And when they had set his body upon a camel, that camel would not rise up; and they then put the body on another camel, and this second camel would also not rise; and though they beat the camel with a severe beating, he would not move at all. Thus they knew that this was the will of God.
-The Ethiopian Synaxarion, Book of Saints, on the death and burial of Menas (285-309), Patron Saint of Desert Caravans
Saint Menas, Christian Martyr, had one last request of his Roman persecutors, that his body be loaded onto a camel and driven to Egypt, and wherever the camel chose to stop, that there he be buried. Request granted, and around his burial site grew a shrine where water was sold in clay flasks incised with an image of two camels prostrating themselves before him. I presume that KhairAllah knew nothing about this place, it being far off the Darb, up near Alexandria, and that he would think a water vessel made of clay an absurd thing to load on a camel, tanned goat skins being much preferred.
