al of Katalambula.

Here the author may remark, for the benefit of the younger readers, that
a close brotherhood among men or boys, unrelated by blood, birth, or
marriage, is in no way singular. I need but mention David and Jonathan,
Achilles and Patroclus, Damon and Pythias, as examples among men; and
what boy of any nation, in any public school, has not some friend who is
as dear to him as a born brother? It arises from a similarity of
dispositions generally, from the desire to relieve ourselves from little
anxieties, and to have some one in whom we have thorough confidence.
There were two things singular about this ceremony of brotherhood about,
to be enacted between Selim and Kalulu. First, was the ceremony of
blood-drinking connected with it; and, secondly, was the fact that a
Moslem boy--a true believer--was about to become a brother with a Pagan
boy--an unbeliever--and to drink his blood. For it is expressly
prohibited by the Kuran that blood shall be drunk by the true believer;
next, it is expressly prohibited that a true believer shall make any
such close friendship with an infidel. But it may be argued for poor
Selim that he was yet but a young boy; that he was driven by necessity
to this as the best method of assuring his freedom and safety from
recapture, and this the Kuran, whose laws are not cruel, permits when
there is necessity; and it might be said that Selim was, perhaps, not
aware of the Kuran's prohibition in this small matter; otherwise, I
doubt that a boy so generally pious would have erred against the law of
the Prophet consciously.

On Kalulu's side, nothing could be said against the ceremony. It was a
common custom with his tribe, when any of them met anybody they liked
better than another, to go through the ceremony. Sometimes the chiefs
did it with neighbouring chiefs, to strengthen their alliance from
motives of policy, for the same reason that European monarchs contract--
or rather did, for it has lost long ago its former significance--
advantageous alliances among themselves for their sons and daughters.
Kalulu wished the ceremony to proceed, because he had a strong liking
for Selim, born of gratitude to Moto; because Selim was of his own age;
because he had pleasant ways with him, and friendship having grown out
of the accidental circumstances under which they met, he desired to
assure himself, with the ardour of a boy, that real friendship existed
between them. Once his brother b