I had reflected, I doubted whether it would not
be wiser to embrace a more peaceful profession. The hakim spoke our
language well; and one day said to me, "Thou art more fit to cure than
to give wounds. Thou shalt assist me, for he who is now with me will
not remain." I consented, and putting on a more peaceful garb,
continued many months with the Frank physician, travelling every where,
but seldom remaining long in one place; he followed disease instead of
flying from it, and I had my doubts whether, from constant attendance
upon the dying, I might not die myself, and I resolved to quit him the
first favourable opportunity. I had already learnt many wonderful
things from him; that blood was necessary to life, and that without
breath a man would die, and that white powders cured fevers, and black
drops stopped the dysentery. At last we arrived in this town; and the
other day, as I was pounding the drug of reflection in the mortar of
patience, the physician desired me to bring his lancets, and to follow
him. I paced through the streets behind the learned hakim, until we
arrived at a mean house, in an obscure quarter of this grand city, over
which your highness reigns in justice. An old woman, full of
lamentation, led us to the sick couch, where lay a creature, beautiful
in shape as a houri. The Frank physician was desired by the old woman
to feel her pulse through the curtain, but he laughed at her beard (for
she had no small one), and drew aside the curtains and took hold of a
hand so small and so delicate, that it were only fit to feed the Prophet
himself near the throne of the angel Gabriel, with the immortal pilau
prepared for true believers. Her face was covered, and the Frank
desired the veil to be removed. The old woman refused, and he turned on
his heel to leave her to the assaults of death. The old woman's love
for her child conquered her religious scruples, and she consented that
her daughter should unveil to an unbeliever. I was in ecstasy at her
charms, and could have asked her for a wife; but the Frank only asked to
see her tongue. Having looked at it, he turned away with as much
indifference as if it had been a dying dog. He desired me to bind up
her arm, and took away a bason full of her golden blood, and then put a
white powder into the hands of the old woman, saying that he would see
her again. I held out my hand for the gold, but there was none
forthcoming.

"We are poor," cried the old w