"I have sent for you, Huckaback, to inquire the meaning of the words you
made use of last night: and to know what was the promise made to you in
your seventh and last voyage; but I will thank you to begin at the
first, as I wish to hear the history of all your voyages."
"May it please you highness, as I live but to obey you, all that has
occurred in my eventful life shall, if you command it, be submitted to
your ear. It will, however, be necessary that I should revert to my
early days to enable your highness more fully to comprehend the whole."
"Aferin! well said," replied the pacha; "I don't care how long a story
it is, provided that it is a good one:" and Selim, having obeyed a sign
from his highness, intimating that he might sit down, commenced as
follows.
HUCKABACK.
I am a native of Marseilles, your highness, where I was brought up to
the profession of my father; a profession (continued the wily renegade),
which, I have no hesitation to assert, has produced more men of general
information, and more men of talent, than any other--I mean that of a
barber.
* * * * *
"Wallah Thaib; well said, by Allah!" observed Mustapha.
The pacha nodded his approbation, and the renegade proceeded with his
story.
* * * * *
I was gifted by nature with a ready invention, and some trouble and
expense were bestowed upon my education. To the profession of a barber,
my father added that of bleeding and tooth-drawing.
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