From
another tile-platter at hand she took several round slices of durra
bread and proceeded to toast them with much skill, tilting the hot tile
and casting each browned slice in on the fowl as it was done. When she
had finished, she removed the cover and set the bowl on the large
platter, protecting her hands from its heat with a fold of her habit.
With no little triumph and some difficulty she got upon her feet and
carried the toothsome dish into her shelter, to place it beyond the
reach of stealthy hands. No such meal was cooked that morning,
elsewhere, in Pa-Ramesu, except at the military headquarters on the
knoll.
There was little inside the tent, except the meagerest essential
furnishing. A long amphora stood in a tamarisk rack in one corner; a
linen napkin hung, pinned to the tent-cloth, over it; a glazed laver
and a small box sat beside it. A mat of braided reeds, the handiwork
of the old Israelite, covered the naked earth. This served as seat or
table for the occupants. Several wisps of straw were scattered about
and a heap of it, over which a cotton cloak had been thrown, lay in one
corner.
"Rachel," the old woman said briskly.
Evidently some one slept under the straw, for the heap stirred.
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