not prescribed rites??

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And the tale of devoted friendship reached my ears on the tongue of your twin spirit, the artist Youssef Howayek. In it were lessons and sorrows. At one moment he would range through witty anecdotes until he drowned in laughter; at another, emotion and longing would wring him and he would choke with tears. You dwelt in the innermost core of

his stalwart heart, and with your going the balance of his friendship was shaken and rocked, and his faith in the justice of the earth dwindled, so that he withdrew from his fellows to live with the earth in his village; and he vowed to himself that nothing would clear his conscience toward the dearest of his brothers save a monument to you, set above the entrance of the house, for your memory's sake. And the genius of his art revealed

itself in this head of yours, which we have gathered today to unveil.

They told me of you, O Ameen, and drew out the telling; and I lis-tened, and drew out my listening; and my heart was taken captive by tales upon tales that come in the evenings of conversation, bewitching and beguiling, as if from the world of legend.