Salutations over, I was asked to ascend, and a few minutes later found myself seated with my hosts in a small, stuffy, and very dirty room. They were too polite to ask straight out who I was, so I began to open the attack myself. I had been to Turkey; the man who had not seen Stamboul had never lived! Glorious Stamboul! All the world over it was a pleasure to meet the Turk; he was always a gentleman, always kind and polite; and how inexpressibly glad I was to meet the Turk before me he might imagine, after I had been travelling all the way from Aden with only camel-men and a couple of uneducated servants; and would he accept a box of cigarettes and an amber cigarette-holder, which I had brought from my little shop in Port Said with me,—where, by the by, my wife and children were starving—(signs of tears)—owing to this accursed rebellion; three months the coffee I had bought in Sanaa had been lying there, and for the dear wife and little ones’ sakes—(tears)—I was imperilling my life in these strange lands to get my coffee down: meanwhile my brother, a Greek like myself, was looking after the shop; and how delightful the Turks always were, &c., &c. So much for number one, my friend in the dirty shirt; now for number two. Was this, then, the Sheikh Besaisi? No; it could not be that my infidel eyes were blessed with the sight of his honourable corpulency. His fame was all over the world. Port Said rang with his name. His honour, his boundless wealth—(exorbitant old tax-gatherer!)—his immense charities, were famous throughout all countries: indeed this was a blessed day for me. (Box of cigarettes and amber mouthpiece)—number two dead. Whence came he, number three? No; it could not be that his family was from Fez. Mulai Idris, their patron saint, might he protect me! Had I known that I was destined to meet a Fez Moor here, I should have hurried up from Aden. Fez, every street of it, I knew, from the tomb of Sidi Ali bou Rhaleb to the Dar al Makhzen: and here was Abdurrahman, a Tangier Moor. How good the Deity had been in joining us together in the bonds of friendship!—cigarettes and amber mouthpiece; general embracings and _tableau_! _Exeunt_ officials. Screams of laughter from Saïd, which I had to choke by sitting on him on the top of my mattress, lest he should be heard—and then coffee.