bitation where we might get food and shelter for the night; but we
should have passed by that building, taking it to be deserted, had not
we espied a woman's figure sitting out before it in the evening light.

Experience of late had taught us to shun villages, belonging
thereabouts to a peculiar sect, whose members made a virtue of
inhospitality. At noon that day, when wishing to buy food, we had been
met with such amazing insults that Rashid, my henchman, had not yet
recovered from his indignation, and still brooded on revenge. On
seeing that the ruined tower had occupants, he said:

'If these refuse us, we will force an entrance mercilessly; for see,
they dwell alone, with none to help them.'

He rode before me towards the tower, with shoulders squared and whip
upraised.

It surprised me that the woman sitting out before the door appeared
indifferent to his approach, until, upon a closer view, I saw that she
was old and blind. She must, I thought, be deaf as well, since she had
failed to move at sound of hoof beats; which sound brought out an aged
man, who shattered Rashid's plan of vengeance by exclaiming:
'Itfaddalu! (Perform a kindness!' that is, 'Enter!').

'It is thou who doest kindness,' I replied, by rote. 'We are thy
suppliants for food and rest this night.'

'All mine is thine,' the old man answered, coming to hold my horse's
head, while I dismounted. His wrinkled face was moulded to a patient,
sad expression, which became more noticeable when he smiled; and he
was always smiling.

I went into the tower and down a flight of much-worn steps, which
ended in a heap of fallen masonry.

'Deign to proceed,' called out the tenant from behind me; when,
climbing over the obstruction, I found myself in a large room, of
which the only furniture consisted in a heap of bedding and some
cooking things. Rather to my surprise the place was clean. The old man
flung himself upon the ground and blew upon the mass of charcoal in a
brazier, and presently a smell of coffee stewing filled the dungeon;
for such it doubtless had been in the past, its only window being high
above our heads, yet only just above the level of the rock, as I
discovered when I went to seek Rashid, who, by our host's direction,
had bestowed the horses in a cavern by the sea. The blind old woman
still sat out before the door.

I walked all round the tower and noticed small fields neatly fenced
below it on the landward side, and a few hobbled goats