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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Days of Mohammed, by Anna May Wilson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Days of Mohammed
+
+
+Author: Anna May Wilson
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 31, 2005  [eBook #17435]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Amy Cunningham, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 17435-h.htm or 17435-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/4/3/17435/17435-h/17435-h.htm)
+      or
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+
+
+
+
+
+THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED.
+
+by
+
+ANNA MAY WILSON.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+David C. Cook Publishing Company,
+Elgin, Ill., and 36 Washington St., Chicago.
+Copyright, 1897, by David C. Cook Publishing Company.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In "The Days of Mohammed," one aim of the author has been to bring out
+the fact that it is possible to begin the heaven-life on earth. It is
+hoped that a few helpful thoughts as to the means of attaining this life
+may be exemplified in the career of the various characters depicted.
+
+An attempt has been made, by constant reference to the best works on
+Mohammed and Arabia, to render the historical basis strictly correct.
+Especial indebtedness is acknowledged to the writings of Irving, Burton,
+and the Rev. Geo. Bush; also to the travels of Burckhardt, Joseph Pitts,
+Ludovico Bartema and Giovanni Finati, each of whom undertook a
+pilgrimage to the cities of Medina and Mecca; also to the excellent
+synopsis of the life and times of Mohammed as given by Prof. Max Müller
+in the introduction to Palmer's translation of the Koran.
+
+As the tiny pebble cast into the water sends its circling wavelets to
+the distant shore, so this little book is cast forth upon the world, in
+the hope that it may exert some influence in bringing hope and comfort
+to some weary heart, and that, in helping someone to attain a clearer
+conception of Divine love and companionship, it may, if in never so
+insignificant a degree, perhaps help on to that time when all shall
+
+    "Trust the Hand of Light will lead the people,
+    Till the thunders pass, the spectres vanish,
+    And the Light is Victor, and the darkness
+    Dawns into the Jubilee of the Ages."
+
+
+
+
+PRECEDING EVENTS--SUMMARY.
+
+
+Yusuf, a Guebre priest, a man of intensely religious temperament, and
+one of those whose duty it is to keep alive the sacred fire of the
+Persian temple, has long sought for a more heart-satisfying religion
+than that afforded to him by the doctrines of his country. Though a man
+of kindliest disposition, yet so benighted he is that, led on by a deep
+study of the mysteries of Magian and Sabæan rites, he has been induced
+to offer, in human sacrifice, Imri, the little granddaughter of Ama, an
+aged Persian woman, and daughter of an Arab, Uzza, who, though married
+to a Persian, lives at Oman with his wife, and knows nothing of the
+sacrifice until it is over.
+
+The death of the child, though beneath his own hand, immediately strikes
+horror to the heart of the priest. His whole soul revolts against the
+inhumanity of the act, which has not brought to him or Ama the blessing
+he had hoped for, and he rebels against the religion which has, though
+ever so rarely, permitted the exercise of such an atrocious rite. He
+becomes more than ever dissatisfied with the vagueness of his belief. He
+cannot find the rest which he desires; the Zendavesta of Zoroaster can
+no longer satisfy his heart's longing; his country-people are sunk in
+idolatry, and, instead of worshiping the God of whom the priests have a
+vague conception, persist in bowing down before the symbols themselves,
+discerning naught but the objects--the sun, moon, stars, fire--light,
+all in all.
+
+Yusuf, indeed, has a clearer idea of God; but he worships him from afar
+off, and looks upon him as a God of wrath and judgment rather than as
+the Father of love and mercy. In his new spiritual agitation he
+conceives the idea of a closer relation with the Lord of the universe;
+his whole soul calls out for a vivid realization of God, and he casts
+about for light in his trouble.
+
+From a passing stranger, traveling in Persia--a descendant of those
+Sabæan Persians who at an early age obtained a footing in Arabia,
+and whose influence was, for a time, so strongly marked through
+the whole district known as the Nejd, and even down into Yemen,
+Arabia-Felix,--Yusuf has learned of a new and strange religion held by
+the people of the great peninsula. His whole being calls for relief from
+the doubts which harass him. He is rich and he decides to proceed at
+once towards the west and to search the world, if necessary,--not, as
+did Sir Galahad and the knights of King Arthur's Table, in quest of the
+Holy Grail, but in search of the scarcely less effulgent radiance of the
+beams of Truth and Love.
+
+
+
+
+THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+YUSUF BEGINS HIS SEARCH FOR TRUTH.
+
+    "O when shall all my wanderings end,
+    And all my steps to Thee-ward tend!"
+
+
+"Peace, oh peace! that thy light wings might now rest upon me! Truth,
+that thou mightest shine in upon my soul, making all light where now is
+darkness! Ye spirits that dwell in yon bright orbs far above me, ye that
+alone are privileged to bow before the Great Creator of the universe, ye
+that alone may address yourselves to the Great Omnipotent Spirit with
+impunity, intercede for me, I beseech you! Bow before that Great
+Sovereign of all wisdom and light, whom we worship through these vague
+symbols of fire and brightness; plead with him before whom I dare not
+come, in my behalf. Beseech of him, if he will condescend to notice his
+most humble priest, that he may lead him into light effulgent, into all
+truth, and that he may clear from his soul these vapors of doubt which
+now press upon him in blackest gloom and rack his soul with torment. If
+I sin in doubting thus, beseech him to forgive me and to lead me to a
+conception of him as he is. Ye that are his ministers, from your starry
+spheres guide me! Whether through darkness, thorns, or stony ways, guide
+me; I shall not falter if I may see the light at last! Oh, grant me
+peace!"
+
+Thus prayed Yusuf, the Magian priest. He paused. No sound passed from
+his lips, but he still stood with upraised arms, gazing into the intense
+depths of the Persian sky, purple, and flecked with golden stars, the
+"forget-me-nots of the angels."
+
+His priestly vestments were dazzlingly white, and upon his shoulders
+were fixed two snowy wings that swept downward to the ground. His black
+beard descended far over his breast, and from the eyes above shone forth
+the glow of a soul yearning towards the infinite unknown, whose all is
+God.
+
+Behind him, near the altar of the rounded tower,--round in the
+similitude of the orbs of light, the sun, moon, and stars,--danced the
+sacred fire, whose flames were said to have burned unceasingly for
+nearly one thousand years. The fiery wreaths leaped upwards toward the
+same purple sky, as if pointing with long, red fingers, in mockery of
+the priest's devotion; and the ruddy glare, falling upon him as he
+stood so still there, enveloped him with a halo of light. It gleamed
+upon his head, upon his uplifted hands, upon the curves of the wings on
+his shoulders, silhouetting him against the darkness, and lighting his
+white habiliments until, all motionless as he was, he seemed like a
+marble statue dazzlingly radiant in the light of one crimson gleam from
+a sinking sun.
+
+And so he stood, heeding it not, till the moon rose, soft and full; the
+mountain-tops shone with a rim of silver, the valleys far below the
+temple looked deeper in the shade, and the fire burned low.
+
+Rapt and more rapt grew the face of the priest. Surely the struggle of
+his soul was being answered, and in his nearness to Nature, he was
+getting a faint, far-off gleam of the true nature of Nature's God. His
+glance fell to the changing landscape below; his arms were extended as
+if in benediction; and his lips moved in a low and passionate farewell
+to his native land. Then he turned.
+
+The fire burned low on the altar.
+
+"Sacred symbol, whose beams have no power to warm my chilled heart, I
+bid you a long farewell! They will say that Yusuf is faithless, a false
+priest. They will mayhap follow him to slay him. And they will bow again
+to yon image, and defile thine altars again with infants' blood, not
+discerning the true God. Yet he must be approachable. I feel it! I know
+it! O Great Spirit, reveal Thyself unto Yusuf! Reveal Thyself unto
+Persia! Great Spirit, guide me!"
+
+For the first time, Yusuf thus addressed a prayer direct to the Deity,
+and he did so in fear and trembling.
+
+A faint gleam shone feebly amid the ashes of the now blackening altar.
+It flared up for an instant, then fell, and the sacred fire of the
+Guebre temple was dead.
+
+"The embers die!" cried the priest. "Yea, mockery of the Divine, die in
+thine ashes!"
+
+He waited no longer, but strode with swift step down the mountain, and
+into the shade of the valley. Reaching, at last, a cave in the side of a
+great rock, he entered, and stripped himself of his priestly garments.
+Then, drawing from a recess the garb of an ordinary traveler, he dressed
+himself quickly, rolled his white robes into a ball, and plunged farther
+into the cave. In the darkness the rush of falling water warned him that
+an abyss was near. Dropping on his knees, he crept carefully forward
+until his hand rested on the jagged edge of a ledge of rock. Beside him
+the water fell into a yawning gulf. Darkness darker than blackest night
+was about him, and, in its cover, he cast the robes into the abyss
+below, then retraced his way, and plunged once more into the moonlight,
+a Persian traveler wearing the customary loose trousers, a kufiyah on
+his head, and bearing a long staff in his hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT.
+
+      "The cares that infest the day
+    Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
+      And as silently steal away."
+
+                              --_Longfellow._
+
+
+Many months after the departure of Yusuf from Persia a solitary rider on
+a swift dromedary reached the extreme northern boundary of El Hejaz, the
+province that stretches over a considerable portion of western Arabia.
+His face was brown like leather from exposure, and his clothes were worn
+and travel-stained, yet it scarcely required a second glance to
+recognize the glittering eyes of the Magian priest.
+
+It seemed as if the excitement of danger and the long days of toil and
+privation had at last begun to tell upon his iron frame. His eye,
+accustomed by the fear of robbers to dart its dark glances restlessly,
+was less keen than usual; his head was drooped downward upon his breast,
+and his whole attitude betokened bodily fatigue. His camel, too, went
+less swiftly, and picked its way, with low, plaintive moans, over the
+rough and precipitous path which led into a wild and weird glen.
+
+It was evening, and the shadows fell in fantastic streaks and blotches
+across the arid valley, through whose barren soil huge, detached rocks
+of various-colored sandstone rose in eerie, irregular masses, veritable
+castles of genii of the uncanny spot.
+
+Yusuf looked uneasily around, but neither sight nor sound of life was
+near, and he again allowed his faithful beast to slacken its pace and
+crop a few leaves of the coarse camel-thorn, the only sign of vegetation
+in the deserted place.
+
+A few trees, however, could be seen in the distance, and he urged his
+camel towards them in the hope of finding some water, and some dates for
+food. Reaching the spot, he found that a stagnant pool lay below, but
+there were no dates on the trees, and the water was brackish. A couple
+of red-legged partridges fluttered off, cackling loudly as they went. He
+would fain have had them for food, but their presence seemed like
+company to the poor wanderer, and he did not attempt to secure them; so,
+throwing himself at full length on the ground, he flung his arms across
+his eyes to shield them from the white glare of the sky.
+
+Suddenly a step sounded near. Yusuf started to his feet and grasped his
+scimitar, but he was instantly beset by half a dozen wild Arabs, who
+dashed upon him, screaming their wild Arabian jargon, and waving their
+short swords over their heads.
+
+Blows fell thick and fast. Yusuf had a dazed consciousness of seeing the
+swarthy, wrinkled visages and gleaming teeth of his opponents darting in
+confusion before him, of hacking desperately, and of receiving blows on
+the head; then a sudden gush of blood from a wound on his forehead
+blinded him, and he fell.
+
+All seemed over. But a shout sounded close at hand. Several Arabs,
+splendidly mounted on nimble Arabian horses, and waving their long,
+tufted spears, appeared on the scene. The Bedouin robbers fled
+precipitately, and Yusuf's first sensation was that of being gently
+raised, and of feeling water from the pool dashed upon his face.
+
+The priest had not been severely wounded, and soon recovered enough to
+proceed with the party which had rendered him such timely aid.
+
+An hour's ride brought them to the head of another and more fertile glen
+or wady, through which a mountain stream wended its way between two
+bands of tolerably good pasturage. A full moon in all its brilliancy was
+just rising. Its cold, clear light flooded the wady, bringing out every
+feature of the landscape with remarkable distinctness. At some distance
+lay a group of tents, black, and pitched in a circle, as the tents of
+the Bedouins usually are. Camp-fires studded the valley with glints of
+red; and the barking of dogs and shouts of men arose on the night air
+above the hoarse moanings of the camels. Yusuf was indeed glad to see
+evidences of Arab civilization, and to look forward to the prospect of a
+good supper and a friendly bed.
+
+The return of the party was now noticed by the men of the encampment. A
+group of horsemen, also armed with long spears tufted with ostrich
+feathers, left the tents and came riding swiftly and gracefully towards
+their returning companions.
+
+An explanation of Yusuf's sorrowful plight was given, and he was
+conducted to the tent of the Sheikh, which was marked by being larger
+than the rest, and situated in the center of the circle, with a spear
+placed upright in the ground before the door.
+
+The Sheikh himself received the stranger at the door of his tent. He was
+a middle-aged man, of tall and commanding appearance, though the scowl
+habitual to the Bedouins by reason of their constant exposure to the
+sun, rested upon his face. He wore a kufiyah, or kerchief, of red and
+yellow on his head, the ends falling on his shoulders behind in a
+crimson fringe. His hair was black and greased, and his eyes, though
+piercing, were not unkindly. His person was thin and muscular, but he
+wore gracefully the long abba or outer cloak, white and embroidered,
+which opened in front, disclosing an undergarment of figured muslin,
+bound by a crimson sash. And there was native grace in every movement
+when he came courteously forward and saluted Yusuf with the "Peace be
+with you" of the Arabs. He then extended his hand to help the traveler
+to dismount, and led him into the tent.
+
+"Friend," he said, "a long journey and a close acquaintance with death
+are, methinks, a good preparation for the enjoyment of Bedouin
+hospitality, which, we sincerely hope, shall not be lacking in the tents
+of Musa. Yet, in truth, it seems to us that thou art a fool-hardy man to
+tempt the dangers of El Hejaz single-handed."
+
+"So it has proved," returned the priest; "but a Persian, no more than an
+Arab, will draw back at the first scent of danger. Yet I deplore these
+delays, which but hinder me on my way. I had hoped long ere this to be
+at the end of my journey."
+
+"We will hear all this later," returned the Bedouin with quiet dignity;
+"for the present, suffice it to keep quiet and let us wash this blood
+from your hair. Hither, Aswan! Bring warm water, knave, and let the
+traveler know that the Arab's heart is warm too. Now, friend-stranger,
+rest upon these cushions, and talk later, if it please you."
+
+With little enough reluctance, Yusuf lay down upon the pile of rugs and
+cushions, and, while the attendants bathed his brow, looked somewhat
+curiously about him.
+
+[Illustration: He stood with upraised arms, gazing into the depths of
+the sky.--See page 2.]
+
+By the light of a dim lamp and a torch or two, he could see that the
+tent was divided into two parts, as are all Bedouin tents, by a central
+curtain. This curtain was occasionally twitched aside far enough to
+reveal a pair of black eyes, and, from the softness of the voices which
+sounded from time to time behind the folds, he surmised correctly that
+this apartment belonged to the chief's women.
+
+Several men entered the tent, all swarthy, lithe and sinewy, with the
+scowling faces and even, white teeth characteristic of the typical Arab.
+They gesticulated constantly as they talked; but Yusuf, though
+thoroughly familiar with the Arabic language, paid little attention to
+the conversation, giving himself up to what seemed to him, after his
+adventures, perfect rest.
+
+Presently the chief's wife entered. She was unveiled, and her features
+were distinctly Hebrew; for Lois, wife of the Bedouin Musa, had been
+born a Jewess. She was dressed in a flowing robe of black confined by a
+crimson girdle. Strings of coins and of blue opaque beads hung upon her
+breast and were wound about her ankles, and she wore a black head-dress
+also profusely decorated with beads and bangles of silver.
+
+On a platter she carried some cakes, still smoking hot. These she placed
+on a low, circular table of copper. A wooden platter of boiled mutton
+was next added, along with a caldron filled with wheat boiled in camel's
+milk, and some cups of coffee.
+
+Yusuf was placed at the table, and Musa, after sipping a little coffee,
+handed the cup to him; the chief then picked out the most savory bits of
+mutton, and, according to Arabian etiquette, handed them to his guest.
+
+Several men gathered around to partake of the banquet. They crouched or
+reclined on the ground, about the low table; yet, savage-looking though
+they were, not one of the Bedouins ventured an inquisitive question or
+bestowed a curious glance on the Persian.
+
+Among them, however, was a little, inquisitive-looking man, whose quick,
+bird-like movements attracted Yusuf's attention early in the evening.
+His round black eyes darted into every place and upon every one with an
+insatiable curiosity, and he talked almost incessantly. He was a Jewish
+peddler who traded small wares with the Arabs, and who was constantly
+somewhere on the road between Syria and Yemen, being liable to appear
+suddenly at the most mysterious times, and in the most unlikely places.
+
+In his way, Abraham of Joppa was a character, and one may be pardoned
+for bestowing more than a passing glance upon him. Though permitted to
+eat at the table with the rest, it was evident that the Arabs looked
+upon him with some contempt. They enjoyed listening to his stories, and
+to his recital of the news which he picked up in his travels, but they
+despised his inquisitiveness, and resented the impertinence with which
+he coolly addressed himself even to the Sheikh, before whom all were
+more or less reserved.
