98 THE FAULTY AHMULAH. 



women who stood by amusing themselves with the 

 appearance of the new come Gypt, or Egyptian, 

 the monks would have had as much chance of 

 obtaining alms from the rocks around me, as of 

 opening my heart or understanding to their appeal. 

 " Ahmulah, ahmulah ! " cried two or three of the 

 women, and I then found out that I must bestow 

 in charity a salt piece, the name of which had 

 already become familiar to me. 



Walderheros soon came back from the errand I 

 had sent him upon, to procure the bulky coin, 

 which was, however, refused by the surly monks, 

 with a look and grimace that said quite enough, as 

 they duly measured the ahmulah with a span, and 

 found that it was too short for their taste. Again 

 Walderheros was sent to the skin bag in which 

 was deposited the remainder of my last change for 

 a dollar. The cunning fellow, however, instead of 

 procuring another, as he told me afterwards, brought 

 back the same ahmulah again, and as the monks 

 did not think it decent to return it a second time, 

 they growled out the usual blessing of peace and 

 good fortune for me, with an imprecating curse for 

 the benefit of Walderheros, and then walked away. 



