“I was at the ruins in the morning, replied I, and I am a Christian. Ali Bey calls that denomination of people Nazarani, that is the Arabic of Cairo and Constantinople, and I understand no other.”
“I am, said he, going to Girgé, and this holy saint is with me, and there is no boat but your’s bound that way, for which reason I have promised to take him with me.”
By this time the saint had got into the boat, and sat forward; he was an ill-favoured, low, sick-like man, and seemed to be almost blind.
You should not make rash promises, said I to the cadi, for this one you made you never can perform; I am not going to Girgé. Ali Bey, whose slave you are, gave me this boat, but told me, I was not to ship either saints or cadies. There is my boat, go a-board if you dare; and you, Hagi Hassan, let me see you lift an oar, or loose a sail, either for the cadi or the saint, if I am not with them.
I went to my tent, and the Rais followed me. “Hagi Hassan, said I, there is a proverb in my country, It is better to flatter fools than to fight them: Cannot you go to the fool, and give him half-a-crown? will he take it, do you think, and abandon his journey to Girgé? afterwards leave me to settle with the cadi for his voyage thither.”
“He will take it with all his heart, he will kiss your hand for half-a-crown, says Hassan.”
“Let him have half-a-crown from me, said I, and desire him to go about his business, and intimate that I give him it in charity, at same time expect compliance with the condition.”
In the interim, a Christian Copht came into the tent: “Sir, said he, you don’t know what you are doing; the cadi is a great man, give him his present, and have done with him.”
“When he behaves better, it will be time enough for that, said I?—If you are a friend of his, advise him to be quiet, before an order comes from Cairo by a Serach, and carries him thither. Your countryman Risk would not give me the advice you do?”
Risk! says he; Do you know Risk? Is not that Risk’s writing, said I, shewing him a letter from the Bey? Wallah! (by God) it is, says he, and away he went without speaking a word farther.