aloud from the Koran with a peculiar and impressive intonation; they then walk about the village holding out their alms-receiver and shouting “huk yah huk! huk yah huk " Half afraid of incurring their displeasure, few of the villagers refuse to contribute a copper or portable cooked provisions.  Most dervishes are addicted to the intemperate use of opium, bhang (a preparation of Indian hemp), arrack, and other baleful intoxicants, generally indulging to excess whenever they have collected sufficient money; they are likewise credited with all manner of debauchery; it is this that accounts for their pale, haggard appearance.  The following quotation from “In the Land of the Lion and Sun,” and which is translated from the Persian, is eloquently descriptive of the general appearance of the dervish:  The dervish had the dullard air, The maddened look, the vacant stare, That bhang and contemplation give.  He moved, but did not seem to live; His gaze was savage, and yet sad; What we should call stark, staring mad.  All down his back, his tangled hair Flowed wild, unkempt; his head was bare; A leopard’s skin was o’er him flung; Around his neck huge beads were hung, And in his hand-ah! there’s the rub- He carried a portentous club.  After visiting the dervishes I spend an hour in an adjacent tchai-khan drinking tea with my escort and treating them to sundry well-deserved kalians.  Among the rabble collected about the doorway is a half-witted youngster of about ten or twelve summers with a suit of clothes consisting of a waist string and a piece of rag about the size of an ordinary pen-wiper.  He is the unfortunate possessor of a stomach disproportionately large and which intrudes itself upon other people’s notice like a prize pumpkin at an agricultural fair.  This youth’s chief occupation appears to be feeding melon-rinds to a pet sheep belonging to the tchai-khan and playing a resonant tattoo on his abnormally obtrusive paunch with the palms of his hands.  This produces a hollow, echoing sound like striking an inflated bladder with a stuffed club; and considering that the youth also introduces a novel and peculiar squint into the performance, it is a remarkably edifying spectacle.  Supper-time coming round, the soldiers show the way to an eating place, where we sup off delicious bazaar-kabobs, one of the most tasteful preparations of mutton one could well imagine.  The mutton is minced to the consistency of paste and properly seasoned; it is then spread over flat iron skewers and grilled over a glowing charcoal fire; when nicely browned they are laid on a broad pliable sheet of bread in lieu of a plate, and the skewers withdrawn, leaving before the customer a dozen long flat fingers of nicely browned kabobs reposing side by side on the cake of wheaten bread-a most appetizing and digestible dish.  Returning to the caravanserai, I dismiss my faithful soldiers with a suitable present, for which they loudly implore the blessings of Allah on my head, and for the third or fourth time impress upon