ins with the words
"dragoman," "backsheesh," and "Cheops."

But even on a week or ten days of genuine travelling you are likely to
pass through and over a variety of grounds, from hard gravel which is
delightful for tent-pitching, ground covered with a liberal supply of
rocks, under which lurks the festive scorpion, great mounds of
limestone which in the desert take on the proportions of mountains,
marks of long-dried pools left by long-dried torrents, defiles almost
as narrow as the camel's scriptural needle, and in places, an earth,
the curious marking of which will almost lead you to believe that it is
cloud-shadowed, if the heat of your head, the state of your throat, and
the lamentable leathery appearance of your skin did not tell you that
for months no such thing as a cloud had been known to appear in the
blazing heavens.

At the first faint, flute-like note Jill thought that she must have
awakened from sleep or delirium, and, it must be confessed, really did
not care which was the solution of the mystery; sinking back into a
state of apathy so exhausted was she, until the three camels came to a
standstill, and the Arab, with something that looked like a dark cloak
across his arm, drew his beast alongside of hers.

"Behold, woman, the hour of Namaz is at hand, when throughout the land
the Muezzin is called, for it is the hour of dawn. The hour when the
curtains of heaven are drawn about the stars, so that they may not be
blinded by the glory of their golden master, as I shall draw this cloak
about the fairness of your sweet face, and the outline of your gracious
figure, which Allah in his bounty has placed within my unworthy hands,
to hide them from the eyes of the high-born, and the eyes of the
low-born, such as yonder slave who, though he be the sweetest maker of
music in all Egypt, is but my head camel tender, though before Allah
who is God, his worth as such could not be purchased for the price of
rubies.

"And now shall your weary form rest a while, while I give praise to
Allah, whose prophet is Mohammed."

Grumbling, the three animals subsided.

"Is all well with you?"

The girl nodded as she stumbled from her seat and stretched herself
full length upon the sands, the convulsive twitching of her cramped
limbs giving way at last to the peace of oblivion.

"Will you forgive me if I leave you in your stress, for behold, the
hour of Namaz waits neither for weariness or joy, nay, nor even death."

Bu