t, from which he
could see a larger assembly than before.

"O ye Muslims!" he began, "what am I to say--"

But before the words were fairly out of his mouth the congregation cried
out with one voice, "_We_ know, good Khoja! We know!"

"Oh, if you _know_--" said the Khoja sarcastically, and shrugging his
shoulders, and lifting his eyebrows, he left the place as one who feels
that he can be of no further use.

"This is worse than before," said the Muslims in despair. But after a
while they took counsel, and said, "Let him come once more, and we will
not lose our sermon this time. If he asks the same question we will
reply that some of us know, but that some of us do not know."

So when the Khoja next appeared before the congregation, and after he
had cried as before, "O Brethren! do ye know what I am about to say?"
they answered, "Some of us know, but some of us do not know."

"How nice!" said the Khoja, smiling benevolently upon the crowd beneath
him, as he prepared to take his departure. "Then those of you who know
can explain it all to those who do not know."

_Tale_ 28.--The Khoja and the Horsemen.

One day when Khoja Effendi was crossing a certain desert plain a troop
of horsemen suddenly appeared riding towards him.

"No doubt these are Bedawee robbers," thought the Khoja, "who will kill
me without remorse for the sake of the Cadi's ferejeh which I wear." And
in much alarm he hastened towards a cemetery which he had perceived to
be near. Here he quickly stripped off his clothes, and, having hidden
them, crept naked into an empty tomb and lay down.

But the horsemen pursued after him, and by and by they came into the
cemetery, and one of them peeped into the tomb and saw the Khoja.

"Here is the man we saw!" cried the horseman; and he said to the Khoja,
"What are you lying there for, and where are your clothes?"

"The dead have no possessions, O Bedawee!" replied the Khoja. "I am
buried here. If you saw me on the plain as I used to appear in life,
without doubt you are one of those who can see ghosts and apparitions."

_Tale_ 29.--The Ox Trespassing.

One day Khoja Effendi, repairing to a piece of ground which belonged to
him, found that a strange ox had got into the enclosure. The Khoja took
a thick stick to beat it with, but the beast, seeing him coming, ran
away and escaped.

Next week the Khoja met a Turk driving the ox, which was harnessed to a
waggon.

Thereupon the Khoja took a stick in