"
The hint was taken; and in a few minutes, the exposed situation in
which the family was collected, was exchanged for the more secure
elevation of the rock. Here Esther busied herself, working and
scolding with equal industry, until the repast was prepared; when she
summoned her husband to his meal in a voice as sonorous as that with
which the Imam reminds the Faithful of a more important duty.
When each had assumed his proper and customary place around the
smoking viands, the squatter set the example by beginning to partake
of a delicious venison steak, prepared like the hump of the bison,
with a skill that rather increased than concealed its natural
properties. A painter would gladly have seized the moment, to transfer
the wild and characteristic scene to the canvass.
The reader will remember that the citadel of Ishmael stood insulated,
lofty, ragged, and nearly inaccessible. A bright flashing fire that
was burning on the centre of its summit, and around which the busy
group was clustered, lent it the appearance of some tall Pharos placed
in the centre of the deserts, to light such adventurers as wandered
through their broad wastes.
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