The sun was growing hotter and hotter in the heavens, and now his mother, who was much older than anyone would have believed, was feeling more than a little impatient. She couldn’t crane her neck around and see what the youngest camel was up to, and her feet hurt her, and her hip was rubbed quite raw.
“In the first place, they don’t belong to you,” she said to him in annoyance. “You’ll have to turn them over to the police as soon as we reach civilization.”
“Oh, but look!” cried the little camel, just as if it were possible for her to turn her head and see. “There’s a bit of paper tied to them. It says—let me see a minute,” he said, as if trying hard to make the letters out—“it says, ‘Whoever finds these magic beads may keep them.’ So you see!” he cried out joyfully. “Now they belong to us and we can sell them in the next city and you can have everything you want to make you happy. You can have a parasol to keep the sun off you, and a litter with curtains at the sides to be carried in by slaves, and you can wear a solid gold ring in your nose every day, and I can have a big mirror to watch myself in while I’m dancing, and—”
“Tell me what they look like,” said his mother, beginning to be a little curious. “This brute is holding the cord so tight that I can’t look around, but describe them to me.”
“Well, one is bright red,” said her son, following quickly behind her. “The one next to it is green, and the next after that shines like a diamond.” He talked very slowly, as if he were examining the necklace closely as he came along. “And now I see something else!” he cried out in fresh excitement. “Each one has a sort of message written in it, carved right inside it in beautiful tiny lettering.”
“Ho, ho,” said his mother. “That’s probably why they’re called magic beads.”
“Oh, yes, that must be it. I hadn’t thought of that,” said the youngest camel in an innocent-sounding voice. “The jade one has written inside it,” he went on slowly, as if he were having difficulty in making out the words, “‘I am the green valley you long for. You may live in me forever.’ And the topaz bead says, ‘I am a silk tent to protect you from sandstorms and from winter and from the midday sun.’ And the ruby one says, ‘I am blood to flow in your veins and the veins of those you love. Thus you may live forever.’ And the—”
“Do any of them say anything about bones?” asked his mother, and the little camel looked up with surprise.
“Bones?” he repeated.
“Yes, bones,” said his mother. “Perhaps I haven’t told you about that yet, but if you don’t know it’s certainly high time you did. Although we camels dread the smell or sight of death, there’s really nothing nicer than being able to crunch the bones of a fallen relative later, say three or four months after his demise when the flesh has fallen quite off his bones. They taste very good,” she continued, almost smacking her lips. “Like pretzels or salted almonds. It’s a great comfort if you’ve lost someone dear to you to be able to munch him up like that, and very good for the teeth and hoofs.”