t. But in the desert
nothing changes; neither the acts of a man's life, nor the words of a
man's lips. We drink at the same well where Moses helped Zipporah,
we tend the same flocks, we live under the same tents; our words have
changed as little as our waters, our habits, or our dwellings. What my
father learnt from those before him, he delivered to me, and I have told
it to my son. What is time and what is truth, that I should forget that
a prophet of Jehovah married into my house?'

'Where little is done, little is said,' observed Sheikh Hassan, 'and
silence is the mother of truth.

Since the Hegira, nothing has happened in Arabia, and before that was
Moses, and before him the giants.'

'Let truth always be spoken,' said Amalek; 'your words are a flowing
stream, and the children of Rechab and the tribes of the Senites never
joined him of Mecca, for they had the five books, and they said, "Is
not that enough?" They withdrew to the Syrian wilderness, and they
multiplied. But the sons of Koreidha, who also had the five books,
but who were not children of Rechab, but who came into the desert near
Medina after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed El Khuds, they first joined
him of Mecca, and then they made war on him, and he broke their bows and
led them into captivity; and they are to be found in the cities of Yemen
to this day; the children of Israel who live in the cities of Yemen are
the tribe of Koreidha.'

'Unhappy sons of Koreidha, who made war upon the Prophet, and who live
in cities!' said Sheikh Hassan, taking a fresh pipe.

'And perhaps,' said the young Emir, 'if you had not been children of
Jethro, you might have acknowledged him of Mecca, Sheikh of Sheikhs.'

'There is but one God,' said Amalek; 'but there may be many prophets. It
becomes not a son of jethro to seek other than Moses. But I will not say
that the Koran comes not from God, since it was written by one who
was of the tribe of Koreish, and the tribe of Koreish are the lineal
descendants of Ibrahim.'

'And you believe that the Word of God could come only to the seed of
Abraham?' asked Tancred, eagerly.

'I and my fathers have watered our flocks in the wilderness since time
was,' replied Amalek; 'we have seen the Pharaohs, and Nebuchadnezzar,
and Iskander, and the Romans, and the Sultan of the French: they
conquered everything except us; and where are they? They are sand. Let
men doubt of unicorns: but of one thing there can be no doubt, that God
ne