according to the distance; and so was it attuned to the feeling invoked
by the conditions of the moment that no effort was required of a listener
to think it a refrain from the sky. The watchmen ceased debating, drew a
little apart from each other, spread their _abbas_ on the ground, and
stepping upon them barefooted, their faces turned to where Mecca lay,
began the old unchangeable prayer of Islam--_God is God, and Mahomet is
His Prophet_.

The pilgrim at the tent door arose, and when his rude employes were
absorbed in their devotions, like them, he too prayed, but very
differently.

"God of Israel--my God!" he said, in a tone hardly more than speaking to
himself. "These about me, my fellow creatures, pray thee in the hope of
life, I pray thee in the hope of death. I have come up from the sea, and
the end was not there; now I will go into the Desert in search of it. Or
if I must live, Lord, give me the happiness there is in serving thee.
Thou hast need of instruments of good; let me henceforth be one of them,
that by working for thy honor, I may at last enjoy the peace of the
blessed--Amen."

Timing his movements with those of the watchmen, he sank to his knees,
and repeated the prayer; when they fell forward, their faces to the
earth in the _rik'raths_ so essential by the Mohammedan code, he
did the same. When they were through the service, he went on with it
that they might see him. A careful adherence to this conduct gained him
in a short time great repute for sanctity, making the pilgrimage
enjoyable as well as possible to him.

The evening afterglow faded out, giving the world to night and the quiet