e
point of honour. Moussa would have been set to music and have become a
source of income to the gifted. He would have become a Pillar of the
Order of Knighthood and an Ornament of the Age of Chivalry. A wreath of
laurels would have encircled his brow--instead of a rope of hemp
encircling his neck.

For such fine, quick, self-respecting Pride, such resentment of insult,
men have become Splendid Figures of the Glorious Past.

_Autres jours autres moeurs_.

How many people called him _Hubshi_, we know not; but we know, from his
own lips, of the killing of some few. Of the killing of others he had
forgotten, for his memory was poor, save for insult and kindness. And,
having caught and convicted him in one or two cases the appointed
servants of the British Empire first "reformed" and then slew him in
their turn--thus descending to his level without his excuse of private
personal insult and injury....

The scars on Moussa Isa's face with the hole in his ear were connected
with one of his very earliest memories--or one of his very earliest
memories was connected with the scars on his face and the hole in his
ear--a memory of jolting along on a camel, swinging upside-down, while a
strong hand grasped his foot; of seeing his father rush at his captor
with a long, broad-bladed spear, of being whirled and flung at his
father's head; and of seeing his father's intimate internal economy
seriously and permanently disarranged by the two-handed sword of one of
the camel rider's colleagues (who flung aside a heavy gun which he had
just emptied into Moussa's mamma) as his father fell to the ground under
the impact and weight of the novel missile. Though Moussa was unaware,
in his abysmal ignorance, of the interesting fact, the great two-handed
sword so effectually wielded by the supporter of his captor, was exactly
like that of a Crusader of old. It was like that of a Crusader of old,
because it was a direct lineal descendant of the swords of the Crusaders
who had brought the first specimens to the country, quite a good many
years previously. Indeed some people said that a few of the swords
owned by these Dervishes were real, original, Crusaders' swords, the
very weapons whose hilts were once grasped by Norman hands, and whose
blades had cloven Paynim heads in the name of Christianity and the
interests of the Sepulchre. I do not know--but it is a wonderfully dry
climate, and swords are there kept, cherished, and bequeathed, even mor