APES AND MONKEYS. 283 



the All-merciful, had kindled the light of Faith, before Issa or Jesus 

 of Nazareth had lived and taught, the town Aila, on the Red Sea, 

 was inhabited by a numerous population who professed the Jewish 

 faith. But they were sinners and unrighteous in the eyes of the 

 Lord, for they desecrated continually the sacred day of the All- 

 merciful, the Sabbath. In vain did pious and wise men warn 

 the sinful inhabitants of the godless city; they disregarded the 

 command of the Almighty as before. Then those who had warned 

 them forsook the unholy place, shook the dust off their feet, and 

 resolved to serve Elohim elsewhere. But, after three days had 

 passed, the longing for home and friends drove them back to Aila. 

 There a wonderful sight met their gaze. The gates of the town 

 were shut, but the battlements of the walls were unguarded, so 

 that they were not hindered from climbing over them. But the 

 streets and market-place of the unhappy town were deserted. 

 Where formerly the restless sea of human life had surged and 

 swelled, where buyers and sellers, priests and officials, artisans and 

 fishermen, had mingled in a motley throng, gigantic baboons now 

 sat and crouched, ran and climbed ; and from the windows and 

 recesses, the terraces and roofs, where dark-eyed women had tarried, 

 she-baboons now looked down upon the streets. And all the giant 

 monkeys and their comely mates were sad and downcast, and they 

 gazed with troubled eyes on the returned pilgrims, pressing closely 

 to them with complaining moans and prayerful cries. With sur- 

 prise and sadness the pious pilgrims gazed upon the strange sight, 

 until to one of them came the comfortless thought that these might 

 be their former relatives degraded to monkeys. To make certain, 

 the wise man went straight to his own house. In the door of it, 

 likewise, there sat a baboon; but this one, when he saw the right- 

 eous man, cast his eyes with pain and shame to the ground. ' Tell 

 me, by Allah the All-merciful, O Baboon,' said the wise man, 'art thou 

 my son-in-law Ibrahim?' And sadly the baboon answered, 'Eva, 

 Eva ' (I am). Then all doubt vanished from the mind of the pious 

 man, and he recognized that, by God's heavy judgment, the impious 

 Sabbath- breakers had been transformed into ' monkeys '." 



Sheikh Kemal el Din does not indeed venture to call this 



