Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/151

ul Mejìd, and by him presented to this mosque. Sultan Mahmûd was an excellent writer, and hearing people vaunt the penmanship of a certain scribe, he invited him to a trial of skill. The specimens of handwriting thus produced were submitted to various experts of whom, all but one, being courtiers, decided for the Sultan. But one of the judges managed, without offence to the padishah, to be just to his more skilful rival. On the latter’s paper he wrote “The handwriting of the best of scribes”; on Mahmûd’s, “The handwriting of the best of sultans and scribes.” The sultan, struck with his uprightness, made him a splendid present, and sent the text which he had written to the Mosque El Aksa.

X

A certain sultan dreamt that all his teeth fell suddenly out of his mouth; and, awaking, was so frightened he woke his servants and bade them summon the Learned with all speed.

The sages, gathered in haste, heard the dream, and afterwards kept silence, seeming much embarrassed. But a young man, fresh from school, stood forth unbidden, and falling at the sultan’s feet, exclaimed:

“O sultan of the age! The dream be to your enemies, and the interpretation thereof to all that hate you. It means that all your relatives will be destroyed before your eyes in a single day.”