Then, at call, the women
and children came, and unfolded the canvas from its packing on
the camels. Who might do this but the women? Had they not sheared
the hair from the brown goats of the flock? and twisted it into
thread? and woven the thread into cloth? and stitched the cloth
together, making the perfect roof, dark-brown in fact, though in
the distance black as the tents of Kedar? And, finally, with what
jests and laughter, and pulls altogether, the united following of
the sheik stretched the canvas from pillar to pillar, driving the
stakes and fastening the cords as they went! And when the walls
of open reed matting were put in place--the finishing-touch to
the building after the style of the Desert--with what hush of
anxiety they waited the good man's judgment! When he walked in
and out, looking at the house in connection with the sun, the trees,
and the lake, and said, rubbing his hands with might of heartiness,
"Well done! Make the dowar now as ye well know, and to-night we will
sweeten the bread with arrack, and the milk with honey, and at every
fire there shall be a kid. God with ye! Want of sweet water there
shall not be, for the lake is our well; neither shall the bearers
of burden hunger, or the least of the flock, for here is green
pasture also. God with you all, my children! Go."
And, shouting, the many happy went their ways then to pitch their
own habitations. A few remained to arrange the interior for the
sheik; and of these the men-servants hung a curtain to the central
row of pillars, making two apartments; the one on the right sacred
to Ilderim himself, the other sacred to his horses--his jewels
of Solomon--which they led in, and with kisses and love-taps
set at liberty.
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