ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 835 



I peeped through the bushes and saw that he was right : it was 

 Ben Khelpus, the man with the goat-skin and pest-pot. His perform- 

 ance had lasted about five minutes, when he stopped and turned his 

 head sidewise, and, following the direction of his gaze, we saw a little 

 girl walking across the fields with a sort of basket in her hand. Ben 

 Khelpus crouched down, drew a short club from his bundle, and, rising 

 suddenly on his hind-legs, he made for the field in a kind of a bear- 

 trot. The girl saw him come and ran away, shrieking, but the pilgrim, 

 too, then broke into a gallop, and chased her through a canebrake, 

 where we lost sight of them. In the next minute, however, we heard 

 a loud scream, and a second later Ben Khelpus reappeared, carrying 

 in his hand the girl's basket, which he flung away after devouring its 

 contents. He then returned to the cross-road, where he took a deep 

 draught from his goat-skin, and finished his devotion by performing a 

 number of hand-springs. While he repacked his bundle we left our 

 hiding-place, and approached him from the other side of the road. 



" How fares my brother ? " I asked, when he turned his head. 



" Well ! thanks to Allah, whose perfection be extolled," he replied ; 

 " a man feels so much better after prayers ! " 



" Are you, too, going to Kapeebad ? " I inquired, as he prepared to 

 accompany us. 



" Nearly," said he, " but after a day's journey beyond Beth-Raka, 

 I shall ascend the mountain of Sidi-Mayas, for the promotion of my 

 spiritual welfare Hold this bundle a moment," said he, when we 

 passed an inclosed orchard ; and, after pushing down some of the upper 

 stones, he succeeded in climbing the wall, and soon returned with a 

 cloutf ul of apricots. 



" Are you not afraid the owner might see you ? " I asked. 



" Not I," said he ; " no heretic would dare to lay his hands upon a 

 pilgrim : they fear the vengeance of my fellow-believers." 



" Who are those heretics ? " I asked. 



" Vile misbelievers," replied he ; " they waste all their prayers on 

 the nephew of Allah." 



" I told you so," said the Karman, who had repeatedly mentioned 

 that shocking superstition. 



" Yes, the Horn-Ghost * will roast them severely," added the pil- 

 grim ; " they confine their worship to that nephew, and pay no respect 

 to the rest of the family, nor to the three hundred servants of his 

 household. They even despise the gate-keeper of the heavenly 

 mosque." 



" And do you hope to enter that gate ? " I asked. 



" Yesha is merciful," said he ; "I constantly make the sign of the 



* El Cornado, " Old Horny." The horns of Eblis, are not confined to the cacodsemons 

 of the Semitic religions ; in the language of the Siberian Yakoots, Atkinson tells us, the 

 local Beelzebub is called " the Old Horn Man," and the national Jehovah " the Gentleman 

 with the Russian Uniform." 



