There were folded towels,
too, of silvery damask.
"What wonderful things we have!" the girl exclaimed. "I don't see how we
manage to carry them all. It is like a story of the 'Arabian Nights,'
where one has but to rub a lamp, and a powerful djinn brings everything
one wants."
"The Lord Maieddine is the powerful djinn who has brought all thou
couldst possibly desire, without giving thee even the trouble to wish
for things," said Fafann, showing her white teeth, and glancing sidelong
at the Roumia. "These are not all. Many of these things thou hast seen
already. Yet there are more." Eagerly she lifted from the ground, which
was covered with rugs, a large green earthern jar. "It is full of
rosewater to bathe thy face, for the water of the desert here is
brackish, and harsh to the skin, because of saltpetre. The Sidi ordered
enough rosewater to last till Ghardaia, in the M'Zab country. Then he
will get thee more."
"But it is for us both--for Lella M'Barka more than for me," protested
Victoria.
Fafann laughed. "My mistress no longer spends time in thinking of her
skin. She prays much instead; and the Sidi has given her an amulet which
touched the sacred Black Stone at Mecca. To her, that is worth all the
rest; and it is worth this great journey, which she takes with so much
pain. The rosewater, and the perfumes from Tunis, and the softening
creams made in the tent of the Sidi's mother, are all offered to thee.
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