e turban had been taken from him
and carried to the women's quarters, whence I had recovered it. I had
some argument with myself as to whether I ought to restore the ducats to
him; but I persuaded myself that the money was now mine rather than his.
"Had it not been for me," I said, "the money was lost for ever; who,
therefore, has a better claim to it than myself?"

We carried off much property on the raid, but as our only prisoners were
a court poet, a carpet-spreader, and a penniless cadi, we had little to
hope for in the way of ransom. On our return journey we perceived a
large body of men, too compact for a caravan--plainly some great
personage and his escort. The Turcomans retired hastily, but I lagged
behind, seeing in this eventuality a means of escape. I was soon
overtaken and seized, plundered of my fifty ducats and everything else,
and dragged before the chief personage of the party--a son of the Shah,
on his way to become governor of Khorassan.

Kissing the ground before him, I related my story, and petitioned for
the return of my fifty ducats. The rogues who had taken the money were
brought before the prince, who ordered them to be bastinadoed until they
produced it. After a few blows they confessed, and gave up the ducats,
which were carried to the prince. He counted the money, put it under the
cushion on which he was reclining, and said loudly to me, "You are
dismissed."

"My money, where is it?" I exclaimed.

"Give him the shoe," said the prince to his master of the ceremonies,
who struck me over the mouth with the iron-shod heel of his slipper,
saying: "Go in peace, or you'll have your ears cut off."

"You might as well expect a mule to give up a mouthful of fresh grass,"
said an old muleteer to whom I told my misfortune, "as a prince to give
up money that has once been in his hands."

Reaching Meshed in a destitute state, I practised for a time the trade
of water-carrier, and then became an itinerant vendor of smoke. I was
not very scrupulous about giving my tobacco pure; and when one day the
_Mohtesib_, or inspector, came to me, disguised as an old woman, I gave
him one of my worst mixtures. Instantly he summoned half a dozen stout
fellows; my feet were noosed, and blow after blow was inflicted on them
until they were a misshapen mass of flesh and gore. All that I possessed
was taken from me, and I crawled home miserably on my hands and knees.

I felt I had entered Meshed in an unlucky hour, and