ead was
stored, lent me his books, and gave me general rules how to lead on the
curiosity of an audience, until their money should insensibly be enticed
from their pockets.

In the meanwhile, I continued to sell my tobacco and my pipes; but owing
to my intimacy with the dervishes, who smoked away all my profits, I
was obliged to adulterate the tobacco of my other customers considerably
more than usual; so that in fact they enjoyed little else than the fumes
of dung, straw, and decayed leaves.

One evening, when it was dusk, and about the time of closing the
bazaars, an old woman in rags, apparently bent double with age, stopped
me, and requested me to dress a pipe for her to smoke. She was closely
veiled, and scarcely uttered a word beyond her want. I filled her one
of my very worst mixtures: she put it to her mouth; and at her spitting,
coughing, and exclamations, half a dozen stout fellows, with long twigs
in their hands, immediately came up, seized me, and threw me on my
back. The supposed old woman then cast off her veil, and I beheld the
_Mohtesib_ in person.[26]

'At length, wretch of an Ispahani!' said he, 'I have caught you--you,
that have so long been poisoning the people of Meshed with your
abominable mixtures. You shall receive as many strokes on your feet as
you have received _shahies_[27] for your pipes. Bring the _felek_,[28]
said he to his officers, 'and lay on till his nails drop off.'

[Illustration: Hajji receives the ferosles. 10.jpg]

My feet were instantly inserted into the dreaded noose, and the blows
fell upon them so thick, that I soon saw the images of ten thousand
Mohtesibs, intermixed with ten thousand old women, dancing before my
eyes, apparently enjoying my torture, and laughing at my writhing and
contortions. I implored the mercy of my tormentor by the souls of
his father, mother, and grandfather--by his own head--by that of his
child--and by that of his prince; by the Prophet--by Ali--and by all the
Imams. I cursed tobacco, I renounced smoking. I appealed to the feelings
of the surrounding spectators, to my friends the three dervishes, who
stood there stirring neither limb nor muscle for me; in short, I
bawled, cried, entreated, until I entirely lost all sensation and all
recollection.

At length, when I came to myself, I found myself seated with my head
against the wall on the side of the road, surrounded by a crowd gaping
at my miserable situation. No one seemed to pity me. My pip