wounded foot, I opened and read the missive:
To Hamed the Attar, greeting:
Food, cooking-utensils, water, coffee and tobacco are under the mat behind you. There is sufficient of everything to last you two weeks, but your foot should be well enough to permit of some travel within ten days. It had been spared you entirely, except that, as it is, it will effectively dissuade you from the folly of following me. Follow the path of the setting sun, and you will reach the Hajj Road, where assistance is bound to be forthcoming, and
He Whom You Robbed.
I abode in that barren spot for ten days, whereupon my foot was nearly healed as the note had prophesied. Then I slowly and painfully made my way to the Hajj Road, and then, with the help of a kind-hearted traveler who had room for me on his shugduf, to Jerusalem.
Being penniless and crippled, I was forced to beg for a living until a certain learned Ferringeh, hearing my story, gave me light work to do in his home, and in return for my poor services gave me food and lodging, and taught me your language. My benefactor left, but his teachings enabled me to make a living thereafter as a dragoman.
And so you will conclude, effendi, that I became a confirmed misogynist, and never married. Not so. It chanced one day, when I was passing the hammam, a well-dressed young lady of pleasing carriage signed to me with her eyes. Not being employed at the moment, I followed her at a distance and learned where she lived. I loitered about the place thereafter when business was poor, and she sat in the window of the harim and flirted with me. Several times she made it appear that her veil had slipped out of place, and thereby revealed to me a countenance of rare beauty. I had saved some money, so I sent a khatibeh to sue for her hand, and we were married. For forty years she was a true and faithful wife to me. Then Allah received her into His mercy.
They tell me, effendi, that you have in your country many women and girls who brazenly expose as much of their persons
(Continued on page 138)
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