+
+The Persian was, for the present, the chief object of the little Jew's
+curiosity, and as soon as the meal was over he hastened to form his
+acquaintance.
+
+Sitting down before the priest, and poising his head on one side, he
+observed:
+
+"You are bound for the south, stranger?"
+
+"Even so," said Yusuf, gravely.
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"I seek for the city of the great temple."
+
+"Phut! The Caaba!" exclaimed the Jew, with contempt. "Right well I know
+it, and a fool's game they make of it, with their running, and bowing,
+and kissing a bit of stone in the wall as though 'twere the dearest
+friend on earth!"
+
+"But they worship--"
+
+"A statue of our father Abraham, and one of Ishmael, principally. A
+precious set of idolaters they all are, to be sure!"
+
+Yusuf's heart sank. Was it only for this that he had come his long and
+weary way, had braved the heat of day and the untold dangers of night?
+In searching for that pure essence, the spiritual, that he craved, had
+he left the idolatrous leaven at home only to come to another form of it
+in Mecca?
+
+"But then," he thought, "this foolish Jew knows not whereof he speaks:
+one with the empty brain and the loose tongue of this wanderer has not
+probed the depths of divine truth."
+
+"You cannot be going to Mecca as a pilgrim?" hazarded the little man.
+"The Magians and the Sabæans worship the stars, do they not?"
+
+"Alas, yes!" said the priest. "They have fallen away from the ancient
+belief. They worship even the stars themselves, and have set up images
+to them, no longer perceiving the Great Invisible, the Infinite, who can
+be approached only through the mediation of the spirits who inhabit the
+starry orbs."
+
+"Methinks you will find little better in Mecca. What are you going there
+for?" asked the Jew abruptly.
+
+"I seek Truth," replied the priest quietly.
+
+"Truth!" repeated the Jew. "Aye, aye, the Persian traveler seeks truth;
+Abraham, the Jew, seeks myrrh, aloes, sweet perfumes of Yemen, silks of
+India, and purple of Tyre. Aye, so it is, and I think Abraham's
+commodity is the more obtainable and the more practical of the two. Yet
+they do say there are Jews who have sought for truth likewise; and they
+tell of apostles who gave up their trade and fisheries to go on a like
+quest after a leader whom many Jews will not accept."
+
+"Who were the apostles?"
+
+"Oh, Jews, of course."
+
+"Where may I find them?"
+
+"All dead, well-nigh six hundred years ago," returned the Jew,
+indifferently.
+
+Yusuf's hopes sank again. He longed for even one kindred spirit to whom
+he could unfold the thoughts that harassed him.
+
+"I do not know much about what they taught," continued the Jew. "Never
+read it; it does not help in my business. But I got a bit of manuscript
+the other day from Sergius, an old Nestorian monk away up in the Syrian
+hills. I am taking it down to Mecca. I just peeped into it, but did not
+read it; because it is the people who live now, who have gold and silver
+for Abraham, that interest him, not those who died centuries ago; and
+the bit of writing is about such. However, you seem to be interested
+that way, so I will give it to you to read."
+
+So saying, the Jew unpacked a heavy bundle, and, after searching for
+some time, upsetting tawdry jewelry, kerchiefs, and boxes of perfume,
+he at last succeeded in finding the parchment.
+
+He handed it to the Persian. "I hope it may be of use to you, stranger.
+Abraham the Jew knows little and cares less for religion, but he would
+be sorry to see you bowing with yon heathen Arab herd at Mecca."
+
+"Dog! Son of a dog!"
+
+It was Musa. Able to restrain his passion no longer, he had sprung to
+his feet and stood, with flashing eyes and drawn scimitar, in resentment
+of the slur on his countrymen.
+
+With a howl of fear, the little Jew sprang through the door and
+disappeared in the darkness.
+
+Musa laughed contemptuously.
+
+"Ha, lack-brained cur!" he said, "I would not have hurt him, having
+broken bread with him in mine own tent! Yet, friend Persian, one cannot
+hear one's own people, and one's own temple, the temple of his fathers,
+desecrated by the tongue of a lack-brained Jew trinket-vender."
+
+"You know, then, of this Caaba--of the God they worship there?" asked
+the priest.
+
+Musa shook his head, and made a gesture of denial.
+
+"Musa knows little of such things," he replied. "Yet the Caaba is a name
+sacred in Arabian tradition, and as such, it suits me ill to hear it on
+the tongue of a craven-hearted Jew. In sooth, the coward knave has left
+his trumpery bundle all open as it is. I warrant me he will come back
+for it in good time."
+
+A dark-haired lad in a striped silk garment here passed through the
+tent.
+
+"Hither, Kedar!" called the Sheikh. "Recite for our visitor the story of
+Moses."
+
+The lad at once began the story, reciting it in a sort of chant, and
+accompanying his words with many a gesture. The company listened
+breathlessly, now giving vent to deep groans as the persecution of the
+children of Israel was described, now bowing their heads in reverence at
+the revelation of the burning bush, now waving their arms in excitement
+and starting forward with flashing eyes as the lad pictured the passage
+of the Red Sea.
+
+Yusuf had heard some vague account of the story before, but, with the
+passionate nature of the Oriental, he was strangely moved as he listened
+to the recital of how that great God whom he longed to feel and know had
+led the children of Israel through all their wanderings and sufferings
+to the promised land. He felt that he too was indeed a wanderer, seeking
+the promised land. He was but an infant in the true things of the
+Spirit. Like many another who longs vainly for a revelation of the
+working of the Holy Spirit, his soul seemed to reach out hopelessly.
+
+But who can tell how tenderly the same All-wise Creator treasures up
+every outreaching of the struggling soul! Not one throb of the loving
+and longing heart is lost;--and Yusuf was yet, after trial, to rejoice
+in the serene fullness of such light as may fall upon this terrestrial
+side of death's dividing line.
+
+Poor Yusuf, with all his Persian learning and wisdom, had, through all
+his life, known only a religion tinctured with idolatry. Almost alone he
+had broken from that idolatry, and realized the unity of God and his
+separation from all connected with such worship; but he was yet to
+understand the connection of God with man, and to taste the fullness of
+God's love through Christ. He had not realized that the finger of God is
+upon the life of every man who is willing to yield himself to Divine
+direction, and that there is thus an inseparable link between the
+Creator and the creature. He was not able to say, as said Carlyle in
+these later days, "A divine decree or eternal regulation of the universe
+there verily is, in regard to every conceivable procedure and affair of
+man; faithfully following this, said procedure or affair will
+prosper.... Not following this,... destruction and wreck are certain for
+every affair." And what could be better? Divine love, not divine wrath,
+over all! Yusuf had an idea of divine wrath, but he failed to
+see--because the presentation of the never-failing Fatherhood of God had
+not yet come--the infinite love that makes Jesus all in all to us,
+heaven wherever he is, and hell wherever he is not.
+
+Since leaving Persia, this was the first definite opportunity he had had
+of listening to Bible truth.
+
+"Kedar knows more of this than his father," explained Musa. "'Tis his
+mother who teaches him. She was a Jewess, of the people of Jesus of
+Nazareth, but I fear this roving life has caused my poor Lois to forget
+much of the teaching of her people."
+
+"You speak of Jesus of Nazareth. I have heard something of him. Tell me
+more."
+
+Musa shook his head slowly. "I know nothing," he said. "But I shall call
+Lois. The men have all gone from the tent, and mayhap she can tell what
+you want."
+
+So saying, he entered the women's apartment, and sent his wife to Yusuf.
+
+"You wish to know of Jesus of Nazareth?" she said. "Alas, I am but a
+poor teacher. I am unworthy even to speak his name. I married when but a
+child, and since then I have wandered far from him, for there have been
+few to teach me. Yet I know that he was in very truth the Son of God. He
+was all-good. He healed the sick on this earth, and forgave sin. Then,
+woe, woe to me!--he was crucified,--crucified by my people! And he went
+up to heaven; his disciples saw him go up in the white clouds of a
+bright day."
+
+"Where dwells he now? Is he one of the spirits of the stars?"
+
+"I know not. He is in heaven."
+
+"And does he stoop to take notice of us, the children of earth?"
+
+"Alas, I know not! There was once a time when Jesus was more than a name
+to me. When I knelt, a child, beside my mother on the grassy hills of
+Hebron, it seemed that Jesus was, in some vague way, a reality to me;
+but long years of forgetfulness have passed since then. Stranger, I wish
+you well. Your words have brought back to me the desire to know more of
+him. If you learn aught of him, and it ever lies in your way to do so,
+come and tell us,--my Musa and me,--that we too may learn of him."
+
+Rising to her feet, the woman saluted the Persian and left him. Musa
+entered to conduct him to the rugs set apart for his couch, and soon
+all was silent about the encampment.
+
+But ere he fell asleep, Yusuf went out into the moonlight. The night was
+filled with the peculiar lightness of an Oriental night. The moon blazed
+down like a globe of molten silver, and a few large stars glowed with
+scarcely secondary brilliance. In the silvery brightness he could easily
+read the manuscript given him by the Jew. It was the story of the man
+with the withered hand, whose infirmity was healed by Jesus in the
+synagogue. And there, in the starlight, the priest bowed his head, and a
+throng of pent-up emotions throbbed in his breast.
+
+"Spirits of the stars, show me God. If this Jesus be indeed the Son of
+God, show me him. Give me faith, such faith as had he of the withered
+hand, that I too may stretch forth my hand and be made whole; that I may
+look, and in looking, see."
+
+This was his prayer. Ah, yet, the "spirits of the stars" were as a
+bridge to the gulf which, he fancied, lay between him and Infinite
+Mercy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+YUSUF MEETS AMZI, THE MECCAN.
+
+    "Mecca's pilgrims, confident of Fate,
+    And resolute in heart."
+
+                              --_Longfellow._
+
+
+The next morning, Yusuf, against the remonstrances of Musa and his wife,
+prepared to proceed on his way. Like the Ancient Mariner, he felt forced
+to go on, "to pass like night from land to land," until he obtained that
+which he sought.
+
+When he was almost ready to depart, a horseman came galloping down the
+valley, with the news that a caravan, en route for Mecca, was almost in
+sight, and would make a brief halt near the stream by which Musa's
+tents were pitched. Yusuf at once determined to avail himself of the
+timely protection on his journey.
+
+Presently the caravan appeared, a long, irregular line--camels bearing
+"shugdufs," or covered litters; swift dromedaries, mounted by tawny
+Arabs whose long Indian shawls were twisted about their heads and fell
+in fringed ends upon their backs; fiery Arabian horses, ridden by Arabs
+swaying long spears or lances in their hands; heavily-laden pack-mules,
+whose leaders walked beside them, urging them on with sticks, and giving
+vent to shrill cries as they went; and lastly a line of pilgrims, some
+trudging along wearily, some riding miserable beasts, whose ribs shone
+through their roughened hides, while others rode, in the proud security
+of ease and affluence, in comfortable litters, or upon animals whose
+sleek and well-fed appearance comported with the self-satisfied air of
+their riders.
+
+A halt was called, and immediately all was confusion. Tents were
+hurriedly thrown up; the pack-mules were unburdened for a moment; the
+horses, scenting the water, began to neigh and sniff the air; infants,
+who had been crammed into saddle-bags with their heads out, were hauled
+from their close quarters; the horsemen of Musa, still balancing their
+tufted spears, dashed in and out; while his herdsmen, anxious to keep
+the flocks from mixing with the caravan, shrieked and gesticulated,
+hurrying the flocks of sheep off in noisy confusion, and urging the
+herds of dromedaries on with their short, hooked sticks. It was indeed a
+babel, in which Yusuf had no part; and he once more seized the
+opportunity of looking at the precious parchment To his astonishment, he
+perceived that it was addressed to "Mohammed, son of Abdallah, son of
+Abdal Motalleb, Mecca," with the subscription, "From Sergius the Monk,
+Bosra."
+
+Here then, Yusuf had, in perfect innocence, been entrapped into reading
+a communication addressed to some one else, and he smiled sarcastically
+as he thought of the inquisitiveness of the little Jew who had taken the
+liberty of "just peeping in."
+
+It remained, now, for Yusuf to find the Jew and to put him again in
+possession of his charge. He searched for him through the motley crowd,
+but in vain; then, recollecting that the peddler's bundle had been left
+behind, he sought Musa, to see if he had heard anything of the little
+busybody.
+
+Musa laughed heartily. "Remember you not that I said his trumpery would
+be gone in the morning? I was no false prophet. The man is like a
+weasel. When all sleep he finds his way in and helps himself to what he
+will: when all wake, no Jew is to be seen; trumpery and all have gone,
+no one knows whither."
+
+So the priest found himself responsible for the delivery of the
+manuscript to this Mohammed, of whom he had never hitherto heard; and,
+knowing the contents, he was none the less ready to carry out the trust,
+hoping to find in Mohammed some one who could tell him more of the same
+wondrous story. He therefore placed the parchment very carefully within
+the folds of his garment, bade farewell to Musa and his household, and
+prepared to leave with the caravan, which had halted but a short time on
+account of the remarkable coolness of the day.
+
+"Peace be with you!" said the Sheikh; "and if you ever need a friend,
+may it be Musa's lot to stand in good stead to you. I bid you good speed
+on your journey. We have no fears for your safety now, besides the
+safety of numbers, the holy month of Ramadhan[1] begins to-day, and even
+the wildest of the Bedouin robbers usually refrain from taking life in
+the holy months. Again, Peace be with you! And remember that the Bedouin
+can be a friend."
+
+Yusuf embraced the chieftain with gratitude, and took his place in the
+train, which was already moving slowly down the wady.
+
+As it often happens that in the most numerous concourse of people one
+feels most lonely, so it was now with Yusuf. There seemed none with whom
+he cared to speak. Most of the people were self-satisfied traders
+busied with the care of the merchandise which they were taking down to
+dispose of at the great fair carried on during the Ramadhan. A few were
+Arabs of the Hejaz, short and well-knit, wearing loose garments of blue,
+drawn back at the arms enough to show the muscles standing out like
+whip-cords. Some were smoking short chibouques, with stems of wood and
+bowls of soft steatite colored a yellowish red. As they rode they used
+no stirrups, but crossed their legs before and beneath the pommel of the
+saddle; while, as the sun shone more hotly, they bent their heads and
+drew their kufiyahs far over their brows. Many poor and somewhat
+fanatical pilgrims were interspersed among the crowd, and here and there
+a dervish, with his large, bag-sleeved robe of brown wool--the Zaabut,
+worn alike by dervish and peasant--held his way undisturbed.
+
+Yusuf soon ceased to pay any attention to his surroundings, and sat,
+buried in his own thoughts, until a voice, pleasant and like the ripple
+of a brook, aroused him.
+
+"What thoughts better than the thoughts of a Persian? None. Friend,
+think you not so?"
+
+The words were spoken in the Persian dialect, and the priest looked up
+in surprise, to see a ruddy-faced man smiling down upon him from the
+back of a tall, white Syrian camel. He wore the jubbeh, or cloak, the
+badge of the learned in the Orient; his beard was turning slightly gray,
+and his eyes were keen and twinkling.
+
+"One question mayhap demands another," returned Yusuf. "How knew you
+that I am a Persian? I no longer wear Persian garb."
+
+"What! Ask an Arab such a question as that!" said the other, smiling.
+"Know you not, Persian, that we of the desert lands are accustomed to
+trace by a mark in the sand, the breaking of a camel-thorn, things as
+difficult? The stamp of one's country cannot be thrown off with one's
+clothes. Nay, more; you have been noted as one learned among the
+Persians."
+
+Yusuf bent his head in assent. "Truly, stranger, your penetration is
+incomprehensible," he said, with a touch of sarcasm.
+
+"No, no!" returned the other, good-humoredly; "but, marking you out for
+what you are, I thought your company might, perchance, lessen the
+dreariness of the way. I am Amzi, the Meccan. Some call me Amzi the rich
+Meccan; others, Amzi the learned; others, Amzi the benevolent. For
+myself, I pretend nothing, aspire to nothing but to know all that may be
+known, to live a life of ease, at peace with all men, and to help the
+needy or unfortunate where I may. More than one stranger has not been
+sorry for meeting Amzi the benevolent, in Mecca. Have you friends
+there?"
+
+"None," said Yusuf. "Yet there is a tradition among our people that the
+Guebres at one time had temples even in the land of Arabia. Have you
+heard aught of it?"
+
+"It is said that at one time fire-temples were scattered throughout this
+land, each being dedicated to the worship of a planet; that at Medina[2]
+itself was one dedicated to the worship of the moon and containing an
+image of it. It is also claimed that the fire-worshipers held Mecca, and
+there worshiped Saturn and the moon, from whence comes their name of the
+place--Mahgah, or moon's place. The Guebres also hold here that the
+Black Stone is an emblem of Saturn, left in the Caaba by the Persian
+Mahabad and his successors long ago. But, friend, Persian influence has
+long since ceased in El Hejaz. Methinks you will find but few traces of
+your country-people's glory there."
