[1] A swift dromedary.
The Maribout stopped his dromedary at the tent of the Emir Hadjy, who
commanded the caravan. Anxious to know the reason of his following us,
which I had a foreboding was connected with my camel, I hastened to the
spot. I found him haranguing the Emir and the people who had surrounded
him, denouncing woe and death to the whole caravan if my camel was not
immediately destroyed, and another selected in his stead. Having for
some time declaimed in such an energetic manner as to spread
consternation throughout the camp, he turned his dromedary again to the
west, and in a few minutes was out of sight.
The Emir was confused; murmurings and consultations were arising among
the crowd. I was afraid that they would listen to the suggestions of the
Maribout; and, alarmed for my camel, and the loss of the honour
conferred upon him, I was guilty of a lie.
"O! Emir," said I, "listen not to that man who is mine enemy: he came to
my house, he ate of my bread, and would have been guilty of the basest
ingratitude by seducing the mother of my children; I drove him from my
door, and thus would he revenge himself. So may it fare with me, and
with the caravan, as I speak the truth."
I was believed; the injunctions of the Maribout were disregarded, and
that night we proceeded on our march through the plains of El Tyh.
As your highness has never yet made a pilgrimage, you can have no
conception of the country which we had to pass through: it was one vast
region of sand, where the tracks of those who pass over it are
obliterated by the wind,--a vast sea without water,--an expanse of
desolation.
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