“Oh! as to the possibility,” said Mangogul, “I dispute it not.”

“But if you allow it possible,” replied Mirzoza, “who has revealed to you, that they do not actually exist?”

“Nothing but their Toys,” answered the Sultan. “And yet I grant that this evidence does not come up to the strength of your argument. May I be transform’d into a mole, if you have not borrowed it from some Bramin. Order the Manimonbanda’s chaplain to be called, and he will tell you that you have proved the existence of virtuous women, much as he demonstrates that of Brama, in Braminology. Apropos, have you not taken a course in that sublime school, before you entered the Seraglio?”

“No ill-natured jokes,” replied Mirzoza. “I do not draw my conclusion from possibility: I ground it on a fact, on an experiment.”

“Yes,” continued Mangogul, “on a lame fact, on a single experiment; while, to your certain knowledge, I have a multitude of trials for my opinion: but I will not sour your temper by farther contradictions.”