rs, which the Orientals remove from their feet on
entering a room. The rest of the floor is raised about half a foot
higher. The Orientals sleep on the ground, _i. e._, on mattresses laid
on carpets, or mats spread on the floor.

In an Arab family one of the members became ambitious of transforming
himself into a European. This young gentleman had received an excellent
education, being familiar not only with the Arab literature, but master
of the ancient and modern Greek.

His first step toward the desired end was to study English and French.
When he had gained a fair knowledge of these languages, he applied for
the position of interpreter to the American consulate, to which he
succeeded in being appointed.

His so-far satisfied ambition would no longer allow him to wear the
Oriental dress, and he soon showed himself to an admiring world of
natives in European costume. One day he was asked how he liked his new
costume.

"Not at all," he replied. "I feel as if tied hand and foot in a
tight-fitting prison."

A few weeks later he one day startled some of his European friends by
asking them, with a thoughtful seriousness, whether they often tumbled
out of bed.

"Tumble out of bed!" they exclaimed. "Why, of course not. How could
one?"

"I would much rather find out how a person could not," was his reply.

He was asked what put such an idea into his head.

The rest is best told in his own words.

"I furnished my rooms with European furniture. Bad luck to the day I was
foolish enough to do so! A few nights ago, after having locked my door
and put out my light--things I never did before--I got up into the
bedstead. My sensations were those of being put away on a high shelf in
a dark prison. I wondered whether Europeans experienced such feelings
every night. Finally I fell asleep, comforting myself that I might get
used to it. How long I slept in that bed I shall never know, for when I
awoke, it was to find myself in the grave. I was cramped in every limb;
I felt the cold pavement under me, and icy walls round me. For clothing
or covering I found nothing within reach but what at the time seemed a
shroud. Where was I? What had happened? Suddenly the idea came to me
that I must have fainted, been mistaken for dead, buried, and now
recovered consciousness in my grave. So convinced was I, that I shouted
at the top of my voice that I was not dead, and begged to be taken out
of the tomb. The noise I made soon awoke the wh