nd stoop in the sand. When they reach the place, they find a sort of
great nest, hollowed a little in the sand, and in it are great eggs,
almost as big as your head. The mother ostrich has left them there.
She is not like other mother-birds, that sit upon the eggs to keep
them warm; but she leaves them in the hot sand, and the sun keeps them
warm, and by and by the little ostriches will begin to chip the shell,
and creep out into the great world.

The ostrich eggs are good to eat. You eat your one egg for breakfast,
but one of these big eggs will make breakfast for the whole family.
And that is why Gemila clapped her hands when she saw the ostrich: she
thought the men would find the nest, and have fresh eggs for a day or
two.

This day passes like the last: they meet no one, not a single man or
woman, and they move steadily on towards the sunset. In the morning
again they are up and away under the starlight; and this day is a
happy one for the children, and, indeed, for all.

The morning star is yet shining, low, large, and bright, when our
watchful little girl's dark eyes can see a row of black dots on the
sand,--so small you might think them nothing but flies; but Gemila
knows better. They only look small because they are far away; they are
really men and camels, and horses too, as she will soon see when
they come nearer. A whole troop of them; as many as a hundred camels,
loaded with great packages of cloths and shawls for turbans, carpets
and rich spices, and the beautiful red and green morocco, of which,
when I was a little girl, we sometimes had shoes made, but we see it
oftener now on the covers of books.

All these things belong to the Sheik Hassein. He has been to the great
cities to buy them, and now he is carrying them across the desert
to sell again. He himself rides at the head of his company on a
magnificent brown horse, and his dress is so grand and gay that it
shines in the morning light quite splendidly. A great shawl with
golden fringes is twisted about his head for a turban, and he wears,
instead of a coat, a tunic broadly striped with crimson and yellow,
while a loose-flowing scarlet robe falls from his shoulders. His face
is dark, and his eyes keen and bright; only a little of his straight
black hair hangs below the fringes of his turban, but his beard is
long and dark, and he really looks very magnificent sitting upon his
fine horse, in the full morning sunlight.

Abdel Hassan rides forward t