Not a cloud blotted the sparkling vault overhead, which now blazed out in a perfect galaxy of light, engirdled by the luminous zone of the milky way. Attention was early directed to its beauties by the shower of meteors that in rapid succession shot through the innumerable host of heaven, and temporarily eclipsed their brilliancy. The night was already somewhat advanced when Loheita sent to demand a private audience upon two points of vital importance; and Mohammad Ali being the agent employed, no time was lost in arranging the desired interview. "My beard is troublesome," whispered the Ogre in a most mysterious tone, after he had been some minutes seated in silence; "my tough beard is not readily trimmed with a creese, and a razor would therefore have been desirable." A first-rate Savigny was immediately placed within his grasp. "And, secondly," he continued, trying the keen edge upon the largest of his formidable talons, "my sister, who is far advanced in her pregnancy, has lately rejected food--mutton, beef, every thing in fact has been offered, and equally loathed. Now I am desirous of trying whether she might not fancy a bag of dates." Volume One, Chapter XX. SHOWING HOW THE OGRE ACQUITTED HIMSELF AT GOOTABELLA. Many and tragic were the tales narrated of the prowess of the Ogre when the hot blood of youth boiled in his warrior veins. The first feat of his early days, ascribed to the year of the great comet, is still green in every recollection; and as it was recounted by Ibrahim Shehem, so was it vouched for by those of the Danakil braves, who during the recital crowded around the watch-fire at Gobaad. The grey-bearded elders had sate for many nights in deep consultation, and the chicken-hearted of the Debeni had exhausted all the usual epithets upon the countless number of the foe, and the consequences of rash and fool-hardy adventure, when the youthful chief raised his manly form in the circle, and his brawny proportions seemed to dilate into colossal stature in the dimness of the evening mist.