looking in the geography, but I am sure none of you can read the
inscription on the penny, and tell what it all means. Who is Fessul bin
Turkee? What is an Imam? How much is one-quarter of an Anna? And when did
this queer coin come fresh from the mint?

[Illustration: OMAN COIN.]

Let us begin at the beginning. Fessul bin Turkee, the present ruler of
Oman, lives in a large, tumble-down old castle in Muscat, and his big red
flag waves over the town every Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath. He is not
much better nor worse than his father, Turkee, or than other rulers in
Arabia, but he certainly is far more enterprising, and is generally liked
by the Arabs of Muscat. He is not however in all respects a merciful
ruler. When I visited Muscat a few years ago this petty king had a real
lion's den, like Nebuchadnezzar, and the story goes that he sometimes used
it in the same way to get rid of his enemies. He once had a steam-launch,
and even put up an electric light on the top of his castle, but both of
these modern improvements came to grief. He also started a small ice
factory to supply his household with cold water when the thermometer rises
to over one hundred degrees; but the expense was too great and so the
project melted away likewise. His last venture is more successful, and
ever since the ice factory added a P to its sign-board and became a "pice
factory," copper coins have been plentiful in Oman. A _pice_ is the Indian
name for a small copper coin, and the Arabs borrowed the word, with many
other words, from the Hindu traders. The Sultan has plenty of wives and
horses and retainers; his castle is well-supplied with old cannon and
modern rifles; huge coffee-pots pour out cheap hospitality every day; but
withal I do not think he is very happy, for he is in debt and his power is
not as extensive as it was once. Fessul's proper title is not Sultan,
although he is often so called, but _Imam_, which signifies religious