Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1895-03-14
A M0SLEM MISSIONARY.
What flo Did, for ON American
: e, Bp5 la Egypt. ~

siout is q desuinte, sandy tract of land
with adesert stretching awavou either
hand, Each. grave is furnished with
double grayestopes, placed as seats for
the two recording angels, Munkar and
Neldr After DEATH say the NOLAN.
mediums, the sonf stays with the BODY
for four-and-twehty hours. During
this time It Is questioned by the spirits
who descend, ono bearing the book for
the good, the other that for the evil
deeds OF the departed When the an
swersare noted they rise, with the vol
+ umes, to the throne of Allah and ac-
cording to their contents, the soul is
rewarded or punished.
The, tqnbstones at FIRST stand side by
side, but In. the loose sandy soil thew
soon sink and lean. apart at various an
gles' no howers grow there; no wom-
an would even dream of coming To
plant any there Such as it was. how
ever, it had a visitor in the person of
an old, blind bcggar. Ibrahim had
not always been poor and forlorn. He
had once been prosperous dragoman
wearing gorgeous apparel and earning
much backsheesh by guiding English
and American tourists through his ma
tive, land. Now; he was dependent
upon the charity of those pious bcliev-
ers who daily distributed bread to the
needy from the doors of the mosque
lbrahim loved tho graveyard. He
felt moro at home there than in the
town Of the living outside it's walls. SO
many of his old friends were here.
They were all gone into the otherworld,
some in battlc'with the Berbers or the
Y Sudance, some from old age, some by
pestilence, Some by famine, which ever
waits TO devour the fellah when, by
chance. the Nile fails to give susten-
ance to his poor little strip of arabic
land. Only he was left of all his gen
Grafton. He loved to wander from
one stone to another Occasionally
he stopped to recall the past,
to hold IAN imaginary conversation
with some shade, to give some
piece of news and fancy its effect
upon the visionary audience. He would
often 70 home quite cheered and re-
freshed by the companionship and feel
ing less lonely. One only, and he the
dearest, was absent. Whether he lay
beneath ocean waves, or under drifting
Z, Libyan sands, or In far-off country,
Ibrahim never knew; but 1t was his
only son, his irstborn child, he whose
birth had been hailed with much re-
. joie,ng. The ceremonies had been OBJ
served in due form-the household fes-
tival, on the seventh day, when the
swectened water was dropped in the
baby's mouth to give it pleasant fore
taste oflifc's gifts; the forty bowls Of
water poured upon it's head upon the
fortieth day. The lad had been put
under the care of wise falsir and
carefully instructed In the faith of FL
Islam; but, in spite Of everything, he
had proved q renegade, idle and worth
: less; even, it was whispered SO vile as
y to learn. from Christians to drink thc
forbidden fiery waters which destroy
not only the body but the soul as well
Yes, there was no doubt that he was a
bad son, and, when he finally ran away
with caravan of wandering Bedawin,
The bazaar felt that fate had dealt
kindly with Ibrahim. But he, himself
thought otherwise, for his soul yearned
after his troublesome child; and even
now, after- so many long years, his
works Of supererogation, his observance
of extra hours, of prayer besides the
ordained FIVE, his visit to the Well, or
tombs of saints, his offcringsof ostrich
eggs tn tic mausoleuins and scraps
g Of cloth fastened to- the surrounding
trees, wero always performed with the
hope that they might somehow benefit
: that son, for whose sake, when the
trump of Israfil should sound, he him
self would be content to fall from the
razor. bridge Of El-Sirat. into the abyss
below, provided only the soul of his
boy might be borne across to rest be-
meath the shade Of trees with the
houris of Paradise. To his deceased
wives, nine in all, he seldom gave a
! -sshought, but, for Ais sake, scourged
ibis poor worn back and stood for hours
} in the broiling sun; for Ali he reused
himself to pray at midnight. He al
ways made one of the blind men who
n walked behind bier to chant the
creed while the boys followed to sing
the ssHashriyeh," the poem OF last
Judgment, and the mourning women
walled behind. And he loved to listen
to the burial prayer; 30, Allah for
give our living and forgive our dead.
Pardon those who are present and
those who afc absent"
On the afternoon In question the old
man felt more weary than usual. In
his wanderings through the bazaar he
had, by chance, Heard OF certain
stranger who lay i'll at miserable
hosiery on the outskirts OF the town
He had staggered in, no one knew
from what place, late one night IN Q
dazed and sunstruck condition and had
speedily grown too i'll to make himself
ineligible. He was young, and evi'
IDENTIFY Frank of some sort; but there
were none but natives in Assiout dur
ing the hot season OF September, and
no one to look after o sick stranger
especially as there seemed probability
that he might be suffering from chol
era. So old Ibrahim felt his way into
the mud hut one baking afternoon &c
sit'by the sufferer, to give him water
and keep away the torturing iiissS
From that hour he tended him contX
ally. In his long intercourse
Anglo-Saxons he had grQF
theft speech, ;and he
y wandering accents weX
+ He sat patiently, IL
: Ing days, not SO m
sion rs from the h
.shonc before him tina