ash
off the dust."

"I can wash the dust out of my hair," Amuba said. "Still, I do think
that these Israelites wear their hair inconveniently long; and yet the
long plaits that their women wear down their back are certainly
graceful, and the women themselves are fair and comely."

Chebron shook his head. "They may be fair, Amuba, but I should think
they would make very troublesome wives. They lack altogether the
subdued and submissive look of our women. They would, I should say,
have opinions of their own, and not be submissive to their lords; is
that not so, Rabah?"

"The women, like the men, have spirit and fire," the foreman answered,
"and have much voice in all domestic matters; but I do not know that
they have more than with us. They can certainly use their tongues; for
at times, when soldiers have been here to take away gangs of men for
public works, they have had more trouble with them than with the men.
The latter are sullen, but they know that they must submit; but the
women gather at a little distance and scream curses and abuse at the
troops, and sometimes even pelt them with stones, knowing that the
soldiers will not draw weapon upon them, although not infrequently it
is necessary in order to put a stop to the tumult to haul two or three
of their leaders off to prison."

"I thought they were viragoes," Chebron said with a laugh. "I would
rather hunt a lion than have the women of one of these villages set
upon me."

In a few miles cultivation became more rare; sandhills took the place
of the level fields, and only here and there in the hollows were
patches of cultivated ground. Rabah now ordered the slave leading the
two fleet dogs to keep close up and be in readiness to slip them.

"We may see deer at any time now," he said. "They abound in these
sandy deserts which form their shelter, and yet are within easy
distance of fields where when such vegetation as is here fails them
they can go for food."

A few minutes later a deer started from a clump of bushes. The dogs
were instantly let slip and started in pursuit.

"Hurry on a hundred yards and take your position on that mound!" Rabah
exclaimed to Chebron, while at the same time he signaled to the slaves
behind to stop. "The dogs know their duty, and you will see they will
presently drive the stag within shot."

Chebron called Amuba to follow him and ran forward. By the time they
reached the mound the stag was far away, with the dogs laboring in