150 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
ben-Nassuk so severe a chastisement for his inso- 
lence, as should effectually protect them from all 
future molestation; and this without so much as 
drawing a sword against any one of his people. The 
troops of Yakoob Lais, who had been accustomed 
to rely with implicit confidence upon the skill of their 
commander, and to execute all his orders without 
inquiry as to their purport, were, nevertheless, amazed 
at his forbearance, and wondered not a little how he 
would possibly accomplish his extraordinary purpose ; 
at the same time they were greatly amused by the 
singularity of the design, and anxious to show their 
willing obedience. 
Yakoob Lais now called to his presence Aboo 
Dudmaun, a wily ingenious old fellow, whom he 
usually employed as a spy in cases of emergency. 
He ordered him to disguise himself as a Mohum- 
medan fakhir, and to throw himself in the way of 
Dherm-ben-Nassuk’s troops ; and when questioned, 
as would be probable, for information concerning the 
banditti, to heap unmeasured reproach and abuse 
upon them. This behaviour would, of course, insti- 
gate his examiners to press for information, when 
his part would be to confess, with apparent reluc- 
tance, that he had been, until lately, their priest ; 
that having acquired a large sum of money by his 
religious services, which it had been his intention to 
devote to the foundation of a sanctuary, he had been 
basely plundered by command of Yakoob Lais, and 
