ncommon for my authority to be confidently appealed to, and
my verdict to be implicitly accepted. This very naturally brought me
more than once into a position of considerable difficulty. For, on the
one hand, no disclaimer on my part would avail to convince those who
appealed to me that I was not really the Caliph; and, on the other
hand, I well knew myself to be quite powerless either to enforce my
decision or to punish those who were clearly guilty, and both deserving
and expecting to be sentenced.

"An incident that occurred only two days since will illustrate what I
have been saying. I was on my way to the river accompanied by Abraha
only, when passing through a street in the lower part of the town we
came upon a crowd of people shouting and gesticulating and making a
great hubbub. In the centre of the crowd there was one man who was
dragging another along violently and crying out constantly, 'Come
before the Cadi, you villain! come before the Cadi, you villain!' All
the others, as is usual in such cases, were crying out some one thing,
some another.

"When the crowd perceived us the hubbub was redoubled, and all we could
gather from the confused noise was that they were appealing to me to
arbitrate between them. I made a sign, therefore, that they should be
silent, and there being at a short distance from the spot where we met
the crowd a small open space with a fountain in the middle of it, I led
the way thither, and seating myself on the steps of the fountain, the
two men stood before me, and the crowd gathered round to hear what was
said and witness what would take place, the people never doubting but
that when I should have examined the case I should pronounce judgment
on the offender.

"When I asked the man who had hold of the other, and who was evidently
the complainant, to state what was the matter, he exclaimed very
vehemently--

"'This man, this rascally barber, whom your Greatness sees here before
you, has murdered my brother. He a barber! He is a plunderer! he is
an assassin! Do justice upon him, therefore, and condemn the ignorant
wretch to the punishment he so richly deserves.'

"'Not so fast, not so fast,' said I; 'tell me more calmly, and with
particulars, in what way has this barber murdered your brother?'

"'Your Greatness,' said the man, 'it was in this wise. My brother had
been working in the heat of the sun, and the sun had doubtless inflamed
his blood so that he became stupefi