Then came a season of the year when the snn ceased, and the rain came down as the feathers fall from an egret's nest when the Khamseen(i) blows: the rivers froze, and ice formed upon them, so that they became as the firm ground, and cannons were dragged across their surface, and we would walk upon the face of the waters as it were upon the land. And I became weak and infirm in my body by reason of the severity of the cold, and the skin wasted on my bones, so that I was in the extreme of anguish. Nor was there with me aught of those things that invigorate the heart or dilate the bosom, so that, verily, I counted myself among the people of the other world, through the violence of my sufferings. My hands indeed refused their service, and I was fain to hold the reins between my teeth, by reason of the intensity of the cold. I continued in this state for a length of time, meditating on the wondrous ways of God, and on the vicissitudes that befall and happen unto men, until destiny brought me — with the permission of God, whose name be exalted — between the hands of two Turks, whose breasts were bared to the icy winds of the Balkans.

And, when they saw in what sad plight I was, they were moved with merriment, and broke into a roar of laughter, so that their sides were like to burst. They knew but little Arabic, but by means of a few flowery words, which they had learned from the Koran, they questioned me as to my state. I (l) The southerly wind that blows before the rains come.