THE METAMORPHOSIS 130
THE CALIF OMAR 138
KALAIDJI AVRAM OF BALATA 140
HOW MEHMET ALI PASHA OF EGYPT ADMINISTERED JUSTICE 144
HOW THE FARMER LEARNED TO CURE HIS WIFE: A TURKISH AESOP 148
THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS 153
THE SWALLOW'S ADVICE 156
WE KNOW NOT WHAT THE DAWN MAY BRING FORTH 158
OLD MEN MADE YOUNG 161
THE BRIBE 165
HOW THE DEVIL LOST HIS WAGER 169
THE EFFECTS OF RAKI 172

HOW THE HODJA SAVED ALLAH

Not far from the famous Mosque Bayezid an old Hodja kept a school, and
very skilfully he taught the rising generation the everlasting lesson
from the Book of Books. Such knowledge had he of human nature that by
a glance at his pupil he could at once tell how long it would take him
to learn a quarter of the Koran. He was known over the whole Empire as
the best reciter and imparter of the Sacred Writings of the Prophet.
For many years this Hodja, famed far and wide as the Hodja of Hodjas,
had taught in this little school. The number of times he had recited
the Book with his pupils is beyond counting; and should we attempt to
consider how often he must have corrected them for some misplaced
word, our beards would grow gray in the endeavor.

Swaying to and fro one day as fast as his old age would let him, and
reciting to his pupils the latter part of one of the chapters, Bakara,
divine inspiration opened his inward eye and led him to pause at the
following sentence: "And he that spends his money in the ways of Allah
is likened unto a grain of wheat that brings forth seven sheaves, and
in each sheaf an hundred grains; and Allah giveth twofold unto whom He
pleaseth." As his pupils, one after the other, recited this verse to
him, he wondered why he had overlooked its meaning for so many years.
Fully convinced that anything either given to Allah, or in the way
that He proposes, was an investment that brought a percentage
undreamed of in known commerce, he dismissed his pupils, and putting
his hand into his bosom drew forth from the many folds of his dress a
bag, and proceeded t