"Look you, good Moola," said he, "there is no one who pays more respect to the forms and usages of our holy faith than I do. Am I not a Syud of Hindostan? Do I not say the Namaz five times a day, fast in the Ramzan, and keep every festival enjoined by the law? And unwilling as I am to do anything which may be thought a breach of the rules of our faith, yet circumstances which I cannot explain render it imperative that this ceremony should be performed; and if you refuse, all I can say is, that there is no want of Moolas in Beeder, and if you do not perform it, some less scrupulous person must, and earn the reward which I now offer to you;" and my father laid two ashrufees before him. "That alters the case materially," said the Moola, pocketing the money. "Since the ceremony must be performed, in Alla's name let it take place; it was no doubt fated that it should be so; and you will therefore find no person in Beeder more willing to read the form of the Nika than myself. Let me, I pray you, return for my book--I will be back instantly;" and he departed. "There," cried my father, "I thought it would be so. No one can withstand the sight of gold; from the prince on the throne to the meanest peasant it is the same; its influence is all-powerful. With it a man may purchase his neighbour's conscience, his neighbour's wife, or his daughter; with it a man may bribe the venerable Cazee of Cazees, in any city he pleases, to declare him innocent, had he committed a hundred murders, forged documents, stolen his neighbour's goods, or been guilty of every villany under the sun; with it a good man _may_ be better--but that is rare--a bad man increases his own damnation; for it any one will lie, cheat, rob, murder, and degrade himself to the level of a beast; young women will dishonour their lords; old women will be bribed to assist them. A man who has hoards will practise every knavery to increase them, yet is never happy; those who have no money hunger and thirst after it, and are also never happy. Give it to a child to play with, and by some mysterious instinct he clutches it to his bosom, and roars if it be taken from him. In short, its influence cannot be opposed; old and young, rich and poor--all are its slaves. Men's wisdom is nothing; men's eloquence is nothing; their character nothing; their rank nothing; but this vile metal, which has no voice, no intellect, no character, no rank--this rules our destinies on earth as surely and as potently as Alla himself does in heaven." "Alla ke Qoodrut!" said I with a sigh; "your words are true, my father, now that one thinks on them; and we have had a precious specimen in the sudden change of opinion in the worthy Moola, who asked no further questions when he saw your gold."