A young man, a kafir of considerable affluence, who had recently married a young and handsome wife, applied to a very devout Bushreen or Mussulman priest of his acquaintance, to procure him saphies for his protection during the approaching war.

The Bushreen complied with his request, and to render the saphies more efficacious, enjoined the young man to avoid any nuptial intercourse with his bride for the space of six weeks.

The kafir obeyed, and without telling his wife the real cause, absented himself from her company.

In the mean time it was whispered that the Bushreen, who always performed his evening devotions at the door of the kafir's hut, was more intimate with the young wife, than was consistent with virtue, or the sanctity of his profession.

The husband was unwilling to suspect the honour of his sanctified friend, whose outward show of religion, as is the case with the priests and parsons of the civilized part of the world, protected him from even the suspicion of so flagitious an act.