No man, will purchase a horse with such a mark, or believe that any family can be safe in which a horse or mare with such a mark is kept.

His mother told him, that if he cohabited with a woman having such a mark, he and all his children must perish.

The King said that he might probably have, among his many wives, some with marks of this kind; and that this might account for his frequent attacks of palpitation of the heart.

"No doubt," said the old Queen Dowager; "we have long thought so; but your Majesty gets into such a towering passion when we venture to speak of your wives, that we have been afraid to give expression to our thoughts and fears." "Perhaps," said the King, "I may owe to this the death, lately, of my poor son, the heir- apparent." "We have long thought so," replied his mother.

The chief eunuch, Busheer, was forthwith ordered to inspect the back of the necks of all save that of the chief consort, the mother of the late and present heir-apparent.