Haddam of the Albu Dagar, he whose mere name had held our village spell-bound with fear the night before.

'As we looked one at the other, the voice of Ghalib broke the silence. "Back, back," he cried hoarsely. "Back to the village!" 'Astonishment held me voiceless, motionless. Well might the base-born marsh-dwellers tremble and flee from the unseen presence of such as Haddam; but was not one Arab a match for any ten of them? Sadiqa, flushing red, spoke my thoughts.

"My father! We will not go back with our purpose unaccomplished. Our mats are not yet sold. Why this haste, this seeming fear? This cutter of reeds is yet distant from us, nor does any channel lead into this channel. If the prudence of age speaks, O father, are we not armed? Let us listen awhile, and if we hear no more than one man at work in the reeds

'Ghalib took no heed of her words.

""A curse upon thee, son of a dog!" cried he, seizing the paddle from my hand. "Dost dare to tarry when I bid thee return?" And with one thrust he turned the prow of the mashhuf towards the way we had come.

'I took the paddle and fell to work. Was I not his servant? But Sadiqa's pole lay idle, and she sat in brooding anger in the bow, no word for me nor for her father crossing her lips. Shame lay heavy upon her, as upon me, by reason of our turning back.

'So to me, as I thought with uneasy heart on the events of the night and the day, the figure of this Haddam loomed large like that of some evil djinn which threatened the safety of those beloved by me. And as I looked at my master my fears grew heavier. Broken and bent he seemed; a man old in his prime, a man on whom the evil ones had cast a spell, so that in every hour he aged a year.

'We reached the village, and with not so much as a glance at her father the maiden left the mashhuf and sought her hut. But Ghalib, looking up mournfully at me as he sat still in the boat, said: "Didst see, Hantush?”

""See? I saw naught. I did but hear Haddam cutting reeds.". ""I asked not what thou heardst. Didst see naught?"

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Nothing, my uncle," I replied.

""Dolt and dullard!" cried my lord in anger. "Thou seest naught, yet we are undone. Undone, aye, worse! Woe to me and my house, woe!"

'To answer availed nothing. With no reply I began to take the mats from the mashhuf, meaning to stack them again in the lee of the hut; but he stopped me.

""Owl! To-morrow we take the mats to the river-to-morrow at dawn." And he strode off towards the madhif.

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"When I had secured the boat I followed, and found the elders of the tribe gathered together. I heard my lord laugh, a laugh without mirth, and pausing in the doorway I listened to his words. 'In truth, my friends, your readiness to give advice makes me feel I am indeed in my dotage. One says 'Flee to a strange village,' ‚' another says 'There are in this marsh frogs, surpassing in every quality the frogs of the whole earth; wed thy daughter to one of these, and think thy house honoured.' To advise is easy, yet not one of you has asked of me advice in your difficulty. But I tell ye all, the key of the door of escape is in my hand, and tomorrow at the setting of the sun will I give it ye. Then shall men say again, as of old they said, 'Is not Ghalib the wisest of wise men and is his honour not brighter than the honour of any? Who but he could thus have loosed the chain of our distress, and set our feet upon the way of safety?' Farewell. I will speak again at the setting of to-morrow's sun."

'He left them without ceremony, and returned to his own house. No sound came from behind the women's screen, and no sound was heard where the shaikh sat without movement for a long space. But as I hastened to kindle a fire that I might make coffee for him, I saw what in these many weary years of exile I had never seen. And my heart wept within me as the tears rolled down his cheeks, so that I smote my eyes and cursed them that in that hour when Fate had stricken him they had been blind, not seeing what his had seen.'

The rhythmic rise and fall of the speaker's voice, and the unhesitating march of his story, showed that the tale was one which, like some saga of old, had been many times told and had lost nothing in the telling. By many a camp-fire, to many a silent, crouching circle, must this tragic history have been unfolded-embroidered, perhaps, and improved upon with each repetition, yet preserving always that living and authentic spirit of Arab life, in which lay its appeal.

'The night passed,' Hantush continued after a pause,' and with the first dim light before the sunrising I went to the mashhuf. There already was Sadiqa.

"Eight krans shall we bring back as the price of these matsperhaps ten, O Hantush," said she.

"In sh' Allah, ten," I replied, but only to please her; for I feared that for these mats of ill-omen we should never obtain a price.

My lord joined us then, and in the grey dawning we left the village, I alone paddling while my mistress sat with her father in the boat. I heard her speaking to him in her soft voice that was like the water lapping the mashhuf's side as my paddle sped her onwards.

"I could not sleep for pride, my father-for joy at learning that once again thy wisdom had devised a plan when the tribe was in danger, that once more thou didst guide the headmen when they knew not what to do. So I rose early, long before the dawn, hoping to see thee alone before we left to sell our mats, that I might hear from thine own lips what is thy plan."

““Ah, dearer than my eyes," said he, stroking her smooth hair. "Did not they who told thee of it tell thee also that the plan is not to be revealed until the setting of the sun?"

Aye, not to them! But to me, who am thy daughter, thou wilt tell it; me thou canst trust. In my ear whisper it, O father." 'But he shook his head, and would tell her naught. Then, as she fondled his hand and besought him by endearing names, he spoke :

“This then, desire of my heart, I promise thee: thou shalt be told afore all others."

