JUBBUR and I were chosen to undertake the momentous mission to Beyrout, which lies a good seven hours' journey, on foot, from Rishmey-yeh. We were instructed that if the Russed potion cost much more than two madjidies (the madjidy is the Turkish dollar, about eighty cents), we should not pay the price without further instructions from our comrades. Five madjidies were given us for consultation fee and personal expenses.

We started on our journey about the middle of the afternoon, and, notwithstanding the fact that we had worked from early dawn, youth and the allurements of riches gave us quick and elastic steps. Night overtook us when we were still about three hours' journey from the great city. The region in which we found ourselves shortly after nightfall was the borderland between the provinces of Mount Lebanon and Beyrout, and it is usually infested by highway robbers. The darkness, the rough, narrow, crooked footpaths, and our increasing fear of robbers kept all our senses at an uncomfortably high tension.

Shortly after crossing the river ElGhadir, whose banks are famous as haunts of robbers, a low, deep, harsh voice called from behind a stone wall, 'What men?'-the equivalent in English of 'Who goes there?'

'Friends!' we answered, in rather squeaky accents.

The figure of a tall man emerged from the darkness. Gripping tightly our walking sticks, our only means of defense, we stood in a defiant attitude. As the man came closer we recognized in him a stalwart Turkish soldier, fully armed and wearing the Mount Lebanon uniform. Holding his gun and bayonet at a threatening angle, he ordered us to halt; and this we did, while we asked, 'What is your pleasure, sir?'

'Who are you and where are you going?' asked the soldier of the Sultan.

It was well known to us that the Turkish soldiers, who were presumably 'guarding the roads,' were as dangerous to meet under these circumstances as the highway robbers from whom they were supposed to protect the public. We stood rigid with fear until the man approached and placed his hand on my shoulder, when to my inexpressible relief I recognized him as a very good acquaintance of our family. His wife came from our town, and I had seen him at our house many times in my earlier boyhood.

'Is this Assad Effendi?' I asked. He leaned forward and tried to see

my face in the faint light of the stars, but could not recognize me. 'Who are you, lad?' he inquired.

After I had told him who I was and had mentioned the name of his wife's family, he was cordial and said to us, 'Go on your way, and if you should be accosted by other soldiers tell them that you saw me near the bridge of El-Ghadir, and they will let you pass unmolested.'

Thanking him and our stars for the unexpected kindness, we resumed our journey.

Upon reaching the carriage road near the 'guard house' known as FürnEshiback, quite close to the outskirts of Beyrout, we were glad to get into a public carriage, which took us into the great metropolis, where we sought lodging, not at an inn as the poor people do, but at a hotel.

The supper we ordered would, under ordinary circumstances, have been beyond our means, but seeing that an opulent era was soon to dawn upon us we deemed it altogether proper, nay, necessary, that we should begin to practice luxurious living. But even then Jubbur declared that when fortune came he would not even look at such a hotel and such a supper as that; to which I rejoined, 'I should say not!' Although very tired from our journey, sleep seemed to us out of the question. Besides, we had to plan very carefully how to meet the great witch and her associate Mûghreby on the mora dread undertaking for two youths such as we were. Before leaving home on that day, Abu-'Azar, who for some reason admired my 'mental equipment,' instructed his son to give my ideas the preference in dealing with the object of our mission. The son followed his father's instructions and I felt heavily laden with responsibility.

row,

My plan was that we should make a false statement to the Mûghreby for

the purpose of testing the power of his magic. If he or the great witch could discover the deception, then we might feel assured that they could read the mystery of our treasure. Jubbur agreed to everything I said, partly because of the instructions his father had given and partly because of his strong desire to escape stating the case himself.

But meeting the witch and the Mûghreby was not our only difficult task. They lived in that section of Beyrout known as El-Busta, the chief Mohammedan quarter; and for a Christian to pass through El-Busta without being roughly handled by Mohammedan ruffians was always considered a signal favor of fortune. The murders which occurred in El-Busta were utterly uninteresting to the public: the Christian fool had simply strayed to where he had no business to be, and no one took the trouble to inquire who killed him.

But the witch lived at El-Busta among her kindred, and there we had to seek her. From our physiognomy, attire, and speech, any one could tell that we were Lebanonian Christians. We wore on our heads the old-fashioned tarboosh (which was the ordinary headgear before the small tinpail-shaped fez of the Turkish army had come into general use), whose top resembled the end of a pumpkin with a large tassel attached to the stem, and a small narrow-folded, wine-colored silk scarf of Damascus make for a turban: a characteristic headgear for Christian youth. We planned to conduct ourselves very circumspectly while at ElBusta. We would not gaze curiously at the Mohammedans, we would walk in a humble attitude, and strictly mind our own business.

It was a great relief when we reached the notorious Mohammedan quarter in the early forenoon of the following day, to find that the cafés were as yet almost empty. The vicious loafers had

not yet come to their revels in the public places along the highway. Now and then we met a man who would eye us in stern and spiteful fashion, making our hearts beat faster than usual, but on the whole we were tranquil.

It was by no means easy to find the abode of the witch in a city where there were no regularly laid out streets and no numbers on the houses. All we knew was that she lived at El-Busta, and as we were anxious to avoid trouble, we dared not ask questions. At last, meeting an elderly man whom we thought reasonably safe, we requested him most respectfully to direct us to the witch's house. Pointing to a mosque not far away, he told us that the house we were seeking was a short distance beyond that shrine, on the road that went to the right of it. Following those instructions we soon reached our destination.

