's shoulders and arm.

When things had thus been prepared for the continuance of the march
Tifum proceeded to the dying Isa, and seeing it was hopeless to expect
further work from him, as the look of death was already on his face, the
savage fiend bestowed a kick on the body, and swishing his kurbash
warningly, gave the hint to Selim, who was now the file-leader, to
proceed. In a short time the caravan was out of sight, while the
unfortunate Isa was left in the middle of the road to gasp his last,
unseen, unwept, and unhonoured.

On the twentieth day of the march it was found that little Mussoud was
attacked with the small-pox. Numbers of the slaves had already perished
from this fell disease; for as fast as they fell from the ranks and
could not rise again, despite repeated applications of the staff of a
spear, or a rod, or a kurbash, they were left to die the miserable death
of deserted sick where they fell, and not one thought was ever directed
to them again.

Thus when Mussoud became sick, the alarm of his brother Abdullah and his
friend Selim was extreme. They requested permission to share the burden
of his load by having it tied to the yoke-tree with which Selim's neck
was still furnished, but the slight request was refused, and when the
latter's eyes again flashed a dangerous light, Tifum, who saw that he
had a stubborn soul to deal with, replied with another dose of vigorous
lashing on the boy's shoulders until they were one mass of weals and
bruises.

Selim uttered not a word nor moan; he was getting to be past all feeling
of bodily pain, though his heart was keenly alive and sensitive. While
plodding along in this manner under the burning sun, no sound breaking
the soft shuffling sound of the tramp of naked feet of the slaves,
except a low moan now and then from poor little Mussoud, and Tifum had
retired to vent his spite upon those in the rear, it struck him as a
sudden idea that he was being punished more cruelly than the others
because, despite the fine religious education he had received, he had of
late, since he had been in bondage, forgotten the God of his fathers,
whom Amer had counselled him so often never to forget. His conscience
was not a whit more hardened; the reason of this neglect was the
delicacy he felt in approaching his God with unwashed hands and feet;
but now he determined to avail himself of the first opportunity of a
halt, and prepare himself for prayer.

After repeated prayer