298 
A CHUSADE IN THE EAST. 
ner and gestures, which I had now learned to interpret with 
considerable accuracy, it appeared to be this : that we, a trav¬ 
eling party, consisting of the Commander-in-Chief of all the 
military forces in America, a royal prince, son of the King 
of the United States, and an English Lord, whose palace at 
home was built of pure gold, wanted lodging for the night 
in the far-famed Mill of Malaha, of which we had read 
in ancient and modern history, and whose proprietor we had 
always regarded as the sublimest miller that ever the world 
had produced. On the other hand, it was urged by the mil¬ 
ler that he was a devout Mussulman, and would never con¬ 
sent to having his mill defiled by the presence of a party of 
infidels, who were at best not fit to kiss the smallest toe of 
the great Prophet; that should he suffer us to sleep there, he 
•would never more have ~a particle of luck, and ten chances 
to one the grindstones would fly in his face and kill him stone 
dead, or the mill itself would tumble down upon him after we 
had left, and make minced meat of himself and all his fam¬ 
ily. To which, as I took it, Yusef replied that, praised be 
Allah, we were convinced of the errors of our w^ays, and were 
on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where there was no earthly 
doubt we would join the standard of the Prophet in less than 
a month; and that, besides, being royal personages of bound¬ 
less wealth, we would cheerfully pay as high as three pias¬ 
ters each (twelve and a half cents) for the accommodation of 
his establishment, together with a liberal backshish in the 
morning. In reply to which, the miller, with glistening eyes, 
stated that he was not that narrow-minded sort of person who 
could from any religious prejudices be guilty of so inhospit¬ 
able an act as to turn from his doors a party of distinguished 
Howadji; that he always regarded the Americans and En¬ 
glish as the most liberal and enlightened people in the world, 
next to the Arabs, and upon the assurance of five piasters each 
and such backshish as we deemed consistent with our rank 
and dignity, he would cheerfully consent to having the mill 
honored with our presence. Keeping in view his own inter¬ 
ests, Yusef made answer to this by saying that he, being our 
responsible agent in all pecuniary matters, deemed it incum- 
