at watching him he cried with a loud
voice--

"'"Seize them! They have it! Ah, wretches! the curse of Allah be upon
ye! To rob an old man! a poor man! Yes, they are gone, the robbers,
the villains! My savings, my savings! The small savings of a long
life. Ah! the cursed villains, the cursed villains! seize them, seize
them!"

"'Thus the old fellow raved on, beating his breast, tearing his hair
and his beard, and speedily recalling by his cries and lamentations all
his neighbours who remained within hearing. Getting some of these to
assist me, again I attempted to bleed him, and this time successfully.
This quieted him, and presently we laid him down much calmer, though
apparently extremely exhausted.

"'We could learn nothing more from him than that three men had entered
his room on the previous evening and had robbed him of all that he
possessed; but what became of them, or how he had fallen into the state
of trance in which he had been discovered, he could not explain.

"'I had now given up much more time than I could afford, and seeing no
chance of getting paid under the circumstances, and there being nothing
further I could do for the unfortunate old creature, I left him in the
hands of his neighbours and took my departure.

"'I had not gone far when I observed lying on the ground a small
camel's-hair brush of very peculiar appearance. It was flat, in
breadth about the width of two fingers, and the hairs of the brush as
long as a man's little finger. I picked it up, wondering for what
purpose it could be used, and thinking it might possibly prove of
service on some future occasion, I carried it home with me.

"'Several days passed, and I had forgotten not only the little brush
that I had picked up, but even the episode of the old man and his
strange trance, when one afternoon a man presented himself to be
shaved, who, after some desultory discourse on passing topics,
mentioned that he had heard of my attendance on the old miser, and
inquired as to the condition in which I had found him, and all the
particulars of the affair.

"'When I had related to him the whole of the circumstances--excepting
only the finding of the little brush as I came away, an incident so
trifling that I no longer remembered it--he inquired, with some
eagerness, I thought, whether I had found anything in the old man's
room. I had picked up the brush not in the room, but outside the
house, and the very fact that I had done s