be laughing in his
sleeve at the misery which his compeers in office were undergoing.

When the Shah perceived that the medicine had taken effect, he dismissed
the assembly, ordering Mirza Ahmak, as soon as he could ascertain
the history of each pill, to give him an official report of the whole
transaction, and then retired into his harem.

The crafty old doctor had now his rival within his power; of course,
he set the matter in such a light before the king, that his majesty
was deterred from making the experiment of the foreign physician's
ordonnance, and it was forthwith consigned to oblivion. When he next saw
me, and after he had made me acquainted with the preceding narrative,
he could not restrain his joy and exultation. 'We have conquered, friend
Hajji,' would he say to me. 'The infidel thought that we were fools;
but we will teach him what Persians are. Whose dog is he, that he should
aspire to so high an honour as prescribing for a king of kings? No, that
is left to such men as I. What do we care about his new discoveries? As
our fathers did, so are we contented to do. The prescription that cured
our ancestors shall cure us; and what Locman and Abou Avicenna ordained
we may be satisfied to ordain after them.' He then dismissed me, to
make fresh plans for destroying any influence or credit that the new
physician might acquire, and for preserving his own consequence and
reputation at court.

CHAPTER XXII

Hajji Baba asks the doctor for a salary, and of the success of his
demand.

I had thus far lived with the doctor more as a friend than as a servant;
for he permitted me to sit in his presence, to eat with him, and even to
smoke his pipe, whilst at the same time I associated with his servants,
ate, drank, and smoked with them also; but I found that this sort of
life in nowise suited my views and expectations. The only money which I
had received from him was the gold coin aforementioned, for which I was
indebted to my own ingenuity; and, as things went, it appeared that it
would be the last. I was therefore resolved to come to an explanation
with him, and accordingly seized the opportunity when he was elated
with his success over the European doctor, to open the subject of my
grievances.

He had just returned from the imperial gate, after having seen the Shah;
who, by his account, had been very gracious to him, having kept him
standing without his shoes only two hours, by the side of a stone
fountain,