y the wayside, and the other pilgrims, in
consideration of my youth and piety, gave me willingly the few handfuls
of rice and dates that I needed to support life and strength.

"You have read about Mecca; and your _hadji_ barber, who of course has
been there, has doubtless related his experiences to you scores of times
in the plains, as he does everywhere. As you may imagine, I had no
intention of returning towards Roum with my companions. When I had
fulfilled all the observances required, I made my way to Yeddah and
shipped on board an Arabian craft, touching at Mocha, and bearing coffee
to Bombay. I had to work my passage, and as I had no experience of the
sea, save in the caiques of the Golden Horn, you will readily conceive
that the captain of the vessel had plenty of fault to find. But my
agility and quick comprehension stood me in good stead, and in a few
days I had learned enough to haul on a rope or to reef the great latteen
sails as well as any of them. The knowledge that I was just returning
from a pilgrimage to Mecca obtained for me also a certain respect among
the crew. It makes very little difference what the trade, business, or
branch of learning; in mechanical labour, or intellectual effort, the
educated man is always superior to the common labourer. One who is in
the habit of applying his powers in the right way will carry his system
into any occupation, and it will help him as much to handle a rope as to
write a poem.

"At last we landed in Bombay. I was in a wretched condition. What little
clothes I had had were in tatters; hard work and little food had made me
even thinner than my youthful age and slight frame tolerated. I had in
all about three pence money in small copper coins, carefully hoarded
against a rainy day. I could not speak a word of the Indian dialects,
still less of English, and I knew no one save the crew of the vessel I
had come in, as poor as I, but saved from starvation by the slender
pittance allowed them on land. I wandered about all day through the
bazaars, occasionally speaking to some solemn looking old shopkeeper or
long-bearded Mussulman, who, I hoped, might understand a little Arabic.
But not one did I find. At evening I bathed in the tank of a temple full
from the recent rains, and I lay down supperless to sleep on the steps
of the great mosque. As I lay on the hard stones I looked up to my star,
and took comfort, and slept. That night a dream came to me. I thought I
was st