side, but is black and dirty on the
other; still it is a turquoise, and a precious stone.'

'Ah,' said I to myself, 'the ugly man cannot endure the sight of the
handsome, no more than the vicious can the virtuous: in the same manner
as curs of the market howl at a hunting dog, but dare not approach him.'

Notwithstanding the deformity of my cheek, I found, as I continued to
be an inmate in the house of my old master, that I had made no small
impression upon the heart of his daughter, the fair Dilaram, who, by a
thousand little arts, did not fail to make me acquainted with the state
of her affections. Her mother and she were both experienced in the mode
of curing the Bagdad disorder, and they undertook to superintend mine.
My pimple and Dilaram's love appear to have risen at about the same
time; their progress was mutual, and by the time that the former had
risen to its full height, the latter had become quite inconvenient.

I, 'tis true, had not caught the infection; for my charmer was the
very image of her father, whose face and that of an old camel's were
so entirely identified in my mind, that I never could lose that ugly
association of ideas when I gazed upon her. It was, therefore, a
considerable relief to me when the season for travelling approached,
and when the caravan for Constantinople was about to assemble. My
pipe-sticks were collected and packed into their proper bundles, my
accounts with my creditors regularly discharged, my wardrobe complete,
and I was all delight when it was announced, that at the very next
favourable conjunction of the planets the caravan was to take its
departure. But as for poor Dilaram, she hovered about my cheek with
looks of despair; and as fast as the swelling subsided, she appeared to
lose the only tie which kept her united to this world and its vanities.

CHAPTER LXVI

He becomes a merchant, leaves Bagdad, and accompanies a caravan to
Constantinople.

It was a fine spring morning when the caravan took its departure from
the Constantinople gate of the city. Mounted on the top of one of my
loads, with my bed tied on the pad by way of a soft seat, and my bags
surrounding me, I contemplated the scene with pleasure, listened to
the bells of the mules as I would to music, and surveyed myself as a
merchant of no small consequence.

My more immediate companions were Osman Aga, and his associate in
lambskins (he of whom I have already made honourable mention at the
entertai