"What meaneth this old woman's babble, son of the Prophet ?" "It is not that my heart hath turned to water, nor have the fountains of mine eyes been opened to pity," answered Rrisa.

"But some things are worse than death, to all of Arab blood.

To be despoiled of arms or of horses, without a fight, makes an Arab as the worm of the earth.
Then he becometh an outcast, indeed! 'If you would rule, disarm'," he quoted the old proverb, and added another: "'Man unarmed in the desert is like a bird shorn of wings.'" "What is thy plain meaning in all this ?" demanded the chief.
"Listen, _M'alme_.

If you would be the Sheik of Sheiks, carry away all these weapons, and let these swine awaken without them.

They would drag their way back to the oases and the black tents, with a story the like of which hath never been told in the Empty Abodes.