Chapter 31

And that night when we were encamped only one of the men came back saying that a lion of the desert had killed his mate after they buried the dead man in deep sand below the valley and covered the spot where he lay with many great rocks, so that jackals or other wild beasts would not dig him up again. As was their custom and later, in the light of the fire around which the men sat or lay upon it, I saw him offering his fellows a white thing which they seemed to regard with special awe and reverence and so I approached silently and saw that it was nothing other than the white hand of the mummy which had protected the jewel in the great sarcophagus. .

I heard the Bedouin tell how he had found them on the body of him who had fallen from the cliff, and there was no doubt about it, for there were seven fingers to which I have indicated before and this man must have snatched them from the corpse while I and his chief were busy and from the horror of the others I did not doubt myself