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One side of the tower of the minaret was visible from the courtyard, but apart from that the place was nowhere overlooked. To be sure, it was very dirty, but I had an idea that the steward had brought his men out for business, not for an evening stroll, so I bade Salam assure him that this place, known to the Marrakshis as Dar al Kasdir, would serve our purposes.
So saying, he turned back, and with him the thirty assistants who drove the people from the door of the palace; whereupon the nurse entered and saluted the eunuchs with her head, whilst all the thirty stood to do her honour and returned her salam.
Salam, his eyes flaming, and each separate hair of his beard standing on end, cursed the shameless women who gave such men as the Susi muleteer and his fellows to the kingdom of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz, threw the shwarris on the ground, rejected the ropes, and declared that with proper fittings the mules, if these were mules at all, and he had his very serious doubts about the matter, could run to Mogador in three days.
The traveling chests. Necessity of such an arrangement. Houses in the towns. Roads over the plains. Tribes and families. Influence of diversity of pursuits. Tribes and clans. Mode of making war. Horsemen. The bow and arrow. The flying horseman. Nature of the bow and arrow. Superiority of fire-arms. Sources of information. Gog and Magog. Salam. Adventures of Salam and his party.
Then he sought the corner of the wall by the doorway and poured out a little oil and scattered crumbs, repeating the performance at the far end of the patio. This duty done, he bade Salam tell me that it was a peace-offering to the souls of the departed who had inhabited this house before we came to it.
He rose and followed them, and when he overtook them, he saluted them and they returned his salam; after which quoth he, 'Who are ye, O illustrious Princesses, and whence come ye? Replied the youngest damsel, 'We are from the invisible world of Almighty Allah and we come hither to divert ourselves. He marvelled at their beauty and said to the youngest, 'Have ruth on me and deign kindness to me and take pity on my case and on all that hath befallen me in my life. Rejoined she, 'Leave this talk and wend thy ways'; whereat the tears streamed from his eyes, and he sighed heavily and repeated these couplets,
"O Lord, how many a grief from me hast driven * Nor can I sit or stand without Thy hold: How many many things I cannot count, * Thou sav'st from many many and manifold!" And they also tell a tale of He waited till he had made and end of his day's work; then, going up to him, saluted him with the salam and said, "I would be thy guest this night."
Hartley pronounced the usual salutation of Salam Alaikum in the most modest and deferential tone; but his former friend was so far from responding in their former strain of intimacy, that, having consulted the eye of his older companion, he barely pointed to a third carpet, upon which the stranger seated himself cross-legged, after the country fashion, and a profound silence prevailed for the space of several minutes.
We came quite suddenly upon the stream and past a riot of green bamboo and rushes, saw the kaid's house, more than ever gaunt and dishevelled by daylight, with the shining water in front, the wild garden beyond, and on the other bank the Susi muleteers sitting with the black slave in pleasant contemplation of the work Salam had done.
Salam has few songs of his own, and does not care to sing them, lest his importance should suffer in the native eyes, but he possesses a stock of Arabian Nights' legends, and quotes them as though they were part of Al Koran.
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