ture. Take him away, cut his throat and bring me his skin.5 So they cut the lion's throat and skinned him. But the ram was given his freedom and was not slaughtered." In the meantime the company is all assembled and Saladin is free to move about. One can see his tall, commanding figure as he listens courteously to some newcomer famous in Islam, or going from group to group, with a compliment here, an inquiry there, ever gracious and full of kindliness, finally settling down with the company about him as a sudden inspiration seizes one of them to give expression to that which will appeal to all. Too bad that some inspired painter from Italy or Holland was not present to hand down a picture of the scene. The subject would have fascinated the best of them, even though art had not yet been freed from its subservience to church and religion, and these were infidels. Somehow one feels that inspired brain and fingers would find the opportunity irresistible and rise above the trammels of prejudice. These bearded men, so virile and animated, their colorful costumes, and finally the picturesque setting of an oriental palace — for, even though the Sultan is personally averse to all forms of pretentiousness, this does not preclude beauty in his surroundings, nor is he unmindful of the fact that most of his people demand the glitter of pomp and power in the home of their ruler. It is the very breath of their nostrils, and they will never understand the absence of luxury from the palaces of the great. Be