CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. 



130,000 piebald horses in his stables at Samarra, 

 and maintained 50,000 boys at court, to each of 

 whom he furnished a satchel or little bag for pro- 

 visions. He was the first caliph that added to his 

 name the title of Billah, or B' Allah, equivalent to 

 the Dei Gratia of Christian sovereigns. 



Vathek was a liberal patron of learned men, and 

 so charitable to the poor, that not a single beggar, 

 through the whole course of his reign, was to be met 

 with in his dominions. His brother Motawakkel 

 displayed all the caprice and cruelty of a tyrant. 

 He evinced his displeasure against the Jews and 

 Christians by compelling them to use wooden instead 

 of iron stirrups, to wear leathern girdles, to have bad- 

 ges on their clothes, and to paint the figures of devils 

 er hogs and apes on their door, to distinguish them 

 from the Mussulmans. Among other instances of 

 his folly and depravity, it is recorded that one of 

 the amusements in which he chose to indulge him- 

 self was to give a magnificent entertainment, and 

 in the moment of convivial gayety to turn a lion 

 loose among the terrified guests. Sometimes he 

 would introduce a snake into the sleeve of an unfor- 

 tunate cpurtier, or cast leathern jars full of scorpions 

 into a crowded assembly, or in the middle of the 

 hall where he had prepared a banquet for his favour- 

 ites, without suffering any one to rise from the table: 

 or change his place. Besides these mischievous di- 

 versions he exercised great severity on his subjects, 

 of whom not less than 80,000 perished in the Ar- 

 menian rebellion. Persons of distinction, who had 

 the misfortune to incur his displeasure, he enclosed 

 in an iron stove lined with pointed nails, which he 

 caused to be heated in proportion to the enormity of 



