much depends upon the effect of
outward show, as soon as it is known that I returned to them mounted on
a horse with an enamelled bridle, a gold-pommelled saddle, and with a
Cashmerian shawl round my waist, they as well as I will be restored to
our proper places again. After I have enjoyed the advantage of these
things a few days, it will be easy to sell them under some plausible
pretext, and then you shall duly receive their amount.'

I was rather startled by this proposal, for certainly my companion had
not inspired me with sufficient confidence to encourage me trusting him
with so much property without any other security than his word. But
I felt the truth of all he said. It was impossible for me to keep my
incognito at the village for ten days or a fortnight dressed as I was,
and the possessor of a fine horse, without creating suspicion. I was
now, 'tis true, completely in the power of the mollah; but by his
proposed arrangement he would have become such an accomplice in
my guilt, that he could never denounce me without at the same time
involving himself.

'But,' said I, 'suppose a nasakchi discovers the horse, what becomes of
us then? You will be seized as well as I.'

'God is great,' answered the mollah; 'no one can have travelled as fast
as we, and before any officer can arrive at Hamadan I shall have reached
my father's house, and produced all the sensation I require in the city.
It will be easy after that to secrete both the horse and his trappings.
I take all the risk upon myself.'

Nothing more after this was to be said on my part. We immediately
stripped, and made an exchange of clothes. He got from me the deceased
mollah bashi's under garment, his caba, or coat, his Cashmerian girdle,
and his outward cloak, made of a dark green broad cloth; and I, in
return, received his old clothes, which had been torn on his person the
day he had been thrust out of Tehran. I gave him my black cap, round
which he wound the chief priest's head-shawl, which I had still
preserved; and, in return, he delivered over to me his skull-cap. I
preserved the mollah bashi's purse, the remaining money, the watch and
seals; whilst I permitted him the use of the inkstand, the rosary, the
pocket looking-glass, and the comb. He then stuck the roll of paper in
his girdle; and when completely made up and mounted, he looked so much
like the deceased chief priest himself, that I quite started at the
resemblance.

We parted with great ap