Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1892 — Betrayed by His Own Curiosity. [ARTICLE]

Betrayed by His Own Curiosity.

During the Mohammedan festival of the Baixam, an inhabitant of the village of Funduckli, in Turkey, had dressed his child, about two years old, in a shawl and a cap ornamented with pieces of gold, and intrusted it to a slave, who had left it for a moment seated in the court of the house. On his return the child was gone, and every search for it proved ■fruitless. The father applied to the seraskier (the military commander of the district), entreating him to inquire into the circumstances. This officer reflected that the child could not be carried far, on account of its cries, and therefore must have been taken by one of the neighbors. He did not communicate this idea to any one, but directed one of his messen’gers to go to the village of Funduckli at the hour of prayer, to enter the mosque, and summon the iman (or priest) to come immediately to his palace. When the iman came into the presenco of the seraskier, he received a positive injunction to come to him again on the morrow and give him the name of the person who first came to inquire of him the cause qf his being sent for by the seraskier. The Turks in general pay little attention to the affairs of others —not even those of their priests; consequently, on returning to the mosque, one man only came to him to ask the cause of so sudden a summons. The, iman replied that it was only in relation to a firman which he was tto have read, but which was withdrawn. On being informed by the iman of what had passed, the seraskier caused the inquisitive man to be arrested; and after considerable search the body of the child was found concealed under the staircase of his house. The inquisitive criminal was sentenced to be instantly drowned.