The caliph having ordered that Ganem’s kindred should be exposed three days successively to the sight of the people, in the condition as has been said, Alcolomb and her mother afforded the same spectacle the second time next day, from morning till night. But that day and the following, things were not done after the same manner: the streets, which at first had been full of people, were left quite empty. All the traders, incensed at the ill usage of Abou Ayoub’s widow and daughter, shut up their shops, and kept themselves close within their houses. The ladies, instead of looking through their lattice-windows, withdrew into the back parts of their houses. There was not one soul to be seen in the public places those unfortunate women were carried through. It looked as if all the inhabitants of Damascus had abandoned their city. On the fourth day, king Mohammed Zinebi, who was resolved punctually to obey the caliph’s orders, though he did not approve of them, sent criers into all quarters of the city to make proclamation, strictly forbidding all the inhabitants of Damascus, and strangers, of what condition soever, upon pain of death, and having their bodies cast to the dogs to be devoured, to receive Ganem’s mother and sister into their houses, or to give them a morsel of bread or a drop of water; and, in a word, to afford them the least support, or hold the least correspondence with them. When the criers had performed what the king had enjoined them, that prince ordered the mother and the daughter to be turned out of the palace, and left to their choice to go where they thought fit. As soon as ever they appeared, all persons fled from them, so great an impression had the late prohibition made upon them all. They easily perceived that every body shunned them; but not knowing the reason of it, they were much surprised; and their amazement was the greater, when, coming into any street, or among several persons, they knew some of their best friends, who presently vanished with as much haste as the rest. What is the meaning of this? said Ganem’s mother: do we carry the plague about us? Must the unjust and barbarous usage we have received render us odious to our fellow-citizens? Come, my child, added she, let us depart from Damascus with all speed; let us not stay any longer in a city where we are become frightful to our very friends. The two wretched ladies, discoursing after this manner, came to one of the ends of the city, and retired to a ruined house, to pass the night. Thither some Mussulmen, or believers, out of charity and compassion, resorted to them after the day was shut in. They carried them provisions, but durst not stay to comfort them, for fear of being discovered, and punished for disobeying the caliph’s orders.