how the ambition of the mollah Nadan involves both him and his
disciples in ruin.

Upon a closer acquaintance with my master, the mollah Nadan, I found
that, besides his being the most covetous of men, he was also the most
ambitious; and that his great and principal object was to become the
chief priest of Tehran. To that he turned all his thoughts, and left
nothing untried which might bring him into notice, either as a zealous
practiser of the ordinances of his religion, or a persecutor of those
who might be its enemies. He was the leader in prayer at the principal
mosque; he lectured at the royal medresseh, or college; and whenever he
could, he encouraged litigants to appeal to him for the settlement of
their disputes. On every occasion, particularly at the festival of the
No Rouz, when the whole corps of mollahs are drawn up in array before
the king, to pray for his prosperity, he always managed to make himself
conspicuous by the over-abundance of adulation which he exhibited, and
by making his sonorous voice predominate over that of others.

By such means, he had acquired considerable celebrity among the people,
although those who knew him better held him in no great estimation. An
opportunity soon occurred which abundantly proved this, and which, as I
will now narrate, gave an entire new turn to my fortunes.

The winter had passed over our heads, and spring was already far
advanced, when reports reached the capital, that in the southern
provinces of the kingdom, particularly in Lar and Fars, there had been
such a total want of rain that serious apprehensions of a famine were
entertained. As the year rolled on, the same apprehensions prevailed
in the more northern provinces; and a drought, such as before was
never known, gave rise to the most dismal forebodings. The Shah ordered
prayers to be put up at all the mosques in the city for rain, and the
mollah bashi was very active in enforcing the order.

My master Nadan had there too good an opportunity of manifesting his
religious zeal, and of making himself conspicuous by his exertions, not
to take advantage of it; and he lost not a moment in giving himself all
the stir in his power. Conscious of the influence he had obtained over
the populace, he went a step farther than his rival the chief priest,
and invited an immense crowd of the lower orders to follow him to a
large open space without the city, where he took the lead in prayer.

The drought still continui