108 RAGE OF THE AGHA. 



his fruitless ramble among the sepulchres, — many 

 of them reached with difficulty, and all widely 

 scattered. 



Highly gratified with our excursion, we re- 

 turned to Kassabar at the setting of the sun, 

 somewhat anxious to know the result of Pagni- 

 otti's mission to the Agha. Our angry dragoman 

 had, it seems, rushed at once into the potentate's 

 presence, and stated, with all the eloquence he 

 was master of — and his tongue went sufficiently 

 fast sometimes — the insult we had received. The 

 indignation of the chief at the conduct of his 

 slaves knew no bounds, and forgetting all his 

 ailings, fat, ophthalmia, and asthma, he rushed 

 to the balcony showering curses on his people, 

 calling them atheists, and worse than infidels, 

 thus to insult travellers who would assuredly 

 write books, and whose books would be read by 

 the Sultan ; — a notion which our friend the kadi 

 had probably put into his head. The terrified 

 caffagee who had been the perpetrator of the 

 practical joke on our servant, was dragged from 

 the dust-hole in which he had concealed himself, 

 by his fellow-servants, who, through their offi- 

 ciousness in seeking the offender hoped to excuse 

 themselves, and would have been instantaneously 



