THE WILY DERVISH 27 



" 'Commander of the faithful,' answered the der- 

 vish, 'keep the purses of sequins, useless to my blue 

 pigeons, and give me the wheat as I wish.' 



" 'Very well. Instead of one sack, you shall have 

 a hundred.' 



" 'It is not enough, Sun of Justice.' 



" 'You shall have a thousand.' 



" 'Not enough, Terror of the unfaithful. The 

 squares of my chessboard would not have their 

 proper amount.' 



"In the meantime the courtiers whispered among 

 themselves, astonished at the singular pretensions of 

 the dervish, who, in the contents of a thousand sacks, 

 would not find his grain of wheat doubled sixty-four 

 times. Out of patience, the king convoked the 

 learned men to hold a meeting and calculate the 

 grains of wheat demanded. The dervish smiled ma- 

 liciously in his beard, and modestly moved aside 

 while awaiting the end of the calculation. 



' And behold, under the pen of the calculators, the 

 figure grew larger and larger. The work finished, 

 the head one rose. 



" 'Sublime Commander,' said he, 'arithmetic has 

 decided. To satisfy the dervish's demand, there is 

 not enough wheat in your granaries. There is not 

 enough in the town, in the kingdom, or in the whole 

 world. For the quantity of grain demanded, the 

 whole earth, sea and continents together, would be 

 red with a continuous bed to the depth of a 

 finger.' 



"The kinr angrily bit his mustache and, unable 

 to count out to him his grains of wheat, named the 



