"What is the book thou art reading?" inquired Guel-Bejaze.
"Fairy tales and magic sentences," replied Patrona.
"Is it there that thou readest all those nice stories which thou tellest
me every evening?"
"Yes, they are here."
"Tell me, I pray thee, what thou hast just been reading?"
"When thou art quite awake," said Halil, rapturously gazing at the fair
face of the girl who was sleeping in his arms--and he continued turning
over the leaves of the book.
And what then was in it? What did those brightly coloured letters
contain? What was the name of the book?
That book is the "Takimi Vekai."
Ah! ask not a Mussulman what the "Takimi Vekai" is, else wilt thou make
him sorrowful; neither mention it before a Mohammedan woman, else the
tears will gush from her eyes. The "Takimi Vekai" is "The Book of the
Sentences of the Future," which was written a century and a half ago by
Said Achmed-ibn Mustafa, and which has since been preserved in the
Muhamedije mosque, only those high in authority ever having the
opportunity of seeing it face to face.
Those golden letters embellished with splendid flowers contain dark
sayings. Let us listen:
"Takimi Vekai"--The Pages of the Future.
"On the eighth-and-twentieth day of the month Rubi-Estani, in the year
of the Hegira, 886,[3] I, Said Achmed-ibn Mustafa, Governor of Scutari
and scribe of the Palace, having accomplished the Abdestan[4] and
recited the Fateha[5] with hands raised heavenwards, ascended to the
tower of Ujuk Kule, from whence I could survey all Stambul, and there I
began to meditate.
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