mmetrically placed on his shoulders, which were blended in an easy
curve with his neck; whilst his tight dress helped to give great breadth
to his breast. His face was one of the handsomest I had ever seen
amongst my countrymen, his nose aquiline, his eyes large and sparkling,
his teeth and mouth exquisite, and his beard the envy of all beholders.
In short, as a specimen of the country he represented, none could have
been better selected.

When we had interchanged our greetings as true believers, he said to me,
'Are you an Irani?'

'Yes,' said I, 'so please you.'

'Then why in looks an Osmanli?' said he. 'Praise be to Allah, that we
have a king and a country of whom no one need be ashamed.'

'Yes,' answered I, 'your ordonnances are truth, and I am become less
than a dog, since I have put on the airs of a Turk. My days have been
passed in bitterness, and my liver has melted into water, since I have
entangled myself by a connexion with this hated people; and my only
refuge is in God and you.'

'How is this?' said he: 'speak. Has a child of Ispahan (for such you are
by your accent) been taken in by a Turk? This is wonderful indeed! We
travel all this way to make them feed upon our abomination, not to learn
to eat theirs.'

I then related the whole of my adventures from the beginning to the
end. As I proceeded he seemed wonderfully interested. When I got to
my marriage he became much amused, and roared with laughter at
the settlements I had made on my wife. The account I gave of the
entertainment, the respect with which I was treated, my magnificence and
grandeur, afforded him great delight; and the more I descanted upon the
deception which I had practised upon the cows of Turks, as he called
them, the more interest he took in my narrative, which he constantly
interrupted by his exclamations, 'Aye, well done, oh Ispahani! Oh! thou
bankrupt! By Allah! You did well! If I had been there, I could not have
done better.'

But when I informed him of the manner I had been served by my envious
countrymen, of the finishing scene in my own house, of the screams of my
women, of the speeches of my wife's relations,--and when I represented
the very words, look, and attitude with which I made my exit, far from
having produced the sympathy I expected, his mirth was excited to such
a degree, that I thought the veins in his forehead would have burst; and
he actually rolled himself on his sofa in the convulsions of laughter.

'But m