,
and they could neither contain their envy nor their malevolence.

I now, too late, discovered the mistake I had committed in showing
myself off in this manner, and would willingly have sneaked away without
further triumph.

'What! is this Hajji Baba?' said one, 'the son of the Ispahan barber?
May his father's grave be polluted, and his mother abused!'

'Well acted, true child of Iran!' said another; 'you have done your
utmost with the Turk's beard, and may others do the same with yours!'

'Look at his great turban, and his large trousers, and his long pipe,'
said a third: 'his father never saw such things, not even in a dream!'

In this manner did my envious countrymen taunt me, until, asserting all
my dignity, I rose from my seat, mounted my horse, and left the place
amidst their scoffs and expressions of contempt. My first sensation was
that of indignation at them, my second of anger at myself.

'You have been rightly served,' said I to myself, 'by the soul of
Kerbelai Hassan, the barber! What well-fed hound ever went among wolves
without being torn to pieces? What fool of a townsman ever risked
himself amongst the wild Arabs of the desert without being robbed and
beaten? Perhaps Hajji may one day become a wise man, but plentiful is
the vexation he must eat first! Of what use is a beard,' said I, taking
mine into my hand, 'when an empty sconce is tied to the end of it? about
as much as a handle is to a basket without dates. Great wisdom had the
sage who declared that no man was ever pleased with the elevation of his
fellow, except perhaps when he saw him dangling on a gibbet!'

In this manner did I soliloquize until I reached my house, where, having
retired to the harem, I endeavoured to seek repose for the remainder of
the day, in order to chew the cud of my bitter reflections. But I was
mistaken; for, to add to my misery, Shekerleb, my wife, as if impelled
by some wicked demon, demanded that I should immediately advance her
the money inserted in the marriage settlement for clothes, and so worked
upon me by her very unreasonable entreaties, that, involving her in the
ill-humour in which I had continued against my own countrymen, I poured
forth the current of my feelings in language and gestures the most
violent. Curses upon them and maledictions upon her came from my lips in
horrid succession, until I, the once mild and patient Hajji, had become
more furious than a Mazanderan lion.

My wife at first was all