proposed, by way of a certificate, some still closer and minuter inspections, so at least I conjectured from their manner, but, as the conversation was held mostly in Arabic, a language with which I was yet unacquainted, I could only guess, the Pasha, much to my satisfaction, checked them; having already, as it appeared, sufficiently made up his mind.

"After some remarks addressed, but still in Arabic, to his Bagdadee followers, whose curiosity had led them, unbidden into the apartment, an intrusion which, however, their master did not in the least appear to resent, he put to me a few questions in Turkish, with the colloquial forms of which I was, thanks to previous intercourse with the peasants from the other side of our Own frontier, and the not unfrequent arrivals of muleteers and salesmen through the pass of Törzberg, and in the village of Rosenau itself,

-already fairly well acquainted.

How old

was I? Of what nationality? How had I been made a prisoner? Was I a good rider? A practised shot? and the like. My answers must, on the whole, have been satisfactory; for, after some chaffering, chiefly conducted by the kahiya, who no doubt secured for himself a very respectable profit on the bargain, five full purses' of silver, a considerable sum, were paid for me that very day; and I was enrolled among the slaves in the Pasha's suite.

The household was a transitionary one, and no very special duty in it was at first assigned me; occasionally I filled and presented a pipe, or served guests with lemonade and coffee, or scoured arms and harness.

1A "purse" is five hundred piastres, the piastre was equivalent to about eighteen-pence, English; it has now sunk to twopence; the sum here indicated must have been about £186.

And

This done, I was free to lounge away threefourths of my time in a fine suit of clothes, with which I was from the first becomingly rigged-out by my master's liberality. really I felt almost,-not to say quite,-vain of the unlimited silk sash, the silver-embroidered şelaḥlik,' the long blue silk tassel to my cap, and the shiny red boots, but these last I always took off when I came into the Pasha's presence; not to mention the loose trousers and open jacket of stout darkgreen cloth, the wearing of which first taught me by experience how much more comfortable and serviceable Asiatic garments are, in most respects, than European.

"About this same time Kara-MustaphaOghloo made some further purchases of live and intelligent stock, in addition to the dozen

1 Arms-belt.

Circassians, Abyssinians, and negroes, with whom he had already provided himself while here. These new acquisitions were two Greek lads, natives of some island or other in the Archipelago, and a Croatian; the former sly supple fellows, up to any cleverness or villainy; the latter a rough raw-boned creature, but true as steel, and good at all kinds of work.

"We remained yet a month longer at Constantinople, during a week of which I was laid up by the ceremonies,—or rather the ceremony, for there is, you know, only one in fact, but it is a serious affair, performed to make me a chartered Mussulman. This inconvenience over, I enjoyed myself considerably; visiting, along with my fellows, the world, then new to me, of countless kahwahs,1 baths, and

1 Places where coffee, and often strong drink is sold; they are the common resort of Eastern idleness and gossip, occasionally vice.

other places of town-amusement, gazing round me in the solemn gloom of Agia Sophia,1 or the dazzling splendour of the Soleymaneeyah,2 that unrivalled dome of brilliancy."

"I should like to see it, and hope to do SO one day, uninvited," here interrupted Tantawee Beg, "though, from what I hear, Agia Sophia must bear a nearer resemblance to our own Egyptian style."

"Please God you shall, and I be with you," replied Hermann, then continued ;"sauntering amid the cypresses and sycamores of Eyoob, or threading in a caique,-novel pleasure, the emerald windings of the

1 Justinian's cathedral, now the mosque of that

name.

2 The great mosque built by Soleyman the Magnificent, and the finest specimen of Turkish architecture in the world; it is also called "Kubbet-en-Noor," or "the cupola of light."

3 A well-known mosque and cemetery of that name on the Golden Horn.