This increased and grew more agitated.

One by one, the _imams_ gathered up the cloths, opened them and exhibited three bluish-black birds with vivid scarlet crests.
The Master nodded.
"It is an old trick," said he, indifferently.

"I have seen hawks, much larger, come from under smaller cloths even in the great _suk_ (market-place) at Cairo." Bara Miyan made no answer.

The _imams_ drew knives from their belts of plaited goat-hide, and without more ado severed the birds' heads.
This the Legionaries saw with perfect distinctness.

The blood on the feathers was entirely visible.