do or not. But in our
country, in the Orient, even a Diogenes does not disdain to handle the
coin of affability. We are always meekly asked, even by the most
supercilious, to overlook shortcomings, and condone.

"I could not in passing out, however, overlook the string of orange
peels which hung on a pole in the court. Nor am I sensible of an
indecorum if I give out that the Sheikh lives on oranges, and
preserves the peels for kindling the fire. And this, his only article
of food, he buys at wholesale, like his robes and undergarments. For
he never changes or washes anything. A robe is worn continually, worn
out in the run, and discarded. He no more believes in the efficacy of
soap than in the efficacy of a good reputation. 'The good opinion of
men,' he says, 'does not wash our hearts and minds. And if these be
clean, all's clean.'

"That is why, I think, he struck once with his staff a journalist for
inserting in his paper a laudatory notice on the Sheikh's system of
living and thinking and speaking of him as 'a deep ocean of learning
and wisdom.' Even in travelling he carries nothing with him but his
staff, that he might the quicker flee, or put to flight, the vulgar
curious. He puts on a few extra robes, when he is going on a journey,
and in time, becoming threadbare, sheds them off as the serpent its
skin...."

* * * * *

And we pity our Scribe if he ever goes back to Damascus after this,
and the good Sheikh chances upon him.

CHAPTER VIII

ADUMBRATIONS

"In the morning of the eventful day," it is set forth in the _Histoire
Intime_, "I was in Khalid's room writing a letter, when Ahmed Bey
comes in to confer with him. They remain together for some while
during which I could hear Khalid growl and Ahmed Bey gently
whispering, 'But the Dastur, the Unionists, Mother Society,'--this
being the burden of his song. When he leaves, Khalid, with a scowl on
his brow, paces up and down the room, saying, 'They would treat me
like a school boy; they would have me speak by rule, and according to
their own dictation. They even espy my words and actions as if I were
an enemy of the Constitution. No; let them find another. The servile
spouters in the land are as plenty as summer flies. After I deliver my
address to-day, Shakib, we will take the first train for Baalbek. I
want to see my mother. No, billah! I can not go any further with these
Turks. Why, read this.' And he han