door of the cafes, idlers
on the benches smoked hasheesh, female street-dancers bared their faces
shamelessly to the men, and indolent musicians beat on their tiny drums,
and sang the song of "O Seyyid," or of "Antar"; and the reciter gave
his sing-song tale from a bench above his fellows. Here a devout Muslim,
indifferent to the presence of strangers, turned his face to the East,
touched his forehead to the ground, and said his prayers. There, hung to
a tree by a deserted mosque near by, the body of one who was with
them all an hour before, and who had paid the penalty for some real
or imaginary crime; while his fellows blessed Allah that the storm had
passed them by. Guilt or innocence did not weigh with them; and the dead
criminal, if such he were, who had drunk his glass of water and prayed
to Allah, was, in their sight, only fortunate and not disgraced, and had
"gone to the bosom of Allah." Now the Muezzin from a minaret called to
prayer, and the fellah in his cotton shirt and yelek heard, laid his
load aside, and yielded himself to his one dear illusion, which would
enable him to meet with apathy his end--it might be to-morrow!--and go
forth to that plenteous heaven where wives without number awaited him,
where fields would yield harvests without labour, where rich food in
gold dishes would be ever at his hand. This was his faith.

David had now been in the country six months, rapidly perfecting his
knowledge of Arabic, speaking it always to his servant Mahommed Hassan,
whom he had picked from the streets. Ebn Ezra Bey had gone upon his own
business to Fazougli, the tropical Siberia of Egypt, to liberate, by
order of Prince Kaid,--and at a high price--a relative banished there.
David had not yet been fortunate with his own business--the settlement
of his Uncle Benn's estate--though the last stages of negotiation with
the Prince Pasha seemed to have been reached. When he had brought the
influence of the British Consulate to bear, promises were made, doors
were opened wide, and Pasha and Bey offered him coffee and talked to
him sympathetically. They had respect for him more than for most Franks,
because the Prince Pasha had honoured him with especial favour. Perhaps
because David wore his hat always and the long coat with high collar
like a Turk, or because Prince Kaid was an acute judge of human nature,
and also because honesty was a thing he greatly desired--in others--and
never found near his own person; however