Reverently he touched the green turban on his head, evidence of his journey to Mahomet’s tomb. “Once in the desert I saw afar off an oasis of wood and water, and flying things, and houses where a man might rest. And I got me down from my camel, and knelt upon my sheepskin, and gave thanks in the name of Allah. Thereupon I mounted again and rode on towards that goodly place. But as I rode it vanished from my sight. Then did I mourn. Yet once again I saw the trees, and flocks of pigeons and waving fields, and I was hungry and thirsty, and longed exceedingly. Yet got I down, and, upon my sheep-skin, once more gave thanks to Allah. And I mounted thereafter in haste and rode on; but once again was I mocked. Then I cried aloud in my despair. It was in my heart to die upon the sheep-skin where I had prayed; for I was burned up within, and there seemed naught to do but say malaish, and go hence. But that goodly sight came again. My heart rebelled that I should be so mocked. I bent down my head upon my camel that I might not see, yet once more I loosed the sheep-skin. Lifting up my heart, I looked again, and again I took hope and rode on. Farther and farther I rode, and lo! I was no longer mocked; for I came to a goodly place of water and trees, and was saved. So shall it be with us. We have looked for his coming again, and our hearts have fallen and been as ashes, for that he has not come. Yet there be mirages, and one day soon David Pasha will come hither, and our pains shall be eased.” “Aiwa, aiwa--yes, yes,” cried the lad who had sung to them. “Aiwa, aiwa,” rang softly over the pond, where naked children stooped to drink. The smell of the cooking-pots floated out from the mud-houses near by. “Malaish,” said one after another, “I am hungry. He will come again-perhaps to-morrow.” So they moved towards the houses over the way. One cursed his woman for wailing in the doorway; one snatched the lid from a cooking-pot; one drew from an oven cakes of dourha, and gave them to those who had none; one knelt and bowed his forehead to the ground in prayer; one shouted the name of him whose coming they desired. So was David missed in Egypt. CHAPTER XXIII. THE TENTS OF CUSHAN “I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction, and the curtains of the Land of Midian did tremble.” A Hurdy-Gurdy was standing at the corner, playing with shrill insistence a medley of Scottish airs. Now “Loch Lomond” pleaded for pennies from the upper windows: “For you’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road, And I’ll be in Scotland before ye: But I and my true love will never meet again, On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond!”