which thus begs its life; I tell you it is unlawful to eat one so like the children of Adam.’  And the beast or woman clung to him and hid under his cloak; and my father carried her for some time behind him on his horse, until they saw some creatures like her, and then he sent her to them, but he had to drive her from him by force, for she clung to him.  Thinkest thou oh Lady, it was really a beast, or some sort of the children of Adam?’

‘God knows, and He only,’ said I piously, ’but by His indulgent name, thy father, oh Sheykh, was a true nobleman.’  Sheykh Yussuf chimed in and gave a decided opinion that a creature able to understand the sight of the knife and to act so, was not lawful to kill for food.  You see what a real Arab Don Quixote was.  It is a picture worthy of him,—­the tall, noble-looking Abab’deh sheltering the poor ‘woman-beast,’ most likely a gorilla or chimpanzee, and carrying her en croupe.

January 26, 1867:  Mrs. Austin

To Mrs. Austin.  LUXOR, January 26, 1867.

Dearest Mutter,

I must betray dear Sheykh Yussuf’s confidence, and tell you his love story.

A young fellow ran away with a girl he loved a short time ago, she having told him that her parents wanted to marry her to another, and that she would go to such a spot for water, and he must come on a horse, beat her and carry her off (the beating saves the maiden’s blushes).  Well, the lad did it, and carried her to Salamieh where they were married, and then they went to Sheykh Yussuf to get him to conciliate the family, which he did.  He told me the affair, and I saw he sympathized much with the runaways.  ‘Ah,’ he said ’Lady, it is love, and that is terrible, I can tell thee love is dreadful indeed to bear.’  Then he hesitated and blushed, and went on, ’I felt it once, Lady, it was the will of God that I should love her who is now my wife.  Thirteen years ago I loved her and wished to marry her, but my father, and her grandfather my uncle the Shereef, had quarrelled, and they took her and married her to another man.  I never told anyone of it, but my liver was burning and my heart ready to burst for three years; but when I met her I fixed my eyes on the ground for fear she should see my love, and I said to myself, Oh Yussuf, God has afflicted thee, praise be unto Him, do thou remember thy blood (Shereef) and let thy conduct be that of the Beni Azra who when they are thus afflicted die rather than sin, for they have the strongest passion of love and the greatest honour.  And I did not die but went to Cairo to the Gama el-Azhar and studied, and afterwards I married twice, as thou knowest, but I never loved any but that one, and when my last wife died the husband of this one had just divorced her to take a younger and prettier one and my father desired me then to take her, but I was half afraid not knowing whether she would love me; but, Praise be to God I consented, and behold, poor thing, she also had loved me in like manner.’  I thought when I went to see her that she was unusually radiant with new-married happiness, and she talked of ‘el-Sheykh’ with singular pride and delight, and embraced me and called me ‘mother’ most affectionately.  Is it not a pretty piece of regular Arab romance like Ghamem?