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few years ago?" "They were five and twenty thousand strong in Rosetta," said the lawyer, "and they were all slain." "Not all," answered the Effendi," the General got his life, but there were only five thousand of them altogether."

"Five thousand or twenty," cried the lawyer, "is it not all the same thing; were they not all infidels, and were they not vanquished with the sword of Islam?"

"Allah karim," cried the priest, "God is most merciful; such be the fate of all who believe not in the true Prophet, to whose name be eternal glory."

"If the Sultan," said the Effendi," had taken off the heads of the Janissaries a hundred years ago, the law of Islam would now be spread over the whole earth."

"As it is," replied the priest, "are not the true believers like the stars of heaven? who can count them? is not their empire over the whole earth from the rising even to the setting place of the sun."

"It is not in the Frozen Ocean, however,” said the Levantine, "there are no Moslems there."

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"It is a lie," said the priest, "

they are every

where, the Prophet has said it."

"it

What, in America?" said the Levantine,

was only discovered a few years ago!"

"Well, then, if it was not known to the Prophet," replied the priest, "of course he had nothing to say to it."

"But," continued the Levantine, in a low voice," the law of the Prophet could not be intended for all mankind."

"It was meant for the universe," said the priest," and hell's fire is the portion of him who rejects it."

"If every man is bound to fast the Ramazan, from sunrise to sunset," replied the Levantine, "on the pain of reprobation, the Moslems of the Frozen Ocean, where the days are six months long, should feel somewhat exhausted."

"I do not believe it," cried the priest in a fury, "who ever saw a day six months long? who could sleep an entire night of six months long?-no man.”

"But I read it in a book," said the Levantine, "written by the famous Volney."

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383

"What is written in the perspicuous volume of truth," replied the priest, "admits neither of doubt nor disputation; there is not a word in the Koran concerning the days of six months' duration, neither of the nights, therefore I disbelieve it, because it is impossible."

Kaif," said the Levantine, " do as you please, but truth is one:"-a very common expression of the Arabs, and is generally the ne plus ultra in an argument.

The host was a merry sort of fellow, who made a jest of every subject, and a butt of every man, even of the priest: the guests dropped off one by one: the Levantine and myself got a nod to remain; and when we were quite alone the rakee bottle was produced, it circulated briskly; and the politicians who had just departed were turned into ridicule by the host.

"You might as well talk to a gamous, a buffalo," said he, "as to that lawyer, of any thing except bribery: it was a folly, hakkim, to contradict him about the geography of England, you might as well reason with a pastek, a watermelon, for he has no more brains."

I left my worthy host singing an interminable

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Arab ditty to the air of Malbrook, over the second bottle of rakee, and I could not help observing, what I had often done before in Turkey, that the winebibber was seldom a fanatic; from what cause I know not, unless it was from his loving what the Christian liked, and that being sympathy.

I am, dear Sir,

Yours very truly,

R. R. M.

LETTER XLI.

TO MRS. E. FORDE.

MY DEAR MADAM,

Alexandria, Nov. 6, 1827.

THIS is the last time I am likely to have the pleasure of addressing you from the shores of Egypt. The lengthening chain which I have been dragging for some years now only attaches me to "the land of bondage" by the last link, and in a few days it shall be broken.

I embarked on board an English brig at Sour for Damietta, congratulating myself on my escape from many perils which I fondly hoped were all at an end; but the evening of our departure we observed a suspicious looking vessel hovering about us for some hours; she stood in for Sour at nightfall, and we saw nothing of her till the following morning. She did not keep us long in suspense; her boats were soon out, and in the