the proverb says. When he spoke we listened in silence, and when he addressed us he received all attention." Saladin accepted the rebuke of the irate hafedh in all humility, apologized duly, and admonished his friends to be more discreet when the old fellow was around — but not otherwise. Beha ed-din gives us an idea of the Sultan's own conception of a pleasant evening when he says, " He was well acquainted with the pedigrees of the old Arabs, and with the details of their battles ; he knew all their adventures and had the pedigrees of their horses at his fingers' ends. He was the master of much strange and curious lore. Thus, in conversation with him people always heard things which they never could have learned from others." Add to this the fact that " he was of a sociable disposition, of a sweet temper and delightful to talk with," and it is not difficult to realize that his affairs were different indeed from those presided over by Nur ed-din. While Saladin preferred the society of the wise men, the hafedhs and scholars, he appreciated all kinds of talent and apparently, while the great and learned predominated at his evenings, the merely entertaining were welcome also. Sometimes he would himself recite some poem which had appealed to him and the poets were always assured of a warm reception. Ibn Khallikan, author of a biographical dictionary of eminent Moslems, quotes this as one of the poems the Sultan loved to recite to his company: " The harbinger of spring let its voice be heard, and the image of my beloved visited me in a dream, taking