here I intended to halt
for the night.

As I came in sight of the building, at some distance in the desert,
I saw a man putting himself into strange attitudes, playing antics by
himself, and apparently addressing himself to something on the ground.
I approached him, and found that he was talking with great animation to
his cap, which was thrown some yards before him. Going still nearer to
him, I discovered a face that was familiar to me.

'Who can it be?' said I to myself: 'it must be one of my old friends,
the dervishes of Meshed.'

In fact, it proved to be the _Kessehgou_, the story-teller, who was
practising a new story by himself, making his cap act audience. As soon
as he saw, he recognized me, and came up to embrace me with seeming
rapture.

'Ahi, Hajji,' said he, 'peace be with you! Where have you been these
many years? Your place has long been empty. My eyes are refreshed by the
sight of you.' Then he repeated himself in the same strain several times
over, until we at length got upon more rational subjects.

He related his adventures since we had last met; which consisted in the
detail of long and painful journeys, and of the various methods which
his ingenuity had suggested to him of gaining his bread. He was now on
his return from Constantinople, from whence he had walked, and had it in
contemplation to make his way in the same manner to Delhi, after having
passed a summer at Ispahan, whither he was now proceeding.

Although little inclined to talk, in the melancholy mood in which my
mind had been plunged, still I could not refrain in some measure from
catching the exuberance of spirits with which my companion seemed to
overflow, and I also gave him an account of myself since the day I left
Meshed with Dervish Sefer, when I had just recovered from the bastinado
on the soles of my feet.

As I proceeded in my narrative, showing him how, step by step, I
had advanced in station and dignity, it was amusing to see with
what increased reverence he treated me. At length, when I came to my
promotion to the rank of sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner, I
verily believe that he would have prostrated himself before me, with
such extreme respect had experience taught him to treat gentlemen of
that profession. But when he heard the sequel of my story; how for
a woman I had abandoned my high situation and all the prospects of
advancement which it held out to me; I perceived the low estimation to
which I fell in h