ing like a wholesome
river, and bearing back to the lips a taste as of the sea.

And the people of the town, in their surprise and gladness at the
falling of the rain, had come out of their houses to meet it. The
streets and the marketplace were full of them. In childish joy they
wandered up and down in the drenching flood, without fear or thought
of harm, with laughing eyes and gleaming white teeth, holding out their
palms to the rain and drinking it. Hailing each other in the voices of
boys, jesting and shouting and singing, to and fro they went and came
without aim or direction. The Jews trooped out of the Mellah, chattering
like jays, and the Moors at the gate salaamed to them. Mule-drivers
cried "Balak" in tones that seemed to sing; gunsmiths and saddle-makers
sat idle at their doors, greeting every one that passed; solemn Talebs
stood in knots, with faces that shone under the closed hoods of their
dark jellabs; and the bareheaded Berbers encamped in the market-square
capered about like flighty children, grinned like apes, fired their long
guns into the air for love of hearing the powder speak, often wept, and
sometimes embraced each other, thinking of their homes that were far
away.

Now, it was just when the town was alive with this strange scene that
the procession which had been ordered by Ben Aboo came out from
the Kasbah. At the head of it walked a soldier, staff in hand and
gorgeous--notwithstanding the rain--in peaked shasheeah and crimson
selham. Behind him were four black police, and on either side of the
company were two criers of the street, each carrying a short staff
festooned with strings of copper coin, which he rattled in the air for a
bell. Between these came the victims of the Basha's order--Naomi first,
barefooted, bareheaded, stripped of all but the last garment that
hid her nakedness, her head held down, her face hidden, and her eyes
closed--and Israel afterwards, mounted on a lean and ragged ass. A
further guard of black police walked at the back of all. Thus they came
down the steep arcades into the market-square, where the greater body of
the townspeople had gathered together.

When the people saw them, they made for them, hastening in crowds from
every side of the Feddan, from every adjacent alley, every shop, tent,
and booth. And when they saw who the prisoners were they burst into loud
exclamations of surprise.

"Ya Allah! Israel the Jew!" cried the Moors.

"God of Jacob, save us!