e; but
there are more who are not so. However, as events are uncertain,
and I may fail in this undertaking, all I can do is to leave you
this knife."

Bahman, pulling a knife from his vestband, and presenting it in
the sheath to the princess, said, "Take this knife, sister, and
give yourself the trouble sometimes to pull it out of the sheath:
while you see it clean as it is now, it will be a sign that I am
alive; but if you find it stained with blood, then you may
believe me dead, and indulge me with your prayers."

The princess could obtain nothing more of Bahman. He bade adieu
to her and prince Perviz for the last time, and rode away. When
he got into the road he never turned to the right hand nor to the
left, but went directly forward towards India. The twentieth day
he perceived on the road side a hideous old man, who sat under a
tree some small distance from a thatched house, which was his
retreat from the weather.

His eye-brows were as white as snow, as was also the hair of his
head; his whiskers covered his mouth, and his beard and hair
reached down to his feet. The nails of his hands and feet were
grown to an extensive length; a flat broad umbrella covered his
head. He had no clothes, but only a mat thrown round his body.

This old man was a dervish, for many years retired from the
world, to give himself up entirely to the service of God; so that
at last he became what we have described.

Prince Bahman, who had been all that morning very attentive to
see if he could meet with any body who could give him information
of the place he was in search of, stopped when he came near the
dervish, alighted, in conformity to the directions which the
devout woman had given the princess Perie-zadeh, and leading his
horse by the bridle, advanced towards him, and saluting him,
said, "God prolong your days, good father, and grant you the
accomplishment of your desires."

The dervish returned the prince's salutation, but so
unintelligibly that he could not understand one word he said:
prince Bahman perceiving that this difficulty proceeded from the
dervish's whiskers hanging over his mouth, and unwilling to go
any farther without the instructions he wanted, pulled out a pair
of scissors he had about him, and having tied his horse to a
branch of the tree, said, "Good dervish, I want to have some talk
with you: but your whiskers prevent my understanding what you
say: and if you will consent, I will cut off some part of t