Part 6 (1/2)
The Dervish Sefer then, laying his hand upon the shoulder of the dervish who sat next to him, said, ?My friend, here, was eniously we ed to make the Hezareh believe that we possessed a cauldron which was always full of boiled rice--a miracle which even the ot their share of it In short, I am the celebrated _Hazret Ishan_ himself; he of whoh ainst the attacks made upon it by the arh from the zeal and credulity of my disciples to enable me to pass the remainder of my life in comfort I have lived at Meshed for soo that we contrived to perforirl; so now are held in the highest veneration?
Here the Dervish Sefer ended his history, and then called upon his next neighbour to give an account of hi the Hezareb, and he began as follows:
?My father was a celebratedthe reputation of saying his prayers, ularly than any man in Persia; in short, he was the cream of shi+ahs, and the ht up in the strictest practice of the external parts of our religion The rigour and severity hich ere treated were co and dissiradually fixed themselves in our character; and without any consideration for our circumstances, ere early branded as a nest of hypocrites, and as the greatest cheats and liars of our birth-place
I, in particular, was so notorious that in my own defence I became a dervish, and I owe the reputation which I have acquired in that calling to the following fortunate circumstance
?I had scarcely arrived at Tehran, and had taken up ist?s shop, when I was called up in a great hurry by an old woist, had just been taken exceedingly ill, after having eaten more than usual; that the medicine which he had taken had not performed its office; and that his family wished to try what a talisman would do for him: she therefore invited me to write one suited to his case As I had neither paper, pens, nor ink, I insisted upon going into his _anderun_, or wo it there, to which she consented I was introduced into a small square yard, and then into a rooround, surrounded by as many women as the place could hold, who cried aloud, and exclaimed, ?_Wahi, wahi_, in the name of God he dies, he dies!? The implements ofhad been done either to kill or save hie basin, which had contained the prescription, was seen on the shelf; the long glass tube, that instru other furniture, the dotor hi his pipe, and who, having found that human means were inefficient, had had recourse to supernatural, and had prescribed, as a last resource, the talisman, which it was my fate to write A new dervish excited new hopes, for I saw that I produced much stir as I entered the sick rooreat confidence in h, in fact, I had never written a talise piece was produced, which see or other
Pen and ink were also given ravity, I scrawled the paper over in a variety of odd characters, which here and there contained the names of Allah, Moha theures instead of letters I then handed it over with great cere for water and a basin, washed the whole from off the paper into the basin, whilst the bystanders offered up prayers for the efficacy of the precious writing The doctor then said, ?In the name of the prophet, let the patient take this; and if fate hath decreed that he is to live, then the sacred names which he will no will restore him: but if not, neither my skill, nor that of any other ht was administered, and every eye was immediately fixed upon the wretched man?s face, as if a resuscitation was expected to ensue He re any sy roaned, opened his eyes, raised his head on his arth vomited in a manner that would have done credit to the prescription of Abu Avicenna himself In short, he recovered
?In e to the drug which had once been wrapped in the paper, and which, with the nausea of the ink, had produced the effect just described; but I took care to let the bystanders know that the cure was entirely owing to the interference and to the handwriting of one of my sanctity; and that but for me he would have died
?The doctor, on the other hand, took all the merit of the case to himself; for as soon as his patient had opened his eyes, he exclaiht operated, he went on exulting thus: ?There, there, see the efficacy of my prescription! Had it not been for ist dead before you?
?I, however, would not allow him to proceed, and said: ?If you are a doctor, why did you not cure your patient without calling for s, and do not interfere with that which doth not belong to you?
?He answered, ?Mr Dervish, I ood talisood price for it; but every one knoho and what dervishes are; and if their talismans are ever of use, it is not their sanctity whichare you,? exclaimed I, in return, ?to talk to me after this manner? I, who anorance is proverbial: you hide it by laying all to fate: if by chance your patient recovers, then you take all the credit of the cure to yourselves; should he die, you say, God hath decreed thus; what can the efforts of o to; when you have nearly killed your next patient, and then know not what ain, and I will cover your iist?