+
+"It matters not," returned the priest. "The glory of the fire-worshipers
+has, so far as Yusuf is concerned, passed away. Know you not that before
+his eyes the sacred fire,[3] kept alive for well-nigh one thousand
+years, went out in the supreme temple ere he left it? May the great
+Omniscient Spirit grant that Persia's idolatries will die out in its
+ashes!"
+
+"And think you that there is no idolatry in Mecca? Friend, believe me,
+not a house in Arabian Mecca which does not contain its idol! Not a man
+of influence who will start on an expedition without beseeching his
+family gods for blessing!"
+
+"And do they not recognize a God over all?"
+
+"They acknowledge Allah as the highest, the universal power,--yet he is
+virtually but a nominal deity, for they deem that none can enter into
+special relationship with him save through the mediation of the
+household gods. In his name the holiest oaths are sworn, nevertheless in
+true worship he has the last place. Indeed, it must be confessed that
+neither fear of Allah nor reverence of the gods has much influence over
+the mass of our people."
+
+"What, then, is the meaning of this great pilgrimage, whose fame reached
+me even in Persia? Does not religious enthusiasm lead those poor
+wretches, hobbling along behind, to take such a journey?"
+
+Amzi nodded his head slowly. "Religious incentives may move the few," he
+said. "But, friend, can you not see that barter is the leading object of
+the greater number--of those well-to-do pilgrims who are superintending
+the carriage of their baggage so complacently there? The holy months,
+particularly the Ramadhan, afford a period of comparative safety, a long
+truce that affords a convenient season for traffic. Alas, poor stranger!
+you will be sad to find that our city, in the time of the holy fast,
+becomes a place of buying and selling, of vice and robbery--a place
+where gain is all and God is almost unknown."
+
+"But you, Amzi; what do you believe of such things?"
+
+"In truth, I know not what to think. Believe in idols I cannot; worship
+in the Caaba I will not; so that my religion is but a belief in Allah,
+whom I fear to approach, and whose help and influence I know not how to
+obtain, a confidence in my own morality, and a consciousness of doing
+good works."
+
+"Strange, strange!" said the priest, "that we have arrived at somewhat
+the same place by different ways! Amzi, let us be brothers in the quest!
+Let us rest neither night nor day until we have found the way to the
+Supreme God! Amzi, I want to feel him, to know him, as I am persuaded he
+may be known; yet, like you, I fear to approach him. Have you heard of
+Jesus?"
+
+"A few among a band of coward Jews who live in the Jewish quarter of
+Mecca, believe in One whom they call Jesus. The majority of them do not
+accept him as divine; and among those who do, he seems to be little more
+than a name of some one who lived and died as did Abraham and Ishmael.
+His teaching, if, indeed, he taught aught, seems to have little effect
+upon their lives. They live no better than others, and, indeed, they are
+slurred upon by all true Meccans as cowardly dogs, perjurers and
+usurers."
+
+Yusuf sighed deeply. It seemed as though he were following a flitting
+ignis-fatuus, that eluded him just as he came in sight of it.
+
+The rest of the day was passed in comparative silence. The evening halt
+was called, and it was decided to spend the night in a grassy basin,
+traversed by the rocky bed of a mountain stream, a "fiumara," down which
+a feeble brooklet from recent mountain rains trickled. Owing to the
+security of the month Ramadhan, it was deemed that a night halt would be
+safe, and the whole caravan encamped on the spot.
+
+As the shades of the rapidly-falling Eastern twilight drew on, Yusuf sat
+idly near the door of a tent, looking out listlessly, and listening to
+the chatter of the people about him.
+
+Not far off a Jewish boy, a mere child, of one of the northern tribes,
+as shown by his fair hair and blue eyes, sang plaintively a song of the
+singing of birds and the humming of bees, of the flowers of the North,
+of rippling streams, of the miraged desert, of the waving of the
+tamarisk and the scent of roses.
+
+Yusuf observed the child-like form and the effeminate paleness of the
+cherub face, and a feeling of protective pity throbbed in his bosom as
+he noted the slender smallness of the hand that glided over the
+one-stringed guitar, showing by its movements, even in the fading
+evening light, the blue veins that coursed beneath the transparent skin.
+He called the lad to his side, and bade him sing to him. Not till then
+did he notice the vacancy of the look which bespoke a slightly wandering
+mind. Yusuf's great heart filled with sympathy.
+
+"Poor lad!" he said, "singing all alone! Where are your friends?"
+
+"Dumah's friends?" said the child, wonderingly. "Poor Dumah has no
+friends now! He goes here and there, and people are kind to him--because
+Dumah sings, you know, and only angels sing. He tells them of flocks
+beside the pool, of lilies of Siloam, of birds in the air and angels in
+the heavens--then everyone is kind. Ah! the world is fair!" he
+continued, with a happy smile. "The breeze blows hot here, sometimes,
+but so cool over the sea; and the lilies blow in the vales of Galilee,
+and the waves ripple bright over the sea where he once walked."
+
+"Who, child?"
+
+"Jesus--don't you know?" with a wondering look. "He sat often by the
+Lake of Galilee where I have sat, and the night winds lifted his hair as
+they do mine, and he smiled and healed poor suffering and sinful people.
+Ah, he did indeed! Poor Dumah is talking sense now, good stranger;
+sometimes he does not--the thoughts come and go before he can catch
+them, and then people say, 'Poor little Dumah is demented.' But if Jesus
+were here now, Dumah would be healed. I dreamed one night I saw him, and
+he smiled, and looked upon me so sweetly and said, 'Dumah loves me!
+Dumah loves me!' and then I saw him no more. Friend, I know you love
+him, too. What is your name?"
+
+"Yusuf."
+
+"Then, Yusuf, you will be my friend?"
+
+"I will be your friend, poor Dumah!"
+
+"Oh, no, Dumah is not poor! He is happy. But his thoughts are going now.
+Ah, they throng! The visions come! The birds and the mists and the
+flowers are twining in a wreath, a wreath that stretches up to the
+clouds! Do you not see it?" and he started off again on his wild,
+plaintive song.
+
+Yusuf's eyes filled with tears, and he drew the lad to his bosom, and
+looked out upon the grassy plot before the door, where a huge fire was
+now shedding a flickering and fantastic glare upon the wrinkled visages
+of the Arabs, and lighting up the scene with a weird effect only to be
+seen in the Orient.
+
+Caldrons were boiling, and a savory odor penetrated the air. Men were
+talking in groups, and a little dervish was spinning around nimbly in a
+sort of dance. Yusuf looked at him for a moment. There seemed to be
+something familiar about his figure and movements, but in the darkness
+he could not be distinctly seen, and Yusuf soon forgot to pay any
+attention to him.
+
+He drew the boy, who had now fallen asleep, close to him. What would he,
+Yusuf, not give to learn fully of that source from whence the few meagre
+crumbs picked up by this poor child were yet precious enough to give
+him, all wandering as he was at times, the assurance of a sympathetic
+God, and render him happy in the realization of his presence! What must
+be the joy of a full revelation of these blessed truths, if, indeed,
+truths they were!
+
+The longing for such companionship filled Yusuf, as he lay there, with
+an intense desire. He could scarcely define, in truth he scarcely
+understood, exactly what he wanted. There was a lack in his life which
+no human agency had, as yet, been able to satisfy. His heart was
+"reaching out its arms" to know God--that was all; and he called it
+searching for Truth.
+
+[Illustration: A head was thrust forward.... It was the little
+dervish.--See page 15.]
+
+Far into the night the Persian pondered, his mind beating against the
+darkness of what was to him the great mystery; and he prayed for light.
+He thought of the Father, yet again he prayed to the spirits of the
+planets which were shining so brightly above him. But did not an echo of
+that prayer ascend to the throne of grace? Was not the eye of Him who
+notes even the sparrows when they fall, upon his poor, struggling child?
+
+And the end was not yet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WHEREIN YUSUF ENCOUNTERS A SAND-STORM IN THE DESERT, AND HAS SOMEWHAT OF
+AN EXPERIENCE WITH THE LITTLE DERVISH.
+
+    "A column high and vast,
+      A form of fear and dread."
+
+                              --_Longfellow._
+
+
+With but few events worthy of notice the journey to Mecca was concluded.
+After a short halt at Medina, the caravan set out by one of the three
+roads which then led from Medina to Mecca.[4]
+
+The way led through a country whose aspect had every indication of
+volcanic agency in the remote ages of the earth's history. Bleak
+plains--through whose barren soil outcrops of blackened scoriæ, or sharp
+edges of black and brittle hornblende, appeared at every turn--were
+interspersed with wadies, bounded by ridges of basalt and green-stone,
+rising from one hundred to two hundred feet high, and covered with a
+scanty vegetation of thorny acacias and clumps of camel-grass. Here and
+there a rolling hill was cut by a deep gorge, showing where, after rain,
+a mighty torrent must foam its way; and, more rarely still, a stagnant
+pool of saltish or brackish water was marked out by a cluster of daum
+palms.
+
+On all sides jackals howled dismally during the night; and above,
+during the day, an occasional vulture wheeled, fresh from the carcass of
+some poor mule dead by the wayside.
+
+Such was the appearance of the land through which the caravan wound its
+way, beneath a sky peculiar to Arabia--purple at night, white and
+terrible in its heat at noon, yet ever strange, weird and impressive.
+
+But one incident worth recounting occurred on the way. Yusuf, Amzi, and
+the boy Dumah had been traveling side by side for some time. The way, at
+that particular spot, led over a plain which afforded comparatively easy
+traveling, and thus gave a better opportunity for conversation. The talk
+had turned upon the Guebre worship, and the priest was amazed at the
+knowledge shown by Amzi of a religion so little known in Arabia.
+
+"I can tell you more than that," said Amzi in a low tone. "I can tell
+you that you are not only Yusuf the Persian gentleman of leisure, but
+Yusuf the Magian priest, accustomed to feed the sacred fire in the
+Temple of Jupiter. Is it not so? Did not Yusuf's hand even take the
+blood of Imri the infant daughter of Uzza in sacrifice? Can Yusuf the
+Persian traveler deny that?"
+
+Yusuf's head sank; his face crimsoned with pain, and the veins swelled
+like cords on his brow.
+
+"Alas, Amzi, it is but too true!" he said. "Yet, upon the most sacred
+oath that a Persian can swear, I did it thinking that the blessing of
+the gods would thus be invoked. The rite is one not unknown among the
+Sabæans of to-day, and common even among the Magians of the past. Amzi,
+it was in my days of heathendom that I did it, thinking it a duty to
+Heaven. It was Yusuf the priest who did it, not Yusuf the man; yet Yusuf
+the man bears the torture of it in his bosom, and seeks forgiveness for
+the blackest spot in his life! How knew you this, Amzi?--if the question
+be an honorable one."
+
+"Amzi knows much," returned the Meccan. "He knows, too, that Yusuf can
+never escape the brand of the priesthood. See!"
+
+He leaned forward, and drew back the loose garment from the Persian's
+breast. A red burn, or scar, in the form of a torch, appeared in the
+flesh. As Yusuf hastened to cover it, a head was thrust forward, and two
+bead-like eyes peered from a shrouded face. It was the little dervish.
+
+The priest was annoyed at the intrusion. He determined to take note of
+the meddler, but the occurrence of an event common in the desert drove
+all thought of the dervish from his mind.
+
+The cry "A simoom! A simoom!" arose throughout the caravan.
+
+There, far towards the horizon, was a dense mass of dull, copper-colored
+cloud, rising and surging like the waves of a mad ocean. It spread
+rapidly upwards toward the zenith, and a dull roar sounded from afar
+off, broken by a peculiar shrieking whistle. And now dense columns could
+be seen, bent backward in trailing wreaths of copper at the top,
+changing and swaying before the hurricane, yet ever holding the form of
+vapory, yellow pillars,--huge shafts extending from earth to heaven, and
+rapidly advancing with awful menace upon the terrified multitude.
+
+The Arabs screamed, helpless before the manifestation of what they
+believed was a supernatural force, for they look upon these columns as
+the evil genii of the plains. Men and camels fell to the ground. Horses
+neighed in fear, and galloped madly to and fro. But the hot breath of
+the "poison-wind" was upon them in a moment, shrieking like a fiend
+among the crisping acacias. The sand-storm then fell in all its fury,
+half smothering the poor wretches, who strove to cover their heads with
+their garments to keep out the burning, blistering, pitiless dust.
+
+Fortunately all was over in a moment, and the tempest went swirling on
+its way northward, leaving a clear sky and a dust-buried country in its
+wake.
+
+In the confusion the dervish had escaped to the other end of the
+caravan, and was forgotten.
+
+At the end of the tenth day after leaving Medina the caravan reached
+the head of the long, narrow defile in which lies the city of Mecca, the
+chief town of El Hejaz. It was early morning when the procession passed
+through the cleft at the western end; and the sun was just rising, a
+globe of red, above the blue mountains towards Tayf, when Yusuf stopped
+his camel on an eminence in full view of the city. There it lay in the
+heart of the rough blackish hills, whose long shadows still fell upon
+the low stone houses and crooked streets beneath.[5]
+
+The priest's eager glance sought for the Caaba. There it was, a huge,
+stone cube, standing in the midst of a courtyard two hundred and fifty
+paces long by two hundred paces wide, and shrouded from top to bottom by
+a heavy curtain of dark, striped cloth of Yemen.
+
+There was something awe-inspiring in the scene, and the priest felt a
+thrill of apprehensive emotion as he gazed upon what he had fondly hoped
+would prove the end of his long journey. Yet his eye clouded; he covered
+his face with his mantle and wept, saying to his soul, "Here, too, have
+they turned aside to worship the false, and have bowed down to idols! My
+soul! My soul! Where shalt thou find truth and rest?"
+
+Amzi touched him on the arm. "Why do you weep, friend? Thou art a false
+Guebre, truly! Know you not that even they hold the Caaba in high
+reverence?"
+
+There was a tone of good-natured raillery in the voice, and the speaker
+continued: "Arouse yourself, my friend. See how they worship in Mecca.
+They are at it already! See them run! By my faith 'tis a lusty morning
+exercise!"
+
+Yusuf looked up to see a great concourse of people gathering in the
+court-yard. Many were rushing about the Caaba, and pausing frequently at
+one corner of the huge structure.
+
+"Each pilgrim," explained Amzi, "holds himself bound to go seven times
+about the temple, and the harder he runs the more virtue there is in
+it--performing the Tawaf, they call it. Those who seem to pause are
+kissing the Hajar Aswad--the Black Stone, which, the Arabs say, was once
+an angel cast from heaven in the form of a pure white jacinth. It is now
+blackened by the kisses of sinners, but will, at the last day, arise in
+its angel form, to bear testimony of the faithful who have kissed it,
+and have done the Tawaf faithfully. And now, friend, come to the house
+of Amzi, and see if he can be as hospitable as Musa the Bedouin."
+
+Yusuf gratefully accepted the invitation, and the camels were urged on
+again down the narrow, crooked street.
+
+"Know you aught of one Mohammed?" asked the priest. "A roguish Hebrew
+left me, with scant ceremony, in possession of a manuscript which must
+be given to him."
+
+"Aye, well do I know him," said Amzi. "Mohammed, the son of Abdallah the
+handsome, and grandson of Abdal Motalleb, who was the son of Haschem of
+the tribe of the Koreish--a tribe which has long held a position among
+the highest of Mecca, and has, for ages past, had the guardianship of
+the Caaba itself. Mohammed himself is a man of sagacity and honor in all
+his dealings. He is married to Cadijah, a wealthy widow, whose business
+he has long carried on with scrupulous fairness. He, too, is one of the
+few who, in Mecca, have ceased to believe in idols, and would fain see
+the Caaba purged of its images."
+
+"There are some, then, who cast aside such beliefs?"
+
+"Yes, the Hanifs (ascetics), who utterly reject polytheism. Waraka, a
+cousin of the wife of Mohammed, is one of the chief of these; and
+Mohammed himself has, for several years, been accustomed to retire to
+the cave of Hira for meditation and prayer. It is said that he has
+preached and taught for some time in the city, but only to his immediate
+friends and relatives. Well, here we are at last,"--as a pretentious
+stone building was reached. "Amzi the benevolent bids Yusuf the Persian
+priest welcome."
+
+Amzi led the priest into a house furnished with no small degree of
+Oriental splendor.
+
+    "Right to the carven cedarn doors,
+    Flung inward over spangled floors,
+    Broad-based flights of marble stairs
+    Ran up with golden balustrade,
+    After the fashion of the time."
+
+A meal of Oriental dishes, dried fruit and sweetmeats was prepared; and,
+when the coolness of evening had come, the two friends proceeded to the
+temple.
+
+Entering by a western gate, they found the great quadrangle crowded with
+men, women and children, some standing in groups, with sanctimonious
+air, at prayers, while others walked or ran about the Caaba, which
+loomed huge and somber beneath the solemn light of the stars. A few
+solitary torches--for at that time the slender pillars with their
+myriads of lamps had not been erected--lit up the scene with a weird,
+wavering glare, and threw deep shadows across the white, sanded ground.
+
+A curious crowd it seemed. The wild enthusiasm that marked the conduct
+of the followers of Mohammed at a later day was absent, yet every motion
+of the motley crowd proclaimed the veneration with which the place
+inspired the impressionable and excitable Arabs.
