when they heard his shuffling gait, and secure behind the latticed windows they would cry:
"O Nassim, son of Taib and grandson of a dog, thy feet are as thy knees, thy knees are as thy belly, thy belly is as thy face, and thy face is ugly and fat. Look at the Moslim whose beard is gray and dirty. Do not weep, or thou wilt make us laugh; do not laugh, or thou wilt make us weep. Behold the Moslim to whom was given a cursed stone in stead of a heart. May Allah grant that thou mayest go to bed and never rise again."
Such was Nassim, the son of Taib, who inherited all his father's fortune and who turned from his door Hadji Khassoum, his only brother, the noble child of the morning.
But Khassoum laughed the laugh of the free in mind and strong in body; he left the house of his father, and with his last purse he bought himself a fine white racing dromedary, a pedigreed animal, sure-footed and fleet. With a song and a prayer on his lips, he left the town of his birth and went into the desert.
He rode eastward across the yellow lands until he reached the green oasis of Bir Tef guia, and there he knocked at the gates of a great white monastery.
