He Would Cast Down His Eyes And Look Like A
Man Abashed, And Then Gently, And With A Mournful Gesture, Allow
The Words, "Morto, Signor," To Come Through His Lips.
I don't know
how many of such instances occurred, but they were several, and
besides these (as I told you before), my banker, my doctor, my
landlord, and my magician all died of the plague.
A lad who acted
as a helper in the house which I occupied lost a brother and a
sister within a few hours. Out of my two established donkey-boys,
one died. I did not hear of any instance in which a plague-
stricken patient had recovered.
Going out one morning I met unexpectedly the scorching breath of
the kamsin wind, and fearing that I should faint under the horrible
sensations which it caused, I returned to my rooms. Reflecting,
however, that I might have to encounter this wind in the Desert,
where there would be no possibility of avoiding it, I thought it
would be better to brave it once more in the city, and to try
whether I could really bear it or not. I therefore mounted my ass
and rode to old Cairo, and along the gardens by the banks of the
Nile. The wind was hot to the touch, as though it came from a
furnace. It blew strongly, but yet with such perfect steadiness,
that the trees bending under its force remained fixed in the same
curves without perceptibly waving.
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