COMMON KHAN AT JANINA. 17 



were hungry, and yet we were too indignant to 

 eat; we were most superlatively miserable, and 

 yet we could make no attempts to better our 

 condition; until at last, after we had worked 

 ourselves up to the highest state of excitement, 

 indignation, and misery, on a sudden one of the 

 party, struck with the exceedingly ridiculous ap- 

 pearance and rueful countenances of his com- 

 panions, became alive to the absurdity of the 

 scene, and burst into a long and loud laugh. The 

 others were for an instant disposed to look more 

 grave, if such were possible, and to consider it 

 no laughing matter, but "Momus" having once 

 gained a footing amongst us, very soon drove 

 away "melancholy," and we proceeded, first to 

 eat a few mouthfuls of what remained of our 

 travelling stock of provisions, next to console 

 ourselves with some brandy-and- water, and lastly 

 two of us soon found ourselves indulging in a 

 rest on the floor, disturbed, however, by horrible 

 visions of plague, which word seemed to flit 

 eternally before our faces, and appeared written 

 in legible, but bloated and distorted, characters 

 on every spot in the room on which our half- 

 closed and wandering eyes chanced to rest. 



