'The case is so.'

'Who is their chief?'

'I know not; but the largest share, they say, is vested in Muhammad abu Hasan. His share of all the trees is twelve kîrâts, as much as all the others put together. They say so. Only Allah knows the truth!'

'I should like to speak to this Muhammad abu Hasan.'

'Upon my head; I go to fetch him,' answered Câsim, touching his brow in token of obedience.

When he was gone, Suleymân observed significantly:

'Have naught to do with all these fathers of kîrâts. When once the word "kîrât" is mentioned, flee the place, for you may be assured that it is the abode of all bedevilment. When once a man is father of but one or two kîrâts, he has the power of forty thousand for unreasoning annoyance.'

'And what, in mercy's name, is a kîrât?' I questioned.

'A kîrât,' replied Rashîd, as usual eager to explain, 'is that term into which all things visible and invisible are resolved and subdivided secretly, or may be subdivided at a person's pleasure. A kîrât is that which has no real existence unless a group of men agree together saying: "It is here or there." A kîrât——'

Suleymân cut short his explanation, saying simply: 'A kîrât is the twenty-fourth part of anything. If my soul is sick, I ask the doctor: "How many kîrâts of hope?" and according to his answer "four" or "twenty" I feel gladness or despair. To own but one kîrât, in this concern of property, is sometimes better than to own all the remaining three-and-twenty, as witness the affair of Johha, the greatest wiseacre this country has produced. Johha owned a house, consisting of a single room. Wishing to make a little money, he let his house to people for a yearly rent (which they paid in advance), reserving to himself the use of only one kîrât of it. To show where his kîrât was situated Johha drove a peg into the wall inside. After the tenants had been in a week he brought a bag of beans and hung it on his peg. No one objected; he was exercising his free right. A few days later he removed the bag of beans and hung up garlic in its place. Again a few days and he came with an old cat which had been some time dead; and so on, bringing ever more offensive things, until the tenants were obliged to leave the house and forfeit their year's rent, without redress, since Johha was within his rights. Therefore I say to you, beware. These fathers of kîrâts will spoil the property.'