+
+Here stood a wealthy Meccan, with flowing robes, arms crossed and eyes
+turned upward; there stalked a tall and gaunt figure whose black robes
+and heavy black head-dress proclaimed the wearer a Bedouin woman. Here
+ran a group of beggars; and there a number of half-naked pilgrims clung
+to the curtained walls. Once a corpse was carried into the enclosure and
+borne in solemn Tawaf round the edifice.
+
+"Look!" cried poor Dumah. "The son of the widow of Nain! The son of the
+widow of Nain! Oh, why does not he whom Dumah sees in his dreams come to
+raise him! But then, there are idols here, and he cannot come where
+there are other gods before him."
+
+On surveying the temple, Yusuf discovered that the door of the edifice
+was placed seven feet above the ground. Amzi informed him that the
+temple might be entered only at certain times, but that it contained an
+image of Abraham holding in its hand some arrows without heads; also a
+similar statue of Ishmael likewise with divining arrows, and lesser
+images of prophets and angels amounting almost to the number of three
+hundred.
+
+Passing round the temple to the north-eastern corner, Yusuf looked
+curiously at the Black Stone, which was set in the wall at a few spans
+from the ground, and which seemed to be black with yellowish specks in
+it.[6] Many people were pressing forward to kiss it, while many more
+were drinking and laving themselves with water from a well a few paces
+distant,--the well Zem-Zem,--believing that in so doing their sins were
+washed off in the water.
+
+"This," said Amzi, pointing to the spring, "is said to be the well which
+gushed up to give drink to our forefather Ishmael and Hagar his mother,
+when they had gone into the wilderness to die."
+
+Yusuf sighed heavily. Such empty ceremony had no longer any attraction
+for him, and he turned his eyes towards the mountain Abu Kubays,
+towering dark and gloomy above the town, its black crest touched with a
+silvery radiance by the light of the stars shining brilliantly above.
+
+Was this, then, the Caaba? Was this what he had fondly hoped would fill
+his heart's longing? Was there any food in this empty ceremonial for a
+hungering soul? Why, oh why did the truth ever elude him, flitting like
+an ignis-fatuus with phantom light through a dark and blackened
+wilderness!
+
+Amzi was talking to someone in the crowd, and Yusuf passed slowly out
+and bent his way down a silent and deserted street. No one was in sight
+except a very young girl, almost a child, who was gliding quickly on in
+the shadows. Once or twice she seemed to stagger, then she fell. Yusuf
+hurried to her, and turned her face to the starlight. Even in that dim
+light he could see that it was contorted with pain. Yusuf heard the
+murmur of voices in a low building close at hand, and, without waiting
+to knock, he lifted the girl in his arms, opened the door, and passed
+in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+NATHAN THE JEW.
+
+    "I shall be content, whatever happens, for what God chooses must
+    be better than what I can choose."--_Epictetus._
+
+
+The same evening on which Yusuf visited the temple, a woman and her two
+children sat in a dingy little room with an earthen floor, in one of the
+most dilapidated streets of Mecca. The woman's face bore traces of want
+and suffering, yet there was a calm dignity and hopefulness in her
+countenance, and her voice was not despairing. She sat upon a bundle of
+rushes placed on the floor. No lamp lighted the apartment, but through
+an opening in the wall the soft starlight shone upon the bands of hair
+that fell in little braids over her forehead. Her two beautiful children
+were beside her, the girl with her arm about her mother, and the boy's
+head on her lap.
+
+"Will we have only hard cake for breakfast, mother, and to-morrow my
+birthday, too?" he was saying.
+
+"That is all, my little Manasseh, unless the good Father sees fit to
+send us some way of earning more. You know even the hairs of our heads
+are numbered, so he takes notice of the poorest and weakest of his
+children, and has promised us that there will be no lack to them that
+fear him."
+
+"But, mother, we have had lack many, many times," said the boy
+thoughtfully.
+
+The mother smiled. "But things have usually come right in the end," she
+said, "and you know 'Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
+worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' We
+cannot understand all these things now, but it will be plain some day.
+'We will trust, and not be afraid,' because our trust is in the Lord;
+and we know that 'he will perfect that which concerneth us,' if we trust
+him."
+
+"And will he send father home soon?" asked the boy. "We have been
+praying for him to come, so, so long! Do you think God hears us, mother?
+Why doesn't he send father home?"
+
+The woman's head drooped, and a tear rolled down her cheek, but her
+voice was calm and firm.
+
+"Manasseh, child," she said, "your father may never return; but, though
+a Jew, he was a Christian; and, living or dead, I know he is safe in the
+keeping of our blessed Lord. Yes, Manasseh, God hears the slightest
+whisper breathed from the heart of those who call upon him in truth. He
+says, Jesus says, 'I know my sheep, and am known of mine.' Little son, I
+like to think that our blessed Savior, who 'laid down his life for the
+sheep,' is here--in this very room, close to us. Sometimes I close my
+eyes and think I see him, looking upon us in mercy and love from his
+tender eyes, and he almost seems so near that I may touch him. No, he
+will never forsake us. Little ones, my constant prayer for you is that
+you may learn to realize the depths of his love, and to render him your
+hearts in return; that you may feel ever closer to him than to any
+earthly parent, and prove yourselves loving, faithful children of whom
+he may not be ashamed."
+
+The woman's voice trembled with emotion as she concluded, and a glow of
+happiness illuminated her thin features.
+
+"Well, mother, I was ashamed to-day," said little Manasseh. "I got angry
+and struck a boy."
+
+"Manasseh! My child!"
+
+"You cannot understand, mother; you are so good that you never get
+angry or wicked. But the anger keeps rising up in me till it seems as if
+my heart would burst; the blood rushes to my face, my eyes
+flash--then--I strike, and think of nothing."
+
+She stroked his hair gently. "Manasseh, my boy's temper is one enemy
+which he has to conquer. But he must not try to conquer it in his own
+strength. We have an Almighty Helper who has given us to know that he
+will not suffer us to be tempted beyond that we are able, and has bidden
+us cast all our care upon him. He will be only too willing to guide us
+and uphold us by his power, if we will but let him keep us and lead us
+far from all temptation."
+
+"Then what would you do, mother, if you were in my place when the anger
+comes up?"
+
+She stooped and kissed him. "I would say, 'Jesus, help me,' and leave it
+all to him."
+
+Just then a step sounded at the door. Some one entered, and a cry of
+"Father! Oh, father!" burst from the children. The mother sprang,
+trembling, to her feet. It was the long-lost husband and father!
+
+Then the lamp was lighted, and the traveler told his loved ones the
+story of his long absence; how he had embarked at Jeddah on a foist
+bound for the head of the Red Sea; how he had been shipwrecked; had
+become ill of a fever as the result of exposure; and how he had at last
+made his painful way home by traveling overland.
+
+As they thus sat, talking in ecstasy of joy at their reunion, the door
+opened and Yusuf entered with the girl in his arms.
+
+Water was sprinkled upon her face and she soon recovered. She placed her
+hand on her brow in a dazed way, then sprang up, and, just pausing for
+an instant in which her wondrous beauty might be noted, dashed off into
+the night.
+
+"It is Zeinab, the beautiful child of Hassan," said the Jewess. "She
+will be well again now. The paroxysms have come before."
+
+"Sit you down, friend," said her husband to Yusuf. "We were just about
+to break bread. 'Tis a scanty meal," he added, with a smile. "But we
+have been enjoined to 'be not forgetful to entertain strangers,' because
+many have thus entertained angels unawares. We shall be glad of the
+company."
+
+There was a manly uprightness in the look and tone of Nathan the Jew
+which caught Yusuf's fancy at once, and he sat down without hesitation
+at the humble board.
+
+And there, in that little, dingy room, he saw the first gleam of that
+radiant light which was to transform the whole of his after life. He
+heard of the trials and disappointments, of the heroic fortitude born of
+that trust in and union with God which he had so craved. He received his
+first glimpse of a God, human as we are human, who understands every
+longing, every doubt, every agony that can bleed the heart of a poor
+child of earth.
+
+He scarcely dared yet to believe that this God was one really with him
+at all times and in all places, seeing, hearing, knowing, sympathizing.
+He scarcely dared to realize the possibility of a companionship with
+him, or the fact that the mediation of the planet-spirits was but a
+myth. Yet he did feel, in a vague way, that the light was breaking, and
+a tumultuous, undefined, hopeful ecstasy took possession of his being.
+Yusuf's heart was ready for the reception of the truth. He was
+unprejudiced. He had cast aside all dependence upon the tenets of his
+former belief. He had become as a little child anxious for rest upon its
+father's bosom. He sought only God, and to him the light came quickly.
+
+There was an infinity of blessed truth to learn yet, but, as he went out
+into the night, he knew that a something had come into his life,
+transforming and ennobling it. The divinity within him throbbed heart to
+heart with the Divinity that is above all, in all, throughout all good.
+Though vaguely, he felt God; he knew that now, at last, he had entered
+upon the right road.
+
+Then he thought of Amzi. He must try to tell him all this. Surely Amzi
+the learned, the benevolent, would rejoice too in hearing the story of
+Jesus' life on earth, of his coming as an expression of the love of God
+to man, that man might know God.
+
+Through the dark streets he hastened, thinking, wondering, rejoicing. He
+sought the bedside of Amzi on the flat roof.
+
+"Amzi, awake!" he cried.
+
+"What now, night-hawk?" said the Meccan, in his good-natured,
+half-railing tone. "Why pounce upon a man thus in the midst of his
+slumbers?"
+
+"Amzi, I have heard glorious news of him--that Jesus of whom we have
+talked!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"He seems indeed to be the God for whom I have longed. They have been
+telling me of his life, yet I realize little save that he came to earth
+that men might know him; that he died to show men the depth of his love;
+and that he is with us at every time, in every place--even here, now, on
+this roof! Only think of it, Amzi! He is close beside us, seeing us,
+hearing us, knowing our very hearts! There is no need more of appealing
+to the spirits of the stars. Ah, they were ever far, far off!"
+
+"And where learned you all this, friend priest?" There was an
+indifferent raillery in the tone which chilled Yusuf to the heart.
+
+"From Nathan, a Christian Jew, and his wife--people who live close to
+God if any one does."
+
+"In the Jewish quarter?"
+
+"Even so."
+
+Amzi laughed. "Truly, friend, you have chosen a fair spot for your
+revelation--a quarter of filth and vice. A case of good coming out of
+evil, truly!"
+
+"Will you not grant that there are some good even in the Jewish
+quarter?"
+
+"Some, perhaps; yet there are some good among all peoples."
+
+"Amzi, can you not believe?"
+
+"No, no, friend Yusuf; I am glad for your happiness--believe what you
+will. But it is foreign to Amzi's nature to accept on hearsay that which
+he has not inquired into--probed to the bottom even. He cannot accept
+the testimony of any passing stranger, however plausible it may seem.
+Rejoice if you will, Yusuf, in the spring of a night-tune, but leave
+Amzi to seek for the deep waters still."
+
+Amzi was now talking quickly and impressively.
+
+Yusuf was amazed. The light was beginning to shine so brightly in his
+own soul that he could not comprehend why others could not see and
+believe likewise. He talked with his friend until the dawn began to tint
+the top of Abu Kubays, but without effect. At every turn he was met by
+the bitter prejudice held by the Meccans against the whole Jewish race,
+a prejudice which kept even Amzi the benevolent from believing in
+anything advocated by them.
+
+"Why do they not show Christ in their lives, then?" he would say.
+
+"You cannot judge the whole Christian band by the misdeeds of a few, who
+are, indeed, no Christians," Yusuf pleaded.
+
+"True; yet a religion such as you describe should appeal to more of
+them, and would, if it were all you imagine it to be. A perfect religion
+should be exemplified in the lives of those who profess it."
+
+"I grant you that that is true," was Yusuf's reply. "And as an example
+let me bring you to Nathan and his family. Nobody could talk for one
+hour to them without feeling that they have found, at least, something
+which we do not possess. This something, they say, is their God."
+
+"Well, well. I shall do so to please you," said Amzi indifferently, "but
+I hope that a longer acquaintance may not spoil your trust in these
+people."
+
+Further expostulation was vain. Yusuf retired to his own apartment, and
+prayed long and fervently, in his own simple way, offering thanks for
+the light which was breaking so radiantly on his own soul, and
+beseeching the loving Jesus to touch the heart of Amzi, who, he knew,
+though less enthusiastic than he, also desired to know truth.
+
+And before he lay down for a short rest, he said:
+
+"Grant, O Jesus, thou who art ever present, that I may know thee better,
+and that Amzi, too, may learn to know thee. Reveal thyself to him as
+thou art revealing thyself to me, that we may know thee as we should."
+
+The priest's face grew radiant with happiness as he concluded.
+
+And yet, in that same city, vice held sway; for, even as the priest
+prayed, a dark figure emerged from an unused upper attic in the house of
+Nathan the Jew, and, escaping by a window, descended a garden stair and
+disappeared in the darkness. Even in that dim light, had one looked he
+might have noted that the mysterious prowler wore the dress of a
+dervish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+YUSUF'S FIRST MEETING WITH MOHAMMED.
+
+    "A person with abnormal auditory sensations often comes to
+    interpret them as voices of demons, or as the voice of one
+    commanding him to do some deed. This hallucination, in turn,
+    becomes an apperceiving organ, _i.e._, other perceptions and
+    ideas are assimilated to it: it becomes a center about which
+    many ideas gather and are correspondingly
+    distorted."--_McLellan, Psychology._
+
+
+Upon the evening of the following day, Amzi and Yusuf set out in quest
+of Mohammed, to whom the manuscript had not yet been given. Stopping at
+the house of Cadijah, a stone building having some pretensions to
+grandeur, they learned that Mohammed had left the city. Accordingly,
+thinking he would probably be found in the Cave of Hira, they took a
+by-path towards the mountains.
+
+The sun was hot, but a pleasant breeze blew from the plains towards the
+Nejd, and, from the elevation which they now ascended, Yusuf noted with
+interest a scene every point of which was entirely different from that
+of his Persian home--different perhaps from that of any other spot on
+the face of the earth; a scene desolate, wild, and barren, yet destined
+to be the cradle of a mighty movement that was ere long to agitate the
+entire peninsula of Arabia, and eventually to exercise its baneful
+influence over a great part of the Eastern Hemisphere.[7]
+
+Below him lay the long, narrow, sandy valley. No friendly group of palms
+arose to break its dreary monotony; no green thing, save a few parched
+aloes, was there to form a pleasant resting-place for the eye. The
+passes below, those ever-populous roads leading to the Nejd, Syria,
+Jeddah, and Arabia-Felix, were crowded with people; yet, even their
+presence did not suffice to remove the air of deadness from the scene.
+Of one thing only could the beholder be really conscious--desolation,
+desolation; a desolate city surrounded by huge, bare, skeleton-like
+mountains, grim old Abu Kubays with the city stretching half way up its
+gloomy side, on the east; the Red mountain on the west; Jebel Kara
+toward Tayf, and Jebel Thaur with Jebel Jiyad the Greater, on the south.
+
+[Illustration: "Read, O Mohammed, and see him who was able to restore
+the withered hand."--See page 23.]
+
+Yusuf watched the people, many of whom were pilgrims, swarming like so
+many ants below him towards the Caaba, which was in full view, standing
+like a huge sarcophagus in the center of the great courtyard. In the
+transparent air of the Orient, even the pillars supporting the covered
+portico about the courtyard were quite visible. Yusuf had observed the
+great system of barter, the buying and selling that went on beneath the
+roof of that long portico, within the very precincts of the temple set
+apart for the worship of the Deity, and, as he watched the pigmy
+creatures, now swarming towards the trading stalls, now hastening to
+perform Tawaf about the temple, he almost wept that such sacrilege
+should exist, and a great throb of pity for these erring people whose
+spiritual nature was barren as the vast, treeless, verdureless waste
+about them, filled his breast.
+
+Amzi directed his attention towards the east, where the blue mountains
+of Tayf stood like outposts in the distance.
+
+"There," said he, "at but a three days' journey is the district of
+plenty, the Canaan of Mecca, whence come the grapes, melons, cucumbers,
+and pomegranates that are to be seen in our markets. There are pleasant
+dales and gardens where the camel-thorn gives way to a carpet of
+verdure; where the mimosa and acacia give place to the glossy-leaved
+fig-tree, to stately palms, and pomegranates of the scarlet fruit; where
+rippling streams are heard, and the songs of birds fill the air. There
+is a tradition that Adam, when driven out of the Garden of Eden, settled
+at Mecca; and there, on the site of the temple yonder, and immediately
+beneath a glittering temple of pearly cloud, shimmering dews, and
+rainbow lights said to be in Paradise above,--the Baît-el Maamur of
+Heaven,--was built, by the help of angels, the first Caaba, a
+resplendent temple with pillars of jasper and roof of ruby. Adam then
+compassed the temple seven times, as the angels did the Baît above in
+perpetual Tawaf. He then prayed for a bit of fertile land, and
+immediately a mountain from Syria appeared, performed Tawaf round the
+Caaba, and then settled down yonder at Tayf. Hence, Tayf is even yet
+called 'Kita min el Sham'--a piece of Syria, the father-land."
+
+"So then, this Caaba, according to tradition, is of early origin?"