After removing our shoes from our feet just outside the open door, we walked in, to find ourselves in the presence of the great Mûghreby, the witch's associate. We stood near the door in a reverential attitude until we gained his attention, when we saluted him with more regard than discretion. 'Essalamo 'Aleikûm'-peace be on you-is a salutation exchanged by Mohammedans; but coming from a Christian to a Mohammedan it is considered by the latter very presumptuous. For how can an 'infidel' confer peace upon one of the 'faithful"?

The Mûghreby, possibly for business reasons, appeared not to notice the impropriety of the greeting. He responded by nodding his head slightly in a distressingly dignified manner, and motioned to us to sit down on the matted floor. Lifting our right hands to our breasts, thence to our foreheads, as a mark of honor and gratitude, we sat down.

The Mûghreby was a man of stout

build, and appeared to be about fifty years old. He wore on his head a rather small white turban, more common among the Persian than among the Syrian Mohammedans. His face was round and ruddy, covered with a short, shaggy beard which enhanced the witchery of his dark piercing eyes. Over his typical Mohammedan gown, which was girt at the waist with a green sash, he wore a fine woolen cloak. He sat on a thick cushion spread upon a costly rug of mystic figures and bright oriental colors, and reclined against a messned (a hard and heavy pillow) which stood on edge against the wall.

The witch, as we observed, was in an inner chamber, besieged by women suppliants, some seeking potions to make their husbands love them, or to unhinge the mind of a woman rival, some to secure the blessing of childbearing, or to find some lost article, or ward off the evil eye. Sobs and groans issued from that mysterious chamber, and at short intervals the low, deep, commanding voice of the dread witch would reach our bewildered ears.

Presently the Mûghreby motioned to us to come closer and as we did so he gazed on us in turn with the air of one who says, "The innermost secrets of your hearts are known to me.'

Within his reach on the cushion lay among other curious objects an egg, which he picked up, in a seemingly preoccupied state of mind, set it up on its small end in the centre of his extended right palm, and seemed to us to read in it deep mysteries. The feat of making the egg stand up in that manner excited our admiration.

Then, with a faint, quizzical smile, the ally of Beelzebub said to us, 'What may your purpose be?'

My heart beat at full speed. But unmindful of the fact that I was in the presence of one whose magical gaze had searched the depths of a thousand

craniums, I proceeded to carry out our prearranged plan by giving him a false statement of our case.

'Honored hajj,'1 said I, ‘on last Monday, while this my brother and I were working in the field, and in the absence of our mother from home, our house was entered by thieves who carried away from it money and other valuables to the amount of about two thousand piasters. Having failed hitherto to apprehend the robbers, we have come to you, O excellent hajj, imploring the aid of your great learning to enable us to know who the culprits are.' With a look of indignant surprise which caused his beard to quiver slightly, and which seemed to say to me, 'You saucy upstart!' and without the slightest hesitancy, the great magician spoke.

'You are a liar!'

Rallying in a moment from this terrible, though merited, rebuke, I managed with considerable firmness to imitate the attitude of wounded pride and to say to my assailant, 'O excellent hajj, I have not come under your sheltering roof and in your august presence to be called a liar.'

'But such you are,' came the quick answer; 'you are seeking to possess yourself of the wealth of others, and yet you make bold to tell me that you have been robbed.'

Here Jubbur, collapsing inwardly, cast a trembling look at me and seemed about to say, 'If you do not tell the truth at once, I will.'

Whereupon I said to the Mûghreby, 'My lord, if what I have said is to your mysterious learning not the truth, I beg you to condescend and tell us the facts.'

The magician then demanded the

1 After having visited Mecca, a Mohammedan is addressed as hajj-pilgrim. The designation, however, is often applied to other than pilgrims, as a mark of honor. - THE AUTHOR.

payment of one madjidy, as the initial fee for the unsealing of the book,whatever that meant. We complied with the request instantly. Then, to our indescribable amazement, this man of diabolical learning told us everything. He informed us that we were in pursuit of a hidden treasure; that we had dug for it in a round hole, then in a cave connected with that hole and close to a smooth rock; that the spot was situated below a shrine and above running water.

The expression on our faces must have pleased him immensely, for we felt for the moment that we were in the very presence of Omniscience.

'In digging,' he said again, 'did you find human bones?' The way in which he put the question did not give us the impression that he did not know the answer; rather, in our simplicity were we led to believe that a significant revelation was yet in store for us. To our answer in the negative, he said, 'When the bones appear, look confidently for the fortune you are seeking.' Then, stroking his elevated right knee gently, the wily Mûghreby added, 'But but beware of the mysterious powers. The treasure is guarded by a powerful Russed with which I am already in touch, and the gold must first be "released" [from the control of the dread spirit] and the Russed driven out into boundless space before the buried wealth can be touched. Be not rash, else you will be blasted, when no earthly power can help.'

Along with all this the Mûghreby bewildered us by mumbling something about 'centre and circumference, light and darkness, east, west, north, south, fire and incense,' all of which inspired us with awe, though it added nothing to our understanding.

'What would be the cost of the "release" of the Russed?' I asked in much agitation.