1829.] The Man of lU-Omen. 297 



spoiler. The whole village was instantly up in arms ; and where every 

 living creature, from the child of three years old to the man of a hundred, 

 carries his carbine or his bow as regularly as his head, I may be supposed 

 to have been in danger. I fled through the forest hke a hare. Shots 

 fell thick among the brambles round me. I saw the shrine, sprang in, 

 and the saint's bones had thenceforth the honour of my companionship. 



" None thought of looking for me there. The Mollah's business was 

 done with his morning visit : he had come to feed on the offerings, and 

 he hated ultra-activity as much as if he had been king of Spain. The 

 villagers dreaded the resting-place of so much sanctity, and would have 

 cut the throats of half mankind rather than violate it by an intrusive 

 step. So, in that spot I remained a week, incomparably fed, so far as 

 African banquets go — thriving in flesh, though horribly ennuied. But 

 my trial drew to a close. 



" One morning I observed a large, heavy-built man, with a countenance 

 in which guile, good-humour, dulness, and a love of good eating, were 

 moulded in every line, prowling about the tomb. IMy first idea was to 

 treat him as I had done the INIollah. But I was too well-fed to be hun- 

 gry ; and the best time to meet even the tiger is notoriously after he has . 

 had his breakfast. Wrapped in my carpet, I approached the investi- 

 gator courteously. He at first cocked his pistols ; but his alarm was 

 turned into rapture when he discovered that I was human. He had 

 come out on a three months' journey to explore the site of the temple of 

 Jupiter Ammon. He was an English linendraper, who, having acquired 

 a taste for more sublime pursuits in one of the brilliant institutions of 

 his country of philosophers, had thrown aside the measuring of long- 

 cloth for the measuring of every stone within his reach. I found him at 

 once civil and sullen, crafty and gullible. I gave him full opportunity 

 for the exercise of his genius — cordially invited him to the hospitalities 

 of the shrine — sold it to him, bones and all, for a sum of money which 

 would have purchased an African principality — presented him with 

 half-a-dozen inscriptions in a dialect invented for the occasion, on the 

 strength of which he made up his mind to canvass his Royal Society — 

 and, to complete his raptures and his collection, suffered him to sketch 

 me in my carpet, as a native chieftain in the original costume of the 

 Pharaohs. 



" Till now, all went on swimmingly ; but there was still a delicate 

 transaction to settle between us. I applied to him for the piu'chase- 

 money of the tomb, out of the enormous bag of dollars that he carried 

 on his camel. The antiquarian asked for delay. I saw the esprit bou- 

 tiquicre rising within him ; and, as his friend, I desired to lay it. He 

 offered me a bill at an immense date ; but my affairs required expedition. 

 I refused the offer, and calmly told him that those who attempted to 

 injure me were always unlucky. 



" He was probably glad of the excuse for a quarrel ; and he replied 

 by one of those brief phrases in which Englishmen couch such ready 

 opinions of every thing that stands in their way. I remembered his 

 pistols, and bade him a very good night. 



" How he enjoyed my wish, I cannot tell to this hour ; for I no sooner 

 perceived the moon go down, than I emei'ged from my lair, piled one of 

 his camels with his trunk, slung the bag of dollars over the hump of the 

 other, and instantly set off at a steady pace of seven miles an hour. 



" For two days I rode across the s.uidy ocean, piloting my way as far 



iAI. U. Nav Scncn.^Yw.. Ylll. No. 4.5. 2 Q 



