"Thou worm! thou crossed-leg, crouching huckster, thou pack-thread
pedlar! if thou dost not let me go immediately, I will cut off thy
hands, thy feet, thine ears, and thy nose, and then hang thee up."

"And if thou leave not go of my guest, I will fell thee to the earth
with this stick of mine."

"What, _thou_ wilt fell _me_? Me? A fellow like thou threaten to strike
Halil Pelivan with a stick? Strike away then, thou dog, thou
dishonourable brute-beast, thou dregs of a Mussulman! strike away then,
strike here, if thou have the courage!"

And with that he pointed at his own head, which he flung back defiantly
as if daring his opponent to strike at it.

But Halil Patrona's courage was quite equal even to such an invitation
as that, and he brought down the leaded stick in his hand so heavily on
the Janissary's head that the fellow's face was soon streaming with
blood.

Pelivan roared aloud at the blow, and, shaking his bloody forehead,
rushed upon Patrona like a wounded bear, and disregarding a couple of
fresh blows on the arms and shoulders which had the effect, however, of
making him drop his yataghan, he grasped his adversary with his gigantic
hands, lifted him up, and then hugged him with the embrace of a
boa-constrictor. But now it appeared that Patrona also was by no means a
novice in the art of self-defence, for clutching with both hands the
giant's throat, he squeezed it so tightly that in a few seconds the
Janissary began to stagger to and fro, finally falling backwards to the