A EIDE TO BABYLON. 359 



who charge the crowd recklessly, never deigning to 

 look either to the right or to the left. Half-naked, 

 ragged beggars, will throw themselves at your feet, 

 contort their features, and in rambling incoherent 

 speech will invoke all the blessings of Allah and 

 his holy Prophet on your Christian head. I re- 

 member in those evening strolls we generally 

 stopped before the pipe -shops, and those shops 

 where the delicate Bussorah goblets were set out 

 in tempting array. Neither the prettily fashioned 

 pipe -bowls, nor the fragile, gracefully turned clay- 

 work of Bussorah did we find expensive : indeed 

 much the contrary. But the recklessness with 

 which we invested our Tomans in basketfuls of 

 the one and of the other, was something incredible. 

 When we used to gaze with fond eyes upon our 

 treasures spread out on the floor of our rooms, in 

 despair our thoughts would turn upon a long journey 

 of months that was before us a journey before start- 

 ing upon which every single article that was not an 

 actual necessary of life would have to be discarded, 

 and left as a legacy to some unappreciating, unimagin- 

 ative, ungrateful Turk. In one corner of the room 

 stood a perfect bundle of cherry pipe-sticks, which had 

 been chosen with immense judgment, as we flattered 

 ourselves. What eventually became of them, we 

 do not remember ; but we can well call to mind 

 how in those days no earthly consideration would 

 have induced us to part with any single one of 