+
+"The Arabs believe that when the earthly Baît-el Maamur was taken to
+heaven at Adam's death, a third one was built of stone and mud by Seth.
+This was swept away by the Deluge, but the Black Stone was kept safe in
+Abu Kubays, which is, therefore, called 'El Amin'--the Honest. After the
+flood, a fourth House was built by our father Abraham, to whom the angel
+Gabriel restored the stone. Abraham's building was repaired and in part
+restored by the Amalikah tribe. A sixth Caaba was built by the children
+of Kahtan, into whose tribe, say the Arabs, Ismail was married. The
+seventh house was built by Kusay bin Kilab, a forefather of Mohammed,
+and I have reason to believe that he was the first who filled it with
+the idols which now disgrace its walls. Kusay's house was burnt, its
+cloth covering (or kiswah) catching fire from a torch. It was rebuilt by
+the Koreish (Qurâis) a few years ago. It was then that the door was
+placed high above the ground, as you see it, and then that the movable
+stair was constructed. Then, too, the six columns which support the roof
+were added, and Mohammed, El Amin, was chosen to determine the position
+of the Black Stone in the wall. So, friend, I have now given you in
+part, the history of the Caaba."
+
+Bestowing a last look upon the temple, the friends walked for some
+distance northward across the slopes of Mount Hira, until a low, dark
+opening appeared in the face of a rock.
+
+Drawing back a thorny bush from its door, they entered the cave. A low
+moaning noise sounded within. For a moment, the transition from the
+white glare without to the twilight of the cave blinded them, then they
+saw that the moans proceeded from Mohammed, who was lying on his back on
+the stone floor. His head-dress was awry, his face was purple, and froth
+issued from his mouth.
+
+Amzi seized an earthen vessel of water, and bathed his brow.
+
+"Poor fellow!" he said, "how often he may have suffered here alone! It
+has been his custom for years to spend the holy month of Ramadhan here
+in prayer and meditation. He has often taken these fits before; but, if
+what is said be true, he knows not that he is suffering, for angels
+appear to him during the paroxysms."
+
+"It seems to me much more like a fit of epilepsy," said Yusuf, rather
+sarcastically. "See, he begins to come to himself again."
+
+Mohammed had stopped moaning, and his face began to regain its natural
+color.
+
+Presently he opened his eyes in a dazed way, and sat up. He was a man of
+middle height, with a ruddy, rather florid complexion, a high forehead,
+and very even, white teeth. There was something commanding and
+dignified in his appearance. He wore a bushy beard, and was habited in a
+striped cotton gown of cloth of Yemen; and, from his person emanated the
+sweet odor of choicest perfumes of the Nejd and Arabia-Felix.
+
+"Ah, it is Amzi!" he said. "Pardon me, friend, but the angel has just
+left me, and I failed to recognize you at once, my mind was so occupied
+with the wonder of his communications; for, friend, the time is nigh,
+even at hand, when the prophet of Allah, the One, the only Person of the
+Godhead, is to be proclaimed!"
+
+His voice was low and musical, and he spoke as one under the influence
+of an inspiration.
+
+"Has the angel appeared to you in visible form?"
+
+"Sometimes he appears in human form, but in a blinding light; at other
+times I hear a sound as of a silver bell tinkling afar. Then I hear no
+words, but the truth sinks upon my soul, and burns itself into my brain,
+and I feel that the angel speaks."
+
+"Of what, then, has he spoken?" asked Amzi.
+
+"The time in which the full revelation shall be thrown open to man is
+not yet. But it will come ere long. None, heretofore, save my own kin
+and friends, have been given aught of the great message; yet to you,
+Amzi, may I say that Abraham, Moses, Christ, have all been servants of
+the true God, yet for Mohammed has been reserved the honor of casting
+out the idolatry with which the worship of our people reeks. For him is
+destined the glory of purging our Caaba of its images, and of
+reinstating the true religion of our fathers in this fair land. Then
+shall men know that Allah is the one God, and Mohammed is his prophet!"
+
+"Think you to place yourself on an equality with the Son of God?" cried
+Yusuf, sternly.
+
+Mohammed turned quickly upon him, and his face worked in a frenzy of
+excitement.
+
+"I tell you there is but one God,--one invisible, eternal God, Allah
+above all in earth and heaven,--and Mohammed is the prophet of God!" he
+cried.
+
+Yusuf perceived that he had to deal with a fanatic, a religious
+enthusiast, who would not be reasoned with.
+
+"Yes," he continued, "may it be Mohammed's privilege to lead men back to
+truth, and to turn them from heathendom; to teach them to be wise as
+serpents, harmless as doves, and to show them how to walk with clean
+hands and hearts through the earth, living uprightly in the sight of all
+men!"
+
+"Yet," ventured Yusuf, "did not Jesus teach something of this?"
+
+"Jesus was great and good," said Mohammed; "he was needed in his day
+upon the earth, but men have fallen away again, and Mohammed is the
+greatest and last, the prophet of Allah!"
+
+The speaker's eyes were flashing; he was yet under the influence of an
+overpowering excitement. The color began to rush to his face, and Yusuf,
+fearing a return of the swoon, deemed it wise not to prolong the
+argument, but delivered the manuscript left by the peddler, saying:
+
+"Read, O Mohammed, and see him who was able to restore the withered hand
+stretched forth in faith. Perceive him, and commit not this sacrilege."
+
+Trusting himself to say no more, Yusuf hastily left the cavern, followed
+by Amzi, who remarked, thoughtfully:
+
+"Yet, there is much good, too, in that which Mohammed would advocate."
+
+"There is," assented Yusuf. "Yet, though I know not why, I cannot trust
+this man. 'Tis an instinct, if you will. What, think you, does he mean
+to win by this procedure,--power, or esteem, or fame?"
+
+Amzi shook his head quickly in denial. "Mohammed is one of the most
+upright of men, one of the last to seek personal favor or distinction by
+dishonest means, one of the last to be a maker of lies. Verily, Yusuf, I
+know not what to think of his revelations. If he does not in truth see
+these visions, he at least imagines he does. He is honest in what he
+says."
+
+"'If he does not in truth'!" repeated Yusuf. "Surely you, Amzi, have no
+confidence in his visions?"
+
+Amzi smiled. "And yet Yusuf, no longer ago than last night, was ready to
+believe the testimony of a pauper Jew in regard to similar assertions,"
+he said. "But keep your mind easy, friend; I have not accepted
+Mohammed's claims. I am open to conviction yet, and I am not hasty to
+believe. In fact, I must confess, Yusuf, an entire lack of that fervor,
+of that capacity for religious feeling, which is so marked a trait in my
+Persian priest."
+
+"Yet you, too, professed to be a seeker for truth," said Yusuf,
+reproachfully.
+
+"My desire for truth is simply to know it for the mere sake of knowing
+it," said Amzi.
+
+Yusuf sighed. He did not realize that he had to deal with a peculiar
+nature, one of the hardest to impress in spiritual things--the
+indifferent, calculating mind, which is more than half satisfied with
+moral virtue, not realizing the infinitely higher, nobler, happier life
+that comes from the inspiration of a constant companionship with God.
+
+"Alas, I am but a poor teacher, Amzi," he said. "You know, perhaps, more
+of the doctrines of these Christians than I; yet I am convinced that to
+me has come a blessing which you lack, and I would fain you had it too.
+And I know so little that it seems I cannot help you. You will, at
+least, come and talk with Nathan?"
+
+"As you will," said Amzi, in a half-bantering tone. "Prove to me that
+these Hebrews are infallible, and I shall half accept their Jewish
+philosophy."
+
+"You cannot expect to find them or any one on this earth infallible,"
+returned Yusuf, quietly. "I can only promise that you will find in them
+quiet, sincere, upright Christians."
+
+They had reached a sudden turn on the path, and before them, on the top
+of a steep cliff, stood Dumah, with his fair hair streaming in the
+sunshine. He was singing, and they paused to listen.
+
+    "He is gone, the noble, the handsome,
+    And the tears of the mother are falling
+    Like dews from the cup of the lily
+    When it bends its head in the darkness."
+
+"Poor Dumah!" said Amzi, "singing his thoughts as usual. What now,
+Dumah? Who is weeping?"
+
+"A poor Jewess," said the boy, "and her two children cling to her gown
+and weep too. Ah, if Dumah had power he would soon set him free."
+
+"Set whom free?" asked Yusuf.
+
+"The father; they say he took the cup to buy bread; but for the sake of
+the children, Dumah would set him free."
+
+"Oh, it is only a case of stealing down in the Jewish quarter," said
+Amzi, carelessly.
+
+"Yet," returned the other, "a weeping mother and helpless children
+should appeal to the heart of Amzi the benevolent. Let us turn aside and
+see what it is about. Dumah, lead us."
+
+They followed the boy to the hall or court-room of the city. A judge sat
+on a raised dais; witnesses were below, and the owner of the gold cup
+was talking excitedly and calling loudly for justice.
+
+"There is the culprit," whispered Amzi.
+
+Yusuf was struck dumb. It was Nathan, the Christian Jew! Agony was
+written in his face, yet there was patience in it too. His arms were
+bound, and his head was bent in what might have been interpreted as
+humiliation.
+
+"Once more," cried the judge, "have you aught to say for yourself, Jew?"
+
+Nathan raised his head proudly, and looked the Judge straight in the
+eyes.
+
+"I am guiltless," he said, in low, firm tones.
+
+A murmur burst from the crowd, and exclamations could be heard.
+
+"Not guilty! And the cup found in his house!"
+
+"Coward dog! Will he not yet confess?"
+
+"The scourge is too good for him!"
+
+"Have you no explanation to offer?" asked the judge.
+
+"None."
+
+"Then, guards, place him in irons to await our further pleasure. In the
+meantime forty lashes of the scourge. Next!"
+
+Nathan walked out with firm step and head erect. A low sob burst from
+some one in the crowd. It was the wife of Nathan, weeping, while little
+Manasseh and Mary clung to her weeping too.
+
+Yusuf touched her on the arm. "Hush! Be calm!" he said. "All will yet be
+well. I, for one, know that he is innocent, and I will not rest until he
+is free."
+
+"Thank God! He has not forsaken us!" exclaimed the woman.
+
+Yusuf put a piece of money into Manasseh's hand. "Here, take your mother
+home, and buy some bread," he said.
+
+"And here, pretty lad, know you the touch of gold?" said Amzi, as he
+slipped another coin into the child's hand. "Now, Yusuf," he went on,
+"come, let us see your Jewish friends of yester-even."
+
+"Alas, Amzi, these are they," returned the priest, sadly, "and I fear
+yon poor woman feels little like talking to us in the freshness of her
+grief."
+
+Amzi laughed, mysteriously. "So your teacher has proved but a common Jew
+thief," he said.
+
+Yusuf turned almost fiercely. "Do you believe this vile story?" he
+exclaimed. "Did you not see truth stamped upon Nathan's face?"
+
+"You must admit that circumstances are against him. The proof seems
+conclusive."
+
+"I will never believe it, were the proof produced by their machinations
+ten times as conclusive! There is some mystery here which I will
+unravel!"
+
+"My poor Yusuf, you are too credulous in respect to these people. So be
+it. You believe in your Jews, I shall believe in my Mohammed, until the
+tale told is a different one," laughed Amzi; and for the moment Yusuf
+felt helpless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+YUSUF STUDIES THE SCRIPTURES.--CONNECTING EVENTS.
+
+    "Surely an humble husbandman that serveth God is better than a
+    proud philosopher who, neglecting himself, is occupied in
+    studying the course of the heavens."--_Thomas á Kempis._
+
+
+For many weeks, even months, after this, Yusuf's life, to one who knew
+not the workings of his mind, seemed colorless, and filled with a
+monotonous round of never-varying occupation. Yet in those few weeks he
+lived more than in all his life before. Life is not made up of either
+years or actions--the development of thought and character is the
+important thing; and in this period of apparent waiting, Yusuf grew and
+developed in the light of his new understanding.
+
+He read and thought and studied, and yet found time for paying some
+attention to outer affairs. In Persia he had amassed a considerable
+fortune, which he had conveyed to Mecca in the form of jewels sewn into
+his belt and into the seams of his garments, hence he was abundantly
+able to pay his way, and to expend something in charity; and between his
+and Amzi's generosity the family of Nathan lacked nothing.
+
+Yusuf obtained possession of parts of the Scriptures, written on
+parchment, and spent every morning in their perusal, ever finding this
+period a precious feast full of comforting assurances, and
+hope-inspiring promises. He never forgot to pray for Amzi, to whom he
+often read and expounded passages of Scripture, without being able to
+notice any apparent effect of his teaching.
+
+It troubled him much that Amzi lent such a willing ear to Mohammed, and
+to the few fanatics among the Hanifs who had now professed their belief
+in this self-proclaimed prophet of Allah. It seemed marvelous that a man
+of Amzi's wisdom and learning should be so carried away by such a flimsy
+doctrine as that which Mohammed now began to proclaim. Amzi appeared to
+have fallen under the spell which Mohammed seemed to cast over many of
+those with whom he came in contact; and, though he acknowledged no
+belief in the so-called prophet, neither did he profess disbelief in
+him.
+
+Yusuf's happiest hours were those spent in the little Jewish Christian
+church, a poor, uncomfortable building, where an earnest handful of
+Jews, who were nevertheless firm believers in the divinity of Christ,
+met, often in secret, always in fear of the derisive Arabs, for prayer
+and study of the Gospel. Among these, the wife of Nathan was never
+absent.
+
+Yusuf sought untiringly to solve the mystery of the gold cup.
+Circumstantial evidence was certainly against Nathan. Awad, a rich
+merchant of Mecca, had placed the cup near a window in his house, and
+had forgotten to remove it ere retiring for the night. A short time
+before dawn he had heard a noise and risen to see what it was. He had
+gone outside just in time to see a figure passing hurriedly across a
+small field near his house. Even then he had not thought of the cup. But
+in the morning it was missed, and tracks were followed from the window
+as far as the ruined house to which Nathan's family had gone in their
+poverty. The house was searched, and the cup was found hidden in a heap
+of rubbish in an unused apartment.
+
+Nathan had just returned with little save the clothes he wore; it was
+well known that his wife and children had been verging on starvation,
+and the public, ever ready to judge, formed its own conclusion, and
+turned with Nemesis eye upon the poor Jew.
+
+No clue whatever remained, except a small carnelian, which Yusuf found
+afterwards upon the floor, and which he took possession of at once. For
+hours he would wander about, hoping to find some trace of the robber,
+who, he firmly believed, had fancied himself followed by Awad, and had
+hurriedly secreted the cup, trusting to return for it later, and to make
+his escape in the meantime.
+
+All this, however, did not help poor Nathan, who, chained and fettered,
+languished in a close, poorly-ventilated cell, with little hope of
+deliverance. Yusuf knew the rancor of the Meccans against the Jews, and
+somewhat feared the result, yet he did not give up hope.
+
+"We are praying for him," Nathan's wife would say. "Nathan and Yusuf are
+praying too, and we know that whatever happens must be best, since God
+has willed it so for us."
+
+Little Manasseh chafed more than anyone at the long suspense. One day he
+said:
+
+"Mother, my name means blackness, sorrow, or something like that, does
+it not? Why did you call me Manasseh? Was it to be an omen of my life?"
+
+"Forbid that it should!" the mother exclaimed, passing her hand lovingly
+through his waving hair. "It must have been because of your curls, black
+as a raven's wing. Sorrow will not be always. Joy may come soon; but if
+not, 'at eventide it shall be light.'"
+
+"Does that mean in heaven?" he asked.
+
+"He has prepared for us a mansion in the heavens, an house not made with
+hands. 'There shall be no night there,' and 'sorrow and sighing shall
+flee away,'" said the mother with a far-away look in her eyes.
+
+"But it seems so long to wait, mother," said the boy impatiently.
+
+"Yet heaven is not far away, Manasseh," she returned, quickly. "Heaven
+is wherever God is. And have we not him with us always? 'In all thy ways
+acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.' Never forget that,
+Manasseh."
+
+"Well, I wish we were a little happier now," he would say; and then, to
+divert the boy's attention from his present troubles, his mother would
+tell him about her happy home in Palestine, where she and her little
+sister, Lois, had watched their sheep on the green hillsides, and woven
+chains of flowers to put about the neck of their pet lamb; of how they
+grew up, and Lois married the Bedouin Musa, and had gone far away.
+
+Thus far, Yusuf knew nothing of this connection of Nathan's family with
+his Bedouin friends. It was yet to prove another link in the chain which
+was binding him so closely to this godly family. His many occupations,
+and the feeling which impelled him at every spare moment to seek for
+some clue which would lead to Nathan's liberation, left him little time
+for conversation with them for the present, except to see that their
+wants were supplied.
+
+Then, too, he was troubled about Amzi, and somewhat anxious about the
+result of Mohammed's proclamations, which were now beginning to be
+noised abroad. From holding meetings in caves and private houses, the
+"prophet" had begun to preach on the streets, and from the top of the
+little eminence Safa, near the foot of Abu Kubays.
