and his old schoolmaster, too? Shame, shame!--let us go--he is probably
the thief himself.'

Upon this the dervish said, 'Are we fools and asses, to be dealt with
in this manner? Either there was money in that corner, or there was
not--either there are thieves in the world, or there are not. This man
and this woman,' pointing to the akhon and my mother, 'have not done
that which all the rest have done. Perhaps they say the truth, they are
old, and cannot break the hard grain. Nobody says that they stole the
money--they themselves know that best,' said he, looking at them through
and through; 'but the famous diviner, Hezarfun, he who was truly called
the bosom friend to the Great Bear, and the confidant of the planet
Saturn,--he who could tell all that a man has ever thought, thinks, or
will think,--he hath said that the trial by rice, among cowards was the
best of all tests of a man's honesty. Now, my friends, from all I have
remarked, none of you are slayers of lions, and fear is easily produced
among you. However, if you doubt my skill in this instance, I will
propose a still easier trial,--one which commits nobody, which works
like a charm upon the mind, and makes the thief come forward of his own
accord, to ease his conscience and purse of its ill-gotten wealth, at
one and the same time. I propose the _Hak reezi_, or the heaping
up earth. Here in this corner I will make a mound, and will pray so
fervently this very night, that, by the blessing of Allah, the Hajji,'
pointing to me, 'Will find his money buried in it to-morrow at this
hour. Whoever is curious, let them be present, and if something be not
discovered, I will give him a miscal of hair from my beard.'

He then set to work, and heaped up earth in a corner, whilst the lookers
on loitered about, discussing what they had just seen; some examining
me and the dervish as children of the evil spirit, whilst others again
began to think as much of my mother and the schoolmaster. The company
then dispersed, most of them promising to return the following morning,
at the appointed time, to witness the search into the heap of earth.

[Illustration: The diviner and the rice. 27.jpg]

CHAPTER LI

Of the diviner's success in making discoveries, and of the resolution
which Hajji Baba takes in consequence.

I must own that I began now to look upon the restoration of my property
as hopeless. The diviner's skill had certainly discovered that money had
been burie