“What! always this head, into which one cannot peep,” replied the Sultana. “Pray, drop your dark lantern, in which you suppose a light, that is seen by none but by him who carries it: hear my experiment, and own the truth of my hypothesis. It is so constantly true, that the soul begins its progress in the body by the feet, that there are some of both sexes, in whom it never rose higher. My lord, you have admired Nini’s nimbleness and Saligo’s feats of activity a thousand times: answer me then sincerely, do you think that these creatures have their souls anywhere else but in their legs? And have you not remarked, that in Volucer and Zelindor the head is submissive to the feet? The eternal temptation of a dancer is to contemplate his legs. At every step his attentive eye follows his paces, and his head bows respectuously before his feet, as do before his highness his invincible Pacha’s.”

“I allow the observation,” said Selim: “but I deny that it is a general one.”