I could not withstand, stranger and unprotected as I
was in a foreign land, I put the best face I could upon my forlorn
situation, and getting up from my seat, I exclaimed, 'If it is so, be
it so. I neither want Shekerleb nor her money, nor her brothers, nor her
uncle, nor anything that belongs to them, since they do not want me; but
this I will say, that they have treated me in a manner unworthy of the
creed and name of Mussulmans. Had I been a dog among the unbelievers, I
should have been treated better. From the bottom of my heart I believe
that the same punishment which shall be inflicted, on the last day,
upon those who reject our Holy Prophet, shall be inflicted upon my
oppressors.' I then, with great emphasis, pronounced the following
sentence against them, as near as my memory would serve me, from the
blessed Koran:--'They shall have garments of living fire, fitted tight
upon them; boiling water shall be poured over them; their bowels and
skins shall be dissolved, and, in this state, they be beaten with red
hot maces of iron, and flogged with whips, whose lashes are made of
lightnings, and the noise of which shall be claps of thunder.'

Upon this, roused and excited as I was with the speech I had made, I
stood in the middle of the room, and divested myself of every part of
my dress which had belonged to my wife, or which I might have purchased
with her money. Throwing down every article from me, as if it had been
abomination, and then calling for an old cloak which had originally
belonged to me, I threw it over my shoulders and made my exit,
denouncing a curse upon the staring assembly I left behind me.

CHAPTER LXXII

An incident in the street diverts his despair--He seeks consolation in
the advice of old Osman.

When I had got into the street I walked hastily on without, for some
time, heeding whither I was bending my steps. My breast was convulsed by
a thousand contending passions; and so nearly had I lost possession of
my reason, that, when in sight of the sea, I began seriously to consider
whether it would not be wisdom to throw myself headlong in.

But, crossing a large open space, an occurrence happened which, however
trifling it may appear, was of great consequence to me, inasmuch as it
turned the current of my thoughts into a new channel, and saved me from
destruction. I was witness to one of those dog fights so frequently seen
in the streets of Constantinople. A dog had strayed into the terri