out to the astrologer asked
him what it contained. Ahmet, in a pained and reproachful tone,
answered the Sultan by a much-quoted proverb: "Alas! Your Majesty! the
grasshopper never knows where its third leap will land it,"
figuratively alluding to himself and the dangerous hazard of guessing
what was in the clenched hand of his Majesty. The Sultan was so struck
by the reply that Ahmet was never again troubled to demonstrate his
powers.

THE WISE SON OF ALI PASHA

A servant of his Majesty Sultan Ahmet, who had been employed for
twenty-five years in the Palace, begged leave of the Sultan to allow
him to retire to his native home, and at the same time solicited a
pension to enable him to live. The Sultan asked him if he had not
saved any money. The man replied that owing to his having to support a
large family, he had been unable to do so. The Sultan was very angry
that any of his servants, especially in the immediate employ of his
household, should, after so many years' service, say that he was
penniless. Disbelieving the statement, and in order to make an
example, the Sultan gave orders that Hassan should quit the Palace in
the identical state he had entered it twenty-five years before.
Hassan was accordingly disrobed of all his splendor, and his various
effects, the accumulation of a quarter of a century, were confiscated,
and distributed amongst the legion of Palace servants. Poor Hassan,
without a piaster in his pocket, and dressed in the rude costume of
his native province, began his weary journey homeward on foot.

In time he reached the suburbs of a town in Asia Minor, and seeing
some boys playing, he approached them, sat on the ground, and watched
their pastime. The boys were playing at state affairs: one was a
Sultan, another his Vizier, who had his cabinet of Ministers, while
close by were a number of boys bound hand and foot, representing
political and other prisoners, awaiting judgment for their imaginary
misdeeds. The Sultan, who was sitting with worthy dignity on a throne
made of branches and stones, decorated with many-colored centrepieces,
beckoned to Hassan to draw near, and asked him where he had come from.
Hassan replied that he had come from Stamboul, from the Palace of the
Sultan.

"That's a lie," said the mock Sultan, "no one ever came from Stamboul
dressed in that fashion, much less from the Palace; you are from the
far interior, and if you do not confess that what I say is true, you
w