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Show THEEND0F RAMADAN GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE CLOSE OF THE FORTY DAYS' FAST. A Gun Boomed From the Citadel at the Beginning and Ending of the Rite -The Legend Upon Which the Uncomfortable Custom la Based. We sat in the tent's shadow, with our faces turned toward Cairo. There were three of us, the sheik of the neighboring neighbor-ing village, Ahmed and I. The clear outline of the Mokhattan hills was hidden hid-den in the thick mist generated by the heat; the city was a gray blur against the black sides of the uplands. Below ns, amid the sugar cane, the fellahin worked with an affectation of energy. Sometimes a voice came to us mellowed by distance; 6ometim.es the sail of a vessel glided phantom wise over the blue ribbon of vater that twined along the valley toward Alexandria and the delta. A month before I had seen the messengers mes-sengers leave the city and strike into the desert. Twenty-four hours later, dusty and hot, they returned, bearing news. The new moon had appeared, and the fast was proclaimed. At midnight mid-night a gun boomed from the citadel, and suddenly the merry noises of the streets were 6tilled. Next day I wandered through the bazaars, ba-zaars, but received no invitation to drink coffee with my friends. Pipes and cigarettes were not offered to me. A kind of half sleep had fallen on everybody, every-body, and I hardly dared speak to any one. In the intervals between their bargainings the merchants read the Koran Ko-ran or prayed, counting their beads with nimble fingers, head bent downward. The bargainings, too, were a poor shadow shad-ow of the exciting scenes 1 loved. The purchaser was always languid and the vender inert, uninterested. As the afternoon wore on a look of fatigue, often of real pain, gloomed on the usually genial faces. It was hot, so hot. The sun beat furiously on the white walls and roads ; the cruel Kem-pion Kem-pion whirled the dust through the streets and dried the skin and lips. But the cry of the water carrier was not raised; no boys offered bunches of juicy fruit to the sufferers. Ramadan had come with all its terrors, and for the love of God and his apostle must they be borne, if not cheerfully, at any rate sternly and manfully. One hour before sunset life seemed to stir again in the veins. The bakeries were crowded; the fires blazed under the ovens; a smell of cooking stole over the city. Women squatted at intervals along the streets with cakes and fruit and bottles of water spread before them. Little groups gathered round them, impatient, im-patient, expectant. The Bmokers took out their pipes or cigarettes and stood waiting for the signal, match in hand. Suddenly the sun fell, and the gun thundered from the citadel. The city awoke; the population began to eat; the women were busy disposing of their goods. For 40 days these things were, and now was come the closing day of the fast, and I sat with my friends on the Band, gazing toward the citadel till the gun showed fire for the last time. Ail the afternoon envious glances had been cast at me as I cheerfully disobeyed dis-obeyed the prophet's orders. Ahmed, 1 think, had the sheik not been with me, would have smoked a cigarette, but as it was he lay beside me and sulked. The sheik was too old to behave thus. He was quiet and spoke slowly, but he tried bravely to conceal all signs of discomfort. dis-comfort. Ahmed's annoyance may be lecounted for in this way. He declared to me that Mohammed fasted one day in the month Ramadan, but on which day was uncertain, and therefore the theologians the-ologians decreed a 40 days' fast that they might be sure of fasting the same day as the prophet. I do not think Ahmed Ah-med believes this legend, though he vouches vehemently for its truth. To while away the time I asked the sheik to tell me about the visit of the czarowitz. But the long abstinence made him unable to talk at any length, and even this his favorite story he told me briefly in a couple of bald sentences, sen-tences, though he responded gently: "I met him as one prince meets another. He told me he owned many villages; that he was sheik over half the world. It may be as they have said." "And what did he say to you?" I queried. "He greeted me courteously i and took me by the hand. This ring that I wear is his gift." As he spoke he 6howed me, without pride, a sapphire of great size and beauty. Then he relapsed into silence, and 1 amused myself by picturing the fivnnt in mv minr! I wnnld that T Vind seen that meeting between the heir of the holy Russian empire and the simple Arab chief. Looking into hia grave gray eyes and at his tall, slight figure, the broad shoulders not yet bent, though the white beard he was stroking told of many years of life, and in spite of his tattered blue robe, I easily conceived how he had been treated courteously as became a prince. Befjore the setting sun touched the horizon a boy from the village brought a large plate of food and a bottle of water wa-ter and set them before us. "The signal," sig-nal," I cried as a white puff of smoke rolled away from the citadal walls, and at the same instant the sun sank behind the desert. The sheik seized the bottle of water and drank long and eagerly. When hia thirst was appeased, he belched loudly and handed the bottle to Ahmed, who drank eagerly, too, not omitting the curious after grace. Then they devoured the food vora. ciously, the old man beckoning me to join. After we had eaten we sat and talked far Into the night under the golden stars. The distant city gleamed fairylike with myriad lamps, and the murmur of its thousand voices came to us through the silent air. Ramadan was dead. The fast was over and, the feast begun. Pall ILaXt Budget, : |