I 



between the Courts ofDehli and Constantinople. 47S 



" have supposed,' said the ambassador, much out of humour, ' that the 

 " Albanians would be stout and hardy fellows, and the Bosnians a dull 

 " quiet people.'* Jaori and Abu Ahmed checked their inclination to laugh, 

 " being ashamed to do so before the face of the master of the house ; but 

 " they were almost choked by their endeavours to refrain, and could 

 " scarcely eat a bit. The dinner being at an end, Zulfikar said, ' Please 

 " God, we shall be companions on the road. ' Please God,* replied the 

 " ambassador, 'we shall see many curious things, and rejoice in them, if 

 " God grants us but health !' He got up and took leave, and pondering 

 " on his fine travelling companion, he said to himself: ' Praised be God, 

 " who has created an ox in the shape of a man !' The ambassador being 

 " gone, Zulfikar asked his friends, Jaori and Abu Ahmed, whether he had 

 " not spoken well with this Indian cat ? • These Indians,' said he, ' pride 

 " themselves on their spices ; but if we did not buy their clovesand cinnamon, 

 " to whom could they sell them ? Let us shew, therefore, our pride in our own 

 " national products. The ambassador spoke no doubt in very refined and 

 " set terms, but I answered him in plain Turkish.' Zulfikar being a wealthy 

 " man, and chosen for an ambassador, whom it would not be decent to con- 

 " tradict, and impossible to teach better, his two friends thought it wisest 

 ♦' to be silent. Jaori, how^ever, could not readily brook this stupidity, and 

 " said at last, ' My lord, on such occasions you would do much better to 

 " wait for the opening of the conversation, and to answer accordingly ; or 

 " rather to be silent and listen, than to speak so rashly.' Zulfikar, getting 

 " angry, asked whether he had committed any blunder? They told him, 

 " he had committed no blunder ; but it would have been more convenient 

 " to follow that advice. Abu Ahmed, who was on good terms with 

 " Manzada (the son of Fakir-ud-dln), went to give him an account of this 

 " business. ' In truth,' said he, 'viewing the subject with an impartial eye, 

 " is it decent to send such vulgar fellows, only on account of their wealth, 

 " on embassies, when there is such an abundance of learned and polished 

 " men to be found ? Is it decent, to commit in such a way the honour of 

 " the -empire ?' All men of sense disapproved of this affair highly, and 

 " wondered how Behaya, the Mufti, could give his assent to it. The ambas- 



* There is a pun, which will not bear translating, between j;Vg-ai-6?iJr courageous, (from is- j'gcr, 

 which signifies both liver and courage), and ^r^^^ mustereeh, which signifies quiet and inflated. 



