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This lady had been the wife first of Lord Ellenborough, who divorced her, secondly of Prince Schwartzenberg, and afterwards of about six other gentlemen. Finally, having used up Europe, she made her way to Syria, where she married a "dirty little black" Bedawin shaykh. Mrs.
Indeed, I am afraid of him;" replied the Shaykh; but the Emir rejoined, saying, "Fear not; he is hindered from thee and from all others by that wherein he is." So Abd al-Samad drew near to the pillar and said to him which was therein, "O creature, what is thy name and what art thou and how camest thou here in this fashion?" Then said Musa, "Ask him why he is in durance of this column?"
So he said to the Gardener, "O Shaykh, is this garden thine own or dost thou hire it?"; and he replied, "I am neither owner nor tenant of the garden, only its care-taker." Asked the Minister, "And what is thy wage?" whereto the old man answered, "A dinar a month," and quoth the Wazir, "Verily they wrong thee, especially an thou have a family."
So he went up to the roof and hearing a noise of talk, climbed over the parapet to the adjoining terrace and saw a light shining from the lodging. He looked in from behind the wall, and espied his brother and his tutor sitting at carouse; but the Shaykh became aware of him and sang cup in hand, to a lively measure these couplets,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the surviving Shaykh of the ten said to the youth, "Beware how thou open yonder door or thou shalt repent what time repentance will avail thee not."
"Their long white hats remind me of Persia." "Persians they are," replied the Shaykh, his lip curling, his eyes gleaming. "They will tear their clothes, and cut their shaven crowns, and wail, 'Woe's me, O Ali! then kiss the Kaaba with defilement on their beards. The curse of the Shaykaim is on them may it stay there!" Then the Prince knew it was a Sunite speaking of Schiahs.
Quoth the Wazir, "Know then, O Shaykh, that this youth is my son and I wish to hire him a shop in the bazar, that he may sit therein and learn to sell and buy and take and give, and come to ken merchants' ways and habits." "I hear and I obey," replied the Overseer and brought them without stay or delay the key of a shop, which he caused the brokers sweep and clean. And they did his bidding.
"That they are beggars is nothing," he said. "Allah is good to all his creatures. The jackals are his, and must be fed. For this perhaps the unfortunates were blown here by the angel that rides the yellow air. Four corpses were landed, and their clothes sold in the camp." "Thou wouldst say," the Prince rejoined, "that the plague will go with us to the Kaaba. Content thee, Shaykh.
The Shaykh was never a camel-driver in his life, and few, I think, will blame Lady Burton for her kindness to this poor lady, her countrywoman, in a strange land. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? The Song of Solomon. The oracles are dumb; No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
But when I arose in my outraged dignity, and he saw my riding-habit tucked into my boots, he thought that I was a boy, or rather a youth; and I flourished my whip and cried, "You may not, O Shaykh, care for consuls, nor English, nor kawwasses, but I am going to make you care for something." Thereupon he jumped up as nimble as a monkey, and ran for his life.
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