Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/235

 WAITING TO SEE THE HOLY MAN

becomes as pure and harmless as the milk of a goat. Nevertheless after the third bottle we deemed our host in a mood to appreciate our miracles; we commenced. It is not meet for me to relate the success that attended our sleight-of-hand performance under the very nose of the great Algerian wonder-worker. Modesty forbids the telling of the saintly awe or of the expressions of consternation, delight, confusion, and perplexity that overspread the dusky countenance of our kind host, as one by one our miracles were worked before him. When I caught dollars in the air, found them in his turban, drew them forth from loaves of bread, or changed them into hundred-franc gold pieces, he grew so enthusiastic over my financiering that he was on the point of offering me a position as treasurer to the confraternity. When I cut a big hole in his own burnoose and at once by means of fire patched it perfectly, he almost began to fear that he would