His Mohammedan camel-driver accounted for them on this wise:
"Many years ago Hadji Abdul-Aziz, a sheik of the dervishes, was
travelling on foot through this desert: it was summer: the sun was
hot and the dust stifling; thirst parched his lips, fatigue
weighed down his back, sweat dropped from his forehead, when
looking up he saw--on this very spot--a garden beautifully green,
full of fruit, and, in the midst of it, the gardener.
"`O fellow-man,' cried Hadji Abdul-Aziz, `in the name of Allah, clement
and merciful, give me a melon and I will give you my prayers.'"
The gardener answered: `I care not for your prayers; give me money,
and I will give you fruit.'
"`But,' said the dervish, `I am a beggar; I have never had money;
I am thirsty and weary, and one of your melons is all that I need.'
"`No,' said the gardener; `go to the Nile and quench your thirst.'
"Thereupon the dervish, lifting his eyes toward heaven, made this
prayer: `O Allah, thou who in the midst of the desert didst make
the fountain of Zem-Zem spring forth to satisfy the thirst of
Ismail, father of the faithful: wilt thou suffer one of thy
creatures to perish thus of thirst and fatigue?'
"And it came to pass that, hardly had the dervish spoken, when an
abundant dew descended upon him, quenching his thirst and
refreshing him even to the marrow of his bones.
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