultan of the Osmanlis
was my father summoned, and him I never beheld again. It was from my
aged grandfather that I learned my first lessons in astrology--about the
twelve houses, the ruling star of each day, the coming and the going of
the planets, their conjunctions and oppositions, and the influences they
exercise on men's lives. I learned with avidity, and was an apt pupil,
for at fifteen I had begun the practice of my profession, casting
horoscopes and reading the nocturnal heavens with constant care,
understanding also the flight of birds and the cries of wild beasts of
the jungle.

"Yet at that time was my mind assailed with grievous doubts. I often
caught myself wondering whether the stars did really rule the fates of
men. And with this inward questioning a restless spirit grew upon me. I
longed to see more of the world--to enlarge the sphere of my
observations. Just then I chanced to hear some gossip in the bazaars
about a great expedition that was getting ready at Kabul to descend upon
Hindustan. The hunger of adventure seized me, and was not to be denied.
Despite the tears and implorings of my family, I set forth on foot for
Afghanistan, a stripling; in my hand the staff I used in my divinations,
in the bag slung at my side a single change of raiment. Money I had
none, but my ability to read the stars I knew well would earn me a
livelihood wherever I might wander.

"With my adventures during the next two years this story has no concern.
It is enough to say that, after many vicissitudes of fortune, I found
myself installed as astrologer in the court of a Moslem prince,
sovereign over an extensive region in Kashmir.

"My lord was a man of noble heart and of high mental gifts. He ruled
over his people not by fear of the sword, but by absolute justice, which
he himself personally administered, every day holding audience so that
grievances, even those of the most poor, might be heard and wrongs
redressed. And his royal duties were shared by his wife, who, although
she might sit behind the screen of the women's quarters, none the less
shared in the counsels of state, and contributed words of wisdom in the
direction of affairs.

"Never in my exper