Amongst the travelers in that caravan was a Persian, Sadi by name, a tall, strong man, with black beard, and fierce, dark eye.  He urged his tired camel to the side of that of the foremost Arab, the leader and guide of the rest, and after pointing fiercely toward one of the travelers a little behind him, thus he spake: 

“Dost thou know that yon Syrian Yusef is a dog of a Christian, a kaffir?” (Kaffir—­unbeliever—­is a name of contempt given by Moslems, the followers of the false Prophet, to those who worship our Lord.)

“I know that the hakeem (doctor) never calls on the name of the Prophet,” was the stern reply.

“Dost thou know,” continued Sadi, “that Yusef rides the best camel in the caravan, and has the fullest water-skin, and has shawls and merchandise with him?”

The leader cast a covetous glance toward the poor Syrian traveler, who was generally called the hakeem because of the medicines which he gave, and the many cures which he wrought.

“He has no friends here,” said the wicked Sadi; “if he were cast from his camel and left here to die, there would be none to inquire after his fate; for who cares what becomes of a dog of a kaffir?”

I will not further repeat the cruel counsels of this bad man, but I will give the reason for the deadly hatred which he bore toward the poor hakeem.  Yusef had defended the cause of a widow whom Sadi had tried to defraud; and Sadi’s dishonesty being found out, he had been punished with stripes, which he had but too well deserved.  Therefore did he seek to ruin the man who had brought just punishment on him, therefore he resolved to destroy Yusef by inducing his Arab comrades to leave him to die in the desert.

Sadi had, alas! little difficulty in persuading the Arabs that it was no great sin to rob and desert a Christian.  Just as the fiery sun was sinking over the sands, Yusef, who was suspecting treachery, but knew not how to escape from it, was rudely dragged off his camel, stripped of the best part of his clothes, and, in spite of his earnest entreaties, left to die in the terrible waste.  It would have been less cruel to slay him at once.

“Oh! leave me at least water—­water!” exclaimed the poor victim of malice and hatred.

“We’ll leave you nothing but your own worthless drugs, hakeem!—­take that!” cried Sadi, as he flung at Yusef’s head a tin case containing a few of his medicines.

Then bending down from Yusef’s camel, which he himself had mounted, Sadi hissed out between his clenched teeth, “Thou hast wronged me—­I have repaid thee, Christian! this is a Moslem’s revenge!”

They had gone, the last camel had disappeared from the view of Yusef; darkness was falling around, and he remained to suffer alone, to die alone, amidst those scorching-sands!  The Syrian’s first feeling was that of despair, as he stood gazing in the direction of the caravan which he could no longer see.  Then Yusef lifted up his eyes to the sky above him:  in its now darkened expanse shone the calm evening star, like a drop of pure light.