seeing the prize, which I was anxious to possess. It struck me that I
might make the very operation in which I was engaged subservient to my
views, and demanding to feel the patient's pulse once more, which I
did with a look of intense meditation, I observed that this was a
complicated disorder--that the blood must not be allowed to flow upon
the ground, but be collected in a vessel, that I might examine it
at leisure. This strange proposal of mine raised an immediate outcry
amongst the women; but with the Banou a deviation from the usual
practice only served to confirm her opinion of my superior skill. Here,
however, a new difficulty arose. The scanty stock of a Turcoman could
ill afford to sacrifice any utensil by applying it to a service which
would defile it for ever. They were recapitulated one by one, and all
found too precious to be thrown away. I was hesitating whether I might
venture to go straight to my point, when the Banou bethought herself
of an old leather drinking-cup, which she desired one of the women to
search for in a corner of the tent. 'This will never do: you can see
the light through it,' said I, holding it up towards the tent door, and
pointing to the seams with the penknife, which I held in my hand, and
with I cut, at the same time, half a dozen of the stitches.

'Where is the cap of that old Emir?' cried out the Banou.

'It is mine,' said the second wife; 'I want it to stuff my saddle with.'

'Yours!' returned the other in a fury. 'There is but one God! Am not I
the Banou of this harem? I will have it.'

'You shall not,' retorted the other.

Upon this an uproar ensued which became so loud and threatening, that
I feared it would come to the ears of Aslan Sultan, who very probably
would have settled the dispute by taking at once the bone of contention
from the contending parties. But luckily the astrologer interfered, and
when he had assured the second wife that the blood of the Banou would
be upon her head if anything unfortunate happened on this occasion, she
consented to give up her pretensions. I accordingly prepared to bleed
my patient; but when she saw the penknife, the cap underneath to
receive her blood, and the anxious faces of those about her, she became
frightened, and refused to permit me to proceed. Fearing after all that
I should lose my prize, I put on a very sagacious look, felt her pulse,
and said that her refusal was unavailing, for that it was her fate to be
bled, and that