caparisoned chargers. After them came the attendants of the Grand
Vizier, and delighted the astonished eyes of the spectators with a
display of slinging. Then came the wine-carriers with their wine-skins,
and in a pavilion set up for the purpose wooden men sported with a
living centaur. There also were the Egyptian sword and hoop dancers, the
Indian jugglers and serpent charmers, after whom came the Chief Mufti,
who read aloud a verse from the Koran in the light of thy countenance,
and gave also the interpretation thereof in words fair to listen to.
Then followed fit and capable men from the arsenal, dragging along on
rollers huge galleys in full sail, and after them the topijis, dragging
after them, likewise on rollers, a fortress crammed full of cannons,
which also they fired again and again to the astonishment of the
multitude. Thereupon began the dancing of the Egyptian opium-eaters,
which was indeed most marvellous, and after them there was a show of
bears and apes, which sported right merrily together. Close upon these
came the procession of the Guilds and the junketing of the Janissaries,
and last of all the Feast of Palms, which palms were carried to the very
gates of the Seraglio, along with the sugar gardens I have already
spoken of. Then there was the Feast of Lamps, in which ten thousand
shining lamps gleamed among twenty thousand blossoming tulips, so that
one might well have believed that the lamps were blossoming and the
tulips were shining. And all the while the cannons of the Anatoli Hisar
and the Rumili Hisar were thundering, and the Bosphorus seemed to be
turned into a sea of fire by reason of the illuminated ships and the
sparkling fireworks. Such then was the dream of the humblest of thy
slaves at dawn of the 12th day of the month Dzhemakir, which day is a
day of good omen to the sons of Osman."

It might have been thought a tiresome matter to listen to such long,
drawn-out visions as this to the very end, but Achmed was a good