Fighteth the battle staketh

I heard that at that time a powerful enemy appeared against the King, and when the two armies met, the first person who impelled his horse into the action was this young Prince, calling out, “I am not him, whose back you shall see in the day of battle, but my head may be found in dust and blood; for whosoever fighteth the battle staketh his own life; and he who flieth, sporteth with the blood of his troops.” Having thus said, he attacked the troops of the enemy, and overthrew several men of renown. When he came to his father, he bowed down to the earth and said, “0 ye, to whom my form appeared contemptible without considering the force of my valour, in the day of battle the slender steed is useful, and not the fattened ox.”

It is reported, that the enemy having many troops, and this side but few, a body of the latter were giving way, upon which the Prince vociferated, “Exert yourselves like men, that ye may not wear the dress of women.” The troopers, animated by this speech, joined in the general attack, and are reported to have gained the victory over the adversary on that day. The King kissed his head and eyes, and folded him in his arms, and his affection towards him increased daily, till at length he appointed him his successor. The brothers became envious, and put poison into his food. His sister seeing this from a window, flapped to the shutters; and he understanding the signal, withdrew his hand from the dish, and exclaimed, “If the wise should be deprived of life, it would be impossible for the unskilful to supply their place.

No one would go under the shade of the owl, if the Homai was annihilated from the earth.” They informed the father of the circumstances, who sent for the brothers, and after rebuking them properly, he gave to each of them a suitable portion of his kingdom, that all cause of strife and bickering might subside. It has been observed, that ten Durweshes may sleep upon one blanket, but that one kingdom cannot contain two Kings. If a pious man eatetli half a loaf of bread, he bestoweth the other half on the poor. If a king possesseth the dominion of a whole climate, he longeth to have the same enjoyment of another.

The government of the kingdom

TALE XXVIII

A certain King, when arrived at the end of his days, having no heir, directed in his will that, in the morning after his death, the first person who entered the gate of the city, they should place on his head the crown of royalty, and commit to his charge the government of the kingdom. It happened that the first person who entered the city gate was a beggar, who all his life had collected scraps of victuals and sewed patch upon patch.

The ministers of state and the nobles of the court carried into execution the King’s will bestowing on him the kingdom and the treasure. For some time the I hinvesli governed the kingdom, until part of the nobility swerved their necks from his obedience, and all the surrounding monarehs, engaging in hostile confederacies, attacked him with their armies. In short, the troops and peasantry were thrown into confusion, and he lost the possession of some territories.

The Durwesh was distressed at these events, when an old friend, who had been his companion in the days of poverty, returned from a journey, and finding him in such exalted state, said, “Praised be the God of excellence and glory, that your high fortune lias aided you and prosperity been your guide, so that a rose has issued from the briar, and the thorn has been extracted from your foot, and you have arrived at this dignity participants independently optimize. Of a truth, joy succeeds sorrow: the bud sometimes blossoms and sometimes withers: the tree is sometimes naked and sometimes clothed.”

He replied, “0 brother, condole with me, for this is not a time for congratulation. When you saw me last, I was only anxious how to obtain bread; but now I have all the cares of the world to encounter. If the times are adverse, I am in pain; and if they are prosperous, I am captivated with worldly enjoyments. There is no calamity greater than worldly affairs, because they distress the heart in prosperity as well as in adversity

If you want riches, seek only for contentment, which is inestimable wealth, if the rich man should throw money into your lap, consider not yourself obliged to him; for I have often heard it said by pious men, that the patience of the poor is preferable to the liberality of the rich. If Bahrain should roast an onager (wild ass) to be distributed amongst the people, it would not be equal to the leg of a locust to an ant.”

TALE XXIX

A certain person had a friend employed hi the office of Dewan, with whom he had not chanced to meet for some time. Somebody said to him, 11 It is a long time since you saw such an one.” He answered, “Neither do I wish to see him.” It happened that one of the Dewan’s people was present, who asked what fault his friend had been guilty of, that he was not inclined to see him. He replied, “There is no fault; but the time for see ng a De- wan is when he is dismissed from his office. In greatness and authority of office, they neglect their friends in the day of adversity and degradation, they impart to their friends the disquietude to their hearts.”

Suffered reproach and uneasiness

TALE III

I saw a religions man so captivated by the beauty of a youth, that his secret became public, insomuch that he suffered reproach and uneasiness. However lie did not relinquish his attachment; and said, “I will not quit the skirt of your garment, although yourself should smite me with a sharp sword; besides thee I have neither asylum nor defence: to you alone can I flee tor refuge.” Once I reproved him, and said, “What has happened, to your excellent understanding, that mean inclinations should have been able to overpower it? After reflecting a short time, he replied, “Wherever

the King of love cometh, the arm of. piety hath not power to resist him. How can that poor wretch be clean, who has fallen up to his neck in a quagmire? ”

TALE IV

A certain person having lost his heart, abandoned himself to despair. The object of his affection being a place of danger, a whirlpool; not a morsel with which you could hope to gratifty the palate; not a bird that would fall into the net. When your sweetheart will not look at your gold, that metal and earth appear alike in your sight.

