I hesitated a moment before I ventured to put my fate to the test of further experience. I knew well that I risked robbery, if not death, in continuing my ramble; for, as I had noticed from the moment of my setting out, the camp was haunted by paupers with the most evil and desperate faces I ever beheld. They lay in wait for the unwary pilgrim wherever the gloom was densest, and at best the lanterns and torches about each tent shed but a dismal glimmer on its purlieus; but the desire to scale the Hill of Arafat and to say my prayers on its summit, at last overcame the whispers of alarm. My only weapon was a stout cudgel, which I had picked up as a protection against the pariah dogs that barked at every passer-by; however, as only a couple of dollars were left in the little bag round my neck, I felt that I could plod along in the teeth of danger with no load of uneasy wealth on my mind. And so, with a fresh glow of courage, I sallied forth. It was by this time about half-past three in the morning, and a lull seemed to fall on the camp, or perhaps this was merely a fancy of mine, a testimony to my jangled nerves. Be this as it may, I had not taken a hundred paces before I had the evidence of my senses to testify to the fact that my recent misgivings had been something more than the suggestions of timidity or nervousness. For, on reaching a secluded and storm-rent tent, I was suddenly surrounded by a gang of paupers, who sprang out upon me, clamouring for alms in a tone so threatening, that my pride rebelled and would not allow me to purchase my safety at its expense. Enough, I thought, if I seek refuge in yonder tent. A hail of stones about my head increased my determination to gain the place of shelter, about fifty yards away, and thither I cudgelled me a path with a desperate expenditure of strength. The surly rascals trod close upon my heels, stoning “the devil of a Jew” with surly illwill; but inside the tent they dared not follow me. For all that, if they had committed the blunder of counting the booty before the battle was won, I had soon the discomfiture to discover that innocence in distress may be less fortunate in its destiny than villainy in disguise. To the injuries I had received at the hands of the robbers were now added the insults of the inmates of the tent. They stood on the defensive, taking me to be a thief; I called heaven to witness that I had come near to being his victim; whereupon they assumed the offensive, and, catching me by the nape of the neck, dragged me outside and gave me in charge of a sentinel who, as ill-luck would have it, happened to be on his beat. Without saying a word, I disbursed myself of half the money I had about me, which was a proof of the innocence of my intentions so convincing to the sentinel, that he let me loose and fell to upbraiding my unwilling hosts for their unjustifiable suspicions. His eloquence took the sting out of the reception they had given me, and I went on my way blithely enough.