The Arabs call him the Singer of Egypt, because of his wonderful voice, and it seems that he has learned to play upon their native instruments." "And now where is he ?" asked Higgs, as one who feared the answer.
"He is, or was, a favourite slave among a barbarous, half-negroid people called the Fung, who dwell in the far interior of North Central Africa.
After the fall of the Khalifa I followed him there; it took me several years.

Some Bedouin were making an expedition to trade with these Fung, and I disguised myself as one of them.
"On a certain night we camped at the foot of a valley outside a great wall which encloses the holy place where their idol is.

I rode up to this wall and, through the open gateway, heard some one with a beautiful tenor voice singing in English.

What he sang was a hymn that I had taught my son.

It begins: 'Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.' "I knew the voice again.