+
+Many of the people of Mecca held him up to ridicule, and treated his
+declarations with derisive contempt. Among his strongest opponents were
+his own kindred, the Koreish, of the line of Haschem and of the rival
+line of Abd Schems. The head of the latter tribe, Abu Sofian, Mohammed's
+uncle, was especially bitter. He was a formidable foe, as he lived in
+the highlands, his castles being built on precipitous rocks, and manned
+by a set of wild and savage Arabs.
+
+Yet Mohammed went on, neither daunted by fear nor discouraged by
+sarcasm. The number of his followers steadily increased; his first
+converts, Ali, his cousin, and Zeid, his faithful servant, being quickly
+joined by many others.
+
+Mohammed now boldly proclaimed the message delivered to him in the cave
+of Hira the Koran. He declared that the law of Moses had given way to
+the Gospel, and that the Gospel was now to give way to the Koran; that
+the Savior was a great prophet, but was not divine; and that he,
+Mohammed, was to be the last and greatest of all the prophets.
+
+Such assertions were usually received with shouts of derision; and yet,
+when Mohammed eloquently upheld fairness and sincerity in all public and
+private dealings, and urged the giving of alms, and the living of a pure
+and humble life, there were those who, like Amzi, felt that there was
+something worthy of admiration in the new prophet's religion; and his
+very firmness and sincerity, even when spat upon, and covered with mud
+thrown upon him as he prayed in the Caaba, won for him friends.
+
+The opposition of his uncles, Abu Lahab and Abu Sofian, was, however,
+carried on with the greatest rancor; and at last a decree was issued by
+Abu Sofian forbidding the tribe of the Koreish from having any
+intercourse whatever with Mohammed. This decree was written on
+parchment, and hung up in the Caaba, and Mohammed was ultimately forced
+to flee from the city. He and his disciples went for refuge to the
+ravine of Abu Taleb, at some distance from Mecca. Here they would have
+suffered great want, had it not been for the kindness of Amzi, who
+managed to send them food in secret.
+
+But the prophet's zeal never flagged. When the Ramadhan again came
+round, and it was safe to venture from his temporary retreat, he came
+boldly into the city, preached again from the hill Safa, and proclaimed
+his new revelations, praying for the people, and ending every prayer
+with the declaration now universal throughout the Moslem world,--
+
+"God! There is no God but he, the ever-living! He sleepeth not, neither
+doth he slumber! To him belong the heavens and the earth, and all that
+they contain. Who shall intercede with him unless by his permission? His
+sway extendeth over the heavens and the earth, and to sustain them both
+is no burthen to him. He is the High, the Mighty!"
+
+The sublimity of this eulogy of the Most High may be readily traced to
+the psalms, particularly to that grandest of all songs, the one hundred
+and fourth psalm, which has been said to be remarkable in that it
+embraces the whole cosmos. And, in fact, the whole trend of the Koran
+may be traced to a study of the Bible, particularly to the New
+Testament, with occasional digressions into the Mishnu, and the Talmud
+of the Hebrews.
+
+"Feed the hungry! Visit the sick! Bow not to idols! Pray constantly, and
+direct thy prayers immediately to the Deity!" These were the constant
+exhortations of the prophet during these first days of his
+ministry--exhortations which demand the admiration of all who consider
+the grossness and idolatry of the age in which he lived. Had he never
+gone further, succeeding ages might have been tempted to pardon his
+hallucinations. At the time, doctrines which savored of so much
+magnanimity, and which were immeasurably in advance of the mockery of
+religion that had so long held sway among the majority of the Arabs, at
+once commended themselves to many. The effect of the new teaching was
+enhanced by the burning enthusiasm and powerful oratory of Mohammed, who
+was not ignorant of the effect of eloquent delivery and glowing language
+on a people ever passionate and keenly susceptible to the influence of a
+strong and vivid presentation.
+
+Ridicule and persecution ceased for a time, and at last, when the decree
+was removed, Mohammed and his followers returned in triumph to Mecca.
+
+Once again he was obliged to fly for his life. Accompanied by Zeid, he
+went to Tayf, and there spent a month in its perfumed vales, wandering
+by cooling streams, meditating beneath the waving fronds of the
+palm-trees, or resting in cool gardens, lulled by the rustling leaves of
+the nebeck (the lotus-tree), and inhaling the fresh perfume of peach and
+apple blooms.
+
+But the inhabitants of Tayf grew hostile, and the prophet again set out
+on foot for Mecca. He sat down to rest in an orchard. There he dreamed
+that a host of genii waited before him, begging him to teach them El
+Islam.
+
+In the night[8] he arose and proceeded, with renewed courage, on his
+journey. On the way he fell in with some pilgrims from Yathrib, or
+Medina, and to them he unfolded his revelations. They listened
+spell-bound as he preached from Al Akaba, and besought him that he would
+come or would send disciples with them to their northern town.
+Accordingly, Mohammed chose several converts to accompany them upon this
+first mission, and a time was set for their going.
+
+On the evening preceding this appointed time, Yusuf sat in a hanging
+balcony of Amzi's house. The pink flush of the setting sun was over the
+sky; the murmur of the city arose with a subdued hum--"the city's stilly
+sound"; a parchment containing a part of the Scriptures was on the
+priest's knee, but he stopped reading and gave himself up to meditation,
+wondering deeply at the strange course that events were taking, and
+surmising vaguely the probable result of the revolution that seemed
+impending.
+
+His thoughts turned to Amzi, who, as yet, closed his ears to the Gospel
+tidings which were proving such a comfort and joy to the priest.
+
+A step sounded behind him. It was Amzi himself, attired in traveling
+garb, and with his camel-stick already in his hand.
+
+"What now, friend Yusuf? Dreaming still?" he said. "Will you not say
+farewell to your friend?"
+
+"What! Are you going on a journey? Pray, where goes Amzi on such short
+notice?"
+
+"Ah," smiled Amzi, "I almost fear to tell my Persian proselyte, lest the
+vials of his wrath be poured on my defenceless and submissive head. To
+make a long story short, I go with the disciples of Mohammed to Medina."
+
+"As Mohammed's disciple? Amzi, has it come to this!" exclaimed the
+priest.
+
+"Chain your choler, my friend," laughed the other. "I merely go to
+observe the outcome of this movement in the town of the North. Besides,
+the heat of Mecca in this season oppresses me, and I long for the cool
+breezes of Medina. Yusuf, I shall have rare letters to write you, for I
+feel that there will be a mighty movement in favor of Mohammed there."
+
+"You begin to believe in him, Amzi!" said Yusuf in tones of deepest
+concern.
+
+"His doctrines suit me, as containing many noble precepts. His
+proclamations are moving the town in such a way as was never known
+heretofore."
+
+"Consider the movement caused by the teaching of Christ when he was on
+earth!" cried Yusuf. "Dare you compare this petty tempest with that?"
+
+"Yet Christ's very words have been here where all might read them, for
+long enough. Why have they not drawn the attention of, and, if divine,
+why have they not shown their power among, our citizens?"
+
+"Because ye have eyes that see not, and ears that hear not!" cried the
+priest impetuously. "Can you not see that the doctrines of the
+Scriptures are just those which Mohammed proclaims? He seizes upon them,
+he gives them as his own, because he knows they are good, yet he commits
+the sacrilege of posing as a divine agent! Good cannot come out of this
+except in so far as a few precepts of the Gospel, all plagiarized as
+they are, exert their influence upon the lives of people."
+
+Amzi looked inconvincible. "I grant the excellence of Gospel teaching,"
+he said, "but your conception of God's love I cannot seem to feel, often
+as you have explained it to me. Mohammed's revelations appear plausible.
+Yet, look not so doleful, brother. Amzi has not become a Mohammedan. He
+is still ready to believe as soon as he can see."
+
+"Yes, yes; like Thomas, you must see and feel ere you will believe. God
+grant that the seeing and feeling may not come too late!"
+
+Amzi smiled, and passed his arm affectionately about the priest's
+shoulder. "What a thorn in the flesh to you is Amzi the benevolent," he
+said, kindly. "Notwithstanding, give me your blessing, priest. Give me
+credit for being, at least, honest, and bid me good speed before I go."
+
+"Heaven forbid that aught but blessing from Yusuf should ever follow
+Amzi!" returned the other, warmly. "May heaven keep and direct you, my
+friend, my brother!"
+
+The friends embraced, according to the custom of the land, and
+separated; Amzi to join the half-naked pilgrims, who had not yet donned
+their traveling-robes, Yusuf to lift his heart to Heaven, as he now did
+in every circumstance. In this silent talk to God he received comfort,
+and his heart was filled with hope for Amzi.
+
+Even this journey, which seemed so inauspicious, might, he thought, be
+but the beginning of a happy end. He had learned that there are no
+trifles in life; that no event is so insignificant that God may not make
+use of it. He felt that Amzi was not utterly indifferent to the
+influence of divine power, so he waited in patience.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WHEREIN IS TOLD THE STORY OF NATHAN'S LIBERATION.
+
+    "The winds, as at their hour of birth,
+      Leaning upon the ridged sea,
+    Breathed low around the rolling earth
+      With mellow preludes, 'We are free.'"
+
+                              --_Tennyson._
+
+
+During all this time, there was no news of release for poor Nathan. In
+his close cell, ventilated by one little window, and, in the fetid odor
+of its air, he pined away. A low fever had rendered him exceedingly
+weak; he could not eat the wretched food of the prison; his face grew
+haggard, and his bones shone through the flesh with almost skeleton-like
+distinctness. Yet no murmur passed his lips.
+
+From his window, set high in the wall, he could see the sun as it rose
+over Abu Kubays; he could catch the occasional glint of a bright wing as
+a dove or a swallow flitted past beneath the white sky; and he said,
+"God is still good, blessed be his name!"
+
+Yet the grief of being separated from his loved ones, and the
+uncertainty of their welfare, preyed upon his mind, almost shaking the
+trust which had upheld him so long. It was a time of trial for poor
+Nathan, yet his faith came forth from the trial untarnished.
+
+Yusuf sought in vain to gain admission to the poor prisoner: the utmost
+that he could accomplish was to pay the attendant for carrying one
+brief message to him, assuring him that his wife and children were well,
+and cared for.
+
+The mystery of the gold cup was still unsolved. One day, however, when
+going down one of the busiest streets, Yusuf saw, at some distance, a
+little man walking along with a pack on his back. The peculiar hopping
+motion of his gait proclaimed him at once to be Abraham, the little Jew.
+
+"The very man!" thought Yusuf. "If any one between Syria and Yemen can
+ferret out a mystery, it is Abraham the peddler. If I can once set him
+in earnest upon the track, deliverance may be speedy for poor Nathan."
+
+The peddler was walking very rapidly, but Yusuf strode after him, now
+losing sight of him in the crowd, now catching a glimpse of his little
+bobbing figure, until, out of breath, he finally reached him and caught
+his arm.
+
+The Jew started in surprise. "Defend us, friend!" he exclaimed. "You
+come on a man like the poison-wind, as quickly if not as deadly. So you
+are still in Mecca! What are you doing now?"
+
+He was as inquisitive as ever, but Yusuf did not resent the trait in him
+now.
+
+"I am on important business just at present, my friend," he said, in his
+kindliest tone, "on business in which I am sure Abraham the Jew can help
+me, better than any other man in Mecca."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed the peddler, "and what may that be?"
+
+"Can you keep a still tongue when it is necessary, Jew?"
+
+The peddler placed his fingers on his lips, rolled up his eyes, and
+nodded assent.
+
+"Then come with me to the house of Amzi the benevolent,--my Meccan
+home,--and I shall explain."
+
+When seated comfortably on divans in the coolest part of the house,
+Yusuf told the story of the gold cup, and intimated that Abraham's
+wandering life and the numberless throngs of people with whom his trade
+threw him in contact, gave him facilities, impossible to others, of
+doing a little detective work in a quiet way.
+
+The Jew listened, silent and motionless, with his eyes fixed on a
+lotus-bud carved on the cornice. Only once did he turn and fix his
+little round eyes sharply on the priest's face.
+
+"There is just one more thing--" continued Yusuf, then he stopped. He
+was about to tell of the little carnelian stone, when his eye fell upon
+one of the numerous rings upon the Jew's fat fingers. There, in the
+center of it, was a small cavity from which, apparently, a jewel of some
+sort had fallen from its setting.
+
+Yusuf almost sprang to his feet in the excitement of the discovery.
+
+"Well?" asked the Jew, noting the pause.
+
+"I will tell you later," said Yusuf. "For the present--have some dates,
+will you not?"
+
+A servant entered with a tray on which were fruits and small cakes.
+
+The peddler besought Yusuf, for friendship's sake, to eat with him; but
+the Persian made a gesture of disgust.
+
+"I have already eaten," he said. "Overeating in Mecca in the hot season
+is not wise. Abraham, do you always wear so many rings on your fingers?"
+
+"Oh, no," returned the Jew, "sometimes I wear them; sometimes I carry
+them for months in my belt. This"--pointing to a huge band of ancient
+workmanship--"is the most curious one of the lot. I got it for carrying
+a bundle of manuscript from a man at Oman to your friend Amzi, here. It
+seems that Amzi had once lived with him at Oman, but the man--I forget
+his name--went inland to Teheran, or some other place in Persia, and
+Amzi, after traveling about for two or three years, settled in Mecca.
+This one"--and he pointed out the ring on which Yusuf's eyes were
+fixed--"is the most expensive of the lot, but a stone fell out of it
+once when I was carrying it in my belt."
+
+"Did you not look in your belt for it?"
+
+"No use; it had worked out between the stitches. I had no idea where I
+lost it."
+
+"Have you had that ring long?"
+
+"Long! Why, that ring has not been off my person for fifteen years."
+
+"I suppose you would not sell it?"
+
+The peddler shrugged his shoulders, and looked up with a shrewd glance.
+
+"That depends on how much money it would bring."
+
+"I have little idea of the value of such rings," said the Persian, "but
+I have a friend who, I am convinced, would appreciate that one. I should
+like to present it to him. Will you take this for it?"
+
+He drew forth a coin worth three times the value of the ring. The
+peddler immediately closed the bargain and handed the ring over, then
+devoted his attention again to the table.
+
+The priest went to the window. He drew the little stone from his bosom
+and slipped it into the cavity. It fitted exactly. He then walked back
+to the table, and held it before the astonished Jew.
+
+"How now, Jew?" he said with a smile. "Saw you such a gem before?"
+
+"My very own carnelian!" exclaimed the peddler. "Where did you find it?"
+
+"You are sure it is yours?"
+
+"Sure! On my oath, it is mine. There is not another such stone in
+Arabia, with that streak across the top."
+
+The priest laid his hand on the Jew's shoulder and bent close to him.
+"That stone," he said, "was found in the house of Nathan the Jew, beside
+the stolen cup. How came it there?"
+
+The little Jew turned pale. His guilt showed in his face. He knew that
+he was undone.
+
+With a quick, serpent-like movement, he attempted to escape, but the
+priest's grasp was firm as a vise.
+
+"No, peddler!" he said, "you may go, but it must be with me. To the
+magistrate you must go, and that right speedily. The innocent must no
+longer suffer in your rightful place. Come, Aza,"--to an attendant who
+had been in the room--"your tongue may be needed to supplement mine."
+
+The Jew's little eyes rolled around restlessly. He was a thorough
+coward, and his teeth chattered with fear as he was half-dragged into
+the blinding glare of the street, and down the long, crooked way, with a
+crowd of beggars and saucy boys following in the wake of the trio. Once
+or twice again he made a quick and sudden movement to elude the grasp of
+his captors, but the priest's grip was firm and his muscle like steel.
+Justice was in Yusuf's heart, and his anxiety to procure Nathan's
+release was so great that he strode on, almost forgetting the poor
+little Jew, who was obliged to keep up a constant hobbling run to save
+himself from being dragged to the ground.
+
+In the hall of justice the usual amount of questioning went on, but the
+evidence afforded by the ring was so conclusive that the order for
+Nathan's release and the peddler's imprisonment was soon given.
+
+Yusuf accompanied the guards to Nathan's cell. The poor prisoner was
+sitting on the bare clay with his head buried on his knee. An unusual
+clamor sounded outside of the door. The heavy bolt was withdrawn, and
+the next moment Yusuf rushed in, crying, "Free, Nathan, free!"
+
+Nathan fell on the other's bosom. The sudden joy was too much for him,
+and he could only lie, like a little child, sobbing on the breast of the
+stalwart priest.
+
+The warden rattled the bolts impatiently. "Come, there's room outside!"
+he said. "I have not time to stand here all day!"
+
+"Pardon us," said the priest, gently. "We go; yet, warden, ere we
+depart, may I ask you to deal leniently with that poor wretch?" and he
+pointed to the Jew, who was now crouched shivering in his chains.
+
+"We but do as we are ordered," returned the warden unfeelingly. "The
+officers will be here presently with the scourge; we can not prevent
+that."
+
+The peddler winced, and Nathan raised a face full of pity. "Warden," he
+said, "if you have a drop of mercy in your heart, if you hope for mercy
+for yourself, treat him as a man. Let him not die for want of a pittance
+of water."
+
+He turned the sleeve of his loose garment back to expose the emaciated
+arm with the bones showing through the loose skin. "There," he said,
+"let that touch your heart, if heart you have, and spare him. Poor
+Abraham!"--turning to the peddler--"did I not see you here, the joy of
+my release would be unspeakable."