?By my head, and by your death,? returned the doctor, ?I a of a dervish:? and i attitude,use of every epithet of abuse that he could think of
?I received him with suitable expressions of contempt, and we very soon came to blows; he so effectually fastened upon my hair, and I upon his beard,[25] that we plucked out whole handfuls froht with such fury, heedless of the sick reat, and perhaps would have ter serious, if one of the wo us that the _Darogah?s_ officers (policeat the door of the house, and inquiring whence proceeded all the disturbance
?This parted us; and then I was happy to find that the bystanders were in my favour, for they expressed their contempt of the skill of the physician, whose only object was to obtain ood, whilst they looked uponalone possessed the power of curing allhow illfor him, stole aith the best face he could; but before he left the roo as many of the hairs of his beard, which I had plucked froly added so, ?We shall see on whose side the laugh will be when you are brought before the cadi to-morrow; for beards are worth a ducat per hair in Tehran, and I doubt, with all your talismans, whether you can buy these that I hold in er was cooled, out of regard to his own reputation, he would not put his threat into execution; so the fear of being dragged before the justice gave me no uneasiness, and I therefore only considered how to make the most of the fortunate circuist (as the first in Tehran) had been brought to life, when on the point of death, by a newly arrived dervish, was soon spread about, and I becaht I was taken up in writing talis to their means, and in a short time I found myself the possessor of some hundreds of piastres But unfortunately for ist and a piece of his paper every day; and feeling myself reduced to live upon the reputation of this one miracle, which I perceived to my sorrow daily di to make the tour of Persia, I immediately left Tehran
To whichsoever city I bent ed matters so adroitly, that I ist had given me an attestation under his seal, that he had been restored to life by virtue of a talisman written by my hand, and this I exhibited wherever I went, to corroborate the truth of the reports which had been circulated inupon this reputation: it supports me very tolerably for the present, but whenever I find that it begins to rail, I shall proceed elsewhere?--The dervish here ended his history
When the third dervish came to his turn to speak, he said: ?My tale is but short, although story-telling isthat I was endoith a very retentive memory, made me read and repeat to hie abounds; and when he found that he had furnished my mind with a sufficient assortarb of dervish, to relate theather roundbut successful My auditors heardme any reward for my pains Little by little I acquired experience Instead of being carried away, as I had at first permitted myself to he, by the interest of the story, Iaround me, said, ?All ye that are present, if you will be liberal towards me, I will tell you what follows;? and I seldoood handful of copper coin For instance, in the story of the Prince of Khatai and the Princess of Sare _Hezar Mun_ seizes the prince, and is about to devour hire?s mouth, between his upper and lower jahen the princess, all dishevelled and forlorn, is on her knees praying that he may be spared; when the attendants couch their lances, and are in disht; when the thunder rolls, and the ogre growls; then I stop, and say, ?Now, my noble hearers, open your purses, and you shall hear in how re?s head off!? By such arts, I e to extract a subsistence from the curiosity of men; and when my stock of stories is exhausted in one place, I leave it, travel to another, and there renew uised Mohtesib 9jpg]
CHAPTER XII
Hajji Baba finds that fraud does not remain unpunished, even in this world--Hefinished their narratives, I thanked them for the entertainment and instruction which they had afforded me, and I forthwith resolved to learn as much from them as possible, in order to becoed to abandon my present business Dervish Sefer instructed me in the numerous tricks which he practised, to ireat sanctity; I learned the art of writing talisht me some of the tales hich his head was stored, lent eneral rules how to lead on the curiosity of an audience, until their money should insensibly be enticed from their pockets
In the meanwhile, I continued to sellto my intimacy with the dervishes, who sed to adulterate the tobacco of my other customers considerably more than usual; so that in fact they enjoyed little else than the fu, when it was dusk, and about the tis, apparently bent double with age, stopped me, and requested me to dress a pipe for her to smoke She was closely veiled, and scarcely uttered a word beyond her want I filled her one of my very worst hing, and exclas in their hands, immediately came up, seized me, and threw me on my back The supposed old woman then cast off her veil, and I beheld the _Mohtesib_ in person[26]