CHAPTER XXX.

THE old woman cast an eye of scrutiny on her new charge, and taking her by the hand led her to her mistress, who was sitting on a mat, with a basket of fruit, a charrah of camel's milk, and cakes of cusassowe bread before her. She was dressed with great study and exactness, her shining black hair was all gathered together, and hung down in one long plait entwined with pearls. A triangular piece of flexible gold, artfully pierced in various figures, was fastened round her forehead, and an embroidered handkerchief bound over this surmah, falling carelessly on the favourite lock, completed her head dress. Her nose was ornamented with a glittering jewel. Her jellebba, a closebodied dress, was made of gauze, and had the constellation of Bootes painted on it. Her hyke, which is the outer covering of the Arabs, and serves them both for raiment

in the day, and a covering in the night, was made of grey woollen of the finest texture, and richly embroidered with scarlet poppies. It was not wrapped round her, but lying in loose folds on the ground. This was the object that met Sephora's eye on entering the tent. It seemed such a deliverance to her to be given up by the robbers and consigned to the care of her own sex, that something like hope began to revive in her bosom, and she dared to think of Caphtor, as she cast on the Shetk's wife the most ardent looks of supplication for mercy, and anxiously sought some beam of pity in her painted eye, but she sought in vain. No kind relentings of nature discomposed her measured features, and Sephora saw with a heavy heart, that she might as well have looked for sympathy from her gaudy vest, as from her inanimate and listless countenance.

Happily, however, though pity did not work, another passion did, which, not to slander human nature, was at least as active and as availing. Notwithstanding all the outworks of pride that surrounded her, the

Sheik's wife immediately saw in her captive, a powerful rival, who would reduce her to the condition of a slave. Jealousy made her inventive, and roused every faculty she possessed to plan her escape. Not a moment of time was to be lost, for every thing depended on the thing being accomplished before her husband's return. She first motioned Sephora to sit down on a mat, and partake of her repast, and then dispatched the old woman into the inner tent, to prepare some of their most savoury dishes to welcome their captive guest, as her rank seemed to merit some peculiar honour. (Sephora wore her white raiment, girded with a zone of precious stones, which Laadon had given her on her departure from Jerusalem, and there was besides a dignified simplicity in her deportment that might well be imagined to belong to rank.) The old nurse seemed impressed with the idea of her dignity, and hobbled off with the greatest alacrity to obey this order, and her mistress knew that it would take her long to execute it. But no sooner had she disappeared behind the partition of the tent,

than the Sheik's wife rose from her seat, and making a signal of caution and silence, she took the old woman's hyke, which was six feet broad, and several feet long, and wrapping it round Sephora, fastened one end with a bodkin, and in the other, bound up all the cucassowe cakes, the fruit, and the remains of a case of water. Then dipping a cup made of an ostrich egg, in the charrak of camel's milk, she held it to her lips, and as soon as she had drank, unwound the tire that confined her hair, and in the place of it put on the nurse's burnoose, a sort of hooded cloak that quite covered her head and face, and concealed her flowing tresses, and making a sign to her to walk as if one leg was shorter than the other, she dismissed her from the Hhymas.

As soon as she was gone, her invention was again at work in order to prevent the old woman from having any suspicion that she had been an accomplice in the prisoner's escape. She took the image of their idol that stood in the corner of their tent, and wrapping Sephora's tire round its head, and

covering it with her own hyke, she laid it down on a mat as if asleep, then lying down herself, she closed her eyes, and waited the arrival of her nurse. Fortunately she did not enter this part of the tent till her cookery was quite complete, and it had taken her so long to make her savoury meats that it excited no surprise to find both her charges fast asleep, particularly when she observed what a hearty meal they had made on the provisions she had left before them.

She and her mistress usually dozed away an hour or two at this time of the day, and feeling more inclined to join the party than to disturb it, she looked round for her wrappings, but saw that her prisoner had lain down on the place where she left them--this did not distress her, for she knew her master's hyke was as warm as her own, and she soon found she could sleep as soundly in it. No music was ever more grateful to the Sheik's wife, than were now her nurse's well-timed snores. She thought herself sure from all danger of detection, and resolved to escape suspicion by being the first to give the