“‘I have no evidence to give,’ I tremblingly replied, ‘save what you have already heard.’
“‘I have heard none,’ said he, and again the titter went round the court.
“Moved to action, I repeated exactly what I had said before, that the words were what they were in the Charter, the clause was what it was. I repeated it point by point.
“The Judge turned to the Pleader who had just sat down and said: ‘Now, brother Selim,’ whereupon my former friend and guest rose, looked me up and down in a very offensive manner from head to foot three or four times, and cried:
“‘You drunken scoundrel! Do you still maintain the abominable falsehood which you have had the insolence to lay before the Court?’
“I said there was no falsehood, but the truth.
“‘The truth!’ he sneered. ‘Remember, pray, that you have taken an oath in the name of the Scroll, and trivial as this may seem to a man of your depraved character, others take the matter more seriously.’
“I stood silent under the rebuke and waited his further words.
“‘Well, well,’ said he suddenly, ‘where were you half an hour after sunrise on the fourth day of the Fast of Ramadan in the three hundred and seventh year from the Flight of the Prophet?’