Have you no eyes in your head, Major?
If that shine isn't the shine of gold, what is it ?" "Yes, but the thing's impossible, sir!" cried Bohannan.

"Why, man alive! If that's gold, the whole of Arabia would be here after it! There'd be caravans, miners, swarms of--" "It's obvious you know nothing of Moslem severity or superstition," the Master interrupted.

"There is no Mohammedan beggar, even starving, who would touch a grain of that metal.

Not even if it were given him.
There's not one would carry an ounce away from the Iron Mountains.
This whole region is under the ban of a most terrific _tabu_, that loads unthinkable curses on any human being who removes a single atom of any metal from it!" "Ah, that's it, eh ?" "Yes, that's very much it! And what is more, Major, no word of this ever gets out to the white races--or hardly any.

Nothing more than vague rumors that barely amount to fairy stories.