announce to them the future. I thought my agathodaemon had sent me
this dream, "One day some gypsies came to Cavalla on a ship that
landed here to procure provisions. They remained here several days,
and made a business of fortune-telling. I went to an old woman, said
to be the greatest prophetess, held out my hand, and demanded that
she should announce the future of myself and my son. The old woman
gazed at me with a strange look, and said: --You wish your dream
interpreted?'

"This startled me, for I had rarely spoken of my dream, and the old
woman could not have heard of it. She had been in Cavalla but two
days, and who should have told her of the poor, obscure woman, Sitta
Khadra? But this question startled me to the very soul, and it
seemed to me that this woman must tell me the truth. I motioned to
her to tell me my dream. She related the entire dream with every
circumstance, and interpreted it."

"How did she interpret it?" asked Mohammed, in breathless suspense.

"She said to me: 'Your son will one day become a prince and a hero;
he will see a whole nation bowed down at his feet; he will wield the
sword over this people, and bring them under his yoke. Your son
shall be a ruler; palaces shall be his, and among the mighty he
shall be the mightiest. Destiny announced this to you through the
man transformed into the angel that flew to you, and who is your
son. All hail, Khadra, for you shall be the mother of the mightiest,
of the master of the earth!'"

"Is this true? Am I to be a prince, a mighty ruler?" asked Mohammed,
in ecstasy. "I am to behold nations at my feet? Repeat it again,