one time!"

"Nay, my mother, what I shall see in Africa will be new and strange.
The sight of new and strange things is like the lessons which the good
Imam used to give me at school from the Kuran. Every day I shall see
something new, and every day I shall grow in wisdom and experience; and
my mind will be enriched by each new thing, and in time will become a
store of wisdom, to be applied to my advantage in affairs of life. Thou
art surprised that I talk so, mother. I have been talking with wise
white men. The consuls, who know everything, have been dropping strange
ideas to me every day, not because I asked them, or that they dropped
them for my benefit. Being permitted to play with their children, I
have been in their presence while they were conducting their business,
and the amount of wisdom the white men know is wonderful. Great
thoughts--too great for me to understand--dropped from their mouths--
from one to another--just as those pearls which thou dost play with are
passed from thy right hand to thy left."

"It is well, my son. I have heard thee through. Thou art already older
by many years than I took thee to be yesterday. Thou mayst tell my lord
Amer how Amina received thy news. I will have something more to tell
thee, before thou goest to Africa," and Amina arose to leave the
apartment for another, humbly, and with her head bowed down.

"My mother," cried Selim, springing up, and seizing her hand, which he
conveyed respectfully to his lips, "be not offended. It is not my
doing, but Allah's, and Allah's will be done!"

"Ay, truly! Allah's will be done!" said the poor mother, embracing him,
but with more restraint than usual.

We are now compelled to leave each of the Arabs engaged to accompany
Khamis bin Abdullah to Rua in search of ivory and slaves to make his
preparations as he best knows how. It is not our duty to peer too
closely into the small details of this business of preparation. It
absorbs all one's time, and we feel sure if we troubled them to give us
too minute an account of the manner in which they get along, some
impatient expressions might escape to our regret. Therefore we think it
better to leave each Arab alone, to the cunning of his own devices, to
his calculations, and purchases, to his ever-recurring vexations, to the
fatigue and anxiety which belong to the task of fitting out; merely
observing, as we pass by, that each Arab purchases such beads, of such
colours, as h