"We know not. We have not seen her. How can we tell you what has
become of Masa, the sheik's only daughter? She was as pure and good
as ever girl was. No one looked at her. Who can tell where she is?"
"This is all pretence. Enough! we will go from house to house and
search for Masa!"
With cries of rage the men attempt to oppose them, but the strange
soldiers who have just arrived know no pity. They use their swords
vigorously upon those who oppose them; the sight of blood terrifies
the others, and the cries of the wounded silence them. The eunuchs'
soldiers are allowed to enter each house, for the men of Praousta
are too poor to be able to provide for more than one wife, and the
poor man's wife has no separate, secluded apartments. She goes about
in the house unveiled, and attends to her domestic occupations while
her husband is out hunting or fishing. The search of the eunuchs and
soldiers for the girl is therefore easily conducted; in each house
there is but one wife and she is unveiled, as are also the children;
the maidens, however, timidly shrink back and draw their veils more
closely about them. The strange soldiers, however, do not go so far
in their boldness as to raise the veils of the girls. And what would
it avail them to do so? Neither they nor the eunuchs have ever seen
the face of the sheik's daughter.
"It is useless to search farther," murmured the eunuchs, after
having looked through the last house in the village, without finding
Masa.
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