lthy condition.

CHAPTER IV

When Michael entered the sick man's tent, he was surprised to find how
much better he seemed. He had regained a little strength and partial
consciousness. But he was still weak and suffering from the effects of
malarial fever, or so Michael imagined, though he was articulate and
his mind seemed to be clearing.

The more Michael saw of him the more sure he was that he was neither an
idiot nor a lunatic, nor one of the class in the East whose flagrant
acts of immorality do not affect their fame for sanctity. Certainly
his thoughts and reasoning powers appeared still to be in heaven, but
that was because he was a religious zealot. Of the genuineness of his
piety there could be no doubt. The impostors and charlatans who bring
discredit upon the term "holy man," who trade upon the credulity of the
natives, do not seek the wastes of the arid eastern desert. The
neighbourhood of hospitable villages and cities suits their profession
and tastes better.

The saint had requested of Abdul that he might thank the Effendi for
his charity. Before sunrise he wished to leave the tent.

As Michael approached him, he called out in a weak but sonorous voice a
_sura_ from the Koran:

"'Verily those who do deeds of real kindness shall drink of a cup
tempered with camphor.'"

The word camphor (_kafier_), which is derived from the word _kafr_,
means to "suppress or cover." Michael understood. The quaffing of
camphor, as spoken of in the Koran, is supposed to subdue unlawful
passions; it cleanses the heart; it rids man's mind of all material
desires.

"I thank you, O my father." Michael used the ordinary form of a Moslem
in addressing one of a higher spiritual station than himself. In Egypt
even the native Christians reverence Moslem saints or holy men. They
pay frequent visits to them to ask for counsel and to hear their
prophecies, to beg a hair of them in memory, "and dying, mention it
within their wills, bequeathing it as a rich legacy unto their issue."
Any relic of a venerated saint is worn as a protection from evil.

Quite apart from Michael's feeling on the subject as to whether this
desert fanatic would prove of any real assistance to him on his
journey, he had no inclination to scoff at his religious zeal. Were
there not St. Jeromes, who lived in the desert and trusted to the
ravens of the air to feed them? Were passions in the desert not known
before the days of Mohamme