Halil the Pedlar

ion, was in the hand of Halil Patrona. The people whose darling he had become were accustomed to regard him as th

ints to his lowly origin; this one was a woodcutter, that one a stone-mason, that other one a fisherman. Therefore a Mohammedan never looks down upon the most abject of his co-religionists, for

s would not have done likewise? Suppose a man to have been kept in rigorous, joyless servitude for twenty years, and then suddenly to be confron

urrection of the people had no sooner subsided than t

womankind is permitted to walk about the streets, and this blissf

on the roof of a house, or show himself at a window, for death would be the penalty of his curiosity. The black and white eunuchs keeping order in the streets decapitate without mercy eve

orth to call upon the odalisks of another. Rows upon rows of brightly variegated tents appear in the midst of the streets and market-places, in which sherbet and other beverages made of violets, cane-

singing to the notes of the cithern, saunter along the public ways, decked out in gorgeous butterfly apparel, which flutter around their limbs like gaily coloured wings. The suns and stars of every climate flash and sparkle in those eyes. The

lendid prancing steeds gaily caparisoned. And in the midst of them all the beautiful Sultana, with the silver heron's plume in her turban, whose stem flashes with sparkling diamonds. Her glorious figure is protected by a garment of fine lace, scarce concealing

d broadswords across their shoulders, looking up at the windows of the houses before wh

proaching: the eunuchs marching in front have got hold of some inquisitive man or other. By the time the radiant cortège has reached the spot, only a few bloodstains are visible in the street, and,

he bayaderes of the streets, whom Sultan Achmed had once collected together and locked up in a dungeon where they had remained till the popular rising set them free again. In their hands they hold their nakaras (timbrels), clashing them together above their heads as they whirl around; on thei

m aloud to her companions in the midst of the ma

re comes Gül-Bejáze! Gül-Bejá

hut up with them in the same dungeon, surround her, begin to kiss her feet and her garments, raise her up

eople has something to say in praise of her. Some of them she had cared for in sickness, others she had comforted in their distress, to all of them she had

ut her down that she might hide away among the crowd and disappear, for she feared, she trembled at, the honour they did her. From street to street they carried her, whirling along with them in a torrent of drunken enthusiasm everyone they chanced to fall in with on the way; and before them went the cry that the woman whom the others were carrying on their shoulders was the wife of Halil Patrona, the fêted leader of th

ered them coming from the opposite direction. It was the escort of the Sultana. The half a thousand odalisks and the four hundred eunuchs oc

nning eunuchs to the approaching crowd,

the square was filled with women-a perfect sea of heads-and visible above t

, who led the procession; a warty old woman she was, who

dest of the bayaderes

y, before the wife of Halil Patrona. Why, thou art not worthy to kiss

d her tambourine right under t

t their broadswords against the boisterous viragoes, possibl

orn from their hands, and their backs were well-belaboured with the broad blades. The furious m?nads fell upon the

ushing upon the odalisks. Any single eunuch they could lay hold of was pretty certain to meet with a martyr's death in a few seconds. They tore him to pieces, and pelted ea

contemptuous

an," cried she, "for if thou wert one or the o

re the most frantic of the m?nads stood fighting with the mounted odalisks, tearing some from their horses

gst them with a haughty, comman

would bar the way before me?" she cr

of the Sultana and, resting one hand upon h

ze, and she it is who bars thy way an

he endeavoured to explain by way of pantomime, for speaking was impossible, that she was there against her will, and it was her dearest wish to humble herself

hat evil spirit has entered into you that ye would thus c

before thee," re

dsalis, "wherefore, then,

e is fairer

e other woman had robbed all her colour from her. There was shame on one side and fury on the other. To tel

enraged bayadere, accumulating insult on the head

ds Heaven and could not utter a word. Impotent rage forced the t

he curse o

and suddenly, amidst the stillness of that dumb moment, from the highest window of the

salis! Sult

hey all gazed in that direction-and then in a murmur which imm

ncing that name, only her mouth rema

he loves not, in order that they may wither away in the bloom of their youth. Whomsoever he now breathes upon, however distant they may be, will collapse and expire, and none can save them; and he has but to pronounce the name of his enemies, and torme

l upon the mob. No

tood around the Sultana felt a feeling of shivering awe, and beg

d, "do obeisance to the wife of Halil Patrona, and cover thy

him, and the multitude clamoured as before; but now they no longer tried to force the suite of the Sultana

raglio. Sobbing aloud, she cast herself at the feet of the

the whole story, but who can

milest when I weep? Ought not blood to fl

he head of the Sultana

ever think of plucking f