Muslims and other Asiatic peoples, like Europeans not so many centuries since, are always on the watch for lucky or unlucky omens.  On first going out of a morning, the looks and countenances of those who cross their path are scrutinised, and a smile or a frown is deemed favourable or the reverse.  To encounter a person blind of the left eye, or even with one eye, forebodes sorrow and calamity.  While Sir John Malcolm was in Persia, as British Ambassador, he was told the following story:  When Abbas the Great was hunting, he met one morning as day dawned an uncommonly ugly man, at the sight of whom his horse started.  Being nearly dismounted, and deeming it a bad omen, the king called out in a rage to have his head cut off.  The poor peasant, whom the attendants had seized and were on the point of executing, prayed that he might be informed of his crime.  “Your crime,” said the king, “is your unlucky countenance, which is the first object I saw this morning, and which has nearly caused me to fall from my horse.”  “Alas!” said the man, “by this reckoning what term must I apply to your Majesty’s countenance, which was the first object my eyes met this morning, and which is to cause my death?” The king smiled at the wit of the reply, ordered the man to be released, and gave him a present instead of cutting off his head.—­Another Persian story is to the same purpose:  A man said to his servant:  “If you see two crows together early in the morning, apprise me of it, that I may also behold them, as it will be a good omen, whereby I shall pass the day pleasantly.”  The servant did happen to see two crows sitting in one place, and informed his master, who, however, when he came saw but one, the other having in the meantime flown away.  He was very angry, and began to beat the servant, when a friend sent him a present of game.  Upon this the servant exclaimed:  “O my lord! you saw only one crow, and have received a fine present; had you seen two, you would have met with my fare."[38]

   [38] This last jest reappears in the apocryphal Life of Esop,
        by Planudes, the only difference being that Esop’s
        master is invited to a feast, instead of receiving a
        present of game, upon which Esop exclaims:  “Alas!  I see
        two crows, and I am beaten; you see one, and are asked
        to a feast.  What a delusion is augury!”

It would seem, from the following story, that an old man’s prayers are sometimes reversed in response, as dreams are said to “go by contraries”:  An old Arab left his house one morning, intending to go to a village at some distance, and coming to the foot of a hill which he had to cross he exclaimed:  “O Allah! send some one to help me over this hill.”  Scarcely had he uttered these words when up came a fierce soldier, leading a mare with a very young colt by her side, who compelled the old man, with oaths and threats, to carry the colt.  As they trudged along, they met a poor woman with