me to smoke, said, 'My son, everything in this world is in
the hand of God.' Pointing to the mule upon which he rode, he added, 'If
God has made this animal white, can Ali Katir make it black? It one
day gets a feed of corn; on the next it browses upon a thistle. Can we
contend with fate? Smoke your pipe now and be happy, and be thankful
that it is no worse with you. Hafiz says, "Every moment of pleasure that
you enjoy, account it gain--who can say what will be the event of any
thing?"'

This speech of the muleteer soothed me a little, and as he found that
I was as well versed in Hafiz as he,[22] and not backward in permitting
myself to be comforted, he treated me with much kindness, and made me a
partaker of his mess during the remainder of the journey. He informed
me that the prince, into whose hands I had fallen, was the Shah's fifth
son, who had lately been installed in the government of the province
of Khorassan, and was now on his road to Meshed, the seat of his
jurisdiction. He was escorted by a greater number of attendants than
ordinary, on account of the alarming state of the Turcoman frontier, and
it was said that he had instructions to commence very active operations
against that people, as many of whose heads as possible he was invited
to send to Tehran, to be piled up before the gate of the royal palace;
and you may account yourself very fortunate,' added the muleteer, 'that
yours was not taken off your shoulders. Had you happened to be fair,
with little eyes, and without much hair, instead of being a dark man, as
you are, you certainly would have been put to death, and your head have
been pickled, and made to pass for that of a Turcoman.'

When we had reached our resting-place at night, which was a lonely
caravanserai half in ruins, situated on the skirts of the desert, I
determined to endeavour to procure admittance to the prince, and to make
an effort to regain my fifty ducats, and my horse and arms, which I made
no scruple in claiming as my own, notwithstanding a certain little voice
within me, which told me that another had almost as much right to them
as I had. I accordingly watched an opportunity, just before the evening
prayer, of presenting myself to him. He was seated on a carpet that had
been spread on the terrace of the caravanserai, reposing himself on his
cushion, and before his attendants had time to beat me off, I exclaimed,
'_Arzi darum_, I have a petition to make.' Upon which he ordered me