268 AMONG THE DERVISHES

" 'Truly answered, my daughter, and he who will one
day become the Chelebi has sent to ask your hand in mar-
riage. His beard is silken black. He is in the full glory
of youth. When I have passed away your husband shall
rule here, and when you and he have passed away, your
first-born son shall sit upon the sheepskin throne/

"This he said to search for what might lie hidden in
her heart. She listened in amazement and replied, weep-
ing: cMy lord, the honor is greater than any I ever
dreamed, but I am desolate, for my heart died when he
who sang was banished and sent away/

"The Chelebi lifted her from her knees and kissed her
on the forehead and bade her go in peace. Straightway
he summoned his chamberlain and bade him telegraph the
chapter house at Jerusalem to send a swift messenger to
the little tekkek where Daidan Helmy sat in exile, and
summon him to Konia.

"When Daidan Helmy came, the Chelebi proclaimed
a fetvafi [a sort of religious court or tribunal], and when
the brethren were assembled he said: 'It is written that
the ways of Allah are past finding out, and it is written
that no man can struggle against his fate. If one go mad
for the love of a damsel, and then recover his reason, but
with his heart still desolate, shall he not be given her
hand in marriage, lest the madness come once more upon
him, and the answering be heavy upon those who have
sought to hold them apart*?'

"Then all the brethren, including the father of Fir-
doos, cried: *So be it, O most just among Moslems!7 A
great wedding feast was prepared, and when three days
had passed, Daidan went in to the damsel and made her
his wife. All of these latter things which happened at