As he held the tassels, lifted the
gold-fringed curtain, and invoked Allah's blessing, a half-naked sheikh
ran forward, and, raising his hand high above his head, cried shrilly:
"Kaid, Kaid, hearken!"
Rough hands caught him away, but Kaid commanded them to desist; and the
man called a blessing on him; and cried aloud:
"Listen, O Kaid, son of the stars and the light of day. God hath exalted
thee. Thou art the Egyptian of all the Egyptians. In thy hand is power.
But thou art mortal even as I. Behold, O Kaid, in the hour that I was
born thou wast born, I in the dust without thy Palace wall, thou amid the
splendid things. But thy star is my star. Behold, as God ordains, the
Tree of Life was shaken on the night when all men pray and cry aloud to
God--even the Night of the Falling Leaves. And I watched the falling
leaves; and I saw my leaf, and it was withered, but only a little
withered, and so I live yet a little. But I looked for thy leaf, thou who
wert born in that moment when I waked to the world. I looked long, but I
found no leaf, neither green nor withered.
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