," replied an aged Sheikh, "there are no waterwheels."

"I will lend the money," said the Governor.

"At what interest, O Our Excellency?"

"Take you two of May Queen's puppies to bring up in your village in
such a manner that they do not eat filth, nor lose their hair, nor catch
fever from lying in the sun, but become wise hounds."

"Like Ray-yal--not like Bigglebai?" (Already it was an insult along
the River to compare a man to the shifty anthropophagous blue-mottled
harrier.)

"Certainly, like Ray-yal--not in the least like Bigglebai. That shall be
the interest on the loan. Let the puppies thrive and the waterwheel be
built, and I shall be content," said the Governor.

"The wheel shall be built, but, O Our Excellency, if by God's favour
the pups grow to be well-smelters, not filth-eaters, not unaccustomed to
their names, not lawless, who will do them and me justice at the time of
judging the young dogs?"

"Hounds, man, hounds! Ha-wands, O Sheikh, we call them in their
manhood."

"The ha-wands when they are judged at the Sha-ho. I have unfriends down
the river to whom Our Excellency has also entrusted ha-wands to bring
up."

"Puppies, man! Pah-peaz we call them, O Sheikh, in their childhood."

"Pah-peat. My enemies may judge my pah-peaz unjustly at the Sha-ho. This
must be thought of."

"I see the obstacle. Hear now! If the new waterwheel is built in a month
without oppression, thou, O Sheikh, shalt be named one of the judges to
judge the pah-peaz at the Sha-ho. Is it understood?"

"Understood. We will build the wheel. I and my seed are responsible for
the repayment of the loan. Where are my pah-peaz? If they eat fowls,
must they on any account eat the feathers?"

"On no account must they eat the feathers. Farag in the barge will tell
thee how they are to live."

There is no instance of any default on the Governor's personal and
unauthorized loans, for which they called him the Father of Waterwheels.
But the first puppyshow at the capital needed enormous tact and the
presence of a black battalion ostentatiously drilling in the barrack
square to prevent trouble after the prize-giving.

But who can chronicle the glories of the Gihon Hunt--or their shames?
Who remembers the kill in the market-place, when the Governor bade the
assembled sheikhs and warriors observe how the hounds would instantly
devour the body of Abu Hussein; but how, when he had scientifically
broken it up, the weary pack turned from