city to ride there in the morning and return at night. Finding,
however, that the native houses were scarcely habitable, I
determined to have a small house built, close to, yet not
overlooking, the village. To carry out my plan I had first of all
to apply to the Vali for permission to do so. His Highness, with an
outburst of Oriental liberality, declared his readiness to give me
not only a piece of ground but a garden as well. This I declined
with thanks, knowing the value of such an offer, but showed him on
paper the spot I had chosen, consisting of a barren rock, and asked
him to send a competent person to the place to examine the site and
value it, and at the same time see from the plan that none of my
windows would overlook my neighbours. In the course of a few days,
I received a notice that a commission of six officials would meet
me on the spot and settle the matter at once. I provided a luncheon
_al fresco_, to which the sheikh of the village was invited to
negotiate on the part of the villagers.

"After a long preamble, setting forth the value of land in general,
and of this spot in particular, he offered at length to sell the
site for 5,000 piastres (a piastre is equal to 2_d._).

"'Fifty piastres,' wrote down the scribe. 'By the life of your
father, it is too little--say 3,000.' 'Seventy-five,' said the
scribe. 'Say 1,000--by Allah, it is worth 5,000; but Allah is
great.' 100 piastres was the sum agreed to at last, and I had the
permission to begin building at once.

"When the house was half finished, an order came to stop, on the
ground that it was built over the tomb of a Moslem saint, and that
the departed spirit might not relish the vicinity of Christians,
and avenge himself by doing us some bodily harm for which the Vali
would be responsible.

"After a great deal of trouble and investigation, his Highness was
convinced that the existence of such a tomb was a myth. The next
charge brought against me was, that whilst I pretended to build a
house, I was in reality building a convent in the midst of a
Mohammedan population. I had a hard struggle to convince him that
Protestants had no such institutions.

"Now all these charges had been trumped up by the officials in the
hope of receiving the usual bribe, which I was determined