United States or Tanzania ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Strangers from Europe travelling through the country were allowed to look into the prison through the round peephole of the door kept by the Kaid el habs, who played the ginbri. The Jews who made baskets took this opportunity to offer their work for sale; and so that he might see the visitors and speak with them Israel would snatch up something and hang it out. Always his question was the same.
My kaïd was very sorry for me, and became surety that I would not escape, so that my irons were removed; but my brother remains still in fetters, as poor Drees did all through the six years. We have no hope of our friends raising any money, so we must wait for death to release us."
"Impossible, Effendina. There was not time. He was alive and well here at the Palace at eleven, and " Kaid made an impatient gesture. "By the stone in the Kaabah, but it is not reasonable that Foorgat should die in his bed like a babe and sleep himself into heaven! Fate meant him for a violent end; but ere that came there was work to do for me.
Presently she continued: "Listen, and by Abraham and Christ and all the Prophets, and by Mahomet the true revealer, give me thine aid. When Harrik gave his life to the lions, I fled to her whom I had loved in the house of Kaid Laka the Syrian, afterwards the wife of Achmet Pasha. By Harrik's death I was free no more a slave.
The band of warriors who had so opportunely come to our rescue belonged, I learned from the man behind whom I rode, to the powerful tribe of the Sheikh Salem Alsgoon, between whom and Sheikh Hamed Ben Kaid a feud had long existed.
Again and again he has defeated conspiracy. He has blotted it out by the sword and other means. He has been a faithful servant to his Prince at least. If he has done after the manner of all others in power here, the fault is in the system, not in the man alone. He has been a friend to thee, Kaid." "I hope to find in thee a better." "Why should he not live?" "Thou hast taken his place."
May the Kaid that keeps me here roast alive in the fires of hell!" Then, apart in one quiet corner, a young Moor of Tangier eating rice out of the lap of his beautiful young wife. "You'll not be long coming again, dearest?" he whispers. She wipes her eyes and stammers, "No that is well " "What's amiss?" "Ali, I must tell you " "Well?"
Suddenly there swept over David a wave of feeling such as had passed over Kaid, though of a different nature. Those who had built the pyramids were gone, Cheops and Thotmes and Amenhotep and Chefron and the rest.
First the voice of the crier, "So shall it be done to every man who is an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor and a cheat." Then the voice of the soldier, "Balak! Balak!" After that a multitudinous din that seemed to break off sharply and then to come muffled and dense as from the other side of the closed gate.
"When didst thou have mercy?" asked David. "Thy crimes are against humanity." Kaid made a motion, and, with dragging feet, Achmet passed from the haunts of familiar faces. For a moment Kaid stood and looked at Zaida, rigid and stricken in that awful isolation which is the leper's doom. Her eyes were closed, but her head was high. "Wilt thou not die?" Kaid asked her gently.
Word Of The Day