His friends besought him to relinquish this vain imagination, many besides himself being seized with this hopeless idea, and held in captivity by it. He lamenting said, “Desire my friends not to admonish me, since my destiny depends on the will of another. Warriors kill their enemies by the strength of their hands and shoulders; but those who are beautiful, destroy their friends. It is not consistent with the laws of love, through fear of death, to relinquish our attachment to our mistress.

You who seek your own ease, eannot be true in the game of love. If you cannot obtain access to the object of your affection, friendship demands that you should die in the pursuit. I persist, be- cause no other course remains, even though my adversary covers me with wounds from a sword or an arrow. If I should be able, I will seize her sleeve, otherwise I will go and expire at her threshold.”

The martial drum had never reached

TALE XVII

On a certain year, I was travelling from Balk with some people of Damascus, and the road was infested with robbers. There was a young man of our party, are expert handler of the shield, a mighty archer, a brandisher of all weapons, so strong that ten men could not draw his bowstring, and the most powerful wrestler on the face of the earth had never brought his back to the ground; but he was rich, and had been nursed in the shade, was inexperienced in the world, and no traveler.

The thundering sound of the martial drum had never reached his ear, neither had his eyes seen the lightning of the horseman’s sword; he had never been made prisoner by the enemy, nor had the arrows fallen in showers around him. It happened that I and this young man were running together; every wall that came in his way he pulled down, and every large tree that he saw, by the force of his arm he tore up by the roots.

He was boasting, saying, “Where is the elephant, that you may behold the shoulders of the hero? Where is the lion that you may see the fingers and palm of the brave man? ” We were in this situation, when two Indians lifted up their heads from behind a rock with the intention to kill us; one had a stick in his hand, and the other a sling under his arm. I said to the young man, “Why do you stop? Show your strength and velour, for here is the enemy within a foot of Ins grave.” I saw tile bow and arrows drop from the hand of the young man, and a trembling seized all his joints. Not every one who can split a hair with an arrow that will pierce a coat of mail, is able to stand against the warrior in the day of battle.

We saw no other remedy for ourselves, but to leave our accoutrements, surrender our arms, and escape with our lives. On an affair of importance employ a man of experience, who will bring the devouring lion into his trammels. A young man, though he has strength of arm and is powerful as an elephant, will feel his joints quaking with fear in the day of battle. A man of experience is as well qualified to act in war as the learned man is to expound a case of law.

Necessarily confine the wandering

The valleys which lie between them necessarily confine the wandering savage to an eastward or westward course, and the slope of the land westward invites him to that direction rather than to the east. And further, at a certain point in these westward passages, as he approaches the meridian of the Sea of Aral, he finds the mountain-ranges cease, and he has the permission, if he will, to stretch away to the north or to the south. Moreover, his course is naturally to the west, from the nature of the case, if he moves at all, for the East is his native home.

There, in the most northerly of these ranges is a lofty mountain, which some geographers have identified with the classical Imaus; it is called by the Saracens Caf, by the Turks Altai; sometimes too it has the name of the Girdle of the Earth, from the huge appearance of the chain to which it belongs, sometimes of the Golden Mountain, from the gold, as well as other metals, with which its sides abound. It is said to be at an equal distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the Frozen Sea, the North Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal ; and, being in situation the furthest withdrawn from West and South, it is in fact the high metropolis of the vast Tartar country, which it overlooks, and has sent forth, in the course of ages, innumerable populations into the illimitable and mysterious regions around it, regions protected by their inland character both from the observation and the civilizing influence of foreign nations.

To eat bread in the sweat of his brow is the original punishment of mankind; the indolence of the savage shrinks from the obligation, and looks out for methods of escaping it. Com, wine, and oil have no charms for him at such a price; he Gibbon.

turns to the brute animals which are his aboriginal companions, the horse, the cow, and the sheep; he prefers fd’be a grazier than to till the ground. He feeds his horses, flocks, and herds on its spontaneous vegetation, and then in turn he feeds himself on their flesh. He remains on one spot while the natural crop yields them sustenance; when it is exhausted, he migrates to another. He adopts, what is called, the life of a nomad.