'With that she must be content, and leaving him (a little vexed methought) she went to the boat's prow and fell to work. Once more we watched her swaying to each strong thrust; and the sun, rising above the high reeds, saluted her beauty.

'Thus we went, with no more speech between us, until we came to a place where our water-channel became two branches. Now the speediest way to the river lay by the right-hand channel, that same one which we had taken yesterday-yesteryear it seemed to me—and whence, on hearing the sound of one cutting reeds, we had returned incontinent to our village. The left-hand channel led also to the river, but by a way so long and devious that it was but little used.

'Now my lord broke the silence, saying, "To the left, to the left. I would pass by the Ishan of Umm Kosag."

'Sadiqa's face grew dark. Though, with the shame of yesterday still sharp in her mind, she spoke no word, she thought her father chose the longer route through fear of Haddam. But my heart knew that it was ordained by Fate that we should take that way which led to Umm Kosag. I swung the boat's prow across, and swiftly we passed down the left-hand waterway. Who can fight against Fate?

'Howbeit, no man desires to hasten on his doom. As the time passed, my strokes grew dull and feeble, so that we moved but slowly, hindered also by the weeds which here grew thick on the face of the water. No speed we made, yet my master called not to us to hasten; so that by reason of the long and devious way I knew that he did not in truth desire to reach the river-that the selling of mats was but a guile to deceive us. Foreboding lay heavy on me. The rolled-up mats took on the form of corpses which I was taking for burial. The wind caused the reeds to bow down as we passed, like mourners mourning their dead. W'Allah that day's journey has seared my heart as if with hot iron.

'At last the reeds gave way to open water, and there in the midst of the space stood the Ishan of Umm Kosag. So small it was, and so solitary, that no man built his hut there; instead the tribes buried their dead upon it. And as we approached, my master said: 6.66 Bank in."

When we reached the land's

'I turned the boat to the ishan. edge, Shaikh Ghalib stepped from the daughter's hand led her up the shore. said:

mashhuf, and taking his Then, turning to me, he

"Leave not the place where thou art, until I come again."
"According to your order," I replied.

"The two walked hand in hand to the top of the ishan, and going down the other side were lost to my sight. So short was the distance and so still the air, that all their speech came clearly back to me; and when, after long silence, the words of my mistress reached my ear, I knew that the appointed hour had come, and bowed my head low before the inscrutable will of Allah.

"Let us tarry here no longer, let us hasten from this place of graves, for I am afraid."

"Why art afraid?" asked Ghalib.

""I know not," the child replied. "Thy manner is so strange. Why sittest thou with thy head bowed, so silent and so stern?"

"'Tis thy guilt which makes thee fear," he answered harshly. "If a woman betray the honour of her house, what is the penalty? Come, speak. What is the law of our fathers?"

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Death." Her low voice hardly reached my ears.

"And, in our tribe, if a woman of the shaikhly house mates, aye, does but desire to mate with a man of lesser birth, does she not break the honour of her house?"

Thou knowest, then, why I have brought thee hither. Draw near, my child, that I may kiss thine eyes once more before I take thy life.”

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Ah, no!" she cried then. Thou couldst not slay me-me thy joy, the comforter of thy lonely days, the solace of thine exile ! How couldst live without thy Sadiqa? Hantush is old; not many years remain before he will be with his forebears. Who then will cherish thy old age, who guide thy stumbling feet when light has left thine eyes, who-Allah make the day far distant!-will close those eyes and wash thy body for burial? Ah, see, I stroke thy beard. Thou couldst not, O father, take the life of thy daughter, only flesh of thy flesh."

'Had she been thrice guilty, my heart had melted at her pleading; how then when I knew she could never have debased herself? But my lord answered nothing.

““Oh, a curse upon the elders of the tribe!" cried the girl. "They have perplexed thy soul with their foolish talk, their evil minds have taken away the reason from thine. Think no more of them, beloved. Look at me-O father, hast thou not often called me dearer than thy life?

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Aye, w'Allah, dearer far than life," he answered, "but not than honour."

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Slay me then, O honourable one," said Sadiqa in a voice of anger. Slay me, thou who art afraid of idle tattling tongues, and dost pay heed to shameful words. I fear not them, nor thee!" 'The proud words of my mistress made my spirit leap to acclaim her worthy daughter of her house. But my lord's voice was low and sad as he answered her.

""Little dost thou know, O Sadiqa, how deep a dagger-thrust in my own heart was every one of thy bitter words. Not all the gossiping tongues of all the world can smirch thee in my sight; but, alas! my own eyes-would I were blind!-have given me proof. When we heard from our mashhuf that cutter of reeds at work, these eyes watched thine, and saw in them such a light as only shines when a woman loves a man."

""Foolish one," said Sadiqa gently," hast thou not often likened my eyes to pools of clear water? What thou sawest was but the sun shining in those pools."

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'Ah, would to Allah that I were foolish!" cried Ghalib with a great cry, harsh like the drawing of a sword from a rusty scabbard. "Am I to be deceived in that look, I who, because it shone for me