AN EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR. 
407 
that did not spring from the female sex ; in illustration of 
which he related the well-known case of the Persian Shah, 
who had repeatedly demonstrated the truth of the axiom. I 
had read about this case somewhere, and it was already 
known to me, hut inasmuch as the reader may not be famil¬ 
iar with it, I may as well add that this renowned Shah was 
in the habit of asking, whenever any disaster occurred—Who 
was she ? meaning thereby, who was the female that caused 
it. On one occasion a poor stone-mason fell from the top of 
a house and broke his leg. The Shah demanded the name of 
the woman. His attendants said it was not a woman, but a 
poor stone-mason. “Who was she?” repeated the Shah. “ Go 
find out what woman caused this accident.” The attendants 
did so ; they inquired of the poor mason, and ascertained that 
while he was at work on the top of the house, he saw a beau¬ 
tiful woman in the street, and in leaning over to see her 
the better, he lost his balance and fell to the ground. Such 
was the cause of the accident; “ And” said Yusef, alluding 
perhaps remotely to a certain feat of horsemanship, and a 
certain bad dream concerning a lion, in the earlier part of 
the journey, “ such is the cause of all the disasters that have 
ever-” 
Here the conversation was cut short by the most dreadful 
series of noises that I had heard during the whole journey. 
My first impression was that we were besieged by a party of 
mounted Bedouins ; for the yelling of horses and the shrieking 
and screaming of Arabs were perfectly deafening. I looked 
appealingly to Yusef. He was our only hope of salvation in the 
terrible emergency of the moment. At first he turned pale, 
evidently with joy at the prospect of a fight; then hearing 
the noises more distinctly, he sprang to his feet, seized his 
sword and rushed out, foaming with rage. The tall South¬ 
erner and myself, loth to see him sacrificed in our defense, 
without striking a blow in our own behalf, followed him with 
what weapons we could snatch up in the hurry of the occa¬ 
sion. Upon reaching the open space in front of the hut, we 
beheld a sight that might well astonish and confound the 
most experienced of travelers. 
