and answered in his thundering voice: "The world is loan and repayment." And the reaches of "Barouk" echoed it back: the world is loan and repayment.

When Abu Salman and al-Ghabra came in sight of "Baakline," most of the men of the town and its boys were waiting, chanting and firing shots into the air. And when the greetings and the talk were done, one of the boys leaped onto the back of (al-Ghabra) and went galloping off to meet the rest of the caravan; then some of the elders gathered around the sheikh of the caravan and fell to teasing him: "Where is al-Ghabra's load?" Some said that Abu Salman had gone to Hauran and it had slipped his mind to buy wheat. Others supposed that at (Ain al-Lajja) there was a nymph who traded wheat for smiles. Others related that a Bedouin had met Abu Salman and robbed him of the load of wheat. And still others asserted that al-Ghabra had a belly like a mill and had eaten the load in the night without Abu Salman's know-ing. As for him, he kept smiling and made no answer to the banter. The cold was still biting, but Abu Salman did not feel it; he walked straight to his house, where his wife's welcome met him. And after the greetings and the talk he asked her the news, and Umm Salman said there was nothing new but the typhus — everyone who fell to that vile fever died. And she thought she had given him an exhaustive report of all the news; but then she caught herself and said:

Oh yes — Umm Hamad came to me yesterday from Barouk and told me in secret that they are in want. She had let her husband believe she was going to (Aley) to sell the silver candlestick and buy wheat, but in truth she came to me wanting to pawn it with me, for she is certain she can redeem it from me once the war is over and Hamad goes back to sending them money. As for me — you know, Abu Salman, that we have no money; but I was certain you were coming back with a new load, so I gave her all the provision in the bin and told her she should be ashamed to speak of pawning the candlestick. Glory be to God, how we have denied Him

— man has come to neither give nor ask anything except against a pledge and a promissory note.

— And did you take the candlestick from her?

Umm Salman answered: Of course I did not take the can-dlestick — I gave her everything in the bin and said to her: Umm Hamad, a day will come, God willing, when you will return what

you borrow. The world is loan and repayment — is it not so, Abu Salman?

— True, the world is loan and repayment, answered Abu Salman, as he hung his turban on a nail in the house-post, loosened his garments a little, rested his head on a cushion, stretched out on the carpet, and slept — burning with fever. With typhus!

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