CHAPTER XXIII.
CONCERNING BRIBES 'Why did you want those four mejidis ?' I inquired severely.
Suleyman shrugged up his shoulders and replied: 'I had to pay the proper fees, since you yourself showed not a sign of doing so, to save our carefully established honour and good name.' 'You don't mean that you gave them to the Caimmacam ?' 'Allah forbid! Consider, O beloved, my position in this matter.

To put it in the form of parables: Suppose a king and his vizier should pay a visit to another king and his vizier.

If there were presents to be made, I ask you, would not those intended for the king be offered personally by the king, and those for the vizier by the vizier?
It will be obvious to your Honour, upon slight reflection, that if, in our adventure of this morning, a present to the Governor was necessary or desirable, you personally, and no other creature, should have made it.' 'Merciful Allah!' I exclaimed.

'He would have knocked me down.' 'He would have done nothing of the kind, being completely civilised.
He would merely have pushed back your hand with an indulgent smile, pressing it tenderly, as who should say: "Thou art a child in these things, and dost not know our ways, being a stranger." Yet, undoubtedly, upon the whole, your offer of a gift, however small, would have confirmed the good opinion which he formed at sight of you.
'But let that pass! Out of the four mejidis which you gave me so reluctantly (since you ask for an account) I presented one to the usher, and three to his Excellency's private secretary, in your name.
And I have procured it of the secretary's kindness that he will urge his lord to take some measures to protect that ancient malefactor, the Sheykh Yusuf.' 'If I had tipped the Governor, as you suggest that I ought to have done,' I interrupted vehemently, 'do you mean to say he would have taken measures to protect Sheykh Yusuf ?' 'Nay, I say not that; but he would at least have had complete conviction that your Honour takes a lively interest in that old churl--a person in himself unpleasant and unworthy of a single thought from any thinking or right-minded individual.

Thus, even though he scorned the money, as he would no doubt have done, the offer would have told him we were earnest in our application, and he might conceivably have taken action from desire to do a pleasure to one whom, as I said before, he loved at sight.' 'The whole system is corrupt,' I said, 'and what is worse, unreasonable.' 'So say the Franks,' replied Suleyman, shrugging his shoulders up and spreading wide his hands, as though before a wall of blind stupidity which he knew well could never be cast down nor yet surmounted.