calling himself a dervish, encamped between my
back-door and my stable, so that I could never
ride out or feel at ease in my premises while he
was there. I offered him a small gold coin,
worth about five shillings, to go away, but he
rejected it with scorn, and imprudently holding
it out in derision on the tip of his finger, I
immediately took it back again, went into my
house, locked the door, and left him to his own
devices. He took care to ascertain my habits,
and, finding out from my servants that I went to
bed late, he remained quiet till about two
o'clock after midnight, when a most unearthly
noise began. He blew a species of awful
trumpet, and halloa-ballooed for three mortal
hours, during which all thought of sleep was
impossible. The next morning some of my
neighbours came to remonstrate with me politely
upon the subject, and begged that I would save
them this nuisance in future, for that it would
be considered a public scandal. I thought at
first that it would be better to give in to the
customs of the country, and pay the dirty little
scoundrel what he wanted to go away; but his
demand was a high one, and I was informed
that he had already cursed my stable, so that
some of my horses, which were valuable, were
likely enough to receive injury from him as a
warning to other people, unless I could give
him such a fright as would make him ridiculous
in the eyes of my servants, and send him away
from the neighbourhood. My English servant
Harry and I, therefore, determined to match our
wits against his. By watching him secretly
through the keyhole, we found out that he went
to sleep at sundown, and his tactics were to
recruit his strength well for a noise in the middle
of the night, at the time when he had been
probably informed by my Persian servants that we
went to bed.

Upon these facts we based our plan of
operations. By means of phosphorus we made some
horrid drawings, and wrote Persian words of
fearful import upon a board. We then dressed
up a kind of Guy Fawkes, who looked like the
most awful Englishman ever seen. A few harmless
squibs and crackers placed about his person
so as to ignite easily; a speaking trumpet, which
we made up for ourselves, and the top of an old
shower-bath, completed our ammunition. We
let down our Guy Fawkes by a rope tied
to an old chair, suspended from the flat low
roof of our house, which gave us complete
command of the dervish's position and movements,
and bided our time.

Shortly after midnight we perceived that the
saintly man began to move. He commenced
operations by sitting down at the door, and
listening eagerly. In this position he remained
for some time, till, growing impatient, or perhaps
fearing that he had overslept himself, he burst
out into an unearthly howl, and toddled into his
tent hurriedly for his trumpet. He had scarcely
put it to his lips for a blast, when Harry
swooped down, pushed off his tall hat with a
hooked stick, and sent a deluge of water upon
his bare pate. The saintly man gasped pitiably,
and let fall his trumpet. At the same time we
fired our Guy Fawkes, which began to bang and
splutter in a very remarkable manner within a
few yards of the dervish, and Harry began a
sort of bogy talk through his trumpet. Down
went the dervish on all fours, and screamed for
fear; but Harry went on roaring at him, till
finding that our Guy no longer opposed his
passage, he gathered up his gown round him
like an old woman preparing to run, and fled
as fast as a hare with the hounds after him.

We saw him no more; but the next day there
was a fine hubbub and laughter in the bazaars
about the nahib who had got rid of the dervish.

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF COTTON.

THE time has come for reporting progress in
the cotton question, for there is at last progress
to report.

So long as there was a probability of peace
in America our manufacturers would make no
direct efforts to obtain a supply from elsewhere.
America had been faithful for so many years
that they would not believe she would now fail
them. The cotton with which she supplied the
market came so regularly and so clean, and
suited them so exactly, that any lengthened
cessation in its coming seemed unnatural and not
to be thought of. True it was, that impertinent
people in parliament and impertinent people in
the press warned them from time to time of
difficulties which might arise—of the cloud no
bigger than a negro man's hand which told of a
tempest to come in America. True it was that
they were giving a special and direct encouragement
to slavery, which we all agree in the present
day to be very improper, and particularly
inconsistent on the part of a certain school of
politicians. Both of these considerations, doubtless,
made them somewhat uncomfortable; but
they were too much buried in the cotton to
quite believe in the cloud; and, as for the slavery,
they supposed it must be and would be. They
could not help it and were very sorry—as people
who cannot help it always are; and, if every bale
of cotton was really steeped in the blood of the
negro, as philanthropists declared, all they could
say was that they never saw any signs of it. As
far as appearances went they came out of the
commerce with remarkably clean hands. Being
wise traders, they said, they bought in the best
and the cheapest markets; but as foolish traders,
others replied, they would not see what everybody
else saw, that that best and cheapest
market would, one day, become not only the
worst and dearest market, but no market at all.

So it was that Manchester—as the " cotton
interest" is collectively and conveniently called
—went on buying American cotton until it
managed to engross almost the entire supply,
as we find by the state of things at the end of
1860. At that time the growth of cotton in
America, for export, was 4,675,000 bales, and
taking into account that consumed in the
country, the total amount was 5,000,000 bales,