And, within the shadow of the cliff, Mohammed Ali, who
had reverently repeated the ebed in a low voice, murmured Amen.
"And now, my daughter," said the sheik, in a loud voice, "I command
you to go down to Praousta, and to conceal yourself within the harem
of my house, and there to await in patience and submission, as
beseems a woman, the events of the morrow, the day of the Lord and
of the judgment. Go, my child, and the blessing of Allah be with
you!"
Mohammed looked forth from behind the cliff, and beheld the veiled
figure bending down and grasping the old man's hand through the bars
of the cage; he then heard the father's parting blessing, and his
daughter's low sobs.
Now she arose, and, bathed in the full lustre of the moon, glided
softly through the court-yard. She seemed to him like one of the
welis, or spirits blessed of God, as she swept past the cliff behind
which Mohammed stood, and passed with inaudible footsteps toward the
rocky stairway.
CHAPTER III
THE FIRST DAY OF CREATION.
Noiselessly, her feet scarcely touching the ground, the veiled
figure swept onward. The light of the moon enveloped her as with a
silver veil, and the stars gazed at her wonderingly, as if to follow
with their eyes the lovely being who walks on in solitude through
the darkness of night.
She did not fear the solitude, for the welis guarded the innocent
maiden, and kept from her the evil spirits and ghins.
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