After the owner of the boat and his helpers had paddled us down the river until about ten o'clock at night, we hove in sight of a few dim lights, which made me scratch my head a trifle, when I learned it was Koofa. My men were all wearing a sort of sickly grin since we had learned that the Sheik of Koofa had never before been imposed upon in this way, and I was beginning to feel that there might have been a trifle of virtue in Consul Hurner's advice, but I slapped Moses on the shoulder and said, "The metal in a man shows up only in cases of an emergency," to which he smiled complacently, as though he had been assured that he had all night to live. KOOFA, ARABIA At the mud landing, more than fifty had assembled, each hoping to earn a half-penny by carrying a corpse up the hill where, according to tradition, the Prophet Ezekiel had probably walked on his bare feet many times, for Koofa was a city on the west bank of the Shat-El-Chebar, long before Abraham left this region for the land of Canaan. When all was ready for the funeral march and Shammo had been loaded with the luggage, which consisted of pillows, blankets and cooking utensils, his face actually did take on the mournful hue of an undertaker carrying the dead across the dark river. Our guide sang out something which I supposed indicated that a burial troop was following as he dashed through the crowd, up the cliff, dodging this way and that through the dark, alley-like streets and rooms, where tall men with dark visages sat on high benches and scowled at our approach, until he landed us in a square cement room, about 12×12, with no ventilation save a hole over the door, when he mysteriously disappeared, taking his dim oil light with him. Soon officers appeared whom, I could see, were confused. Moses tried to pacify them by saying I was a rich man and would pay much money, but they did not seem to pacify, because the rich man was neither a Mohammedan nor a dead man. Their howling was to the effect that the owner of the room was ruined, as no dead Mohammedan would consent to be laid in that room after we had occupied it. At last, after Moses had killed all the time he possibly could, I demanded to see the Sheik, which request is never refused among the Arabs. THE SHEIK OF KOOFA Soon a guard of about twenty appeared and started with Moses and myself to consult the Sheik; while all the town, men, women and children, ran on either side of us, eager to get a glimpse of my pants, as, apparently, neither sex had ever seen before, or much less, donned such tight-fitting garments. After walking probably a mile we entered a dark alley, where, on one of the side walls, our escort began pounding and crying out until a gruff voice, which came as through a tube back of us, answered, and after a long wait we saw a dim light right back of where we were standing, but no one appeared.