med--very much the reverse--but we hold that
even a false prophet cannot avoid teaching a certain modicum of truth in
his system, and when Mohammed sternly put his foot down upon strong
drink, and enforced the principle of total abstinence therefrom, he did
signal service to a large portion of the human family. Although, for
want of better teaching, Mohammedans cling to many vices, one never sees
them howling through the streets in a state of wild ferocity, or
staggering homewards in a condition of mild imbecility, from the effects
of intoxicating drink.

Instead of entering a low den where riot and revelry, with bad language
and quarrelling, might be expected to prevail, George Foster found
himself in a small white-washed apartment, where there sat several grave
and sedate men, wrapped in the voluminous folds of Eastern drapery,
sipping very small cups of coffee, and enjoying very large pipes of
tobacco.

The room was merely a cellar, the walls being thickly stuccoed and
white-washed, and the ceiling arched; but, although plain, the place was
reasonably clean and eminently quiet. The drinkers did not dispute.
Conversation flowed in an undertone, and an air of respectability
pervaded the whole place.

At the further end of the apartment there was a curious-looking
fireplace, which seemed to have been formed without the use of square or
plummet, and around which were scattered and hung in comfortable
confusion the implements and utensils of cookery. Nothing of the cook
was visible except his bare legs and feet, the rest of him being
shrouded in a recess. Beside the fireplace an Arab sat cross-legged on
a bench, sipping his coffee. Beyond him in a recess another Arab was
seated. He appeared to be sewing while he conversed with a negro who
stood beside him. Elsewhere, in more or less remote and dim distances,
other customers were seated indulging in the prevailing beverage.

"You sit down here, Geo'ge; drink an' say not'ing, but wait for me."

With this admonition Peter the Great whispered a few words to the man
who owned the establishment, and hurriedly left the place.

The middy naturally felt a little disconcerted at being thus left alone
among strangers, but, knowing that in the circumstances he was
absolutely helpless, he wisely and literally obeyed orders. Sitting
down on a bench opposite the fire, from which point of observation he
could see the entrance-door and all that went on around him, he waited