f Mecca and Medina to immediately send to the lair of the
Vechabites and buy back the dervishes with ready money.

The Vechabites gave up the captives in exchange for the ransom sent
them, but they adhered so rigidly to the terms of the bargain whereby
they were to surrender the captives only, that they even kept for
themselves the garments that happened to be on the captives, and let
nothing go but their bare bodies, on which account Mahmoud was obliged
to give his rescued subjects raiment as well as freedom.

Amongst those who were so liberated was a dervish of the Nimetullahita
order, who, after this incident was over, arose, sought out the Sultan
and said to him, "Thou art a poor potentate. Thou art the most sorry
of all the caliphs. Thou art the greatest son of suffering[10] among
all the sultans who have gone before thee, or shall come after thee. I
thank thee for delivering me from the hands of the Vechabites,[11]
and as a reward, therefore, I bring thee a gift which, even when they
left me without any raiment, I was still able to conceal from them."

[Footnote 10: _I.e._, patient of insult.]

[Footnote 11: The Vechabites are accounted heretics by the orthodox
Mussulmans.]

And with that he produced a writing-reed and gave it to the Sultan,
and when Mahmoud asked him in what way he had concealed it from the
eyes of the robbers, he explained how he had cunningly thrust it into
his thick black beard, where nobody had perceived it.

Mahmoud accepted the gift of the dervish, and put it where he put his
other curiosities; but he did not think of it for very long, and
gradually it escaped his memory altogether.

One day, however, when one of his favorite damsels, moved by
curiosity, had induced him to show her the treasures of his palace,
and they came to the spot where lay the pen of the dervish, the damsel
suddenly cried out, and said that she had seen the pen move.

The Sultan looked in that direction, and, observing nothing, treated
the whole affair as a joke, and went on showing the damsel the
accumulated relics and curiosities of centuries which thirteen
successive Sultans had stored up in the khazne or treasury, and then
gave the damsel permission to choose for herself whichever of these
treasures might please her most.

Many costly things were there covered with gems, and worth, each one
of them, half a kingdom; there were also rare and precious relics, and
antiquities rich in historical associations.