talisman
Ketlafgat remains to me, which will preserve me if despair should
seize me in the attainment of my wishes."

As he spoke thus to himself, he saw a number of riders appear in the
distance, and he soon perceived that they were riding straight to him.
He looked round for some place of shelter; but there was no place on
the level high plains where he could hide himself. The riders
approached nearer: he saw them divide and form a cross, and so they
advanced till they came quite near. Some of them alighted and went
with drawn sabres to him. He found that all defence was vain, and,
throwing away his sabre, he knelt down, bowing himself to the ground
like a humble slave.

"Seize him!" called out the leader of the horsemen, "and seat him on a
spare horse, and bring him with us; but, by your lives, stand by me,
and see that he does not escape."

Both the horsemen to whom he had spoken these words inclined full of
reverence to him, then seized Jussuf, bound his hands, and seated him
on a horse, and, taking him between them, rode, alternately seizing
the bridle of his horse, at a fast trot over the high plains. The
remaining riders followed at a little distance. With short
interruptions, which were necessary for the forage of the horses and
the rest of the men and animals, they continued riding for several
days. About the tenth day they reached a wide valley through which
flowed a great river. Jussuf saw cultivated fields, gardens, and men's
dwellings. They made him alight from his horse, and led him into the
little room of a house. There they gave him everything necessary to
make himself clean after so long a journey. For a man who had before
lived in the greatest affluence, he had felt very heavily in these
last days of his imprisonment his want of cleanliness: it seemed to
him, therefore, a most wonderful favour of fate that they now brought
him water with which to bathe himself, a comb, and some ointment for
his beard, and signified to him that he was to take a bath and anoint
himself. After he had bathed, combed his beard, and anointed himself,
he was conducted to the garden of the house; and here the owner of it
advanced towards him. After he had observed him with searching looks,
he said to his companions,

"Good! the man is quite right; keep him carefully and examine him for
nine days, then we will take him to his place, and sacrifice him to
the fire." He winked with his eye, and his servants took him back to