te
kine strolled leisurely towards the house of Kasi Mollah, passing one
by one through the gate of their enclosure; behind the last of them
came the children of the sheik, who guarded the herd in the forest.

The boy appeared to be about twelve, and the girl a year younger, and
so closely did they resemble each other that, viewed in profile, it
was impossible to distinguish one from the other. Both had the same
long, black hair, which flowed in wondrous ringlets down their
shoulders, the same soft complexion of a naive maturity, and as smooth
as velvet, just as if they never walked in the sunlight, and yet they
had no head-coverings. The youth's face revealed so much girlish
tenderness, and the girl's so much vigor and expression, that by
changing their clothes it would have been possible to substitute one
for the other; and, but for the well-known, tight-fitting corset,
peculiar to the Circassian maidens, which caused her figure, slender
as a delicate flower-stalk, to bend somewhat backwards, throwing into
relief the contours of her childlike breasts, it would have been
scarcely possible to have distinguished her from her brother,
especially when, as now, they walked side by side, half embracing. The
snow-white arm of the girl was round her brother's neck, and her
humidly glittering black eyes seemed to be sucking the virile courage
from his face; the boy held the slim figure of his sister encircled by
one of his arms, tapping her, from time to time, caressingly on the
shoulder, while his eyes rested, full of tenderness, on her beloved
face.

"What a majestic pair of children!" exclaimed Leonidas
Argyrocantharides, in his enthusiasm. "What a shame it is to lock them
up in this corner of the world! But what the deuce is the lad dragging
along with his left hand while he embraces his sister with his right?
What _is_ it, my pretty children? Nay, don't bring it here. What sort
of unclean animal is it?"

The lad, with a triumphant smile, stood before the merchant while his
sister ran to her father, climbed on to his knees, and throwing her
arms shamefacedly round his neck hid her face from the stranger.

"Do you not recognize the bear-skin?" cried the youth, in a strong,
clear voice; and as he spoke you became aware of the light black down
which shaded his upper lip and revealed the man, and with one of his
hands he raised up the beast he was dragging after him on to its hind
legs. It was a young bear, about a year an