in order to discover if life was in him or no. No
prescription was ever better administered, for the crowd almost shook
him to dislocation. This had no effect. I was about prescribing again,
when a cry was heard in the crowd, _Rah bedeh_, give way: _Ser hisab_,
heads, heads! and the Frank doctor (of whose skill I have before given
some account) made his appearance, having been sent by his ambassador,
who had witnessed the catastrophe. Without having seen the patient, he
cried out, 'Take blood instantly! you must not lose a moment.'

I, who now felt myself called upon to assert the dignity of the Persian
faculty, and give proofs of my superior wisdom, said, 'Take blood! what
doctrine is this? Do not you know that death is cold, and that blood is
hot, and that the first principle of the art is to apply warm remedies
to cold diseases? Pocrat,[61] who is the father of all doctors, has thus
ordained, and surely you cannot say that he eats his own soil. If you
take blood from that body, it dies; and go tell the world that I say
so.'

'As for that,' said the Frank, who had now examined it, 'we may save
ourselves any further trouble: it is dead already, and hot and cold are
now all one.' Upon this he took his leave, and left me and my Pocrat
with our noses in the air.

'Then death,' said I, 'has had the best of it; the wisdom of man is
unavailing, when opposed to the decrees of God. We doctors can no more
contend with destiny, than the waters of an aqueduct can overcome those
of a river.'

A Mollah, who was present, ordered his feet to be turned towards the
Kebleh, his two great toes to be tied together, a handkerchief wrapped
under his chin, and fastened over his head, and then all the bystanders
after him repeated aloud the profession of the true faith. By this time
some of his relatives had gathered round him, and had begun the usual
lamentations, when the bier was brought, and the dead body conveyed to
his family.

Upon inquiry I found that the deceased had been a _nasakchi_, i.e. one
of the officers attached to the chief executioner, who has one hundred
and fifty such under his command, and whose duties consist in preceding
the Shah in his marches, dispersing crowds, maintaining order, taking
charge of state prisoners, and, in short, acting as police officers
throughout the country. It immediately struck me, how agreeable and how
convenient it would be to step into the dead man's shoes, and how much
better my temper