haracter
as best suited the service they required; for you must be told, in the
Mussulmaun faith, we count ninety-nine different names or titles to the
great merciful Creator and only true God. In many cases the taawise I had
so given, had been supposed by the party receiving them, to have been
instrumental in drawing down upon them the favour of God, and thus having
their difficulties removed; this induced others influenced by their report,
to apply to me, and at last my retirement was no longer the hermit's cell,
but thronged as the courtyard of a king's palace. My own family in this
way discovered my retreat, they urged and prevailed on me to return
amongst them, and by degrees to give up my abstemious course of life.

'The fame of my devotion, however, was soon conveyed to the world; it was
a task to shake off the entreaties of my poor fellow-mortals who gave me
more credit for holiness of life than I felt myself deserving of. Yet
sympathy prevailed on me to comfort when I could, although I never dared
to think myself deserving the implicit confidence they placed in me.

'On one occasion I was induced, at the urgent entreaties of an old and
valued friend, to try the effects of my acquired knowledge in favour of a
respectable female, whose family, and her husband in particular, were in
great distress at the violence of her sufferings. They fancied she was
troubled by a demon, who visited her regularly every eighth day; her
ravings when so possessed endangered her health, and destroyed the
domestic harmony of the house.

'The day was fixed for my visit, and the first exercise of my acquirements;
even then I had doubts on my mind whether the demons so often quoted did
really exist, or were but the disordered wanderings of imagination; and if
they did exist, I still was doubtful as to the extent of my knowledge
being sufficient to enable me to be the instrument for effecting the
desired benefit. Trusting faithfully, however, in God's help, and desiring
nothing but His glory, I commenced my operations. The woman was seated on
a charpoy (bedstead) behind a wadded curtain, which hid her from my view.
Respectable females, you are aware, are not allowed to be seen by any
males except very near relatives. I took my seat opposite the curtain with
the husband of the suffering woman, and entered into conversation with him
on general subjects.

'I soon heard the wild speeches of the woman, and my heart fully
sympathized in her