ost complete of any man's in the capital, and the mode
of my abstersion the most in use. I neither smoke nor drink wine before
men; neither do I play at chess, at _gengifeh_ (cards), or any game
which, as the law ordains, abstracts the mind from holy meditation. I am
esteemed the model of fasters; and during the Ramazan give no quarter to
the many hungry fellows who come to me under various pretexts, to beg
a remission of the strictness of the law. "No," do say to them, "die
rather than eat, or drink, or smoke. Do like me, who, rather than abate
one tittle of the sacred ordinance, would manage to exist from _Jumah_
to _Jumah_ (Friday) without polluting my lips with unlawful food."'

Although I did not applaud his tenacity about fasting, yet I did not
fail to approve all he said, and threw in my exclamations so well in
time, that I perceived he became almost as much pleased with me as he
appeared to be with himself.

'From the same devotedness to religion,' continued he, 'I have ever
abstained from taking to myself a wife, and in that respect I may be
looked upon as exceeding even the perfection of our Holy Prophet; who
(blessings attend his beard!) had wives and women slaves, more even than
_Suleiman ibn Daoud_ himself. But although I do not myself marry, yet
I assist others in doing so; and it is in that particular branch of my
duty in which I intend more especially to employ you.'

'By my eyes,' said I, 'you must command me; for hitherto I am ignorant
as the Turk in the fields.'

'You must know then,' said he, 'that, to the scandal of religion, to the
destruction of the law, the commerce of _cowlies_, or courtezans, had
acquired such ascendancy in this city, that wives began to be esteemed
as useless. Men's houses were ruined, and the ordinances of the Prophet
disregarded. The Shah, who is a pious prince, and respects the Ullemah,
and who holds the ceremony of marriage sacred, complained to the head
of the law, the mollah bashi, of this subversion of all morality in
his capital, and, with a reprimand for his remissness, ordered him to
provide a remedy for the evil. The mollah bashi (between you and me, be
it said) is in every degree an ass,--one who knows as much of religion
and its duties, as of Frangistan and its kings. But I--I, who am the
mollah Nadan,--I suggested a scheme in which the convenience of the
public and the ordinances of the law are so well combined, that both may
be suited without hindrance to eit