excess crept over him he fell back stupefied and insensible, in which state he was carried out of the place. Un awaking he found himself beside the graud master, who told him that all the joys he had experienced were but a foretaste of what was destined for those who yielded implicit obedience to his commands. The alternative for those who doubted or hesitated was instant death. The youth thus " devoted " to the service of the order was carefully trained in all the arts of deception and disguise ; he was taught to speak various languages, and to assume a variety of dresses and characters ; and, loosed from all trammels of conscience or of creed, he went forth, prepared to plunge his dagger into the breast of his dearest friend, and even into his own, at his superior's command. Such an association could not but prove a formidable political agent in those troublous times, and tho sovereigns of the East feared the secret dagger of the order more than the armies of their foes, and rendered to the grand master whatever tribute and homage he chose to demand. Towards the middle of the fovelfth century the power of the Assassins had extended itself from Khorassan to the mountains of Syria, from the Mediterranean to the Caspian. All trembled before it, and submitted more or less to its will. Hassan died in 1124, after having chosen for his successor Kia Buzur^ gumid, one of the most strenuous of his dais; and the dignity of grand master became ultimately hereditary in his family. The order of Assassins continued in its integrity until 1254, when Manjou Khan, grandson of the celebrated Jenghiz Khan, put an end to its existence. As for the association of the Ismaélites in Cairo, the Mejalis el Hikmeh, or scientific lodges, they were finally suppressed by Saladin in the year 1171 A.D. The Grand Master of the Assassins was called simply sheikh, "elder," or "chief;" and from his rocky fortresses of Alamut and Maziatt he was known as Sheikh el Jebel,