'And you pray to Jehovah?'
'It is said.'
'Sheikh Hassan,' said the Emir, 'there is but one God, and his name is
Jehovah. Why do you not pray to Jehovah?'
'Truly there is but one God,' said Sheikh Hassan, 'and Mahomet is his
Prophet. He told my fathers to pray to Allah, and to Allah I pray.'
'Is Mahomet the prophet of God, Sheikh of Sheikhs?'
'It may be,' replied Amalek, with a nod of assent.
'Then why do you not pray as Sheikh Hassan?'
'Because Moses, without doubt the prophet of God,--for all believe in
him, Sheikh Hassan, and Emir Fakredeen, and you too, Prince, brother of
queens,--married into our family and taught us to pray to Jehovah. There
may be other prophets, but the children of Jethro would indeed ride on
asses were they not content with Moses.'
'And you have his five books?' inquired Tancred.
'We had them from the beginning, and we shall keep them to the end.'
'And you learnt in them that Moses married the daughter of Jethro?'
'Did I learn in them that I have wells and camels? We want no books to
tell us who married our daughters.'
'And yet it is not yesterday that Moses fled from Egypt into Midian?'
'It is not yesterday for those who live in cities, where they say at
one gate that it is morning, and at another it is night.
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