d you fear God. I
shall not say more than the truth, nor less; I shall explain what has
happened, and then leave you to decide.'

'Well, well, say on,' said Shir Ali; 'I am the king's servant: whatever
the Shah will decide, that you must look to.'

'You are the master,' replied the ked khoda; 'but pray give ear to my
tale. About three months ago, when the wheat was nearly a gez high, and
lambs were bleating all over the country, a servant belonging to the
Prince Kharab Culi Mirza announced to us that his master would take
up his quarters in the village the next day, in order to hunt in the
surrounding country, which abounds in antelopes, wild asses, partridges,
bustards, and game of all descriptions. He ordered the best houses to
be in readiness for him and his suite, turned out their inhabitants, and
made demands for provisions of all sorts. As soon as this intelligence
was known, alarm was spread throughout the village, and seeing that
nothing was to be done with the prince's servant, either by bribe or
persuasion, to evade the disaster, we determined to abandon our houses
and take to the mountains until the evil day bad gone by. Had you seen
the state of these peasants, when forced to abandon everything they had
in the world, your heart would have turned upside down, and your liver
would have become water.'

'What do you mean?' exclaimed Shir Ali: 'the Shah's villages are left
desolate, and I am to pity the fugitives? No, they would have all been
put to death had the Shah known it.'

'For pity's sake,' continued the old villager, hear the end of my story,
and allow yourself to be softened. We loaded our cattle at nightfall
with everything we could carry away, and took to the mountains, where
we settled in a dell, close to a stream of running water. There only
remained behind three sick old women and the village cats.'

'Do you hear that, Hajji?' said my companion, addressing himself to me:
'they carried away everything valuable, and left the bare walls,
and their old women to the prince. Well,' said he to the ked khoda,
'proceed.'

'We sent spies from time to time,' continued the old man, 'to bring
intelligence of what was doing, and took up our abode among the rocks
and cliffs of the mountains. About noon the next day the party appeared,
and when they discovered that we had fled, their rage and disappointment
were great. The servants of the prince went from house to house,
and drove in the doors with violence