ELICHPOOR AND MUNGROOL. 
81 
khalif, and demanded, in the name of Alla, to be 
admitted into the royal household, as the ghostly 
adviser of the court. The khalif was prepossessed 
by the kalundur s appearance, and not only granted 
his request, but promised to promote him to great 
favour, if his merits, and the nature of his services, 
were equal to his bold deportment. A short trial 
convinced the khalif of the superior wisdom and 
judgment of his new counsellor ; and, as his intelli- 
gence and accomplishments became daily more com- 
pletely developed, the commander of the faithful 
evinced a growing preference for his society and con- 
versation, and exhibited a marked deference to his 
opinions, such as he had never before been known to 
yield to any man. These things, of course, excited 
the envy of all the courtiers, and rendered the new- 
comer especially offensive to the vizier, whose glory 
was becoming daily more and more fully eclipsed. 
The kalundur still continued to increase in favour ; 
and the vizier, being afraid of taking open measures 
for his destruction, constrained himself to affect great 
cordiality of demeanour, in order that he might the 
more certainly effect his ruin by some secret stratagem. 
With this motive, the vizier one day invited 
the kalundur to his house, to partake of a meal, 
previously to their evening attendance upon their 
royal master ; and, having received the kalundur’ s 
willing assent, he gave orders to his slaves to mix a 
large quantity of garlic with one half of each dish 
