Death seemed to look them in the face.

Neither in the mosques nor in the synagogues did they offer petitions to God for rain.

They had long ceased their prayers.
Only in the Feddan at the mouths of their tents did they lift up their heavy eyes to the hot haze of the pitiless sky and mutter, "It is written!" Israel was busy with other matters.

During these six-and-twenty days he had been asking himself what it was right and needful that he should do.
He had concluded at length that it was his duty to give up the office he held under the Kaid.

No longer could he serve two masters.