Often the sons of Egypt moan over that departed wisdom; still the art is not altogether gone.

The body of Ilfra lay embalmed before us as we entered.

She had been beautiful in life, but was more beautiful in death, and it was with reverence for that beauty that I stood beside her.
"'Fetch Helfa,' said Abou to a servant, 'and then begone.' "Helfa was Abou's son.

Here, in England, you would cruelly designate him as something between a madman and an idiot, but the Easterns look not thus upon those who possess not their ordinary faculties.

Through Helfa, Abou had seen many wonderful things, and now he was going to use him again.
"'Howajja Herod,' he said to me, 'I am first going to use one of our old means of getting knowledge.