ow how we have
succeeded, and now will be able to judge whether I have rendered you a
service or not.'

Little did I expect to hear such a result when first the old woman
began her tale. I now felt like one who had received his reprieve after
condemnation. Instead of the mysteries, disguises, scaling of walls
and windows, drawn scimitars, and bloody wounds attendant on a Turkish
intrigue, I saw nothing before me but riches, ease, and repose from all
future care. I blessed my star; in short, I held my fortune to be made.
I was so transported at what I heard, that I made use of a thousand
incoherent expressions to my companion; I protested and vowed eternal
love to her mistress, and promised the most liberal remuneration to
herself.

'But there is one circumstance,' said she, 'which my mistress has
ordered me to ascertain before she can receive you; which is, the
respectability of your family and the extent of your fortune. You must
know that her brothers and relations are very proud; and if she were
to make an unworthy alliance, they would treat her with the greatest
harshness, and not fail to ill-treat if not to make away with her
husband.'

Although I was not prepared for this, yet such was the quickness with
which I had seized the whole extent of the good fortune awaiting me,
that with the same quickness I without hesitation said, 'Family? Family,
did you say? Who is there that does not know Hajji Baba? Let him inquire
from the confines of Yemen to those of Irak, and from the seas of Hind
to the shores of the Caspian, and his name will be well known.'

'But who was your father?' said the old woman.

'My father?' said I, after a pause; 'he was a man of great power. More
heads came under his thumb, and he took more men with impunity by the
beard, than even the chief of the Wahabi himself.'

I had now gained sufficient time to arrange a little off-hand genealogy
for myself; and as 'the old woman's countenance expanded at what I had
said, I continued to speak to her after this manner:--

'If your mistress wants high blood, then let her look to me. Be assured,
that she and her brothers, be they who they may, will never exceed me in
descent. Arab blood flows in my veins, and that of the purest kind. My
ancestor was a Mansouri Arab, from the province of Nejd in Arabia Felix,
who with the whole of his tribe was established by Shah Ismael of Persia
in some of the finest pastures of Irak, and where they have lived ever