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But Seti was not to be fobbed off. "It is written that the Lord, the Great One, is compassionate and merciful. Wilt thou then, O saadat." Fielding interrupted: "Go, harry the onion-field for dinner. You're a dog of a slave, and a murderer too: you must pay the price of that grindstone!"
The man was singing a wild chant of cheerful labour, the soul of the hard-smitten of the earth rising above the rack and burden of the body: "O, the garden where to-day we sow and to-morrow we reap! O, the sakkia turning by the garden walls; O, the onion-field and the date-tree growing, And my hand on the plough-by the blessing of God; Strength of my soul, O my brother, all's well!"
Twice during three months had the dread servant of the Palace come and driven off their best like sheep to the slaughter. The brave, the stalwart, the bread-winners, were gone; and yet the tax-gatherer would come and press for every impost on the onion-field, the date-palm, the dourha-field, and the clump of sugar-cane, as though the young men, the toilers, were still there.
And now there arose the Song of the Sakkia from the man at the wheel: "Turn, O Sakkia, turn to the right, and turn to the left; The heron feeds by the water side shall I starve in my onion-field! Shall the Lord of the World withhold his tears that water the land Turn, O Sakkia!"
He dropped her chin, and turned away with a gesture of disgust. "Get you gone," he bade her harshly. "Get you back to the kitchen or the onion-field from which they took you." And the girl, scarce believing her good fortune, departed with a speed that bordered on the ludicrous. Tressan had naught to say, no word to stay her with; pretence, he realized, was vain.
And now there arose the Song of the Sakkia from the man at the wheel: "Turn, O Sakkia, turn to the right, and turn to the left; The heron feeds by the water side shall I starve in my onion-field! Shall the Lord of the World withhold his tears that water the land Turn, O Sakkia!"
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