+
+But Abraham only turned to bestow a look of hate and malice upon the
+priest.
+
+Then Yusuf and Nathan passed out into the pure, fresh air, now growing
+cool with the approach of evening. Never did air seem so pure and sweet;
+never did swallows twitter so gladly; never did the peak of Abu Kubays
+shine so gloriously in the sun; never did the voices of people sound so
+joyous or their faces beam so brightly.
+
+"Come," said Nathan, "to my wife and children, that we may all return
+thanks together. Verily 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but
+the Lord delivereth him out of them all.' 'Blessed be God, which hath
+not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.' 'I had fainted unless
+I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
+living.' 'My flesh faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my
+portion forever.'"
+
+So, uttering exclamations from the pages of Scripture, did the devout
+Jew pass onward to his home, which was once more filled with "joy and
+gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of melody." Before leaving, Yusuf
+presented him with the ring containing the little stone, as a memento of
+his deliverance.
+
+And Abraham? He received the full weight of the scourge; and may we be
+pardoned in anticipating, and say that for two days he lay nursing his
+wrath and his wounds; but, on the third day after his imprisonment, his
+agility suddenly returned. He managed in some inexplicable way known
+only to himself to work free of his fetters, and when the keeper came
+with food in the evening, blinded by the dim light of the cell, he did
+not perceive the little peddler crouched in a heap in the middle of the
+floor.
+
+Scarcely was the door opened when the Jew bounced like a ball past the
+keeper's feet, almost upsetting him; then, darting like an arrow between
+the astonished guards without, he was off. A hue and cry was raised, but
+the little peddler had disappeared as completely as if the earth had
+opened up and swallowed him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AMZI AT MEDINA.
+
+    "With half-shut eyes ever to seem
+    Falling asleep in a half dream!
+    To dream and dream like yonder amber light
+    Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height."
+
+                              --_Tennyson._
+
+
+Without entering into detail it may be briefly stated that the success
+of Mohammed's disciples in Medina was simply marvelous. Converts joined
+them every day, while those who were not prepared to believe in the
+Meccan's divine mission were at least anxious to see and hear the
+prophet.
+
+Amzi did no work in behalf of the new religion. He was simply an
+onlooker, though not an unsympathetic one; and, it must be confessed, he
+spent most of his time in that voluptuous do-nothingness in which the
+wealthy Oriental dreams away so much of his time,--sitting or reclining
+on perfumed cushions, a fan in his hand and a long pipe at his mouth,
+too languid, too listless, even to talk; listening to the soft murmur of
+Nature's music, the night-wind sighing through the trees beneath a
+star-gemmed sky, the song of a solitary bulbul warbling plaintively
+among the myrtle and oleander blooms, the plash of a fountain rippling
+near with "a sound as of a hidden brook in the leafy month of June";
+this, the exquisite languor of the East, "for which the speech of
+England has no name," the "Kaif" of the Arab, the drowsy falseness of
+the Lotos-eaters' ideal:
+
+    "Death is the end of life; ah, why
+    Should life all labor be?
+    Let us alone."
+
+And so the months went by, until at last a band of emissaries, to the
+number of seventy, was appointed to take a journey to Mecca for the
+purpose of meeting with Mohammed and discussing with him the
+advisability of his taking up his residence at Medina.
+
+A herald brought news of this embassy to the prophet. He went forth to
+meet them, and Yusuf, hearing by chance of the appointed conference, set
+out posthaste after Mohammed's party, eager to get even a pressure of
+the hand from Amzi, his heart's brother, who he felt sure would
+accompany the emissaries. In order to overtake them more quickly, he
+proceeded with a trusty guide by a shorter route across the hills.
+
+The night was exceptionally dark, and even the guide became confused.
+The way led on and on between the interminable hills, until the two in
+complete uncertainty reined their steeds on the verge of a cliff that
+seemed to overhang a deep and narrow basin, bounded by flinty rock which
+even in the darkness loomed doubly black, and which rang beneath the
+horses' feet with that peculiar, metallic sound that proclaimed it black
+basalt, the "hell-stone" of the Arabs.
+
+It was indeed an eerie spot. A thick fringe of thorny shrubs grew along
+the edge of the cliff; at intervals yawned deep fissures, across which
+the wise little Arabian ponies stepped gingerly; and above, outlined in
+intense black against the dark sky, were numerous peaks and pinnacles
+and castellated summits, such as the Arabs love to people with all
+manner of genii and evil spirits of the waste and silent wilderness. It
+was a spot likely to be infested with robbers, and Yusuf and his guide
+waited in some trepidation while considering what to do.
+
+[Illustration: "Hold!" cried a voice from the air above.--See page 34.]
+
+Presently a dull trampling sounded in the distance. It came nearer and
+nearer, and the two lone wanderers on the cliff scarcely dared to
+breathe.
+
+The tread of camels was soon discernible, the "Ikh! Ikh!" (the sound
+used to make camels kneel) of the camel-drivers rising from the dark
+pass below to the ears of the men above. Apparently the party was about
+to make a halt in the dark basin; and should it prove to be a band of
+hill-robbers, Yusuf and his companion were in a precarious position, for
+the slightest sound made by them or their ponies would probably prove
+the signal for an onslaught; but by patting and quieting the animals,
+they managed to keep their restlessness in check and so waited, scarcely
+knowing what to do next.
+
+Ere ten minutes had elapsed, however, the tread of camels was again
+heard, and another party came in from the opposite direction, halting at
+the other end of the ravine. A call was sounded and at once answered by
+the body immediately below. The new-comers advanced, and mutual
+recognitions seemed to take place, although Yusuf could distinguish
+neither the voices nor the words.
+
+The parties were, in reality, those of Mohammed and the emissaries of
+Medina, who at once opened negotiations. After the salutations were
+over, they extended to Mohammed a formal invitation to Medina.
+
+"We will receive you as a confederate, obey you as a leader, and defend
+you to the last extremity, even as we defend our wives and children,"
+said the spokesman.
+
+"For your gracious invitation accept my most hearty thanks," said
+Mohammed. "My work is not yet ended in Mecca, yet ere long I hope to pay
+at least a visit to you, O believers of Medina."
+
+"But," said the leader, "if you are recalled to your own district you
+will not forsake us?"
+
+"All things," replied Mohammed, "are now common between us. Your blood
+is my blood. Your ruin is my ruin. We are bound to each other by the
+ties of honor and interest. I am your friend and the enemy of your
+foes."
+
+He then chose twelve of the men to be the especial heralds of his faith,
+and all, placing their hands in his, swore fealty to him in life and in
+death.
+
+"If we are killed in your service, what shall be our reward?" asked one
+of the number.
+
+"Paradise!" cried the prophet. "Vales of eternal rest and felicity,
+odors of sweet spices on the air, blessed spirits to--"
+
+"Hold!" cried a voice from the air above. "Who are you, Mohammed, who
+can dare to promise that which belongs to the Creator alone? Impostor,
+take heed!"
+
+It was only Yusuf, who, in his anxiety to discover if the gloomy vale
+were indeed the nest of some daring mountain chief, had noiselessly
+descended to an overhanging ledge, and had heard the last confident
+assertion of the prophet.
+
+But the utmost consternation fell upon the Arabs below. Some, believing
+the voice to be that of a demon of the rock, were seized with sudden
+panic; others shouted excitedly, "Spies! spies!" and the assembly broke
+up in confusion, all scurrying off, leaving Yusuf and his guide again
+alone on the rock.
+
+"Amzi! Amzi!" shouted the priest, with a forlorn hope that his friend
+might have lingered behind the fleeing party; but the only response was
+the beat of hoofs flying in every direction, and the dull thud of the
+camels' padded feet. There was nothing better to be done than wait until
+morning, so Yusuf and the guide lay down on the hard rock for the rest
+of the night.
+
+For some time after this affairs seemed to be at a standstill. Mohammed
+still continued to preach, now from the hill Safa, now from the knoll El
+Akaba at the north of the town.
+
+His wife, Cadijah, had died some time before, and he had since married a
+widow, Sawda, and become betrothed to a child, Ayesha, the daughter of
+his friend and disciple, Abu Beker.
+
+But events in Mecca were fast hastening to a crisis. Abu Sofian, still
+the most mortal enemy to Mohammed and his religion, had succeeded Abu
+Taleb in the government of Mecca, and no sooner had he become head of
+the state than he determined to crush Mohammed, and exterminate his
+religion at any cost. A plot for the assassination of the prophet was
+formed. Several of the tribe of the Koreish and their allies were
+appointed to kill Mohammed, in order to avert the blood-revenge of
+Mohammed's immediate kin, the Haschemites, who, it was thought, would
+not dare to avenge themselves upon such numerous and such scattered
+foes.
+
+The attack was planned with the utmost secrecy in the cellar of a house,
+and at a time but the space of three hours before daybreak, when all
+Mecca lay chained in slumber.
+
+Yet not all. Abraham, the Jew, was, as usual, on the alert. Since his
+escape he had been prowling about the hills, penniless, and hence unable
+to leave the district. He had now come down to steal food, for
+necessity, in his eyes, rendered any such proceeding pardonable; and,
+perceiving a mysterious light issuing from a chink in the wall, his
+natural curiosity asserted itself. He lay down flat on the ground, put
+his ear to the chink, and succeeded in hearing every word of the plot.
+
+Here, then, was a chance to gain favor and protection from at least a
+few in Mecca. He would disclose the plot to Mohammed and his vizier, and
+beseech their protection as the price of his services as a savior of the
+prophet's life. Accordingly, a couple of hours before the time appointed
+for the assassination, and as soon as the cover of darkness rendered his
+own appearance in the city safe, he hastened to the prophet.
+
+No time was to be lost. Mohammed, accompanied by Abu Beker and the Jew,
+at once fled; while Ali, to deceive the spies, and keep them as long as
+possible in check, wrapped himself in the prophet's green cloak, moved
+round with it on for some time, and at last lay down on Mohammed's bed.
+
+When the assassins entered, intending to rush upon the sleeping form
+and destroy it, Ali threw the cloak off and sat up. In the meantime the
+fugitives had reached the cave of Thor, three miles distant, from
+whence, after three days, they escaped to Medina.
+
+This was the famous flight of the prophet, the Hegira, or Hejra, in the
+year 622 A.D. and about the fifty-third year of Mohammed's age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MOHAMMED'S ENTRANCE INTO MEDINA.
+
+                  "Oh, it is excellent
+    To have a giant's strength: but it is tyrannous
+    To use it like a giant."
+
+                              --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Once more after the lapse of years let us look at Amzi as he sat one
+morning in his house at Medina.
+
+The cool and pleasant atmosphere of the town in contrast with the
+burning, breathless heat of Mecca had charmed him. He had immediately
+purchased a house and furnished it with the luxurious splendor which
+suited his rather voluptuous taste.
+
+The apartment in which he sat was in the middle story, the one sacred to
+the men in a house of Medina. Rich Persian carpets were on the floor,
+rugs of Inde were scattered about and piled with cushions filled with
+softest down. Low divans invited repose, and heavy curtains of yellow
+silk shut out the too bright glare of day. The ceiling, after the
+Persian fashion, was inlaid with mirrors, fitted in in different
+patterns, and divided by carved sticks of palm, stained red; and the
+sweet odor of richest perfumes of Arabia-Felix spread through the room
+as if emanating from the silken hangings of the wall.
+
+The window was open, and the breeze from the east, bearing, as it were,
+tales of the Nejd, the land of brave men and beautiful women, swayed
+the curtains softly. Outside, in the sloping garden, waved the graceful
+branches of the tamarisk, glittering with dew in the early morning sun;
+and near the window a jujube tree stretched its dark, shining leaves and
+yellow fruit temptingly near. Acacias with sweet-scented yellow
+blossoms, oleanders glowing with rosy bloom, and a thicket of
+silver-leaved castors separated the little plot from the gardens below,
+where grew gourds and cucumbers, lime and fig trees, grape-vines,
+water-melons and pomegranates; and beyond that lay a bright patch of
+Bursim, or Egyptian clover, like a yellow-green island on a darker sea.
+
+Amzi, comfortably habited in a jubbeh of pink silk, worn over a caftan
+of fine white silk flowered with green and confined by a fringed, yellow
+sash at the waist, reclined in a position of luxurious ease at the
+window. Between his plump fingers he held the amber stem of a handsomely
+carved pipe. He looked scarcely older than when on that memorable
+journey in which he first met Yusuf. His eye was still as bright, his
+hair scarcely more gray, and his cheek as ruddy as then; yet there was a
+somewhat discontented look on his face.
+
+His eye wandered over the rich garden before him, and he thought of
+barren, ashen Mecca. Then he looked restlessly back over the landscape
+below. Surely it was fair enough to calm a restless spirit.
+
+Immediately before, and to the eastward, the sun had risen out of a mass
+of lilac and rose-colored cloud. The tufted trees on the distant hills
+stood black and distinct against the splendor of the sky. To the right
+the date-groves of Kuba, famed throughout Arabia, struggled through a
+sea of mist that piled and surged in waves of amber and purple, leaving
+the tree tops like islands on a vapory sea. To the left the seared and
+scoriæ-covered crest of Mount Ohod rose, dark and scowling, like a grim
+sentinel on the borders of an Elysian valley. In the rear lay the plain
+of El Munakhah, and the rush of the torrent El Sayh was borne on the
+breeze, bearing the willing mind beyond to the cool groves of Kuba,
+whence this raging flood dispersed itself in gentle rills, or was
+carried in silent channels to turn the water-wheels, or to fall, with
+musical plash, into wooden troughs that lay deep in the shade.
+
+The ripple of water,--ah, what it means to Arabian ears! Little wonder
+that the inhabitant of the desert land never omits it from his idea of
+paradise, save in his conception of the highest heaven,--a conception
+not lacking in sublimity--that of a silent looking upon the face of God.
+
+In the immediate foreground lay El Medina itself, with its narrow
+streets, its busy bazars, its fair-skinned people, and its low, yellow,
+flat-roofed houses, each with its well and court-yard, nestling cozily
+among the feathery-fronded date-trees.
+
+From the Eastern Road, a caravan from the Nejd was descending slowly
+into the town, and so clear was the atmosphere that Amzi could
+distinguish the huge, white dromedaries, and catch an occasional glint
+of a green shugduf, or the gorgeous litter of a grandee, trapped in
+scarlet and gold.
+
+It was indeed a fair scene, and Amzi enjoyed it to the full with the
+keen enjoyment of one who possesses an esthetic temperament, an intense
+love of the beautiful. Yet he began to feel lonely in this town of his
+adoption. It was long since he had seen Yusuf, and he commenced to think
+seriously of returning for a time to Mecca.
+
+Besides, he was tired of waiting for Mohammed's long-deferred visit, and
+he was anxious again to see the man whose strange fascination over him
+he scarcely dared to acknowledge even to himself. The emptiness and
+idleness of his own life was beginning to pall upon him, and he compared
+unfavorably his sluggish existence with the busy, quietly energetic way
+in which Yusuf was spending his days.
+
+One source of unfailing pleasure to him had been the companionship of
+Dumah, who had followed him to Medina, but was wandering about as usual,
+returning to Amzi when tired or hungry, as a birdling returns to its
+mother's wing.
+
+And Amzi had almost a mother's love for the boy, for poor Dumah seemed a
+child still; he had grown but little, his face was paler than of old,
+his eyes were as large and blue, and his bright hair fell in the same
+soft curls above his regular and clear-cut features. Like Yusuf, Amzi
+felt that the orphan's very helplessness was an appeal to his heart, and
+he did not lock its doors.
+
+Dumah now came in wearily. He lay down at Amzi's feet and put his head
+on his knee. The Meccan stroked his soft hair gently.
+
+"Where has my Dumah been?" he asked tenderly.
+
+"Watching the people going out foolishly. Dumah would not go with them."
+
+"Going where, lad?"
+
+"Out to the gardens where the lotus blows, and the date-palms wave, and
+the citron and orange grow."
+
+"And why go they, then, foolishly?" smiled Amzi.
+
+"Because they go to meet him, and they are carrying white robes, and
+they will bring him in as a prince,--the wicked one, who would place
+himself above our blessed Master!"
+
+Amzi started up quickly, and threw his pipe down.
+
+"Is Mohammed here?" he cried.
+
+"He is here. But you will not go too, Amzi? Alas that I told you! The
+angels I see in my dreams do not smile, they look away and vanish when I
+think of Mohammed. Yusuf does not love him! Let not Amzi!" pleaded the
+orphan.
+
+But the Meccan was gone. Hastening on towards the outskirts of the city,
+he met a great crowd of people, pressing about Mohammed and Abu Beker,
+each of whom was dressed in a white garment, and riding triumphantly
+upon a white camel, the prophet being mounted on his own beast El Kaswa.
+
+The little peddler, assigning himself a lower place, rode behind on a
+pack-mule.
+
+Mohammed had come, and was, from the very beginning, a monarch,
+surrounded by an army of blind devotees, believers in his holy mission,
+and slavishly obedient to his will.
