He looked at the purse with moistened eyes, for he thought of the generous old man’s cheerless age and pitiable character. Tefza’s was not one of those vigorous minds which are sufficient for themselves: he needed objects to enliven and to interest him; without these he sunk into sadness. Piety however offered such a character consolation, and Sebastian comforted himself by hoping, that in the mildly-cheerful society of Abensallah, his weaker spirit would find a stay and a charm. On the morrow, after sunrise, when half the inhabitants of Mecca were hastening to the shrine of their prophet, and the remainder were opening their shops, arranging their merchandize, &c. Sebastian enquired of his host where perfumes were to be purchased; the Jew hastened to produce some scented handkerchiefs, and having just received a small portion of the flowers of the keura, (an Arabian tree, the blossoms of which retain their celestial fragrance even when dried,) he soon disposed of them to one who caught eagerly at any thing which might prove a passport to Aziek. The Jew was well paid and incurious; so he neither openly nor secretly commented upon the stranger’s additional purchase of a woman’s black gaberdine and large hat. Having made these useful acquisitions, Sebastian went to one of those public places where coffee is sold, and having obtained some, he retired to a back apartment, and there stained his face and hands, already darkened by many a burning sun and scorching wind: he threw the gaberdine over his other clothes, and watching an opportunity when all the men in the coffee-house were gathered round one of those story-tellers, that in the east make a trade of amusing strangers, he glided into the street, and was soon lost amongst the crowd. By the least frequented ways, he reached the abode of Kara Aziek: it was the hour of morning prayers, and every man was at the mosque; all but a few soldiers who relieved each other as guards at her door. Sebastian eyed them well, to observe if they were men he had ever conversed with during their journey over the desarts: he did not remember their faces, and trusting to a similar forgetfulness on their side, he approached and asked, in a stifled jargon, whether they would look at his merchandize. The soldiers, who were Turks, did not understand, and roughly repulsed him; he unfolded his shawl, and the delicious scent of the keura flowers instantly perfuming the whole air around them, induced one of the guards to call out an old negro, whose office it was to convey the commands of Kara Aziek from her women to the Basha’s officer: by this negro the soldiers had been instructed not to turn away any vender of perfumes.-- The unsuspecting slave now beckoned for Sebastian to enter, and led him through a suite of apartments to a chamber adjoining that of Kara Aziek; the negro left him for a moment, then re-appearing, said something in his own language, and went out the way they had come.