corner, left us wrapt up in our own dignity, smoking our pipes,
with apparently the greatest indifference.

At length the result of their conference was made known, and they
changed their order of attack; for the chief of the village now
undertook to soften me, and another old man Shir Ali Beg. The former
approached me with every manifestation of great friendship, and began,
as usual, by flattery. According to him, I was the most perfect of God's
creatures. He then swore that I had excited feelings of love both in
his breast, and in that of all the villagers, and that I alone was
the person to extricate them from their difficulties. As long as this
lasted, I merely kept a steady countenance, and made play with my pipe;
but when he had a little more entered into particulars, and talked of
what we were likely to get, I must own that I became considerably more
interested. He said that they had consulted upon what was to be done;
and were unanimous, that to send what they had not was impossible, and
therefore out of the question; but perhaps if something could be offered
to us to protect their interests, they were ready to satisfy us on that
head.

'All this is very well,' said I, 'but I am not the only person to be
considered. We here are only two, but recollect that our chief must be
also satisfied, and if you do not begin by him, your labour and expense
will be in vain: and I can tell you, if you grease his palm, you
must measure your _roghun_ (grease) by the _maun_,[72] and not by the
miscal.'

'Whatever we possess,' said the ked khoda, 'we will give; but of late
taxation has been so heavy, that, excepting our wives and children, we
have in fact nothing to offer.'

'I tell you what, friend,' said I, 'unless you have money, ready
downright cash, to give, any other offer is useless: with money in your
hand, you may buy the Shah's crown from his head; but without it, I can
only promise you a harvest of bastinadoes.'

'Ah!' said the ked khoda, 'money, money! where are we to procure money?
Our women, when they get a piece, bore a hole through it, and hang it
about their necks by way of ornament; and if we, after a life of hard
toil, can scrape up some fifty tomauns, we bury them in the earth,
and they give us more anxiety than if we possessed the mountain of
light.'[73] Then approaching to put his mouth to my ear, he whispered
with great earnestness, 'You are a Mussulman, in fine, and no ass.
You do not conceive that