I came to Cairo with a store/Of wealth,- my story’s known enough/…/And then my hand I opened wide,/I paid in measure grand and fine/…/And now the time at last has come/To leave the town- I cannot do less,/And I must trudge away towards home/Thus hungry, thirsty, bare, and shoeless.
-Egyptian poet Bahā al-Din Zuhayr (1186-1258)
KhairAllah said when asked about the heavy duty of being Khabīr, Trail Boss, I am driving millions [of guineas] before me in the form of camels. But when he got to Cairo, he handed those millions back to Hajj Bashir and returned home to became again the person he had been before taking the job in Dar al-Kababish, a man thirsty and shoeless, Miskīn, Miserable, in the words of drover Muhammad the Miskīn, although KhairAllah’s clothes were cleaner.