A K1DE TO MAGNESIA. Ill 



tian; it is the expression of a religious wish, and 

 when uttered by one who receives not the Koran, 

 it falls on the ear of a Turk as a profanation. 

 The correct thing to say by Avay of being civil is, 

 "A-oorahah!" 



Thus slender was the stock of language with which 

 we started ; but perhaps we were not much worse off 

 than we should have been had we known a good deal 

 more. It is all very well with our European dialects 

 to have a certain smattering of grammar and prin- 

 ciple, but the hopeless languages of the East come 

 under a different category. Any knowledge of their 

 theory short of actual accuracy is nearly useless per- 

 haps worse than iiseless, because, by beguiling the 

 unhappy smatterer into ambitious attempts, it cheats 

 him of the little power he may have of rendering 

 himself intelligible. A man who is content with the 

 attainment of a certain vocabulary of substantives, 

 in whose pronunciation he is perfect, has much the 

 best chance, because he can eke out the other parts 

 of speech by gesture. But the attache of legation, 

 who has been poring over their orthography, and 

 hammering at principle, often proves the uselessness 

 of his acquisitions for colloquial purposes. However, 

 we might have done very well with a little more 

 knowledge than we possessed on this particular 

 occasion. 



"\Ve did not know at this time what Magnesia 

 could do for us in the way of an inn, though we 



