Our supper, also provided by the hospitable Hajj, is the counterpart of the midday dinner. After it we repair to the roof, to enjoy the prospect of the far Tajurrah hills and the white moonbeams sleeping upon the nearer sea. The evening star hangs like a diamond upon the still horizon: around the moon a pink zone of light mist, shading off into turquoise blue, and a delicate green like chrysopraz, invests the heavens with a peculiar charm. The scene is truly suggestive: behind us, purpling in the night-air and silvered by the radiance from above, lie the wolds and mountains tenanted by the fiercest of savages; their shadowy mysterious forms exciting vague alarms in the traveller's breast. Sweet as the harp of David, the night- breeze and the music of the water come up from the sea; but the ripple and the rustling sound alternate with the hyena's laugh, the jackal's cry, and the wild dog's lengthened howl. Or, the weather becoming cold, we remain below, and Mohammed Umar returns to read out more "Book of Lights," or some pathetic ode. I will quote in free translation the following production of the celebrated poet Abd el Rahman el Burai, as a perfect specimen of melancholy Arab imagery: "No exile is the banished to the latter end of earth, The exile is the banished to the coffin and the tomb "He hath claims on the dwellers in the places of their birth Who wandereth the world, for he lacketh him a home. "Then, blamer, blame me not, were my heart within thy breast, The sigh would take the place of thy laughter and thy scorn. "Let me weep for the sin that debars my soul of rest, The tear may yet avail,--all in vain I may not mourn! [22] "Woe! woe to thee, Flesh!--with a purer spirit now The death-day were a hope, and the judgment-hour a joy! "One morn I woke in pain, with a pallor on my brow, As though the dreaded Angel were descending to destroy: "They brought to me a leech, saying, 'Heal him lest he die!' On that day, by Allah, were his drugs a poor deceit! "They stripped me and bathed me, and closed the glazing eye, And dispersed unto prayers, and to haggle for my sheet. "The prayers without a bow [23] they prayed over me that day, Brought nigh to me the bier, and disposed me within. "Four bare upon their shoulders this tenement of clay, Friend and kinsmen in procession bore the dust of friend and kin. "They threw upon me mould of the tomb and went their way-- A guest, 'twould seem, had flitted from the dwellings of the tribe! "My gold and my treasures each a share they bore away, Without thanks, without praise, with a jest and with a jibe. "My gold and my treasures each his share they bore away, On me they left the weight!--with me they left the sin! "That night within the grave without hoard or child I lay, No spouse, no friend were there, no comrade and no kin. "The wife of my youth, soon another husband found-- A stranger sat at home on the hearthstone of my sire.