At length Mariam quitted her home and placed herself under the
protection of the Mahometan authorities, who, however, refrained
from delivering her into the arms of her lover, and detained her in
a mosque until the fact of her real conversion (which had been
indignantly denied by her relatives) should be established. For
two or three days the mother of the young convert was prevented
from communicating with her child by various evasive contrivances,
but not, it would seem, by a flat refusal. At length it was
announced that the young lady's profession of faith might be heard
from her own lips. At an hour appointed the friends of the Sheik
and the relatives of the damsel met in the mosque. The young
convert addressed her mother in a loud voice, and said, "God is
God, and Mahomet is the Prophet of God, and thou, oh my mother, art
an infidel, feminine dog!"
You would suppose that this declaration, so clearly enounced, and
that, too, in a place where Mahometanism is perhaps more supreme
than in any other part of the empire, would have sufficed to have
confirmed the pretensions of the lover. This, however, was not the
case. The Greek priest of the place was despatched on a mission to
the Governor of Jerusalem (Aboo Goosh), in order to complain
against the proceedings of the Sheik and obtain a restitution of
the bride.
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