The man, woman, and child remained unmoved all the time, and stared at us from the same spot where, probably, they had been for hours. She was old, ugly, and wrinkled, and gazed vacantly before her. The child, a pretty ten-year-old boy, looked inquisitively at me with his fine black eyes, whilst the man drew his hood over his head and hid his hands under his burnous, so that he appeared to be a mere white bundle.
Thus they sat, resigned to their fate, the men around keeping moderately quiet. If one or another became noisy, he was silenced by one of the Khalifa’s attendants.
I begged the Khalifa to continue his judicial proceedings, and, after some hesitation, he did so, leaving me seated on his carpet, and going aside a little took his place beneath one of the pillars.
Whilst the flies swarmed in myriads about me, and the hubbub of men’s voices buzzed in my ears, I leant against the wall and gazed before me. From the subdued light beneath the shade of the eaves my eyes scanned the sunlit plain which extended to the mountains. To the right the palm tops on the southern edge of the great groves of the oasis quivered in the glittering light. Below them I perceived the brown tops of tents. Before me, close to a stone dyke which crossed the foreground, the plain was covered with long low mounds. On each of these stood, facing the east, a small flat stone, or a little dazzling white cupola. This is the cemetery, suggestive of a stone-strewn strand.
Among the graves sat in clusters some white peaked bundles. I imagined them to be people performing their devotions, but soon they moved, and I caught sight of an implement shining in the air above the white points, and was told they were men digging a grave.
Only a few hours earlier, in the tents below the palms, a man, still in the prime of life, died of the insidious fever of these regions, and was shortly to be buried.
When the brawling of the crowd around me was hushed, I heard a wailing sound as of hounds baying in the distance. No doubt the lamentations of the women.
The grave was soon ready, and some of the white figures strolled off to the village, the rest returning to the camp.
For about half an hour I sat gasping with the heat and endeavouring to keep off the flies with a palm-leaf fan.
The man, woman, and child were still before the Khalifa, but I hardly noticed any longer the loud tones of the bystanders. Not that they had ceased wrangling, but that my ears had grown accustomed to the sound. Now and again one of the sons came and conversed with me, but I begged to be left in peace.