ORIENTAL EXAGGERATION. 169 



merical combinations, that we are to ascribe this 

 uncertainty. Besides, there are scarcely any 

 authorized and exact standards of value, weight, 

 or measure, and the habits of Eastern life in 

 general present less frequent occasion for precise 

 estimation than in European countries. It is, 

 therefore, quite natural that the people should 

 have very loose notions of relative magnitudes, 

 and should accordingly use numbers much at 

 random. The pride of an Oriental seldom per- 

 mits him to admit ignorance. He will always 

 lie or guess rather than avow inability to answer 

 any question, and his error is very sure to lie in 

 the way of multiplication. But after all these 

 allowances are made, it will still be found that 

 an innate and habitual disregard of the truth is 

 eminently characteristic of the Oriental mind, 

 Christian and pagan alike, and one must have 

 known the Levant to be able to conceive how 

 readily persons intelligent and otherwise respect- 

 able will prefer a lie to the truth, when the 

 slightest advantage is to be gained by the use of 

 a falsehood. 



