for play, except in the evening, and no holiday, except on Friday. Seven
years they spend in this manner, learning to read and write. When they
leave school, if they wish to be counted very wise, they go to one of the
colleges; for there are many in Bokhara. Some spend all their lives in
these colleges, living in small cells, and meeting in a large hall to
hear lectures about the Mahomedan religion. It is a happy thing, however,
that in summer the students go out to work in the fields; for how much
better is it to work with the hands, than to fill the head with the
wicked inventions of Mahomed.

The Mahomedans, however, are very proud of their religion, because they
_say_, they do not worship idols; (yet they do worship at Mecca, a black
stone, and other like things in other places). They imagine that _all_
Christians are idolaters, for they know that the Russians bow down to
pictures.

Once the Vizier of Bokhara conversed a long while with two Englishmen
about their religion.

He asked them, "Do you worship idols?"

The Englishmen replied, "No."

The Vizier would not believe them, but said, "I am sure you have images
and crosses hung round your necks."

Upon which, they opened their vests to show there was nothing hidden.

Then the Vizier smiled, and said to his servants, "They are not bad
people."