There is a legend, beloved by the Bedouins, which tells how the Angel Gabriel was saved by a camel. "In the days of ignorance," the legend runs, "before the Koran was revealed to Prophet, the Angel Gabriel came down to earth. As the Koran had yet been revealed, the earth was still in the hands of the demons who eat the evil thoughts of man for their food. "When these demons saw the Angel Gabriel, they determined to capture of the hosts of the sky, to rob him of his thoughts, as one robs a caravan, and send him back to Heaven empty. Had they succeeded in catching the Angle, they might have done this, for was it not in the days of Ignorance? "Now the Angel Gabriel had been given special powers by Allah, and, had he wished it, he could have blasted these demons by a Word of Might. But as his mission on earth was a secret one, escape seemed to him the best way to carry out the wishes of Allah. "The Angel Gabriel summoned his mehari. This racing-camel was whiter than milk, faster than the fastest gazelle, its eyes could see a blade of cram-cram grass fully ten miles away, and it could smell an unpierced well of water at two days' march distance. The angel leaped upon this mehari and the demons folled. "That was a wild ride! "Every day, for exactly fourteen hours daily, the Angle Gabriel rode. He stopped, only, to give his mehari the four hours of grazing, the two hours of cud-chewing, and the four hours of sleep which the Creator-the All-Wise and the All-Powerful-has ordained for these sponge-footed racers over the desert miles. "Yet, fast as the angle rode, the demons stayed close behind. Upon black meharis, whose breath was hotter then the simoon upon the Waste of A'i'iz, they followed him nearly. They could not advance while he rested, for never did the Angel delay a moment longer than the prescribed house of repose, and never did he rob his mehari of the rest which was its due. "For nine days, the Angle Gabriel rode thus, and wide was the expanse of the desert that he crossed. And for nine days the demons maintained their pursuit, discouragement not yet having withered their harts. But when, upon the coming of the tenth day, the demons found that the mehari of the Angel Gabriel was still able to travel, those dark Sons of Eblis decided that the camel must have more than earthly powers, and gave up the chase. Thus by the endurance of a mehari to the tenth day, the Angel Gabriel was saved and the designs of Allah were not thwarted."