in it for myself, and whether
I might not come to mischief. I also had my doubts--

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I have no doubt," interrupted Mustapha, "but that you kept it for
yourself. Say--is it not so?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even so did my doubts resolve into that fact. I settled it in my mind,
that seven hundred sequins, added to about four hundred still in my
possession, would last some time, and that I was tired of the life of a
howling dervish. I therefore set up one last long final howl, to let my
senior know that I was present, and then immediately became absent. I
hastened to the bazaar, and purchasing here and there--at one place a
vest, at another a shawl, and at another a turban--I threw off my dress
of a dervish, hastened to the bath, and after a few minutes under the
barber, came out like a butterfly from its dark shell. No one would
have recognised in the spruce young Turk, the filthy dervish. I
hastened to Constantinople, where I lived gaily, and spent my money; but
I found that to mix in the world, it is necessary not only to have an
attaghan, but also to have the courage to use it; and in several broils
which took place, from my too frequent use of the water of the Giaour, I
invariably proved, that although my voice was that of a lion, my heart
was but as water, and the finger of contempt was but too often pointed
at the beard of pretence. One evening, as I was escaping from a
coffee-house, after having drawn my attaghan, without having the courage
to face my adversary, I received a blow from his weapon which cleft my
turban, and cut deeply into my head. I flew through the streets upon
the wings of fear, and at last ran against an unknown object, which I
knocked down, and then fell alongside of, rolling with it in the mud. I
recovered myself, and looking at it, found it to be alive, and, in the
excess of my alarm, I imagined it to be Shitan himself; but if not the
devil himself, it was one of the sons of Shitan, for it was an
unbeliever, a Giaour, a dog to spit upon; in short, it was a Frank
hakim--so renowned for curing all diseases, that it was said he was
assisted by the Devil.

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"Lahnet be Shitan! Curses on the devil," said Mustapha, taking his pipe
out of his mouth and spitting.

"Wallah thaib! It is well