"Ama!" said that potentate;" hand the
Book to the little giour; he will sing to us."

The pious man, looking at me with a curious
mixture of hatred, scorn, and envy, protested
that no unbeliever dared to touch the sacred
volume. But the Bimbasha insisted on the
Book being given into my hands; "For,"
said he, "you must show me how you can
sing the Citab."

I submitted to my fate, and opening the Book,
after I had duly applied my lips to it, I fell
to singing the "Bismillah errahman errahim,"
in pure orthodox Turkish fashion. It so
happened that I had lighted on a chapter,
which I had read over and over again in the
course of my Arabic studies; and I,
consequently, acquitted myself to perfection. The
old Turk was amused, and the Hodza
admitted that my singing was as good as that of
the truest believer.

"I wish that little Giour would embrace
the true faith!" said the Bimbasha; "I
would gladly keep him here as Hekim
Effendi!" and, turning full upon me, he said,
in a louder but a most alarmingly insinuating
tone:

"Art thou a horseman?"
"Yes!"

"And a smoker of chibuks and a drinker
of coffee?"

"Most certainly."

"Behold, these shall be thy labours. Stay
with me! Thou shalt live in my own kula,
eat at THY MASTER'S table, and ride about
with me. Thou shalt have plenty of money
and horses; and if thy heart be set upon
wedlock, thou mayest marry girls as many as
thou pleasest. What canst thou want more?"

I listened with astonishment to this oration
— for so it was for a Turk— and, in reply,
begged to decline the Bimbasha's generous
offer with my warmest thanks, adding:— "I
have a house and a wife in my own country,
nor must I leave them behind: and I
acknowledge no master except God and his
law."

"Hm!— I understand you: you would be
your own master. Such things may be in
your own country; but here,"— added the
Bimbasha, energetically "here there is no master
except me— and the Sultan."

All the Turks in the room crossed their
arms and bowed, while we thought it time to
make our adieux. Mehmed and our escort
seemed inclined to see us off, but a peremptory
order from the Bimbasha kept them back.

In another moment we were on horseback,
dashing, at a mad gallop, down the single
street of the famous city of Jasenica.

"Allah küvvet versün!— May the Lord give
us strength!"— prayed Jusuf, as he spurred
his lean horse in advance of the fugitive party
A retreat is the severest trial of human
courage; and ours, I grieve to say, was found
signally wanting. Each of us urged the others
on by the furious speed into which he lashed
his own horse, and in this manner, panting
foaming, and all but exhausted, we reached
Jusuf's house at nightfall. Early next morning,
we proceeded to Jarak, and recounted
our adventures and sufferings to the patient
ears of Ahmed Beg.

"It is what I expected," said he. "But I
thought you had considered the danger, and
as my advice was not asked for, I did not
give it."

Thus terminated my first and last trip into
Bosnia.

———————————-

CHIPS.

A CARD.

THE Conductor of "Household "Words"
presents his compliments to the forty-two
Ladies who, during the week which ended on
the 8th instant, were so good as to forward
epic, didactic, dithyrambic, and lyrical poems,
on the opening of the Great Exhibition in
Hyde Park, and begs to assure them that a
conscientious perusal of all their compositions
has produced a state of mind that leaves
him quite unequal to the pleasure of answering
their communications separately. The
eleven Gentlemen who have obliged him
with copies of verses on the same subject,
will also, perhaps, accept this general
acknowledgment of their poetic zeal.

The result will, he fears, prove unsatisfactory
to all parties; for, to the fatigue of
perusal, he has now to add the pain of rejection.
Not one of the fifty-three productions
has he been able to print with the faintest
hope of gratifying his readers.

———

MR. BUBB'S VISIT TO THE MOON.

MR. BUBBS after his visit to the Sun (as
described in a former number) was too much
excited by the solar policemen— to rest long in
a state of inactivity; so he thought that
before he went to see the Great Exhibition in
Hyde Park— and all the wonderful things
there— that he would take a nice quiet ride in
the moon, and see what sort of fun it was
there: and as the moon is about four hundred
times nearer to the Earth than the sun, Mr.
Bubbs had little difficulty in locating himself
upon one of the high hills of the moon— high
it appeared to Mr. Bubbs, for although it was
only some four or five miles high— not higher
than the Himalaya— yet as the moon has a
diameter equal only to about one fourth of
that of the earth, Mr. Bubbs thought that
comparatively— a very decent height.

There was one curious thing, Mr. B.
remarked, with reference to the earth, moon,
and sun: and that was— if the earth were cut
in half— like an orange, and the matter
scooped out of one of these halves, so as to
form a kind of hollow bell, and the sun put
in the centre of this, that the moon would be
easily able to go round us, just the same as
usual; and this too, with the shell over us all
— in fact, that this shell would only form a