"
Asti nodded, and, clad in the light warm clothes of camel-hair, they set
the baskets upon their heads after the fashion of the peasant women of
Egypt and started forward, the harp of ivory and of gold hanging upon
Tua's back.
For hour after hour they marched thus through the forest, threading
their path between the big boles of the trees, and heading always for
the south, for that way ran the woodland glades beyond which was dense
bush. Great apes chattered above them in the tree tops, and now
and again some beast of prey crossed their path and vanished in the
underwood, but nothing else did they see. At length, towards midday, the
ground began to rise, and the trees grew smaller and farther apart, till
at last they reached the edge of a sandy desert, and walked out to a
little oasis, where the green grass showed them they would find water.
In this oasis there was a spring, and by the edge of it they sat down
and drank, and ate of their store of food, and afterwards slept a while.
Suddenly Tua, in her sleep, heard a voice, and, awaking with a
start, saw a man who stood near by, leaning on a thornwood staff and
contemplating them.
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