He had endeavored to chat gayly with the Queen of the Desert; but
her quick eye had read in his countenance that a cloud rested on his
soul, and the brightness faded from her eyes.
She turned to him when he had risen from the mat and was walking
thoughtfully, to and fro in the narrow tent. "Tell me, O stranger,
is your heart so very sad? Is there nothing Butheita can do for you.
You are wearied; this space is too narrow for you. Your soul, whose
wings are pinioned, would fly out into the world. The world without
is very beautiful, I know."
"Do you know this world?" asked Mohammed, his lips smiling as he
looked at her.
"Yes, I do," said she. "I have been with father to Tantah several
times. While there I heard the scha-er tell their beautiful stories
of Ey-Zahir. I listened with breathless attention. And then, too, I
heard the female singers, the Gavasi. They sang beautiful songs, and
the words and tones have often since resounded in my heart. Do you
know, sarechsme, that often, when my father had gone out with his
Bedouins to fight or to plunder, as was sometimes the case, then my
only pleasure was to take down the zammarah bisoan, on which my
mother played, and sing to its accompaniment the songs I had learned
from the Gavasi. "Shall I sing them for you? Shall I?" But you must
not laugh at me for repeating what the Gavasi sang in Tantah.
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