Necessarily confine the wandering

The valleys which lie between them necessarily confine the wandering savage to an eastward or westward course, and the slope of the land westward invites him to that direction rather than to the east. And further, at a certain point in these westward passages, as he approaches the meridian of the Sea of Aral, he finds the mountain-ranges cease, and he has the permission, if he will, to stretch away to the north or to the south. Moreover, his course is naturally to the west, from the nature of the case, if he moves at all, for the East is his native home.

There, in the most northerly of these ranges is a lofty mountain, which some geographers have identified with the classical Imaus; it is called by the Saracens Caf, by the Turks Altai; sometimes too it has the name of the Girdle of the Earth, from the huge appearance of the chain to which it belongs, sometimes of the Golden Mountain, from the gold, as well as other metals, with which its sides abound. It is said to be at an equal distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the Frozen Sea, the North Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal ; and, being in situation the furthest withdrawn from West and South, it is in fact the high metropolis of the vast Tartar country, which it overlooks, and has sent forth, in the course of ages, innumerable populations into the illimitable and mysterious regions around it, regions protected by their inland character both from the observation and the civilizing influence of foreign nations.

To eat bread in the sweat of his brow is the original punishment of mankind; the indolence of the savage shrinks from the obligation, and looks out for methods of escaping it. Com, wine, and oil have no charms for him at such a price; he Gibbon.

turns to the brute animals which are his aboriginal companions, the horse, the cow, and the sheep; he prefers fd’be a grazier than to till the ground. He feeds his horses, flocks, and herds on its spontaneous vegetation, and then in turn he feeds himself on their flesh. He remains on one spot while the natural crop yields them sustenance; when it is exhausted, he migrates to another. He adopts, what is called, the life of a nomad.

Descriptions of Constantinople in such works

But events have verified its forecast to such an extent, that one is tempted to assume the prophet’s mantle, and predict that Colonel White’s words will come to pass in the next half-century. At any rate, if the world here has moved slowly, it has moved very far. The descriptions of Constantinople in such works as Miss Pardoe’s City of the Sultan, and Colonel White’s Three Years in Constantinople, seem to-day descriptions of another city.

Turkish woman today

In the political situation, in the matter of education both among the Turks and the Christian populations, the changes are simply enormous. This is, however, not the place to expatiate upon these serious topics, although it is only by their consideration that the greatness and far-reaching consequences of the new state of things can be properly appreciated. But look at the change in the matter of dress. Where is now the variety of costume, where the brightness of colour that made the movement of the population at all times a procession in gala dress? So far as her garb is concerned, a Turkish woman to-day is a sere and withered leaf.

She is almost a European lady, thinly disguised. And where are the men who moved about, crowned with turbans, and attired in long, coloured, flowing robes? You meet them occasionally on the street, or see them gathered about the mosques, weary and tattered stragglers of generations of men, whose mien and gait were the look and motion of princes. Some one has said that the Turks committed a great mistake when they adopted the European dress; for the change makes you suppose that they have ceased to be Orientals, and are to be judged by European standards in all respects. Too much is therefore expected of them. Certainly the change has not improved their appearance. It has robbed them of that quiet dignity and commanding air which imposed immediate respect. The eagle is shorn of his plumes.

Boat together was unknown until quite recent times

For husband and wife to walk, or drive, or boat together was unknown until quite recent times, and when such proceedings occur they are regarded with disfavour. In tramway cars, in trains, on steamers, in waiting-rooms, men and women occupy different compartments. Should the ladies’ cabin on the steamers which ply between the city and the suburbs on the Bosporus or the Marmora be unoccupied at starting by Turkish women, gentlemen are permitted to seat themselves in it, and to keep their places so long as Moslem women do not appear. But if a Turkish lady embarks at a station on the way, the cabin must be forthwith vacated by its male occupants, who do not present the air of the lords of creation as they wander to find other seats.

On one occasion a foreign lady and gentleman reached a certain pier on the Bosporus some time before the arrival of the steamer, which was to convey them to the city, and, finding the ladies’ waiting-room empty, seated themselves in it Presently an elderly Turkish woman, belonging to a somewhat humble class of society, appeared, accompanied by her son, a lad some fourteen years old. According to strict etiquette the gentleman should have left the room. But as the lady he was escorting wished him to remain, and as the Turkish woman looked a motherly person and had her boy with her, he kept his seat, forgetful of use and wont.

Approached the gentleman

Suddenly the lad in the hanurn’s company went out. As the event proved, it was to bring the man in charge of the pier upon the scene. The latter approached the gentleman, whom he knew well, and in the politest possible manner whispered the information that the Turkish woman opposite objected to the presence of a man. There was nothing to be done but for the intruder to withdraw with as little awkwardness as the situation admitted, and the matter seemed settled to the satisfaction of all concerned.