rks, to which I made reply as
best I could. The meal consisted of some thirty courses, and was set
on trays upon the floor in the old, country fashion, everybody eating
with his fingers from the dish. When it drew near an end, the son of
the house glanced at his father meaningly, and getting in return a
nod, rose up and left the room. He soon came back, carrying my gun,
which he brought first to me as if for benediction, then handed round
for the inspection of the other guests. There were cries of 'Ma
sh'Allah!' while they all praised its workmanship, one man opining
that it must have cost a mint of money, another wishing he possessed
its brother, and so forth. These exclamations and asides were
evidently aimed at me, and it was somehow carried to my understanding
that this exhibition of the gun, and not the public joy on my
recovery, was the true reason of the feast and all attending it;
though why it should be so I could not think.

'One thing that is remarkable about this gun,' explained the master of
the house, 'is that it cannot miss the object aimed at. We have tried
it at a target nailed upon a tree--I and my sons--at fifty and a
hundred paces--aye, and more! And, by the Lord, the bullet always
strikes exactly on the spot at which the gun is pointed, even though
that spot be not much bigger than a gnat.'

And then, quite unaccountably, the whole assembly rose and tried to
kiss my hands, as if the virtues of my gun were due to me. It was
obviously not the moment to reclaim the weapon.

When I got home after that strange ovation, Rashid received me coldly
and observed:

'You do not bring our gun! You feared to ask for it! Did not I know
how it would be? Oh, Allah, Allah!'

'I had no opportunity,' I told him; 'but I am going now to write and
ask him to return it. Be ready for the letter. You will have to take
it.'

'Upon my head and eye, with all alacrity,' Rashid replied. 'Never did
I rejoice so much in any errand. That rascal has been telling
everybody that it is your gift to him, and boasting of his gun through
all the mountains. No doubt, he counts upon your illness having dimmed
remembrance, and hopes that you yourself may be deluded into thinking
that it was a gift and not a loan.'

'Why did you not tell me this before?' I asked.

'Was it my business, till the question rose?'

I wrote a civil note to the young man, asking him to let me have the
gun in a few days, as I was collecting my belongings f