ogether,
I could not make it out, nor could Leo, though of course he was
exceedingly triumphant over me because I had persistently mocked at the
whole thing. As for Job, he had long since abandoned any attempt to call
his reason his own, and left it to drift upon the sea of circumstance.
Mahomed, the Arab, who was, by the way, treated civilly indeed, but
with chilling contempt, by the Amahagger, was, I discovered, in a great
fright, though I could not quite make out what he was frightened about.
He would sit crouched up in a corner of the cave all day long, calling
upon Allah and the Prophet to protect him. When I pressed him about it,
he said that he was afraid because these people were not men or women at
all, but devils, and that this was an enchanted land; and, upon my word,
once or twice since then I have been inclined to agree with him. And
so the time went on, till the night of the fourth day after Billali had
left, when something happened.

We three and Ustane were sitting round a fire in the cave just before
bedtime, when suddenly the woman, who had been brooding in silence,
rose, and laid her hand upon Leo's golden curls, and addressed him. Even
now, when I shut my eyes, I can see her proud, imperial form, clothed
alternately in dense shadow and the red flickering of the fire, as she
stood, the wild centre of as weird a scene as I ever witnessed, and
delivered herself of the burden of her thoughts and forebodings in a
kind of rhythmical speech that ran something as follows:--

Thou art my chosen--I have waited for thee from the beginning!
Thou art very beautiful. Who hath hair like unto thee, or skin so
white?
Who hath so strong an arm, who is so much a man?
Thine eyes are the sky, and the light in them is the stars.
Thou art perfect and of a happy face, and my heart turned itself
towards thee.
Ay, when mine eyes fell upon thee I did desire thee,--
Then did I take thee to me--oh, thou Beloved,
And hold thee fast, lest harm should come unto thee.
Ay, I did cover thine head with mine hair, lest the sun should
strike it;
And altogether was I thine, and thou wast altogether mine.
And so it went for a little space, till Time was in labour with
an evil Day;
And then what befell on that day? Alas! my Beloved, I know not!
But I, I saw thee no more--I, I was lost in the blackness.
And she who is stronger did take thee; ay, sh