when they were well enough to be moved, he took them to his own house,
and nursed them with the greatest care.

Who was this kind merchant? Not a Mahomedan, but of the religion of the
fire worshippers, or Parsees. Was he not like the good Samaritan of whom
we read in the New Testament? O that Bahram, the merchant, might know the
true God!

PILGRIMS AND BEGGARS.--Very often you may see a large company of Pilgrims
some on foot, and some mounted on camels, horses, and asses. They are
returning from Mecca, the birth-place of Mahomet. What good have they got
by their pilgrimage? None at all. They think they are grown very holy,
but they make such an uproar at the inns by quarrelling and fighting when
they are travelling home, that no one can bear to be near them.

There is a set of beggars called dervishes. They call themselves very
holy, and think people are bound to give money to such holy men. They are
so bold that sometimes they refuse to leave a place till some money has
been given.

Once a dervish stopped a long while before the house of the English
ambassador, and refused to go away. But a plan was thought of to _make_
him go away.

The dervish was sitting in a little niche in the wall. The ambassador
ordered his servants to build up bricks to shut the dervish in. The men
began to build, yet the dervish would not stir, till the bricks came up
as high as his chin: then he began to be frightened, and said he would
rather go away.