mountain of observances, regarding mole-hills of mere morals not
at all--affects to despise all giaours; but a giaour, like a gipsy,
who has no obvious religion of any kind, he ranks below the pig in
order of reverence. It did not redound to our credit that we showed
interest in the movements of such people.

Monty brought an enormous can of bug-powder with him, and restored
our popularity by lending generously after he had treated our quarters
sufficiently for three days' stay. Fred did nothing to our quarters
--stirred no finger, claiming convalescence with his tongue in his
cheek, and strolling about until he fell utterly in love with the
khan and its crowd, and the khan with him.
That very first night he brought out his concertina on the balcony,
and yowled songs to its clamor; and whether or not the various crowd
agreed on naming the noise music, all were delighted with the friendliness.

Fred talks more languages fluently than he can count on the fingers
of both hands. He began to tell tales in a sing-song eastern snarl
--a tale in Persian, then in Turkish, and the night grew breathless,
full of listening, until pent-up interest at intervals burst bonds
and there were "Ahs" and "Ohs" all amid the dark, like little breaths
of night wind among trees.

He found small time for sleep, and when dawn came, and four Zeitoonli
servants according to Kagig's promise, they still swarmed around
him begging for more. He went off to eat breakfast with a khan from
Bokhara, sitting on a bale of nearly priceless carpets to drink overland
tea made in a thing like a samovar.

All the rest of that day, and the next, sleeping only at intervals,