middle of summer. As a mere religions
observance this same fast, enjoined by _Muhammad_, is the most absurd,
the most demoralizing, and the most hurtful to health that ever was
invented by priestcraft. The people are forced to starve themselves
during the whole day, and consequently they overeat themselves during
the whole night, when they ought to be asleep in their beds, as nature
intended. Hence they fall by thousands an easy prey to cholera,
as happened in Turkey a few years ago. The fast of Lent among tho
followers of the Pope of Rome is, though in a less degree, liable to
the same censure. Why, instead of these unwholesome observances, do
not the priests, whether of Mecca or of Rome, preach unto the people
temperance and regularity of living? Ah, I forgot, the priests both of
Mecca and of Rome can always grant _dispensations_ and _indulgences_
to such good people as can adduce _weighty_ reasons to that effect.

[158] As frogs live in wet, they are not supposed to be extremely
subject to catch cold; the simile is introduced to ridicule the
extravagant idea of a merchant's son presuming to be in love with a
princess. The simile is a proverb.

[159] Washermen in India, in general, wash their linen at the _ghats_,
and their dogs of course wander thither from home after them, and
back again. This is one of their proverbs, and answers to ours of
"Kicked from piller to post."

[160] The _Khutba_ is a brief oration delivered after divine service
every Friday (the _Musalman_ Sabbath,) in which the officiating priest
blesses _Muhammad_, his successors, and the reigning sovereign.

[161] A kind of sedan chair, or _palki_.

[162] The _Khabar-dars_ are a species of spies stationed in various
parts of oriental kingdoms in order to forward intelligence to head
quarters.

[163] A mode of humble address, when the inferior presumes to state
something contrary to what the superior maintains or desires; and
as human life in India was, in olden times, not only precarious,
but considered as insignificant, the oriental slave acts prudently
by begging his life before he presumes to be candid.

[164] Literally, "He who is the changer of hearts."

[165] Here the first _Darwesh_ addresses himself directly to the
other three, who were his patient listeners.

[166] The _jama_ is an Asiatic dress, something like a modern female
gown, only much more full in the skirts. It is made of white cloth
or muslin.

[167] A superstitious