Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 03.djvu/77

Rh I told her that I was blessing God for having given me so much enjoyment, and that I thought myself extremely happy.

In the morning the imaum came to enroll me among the circumcised, and as I made some objection to the initiation, the cadi of that district—a man of great loyalty—proposed to have me empaled. I preserved my freedom by paying a thousand sequins, and then fled directly into Persia, resolved for the future never to hear Greek or Latin mass, nor to cry "Allah, Illah, Allah!" in a love encounter.

On my arrival at Ispahan the people asked me whether I was for white or black mutton? I told them that it was a matter of indifference to me, provided it was tender. It must be observed that the Persian empire was at that time split into two factions, that of the white mutton and that of the black. The two parties imagined that I had made a jest of them both, so that I found myself engaged in a very troublesome affair at the gates of the city, and it cost me a great number of sequins to get rid of the white and the black mutton.

I proceeded as far as China, in company with an interpreter, who assured me that this country was the seat of gayety and freedom. The Tartars had made themselves masters of it, after having destroyed everything with fire and sword.

The reverend fathers, the Jesuits, on the one hand, and the reverend fathers, the Dominicans,