Nine in a Line

"Take care, take care, There are nine in the line,"

Amin chanted to himself as he led the line of nine handsome camels through the sandy desert to the sheik's camp. Dark colored camels, golden ginger, white camels—he had to be very careful not to lose even one of the sheik's new camels.

But suddenly, there in the middle of the desert, a terrible thought came to Amin: the sheik had forgotten to buy blue beads to hang around the neck of each camel! There was nothing to frighten away the Evil One. He could easily come and steal one of the camels right out from under the Amin's nose. Then what would the sheik say? 

Amin turned to count his camels to make sure they were all there: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8- only eight camels. Oh, woe, what was he to do? Already the Evil One had taken a camel. What would the sheik say? Where was the ninth camel?

Nine in a Line is a gay and appealing version of a very old folktale, illustrated by Mrs. Leila Leonard with Arabic motifs and including authentic Arabic script.