+
+Amzi took the prophet to his house, and there entertained him as a
+respected Meccan friend, until Mohammed's home was erected. It was at
+Amzi's house, too, that the nuptials of Mohammed and the beautiful
+Ayesha, also those of Ali and the prophet's daughter Fatimah, took
+place.
+
+One of Mohammed's first acts was to have a mosque built, and, from it,
+morning and night the call to prayers was given:
+
+"God is great! There is no God but God! Mohammed is the prophet of God!
+Come to prayers. Come to prayers! God is great!"
+
+And from this mosque Mohammed exhorted with wondrous eloquence, the
+music of his voice falling like a spell on the multitudes, as they
+listened to teachings new and more living than the old, dead,
+superstitious idolatry to which they were in bondage; yet, had they
+known it, teachings whose choicest gems were but crumbs borrowed from
+the words of One who had preached in all meekness and love on the shores
+of Galilee and the hills of Palestine more than six hundred years
+before.
+
+They listened in wonder to condemnation of their belief in polytheism.
+
+"In the name of the most merciful God," Mohammed would say, "say God is
+one God, the Eternal God; he begetteth not, neither is he begotten, and
+there is not anyone like unto him!" Thus did he aim at the foundation of
+Christianity, seeking to overthrow belief in the "only begotten Son of
+God" as a divine factor of the Trinity. Jesus he recognized as a
+prophet, not as God's own Son; and, while he borrowed incessantly from
+the Scriptures, he refused to accept them, declaring that they had
+become perverted, and that the original Koran was a volume of Paradise,
+from which Gabriel rendered him transcripts, and was, therefore, the
+true word of God which had been laid from time everlasting on what he
+called the "preserved table," close to the throne of God in the highest
+heaven.
+
+And yet, during the greater part of his career, the utterances of this
+strange, incomprehensible man were characterized by a seemingly real
+glow of philanthropy and an earnest solicitude for the salvation of his
+countrymen from the depths of moral and spiritual degradation into
+which they had fallen. A missionary spirit seemed to be in him, in
+strange contrast and incompatibility with the sacrilegious words that
+often fell from his lips.
+
+In all the records of history there is nothing more wonderful than the
+marvelous success which attended Mohammed at Medina. Staid and sober
+merchantmen, men with gray heads, fiery youths, proselytes from the
+tribes of the desert, even women, flocked to him every day; and he soon
+realized that he had a vast army of converts ready to live or die for
+him, ready to fight for him until the last.
+
+Amzi, alone, of all his followers, seemed to stand aloof,
+half-believing, yet unwilling to proclaim his belief openly; simply
+waiting, as he had waited all his life, to see the truth, yet too
+indolent to set out bravely in the quest. He preferred to look on from
+aside; to weigh and calculate motives, actions and results; to judge men
+by their fruits, though the doing so called for long waiting.
+
+Yet Amzi grew more and more dissatisfied. He felt, though he knew not
+its cause, the want of a rich spiritual life, that empty hollowness
+which pleasures of the world and the mere consciousness of a moral life
+cannot satisfy.
+
+More than once he was tempted to declare himself a follower of the
+prophet, but he put it off until a riper season.
+
+Poor Dumah noted Amzi's frequent visits to the mosque with a vague
+dread. He had an instinctive dislike of Mohammed, whose assumptions of
+superiority to Jesus he understood in a hazy way, and resented with all
+his might.
+
+One day he entered with a tablet of soft stone to which a cord was
+attached. Putting the cord about Amzi's neck, he said:
+
+"Amzi, promise your Dumah that you will wear this always, will you not?
+Because Dumah might die, and could not say the words any more. Promise
+me!"
+
+"I promise you," smiled Amzi, and Dumah left the room contented.
+
+Amzi turned the tablet over, and read the familiar words traced upon the
+soft stone,--the words recognized as the corner-stone of Christianity:
+
+"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
+life."
+
+Amzi smiled, and put the tablet in his bosom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MOHAMMED BECOMES INTOLERANT.--WAR.
+
+    "Our virtues disappear when put in competition with our
+    interests, as rivers lose themselves in the ocean."--_La
+    Rochefoucauld._
+
+
+Thirteen years had now passed since Mohammed first began to meditate in
+the Cave of Hira. During all that time he had preached peace, love and
+gentleness. With power, however, came a change in his opinions. He
+became not only pastor of his flock, and judge of the people, but also
+commander of an army. Worldly ambition took possession of his breast,
+and the voice of him who had cried, "Follow the religion of Abraham, who
+was orthodox and was no idolater. Invite men unto the way of the Lord by
+wisdom and mild exhortation.... Bear opposition with patience, but thy
+patience shall not be practicable unless with God's assistance. And be
+not thou grieved on account of the unbelievers. Let there be no violence
+in religion,"--now began to call, "War is enjoined you against the
+infidels. Fight therefore against the friends of Satan, for the
+stratagem of Satan is weak. And when the months wherein ye shall not be
+allowed to attack them be past, kill the idolaters wherever ye shall
+find them, and besiege them, and lay wait for them in every convenient
+place. Verily God hath purchased of the true believers their souls and
+their substance, promising them the enjoyment of Paradise on condition
+that they fight for the cause of God. Whether they slay or be slain,
+the promise for the same is assuredly due by the law, and the Gospel,
+and the Koran."
+
+Clemency, he claimed, had been the instrument of Moses; wisdom, that of
+Solomon; righteousness, that of Christ; and now the sword was to be the
+instrument of Mohammed.
+
+"The sword," he exclaimed, with flashing eye, "is the key of heaven and
+hell. All who draw it in the cause of the faith will be rewarded with
+temporal advantages; every drop shed of their blood, every peril endured
+by them, will be registered on high as more meritorious than fasting or
+prayer. If they fall in battle, their sins will at once be blotted out,
+and they will be transported to paradise!"
+
+This fierce, intolerant spirit took possession of Mohammed almost from
+his entrance into Medina. Chapter after chapter of the Koran was
+produced, breathing the same blood-thirsty, implacable hatred of
+opposition. Mohammed, in fact, seemed like one possessed in his
+enthusiasm, but his doctrines caught the fancy of the wild,
+impressionable Arabs, who flocked to him in crowds as his fame spread
+throughout the length and breadth of El Hejaz, throughout the Nejd, and
+even to the extremities of Arabia-Felix.
+
+And now the bloody cloud of war hovered over the peninsula, and the
+people trembled.
+
+The following letter from Amzi will describe the outbreak.
+
+                              =A=[9]
+
+    From Amzi the Meccan, at Medina,
+                              To Yusuf the priest, Mecca.
+
+    My Dear Yusuf:--
+
+    I can scarcely describe the emotions with which I write you again
+    after a six months' interval. Affairs here in Medina have taken such
+    an unlooked-for turn that I scarcely know what to think or what to
+    do.
+
+    Of Mohammed's wonderful progress, you have, of course, heard. You
+    should see him now, my dear Yusuf,--Mohammed, the peaceful trader,
+    the devout hermit, now little less than monarch, with all the sway
+    assumed by the most powerful despot; and yet those over whom he
+    wields his despotism are but too willing servants, ready to say as
+    he says, and to give their dearest heart's blood in his cause.
+
+    Indeed I know not what the outcome of it all will be. What
+    astonishes me most is that Mohammed has suddenly assumed an
+    aggressive attitude. Fire and the sword seem to be the watchword of
+    him whom we knew as the gentle husband of Cadijah, the mild preacher
+    who bowed his head and reviled not even when assailed with mud and
+    filth in the Caaba.
+
+    Needless to say, Yusuf, I am disappointed in him. You will be only
+    too glad to hear that. I hear that you have been exhorting the
+    people in Mecca to pay no heed to him; that you have been seeking to
+    promulgate your Hebrew faith, or rather the faith of your Hebrew
+    friend, of whose innocence and release I was glad to hear.
+
+    My brother, I pride in your courage, and in the strength of your
+    principles; yet, Yusuf, I beseech of you, be careful what you do or
+    say, lest you draw down upon your head a storm of fury which you
+    little expect. You have no idea of the revolution of feeling here in
+    Mohammed's favor, and of the fanatic zeal of many of his followers.
+    Be not too bold. You cannot cope single-handed with such an
+    overwhelming tide.
+
+    The past month, as you know, was the holy month Radjab, in which, as
+    in the month of Ramadhan, throughout all El Hejaz, life should be
+    held sacred, and no act of violence committed. Can you believe it
+    when I tell you that the prophet's men have attacked more than one
+    caravan of quiet traders and pilgrims upon their way to or from
+    Mecca? Such a sacrilege seems unpardonable in Arab eyes, but,
+    forsooth, the prophet has been favored with another revelation
+    justifying him in what he has done.
+
+    This, more than aught else, makes me wonder. You, Yusuf, know what a
+    lover of peace I have been; how it has ever grieved me to see even a
+    butterfly fluttering along the ground with a crushed wing. Judge,
+    then, of my horror, when I went out to the scene of the pillage and
+    saw men lying, some dead, with ghastly faces glaring up at the hot
+    sun, others with gaping wounds, and others moaning pitifully on the
+    road-way, with sand on their faces and in their hair. Yusuf, it made
+    me sick to see it. Had they been slain in fair battle I could have
+    borne it better. Yet I was enabled to give the poor wounded
+    creatures some water, all warm as it was from being carried so long
+    a distance; and some of them I had conveyed to my house, so that
+    every bed-chamber has been turned into a sick-room, and your friend
+    Amzi has been suddenly metamorphosed into a sick-nurse. Does that
+    astonish you?
+
+    Yet, Yusuf, though I get little sleep any night, and have to be on
+    my feet much during the day, I can assure you that I was never so
+    happy in my life before. The constant occupation, and the sense of
+    being able to render the poor creatures a little ease, is just what
+    I need at present to keep me from growing moody.
+
+    The other day I saw some one who knows of you--Uzza, the Oman Arab.
+    How or why he has come here I know not; but he is one of Mohammed's
+    most devoted followers. For your sake, I hope you may not meet him
+    in Medina.
+
+    I knew him, years ago, at Oman, and had letters from him for a time
+    after he went to Persia. Perhaps that will read you the riddle as to
+    how I knew so much of your past history, my priest. Recognizing your
+    name, and noting your priestly bearing, it was an easy matter to
+    connect you with the Guebre Yusuf, of whom I had heard.
+
+    I am convinced that you are looking after my Meccan affairs as
+    closely as possible, yet remember that Amzi has a house in Medina,
+    too, which has ever a door open for you.
+
+    Dumah sends his love. The poor lad is greatly excited over the
+    stirring events which are the talk of the town here.
+
+    Commend me to your friend Nathan and his family. Trusting to see or
+    to hear from you soon,
+
+                              And the peace,
+                                          Amzi.
+
+To this letter Yusuf returned the following answer:
+
+    Yusuf, at Mecca,
+                              To Amzi the Benevolent, Medina.
+
+    My Heart's Brother:--
+
+    Your most welcome letter lies before me, and it is quite unnecessary
+    to say with what mingled feelings of pleasure and pain I read
+    it,--pleasure, because, whether you will it or not, your confidence
+    in this false prophet is tottering; pain, because of the marvelous
+    power which this Mohammed seems to be wielding over your excitable
+    Arab populace. Strange, indeed, is his new attitude; we had not
+    deemed him possessed of a martial spirit; yet may we hope that this
+    procedure will be but as the stone which shall crush his ends,
+    falling upon his own head.
+
+    It is possible that I may be in Medina ere long. I am impatient to
+    see you and our poor Dumah again.
+
+    And so Uzza is there, too, to bring up afresh the darkest page of
+    my history; for Amzi, it was I, in my fanatic zeal, who induced the
+    Persian grandmother to give up his child for sacrifice. Scarcely was
+    it over when, even in my heathen darkness, my whole soul revolted
+    against what I had done, and against the faith which had sanctioned
+    such deeds of blood. It was then that I began to think and strive
+    against the mists of darkness, until at last I fought away from the
+    creed of my country.
+
+    I fear not to meet Uzza, although I know that he bears me no
+    good-will, and would not refrain from the assassin's knife did it
+    satisfy his wish for blood-revenge.
+
+    Our friend, Nathan, and his family are well. Did I tell you that
+    they have gone to live near Tayf?
+
+    I spent a pleasant day with them not long ago. They have a little
+    cabin in the mountains, and Nathan has a few flocks which he herds
+    out on the green hill-sides. They are all so happy, and so contented
+    with their pastoral mode of living that they think of moving back
+    into Palestina, as the pasturage is better there. It will be a long
+    journey, but, with the consciousness of the Father's care over them,
+    and the bond of love to shorten the way, they will not mind it.
+    Nathan's wife, in particular, is anxious to return to her
+    childhood's home, and never wearies of telling her children stories
+    of her girlhood days, when she and her sister, whom she still loves
+    passionately, watched their sheep on the hills of Hebron.
+
+    Mary and Manasseh have grown quite tall. Manasseh is almost a man,
+    fiery and impetuous as ever, yet wise beyond his years, and a devout
+    Christian.
+
+    Nathan is very happy. After all his trials he has perfect rest. His
+    face almost beamed when he said to me in the words of the Psalmist,
+    "Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in
+    silence. When I said, My foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me
+    up. For the Lord is my defence, and my God is the rock of my
+    refuge."
+
+    He is very anxious about the hostile attitude which Mohammed has
+    taken. "God grant," he said, "that there may not be another season
+    of persecution. If there be, and the Lord will, I shall stay at
+    Medina to comfort, if I may, my poor brethren there. 'Blessed are
+    they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
+    kingdom of heaven.' God grant that we may all be imbued with the
+    spirit of him who said, 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse
+    you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that
+    despitefully use you.' Yet, Yusuf, it may be that we shall be forced
+    to defend our lives, and those of our wives and children,--God
+    knoweth. He will direct us, if we permit him, so that, living or
+    dying, it shall be well with us."
+
+    Is not such love, such comfort in the help and presence and sympathy
+    of God, worth more, infinitely more, than power or wealth or worldly
+    pleasure? Nothing that happens can overwhelm this happy family, for
+    they have the consciousness of God's love and care in all. They have
+    Jesus for a personal friend. Amzi, what would I not give to know
+    that you felt as they do, and as I learn to feel, more and more,
+    every day.
+
+    My friend, I could keep on in this strain for the whole night; but I
+    am weary, for to-day I talked for many hours with some of those who
+    are half-apostatizing to Mohammed.
+
+    So, Mizpah; and may the blessing of God be upon you.
+
+                                        Yusuf.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WHEREIN THE BEDOUIN YOUTH KEDAR BECOMES A MOSLEM.
+
+    "Mine honor is my life: both grow in one;
+    Take honor from me, and my life is done."
+
+                              --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+The scene again opens far to the north of the Nejd, El Shark, or the
+East. Into one of its most favored spots, a green and secluded valley,
+surrounded by grassy slopes, the sun shone with the fresh brightness of
+early morning, sending floods of green-gold light through the leaves Of
+the acacias, now covered with yellowish blossoms heavy with perfume.
+
+By the side of a little torrent, rose the black tents of a Bedouin
+encampment. Flocks were on the hill-side, and the tinkling of the
+camel-bells and soft bleat of the lambs sounded faintly from the
+distance.
+
+At the head of the valley, upon a rounded boulder of granite sat a
+woman; and before her stood a young man to whom she was earnestly
+talking, at times stretching out her hands as though she were beseeching
+him for some favor.
+
+The woman was tall and well-built, her eyes were large and dark, and
+their brilliancy increased, according to Bedouin custom, by the
+application of kohl to the lids. Her face was keen and intelligent, and
+her hair, braided in innumerable small plaits, and surmounted by a much
+bespangled head-dress, was slightly streaked with gray.
+
+The youth was slight and agile, his every movement full of grace. His
+face was oval, regular in its contour, and full of expression, although
+the Jewish cast of his features had traces of Arab blood. He seemed to
+be in some excitement, for, with a trait peculiar to Bedouins, his
+restless and deep-set eyes were now half-closed until but a narrow,
+glittering line appeared, and now suddenly opened to their fullest
+extent and turned directly upon the woman to whom he talked.
+
+"Would you have me branded among the whole tribe as a coward, mother?"
+he was saying. "Are not the Bedouin lads from all over the Nejd flocking
+to the field, even as the sparrows flock before the storm clouds of the
+north? And will the son of Musa be the craven, crouching at home in his
+mother's nest?"
+
+"A flock of vultures are they, rather!" she cried
+passionately--"Vultures flocking to a feast of blood, to gloat over the
+carrion of brothers, sons, and husbands, left dead on the reeking plain,
+while in their solitary homes the women moan, even as moans the bird of
+the tamarisk, robbed of its young."
+
+"'Tis your Jewish heart speaks now, mother. Ah, but your Jewish women
+are too soft-hearted! Know you not that Bedouin mothers have not only
+sent their sons to battle, but have gone themselves and fought in the
+thickest of the fray?"
+
+"Ah, you are a true Bedouin, and ashamed of your mother!" returned Lois,
+with a sigh. "Truly, a Jewess has no place among the tribes of the
+wilderness."
+
+The youth's face softened. "I am not ashamed of my mother!" he said,
+quickly. "But my blood leaps for the glory of battle, for the clash of
+cymbals, the speed of the charge, the tumult, and the victory!"
+
+"But a hollow glory you will find it," she said scornfully. "Murder and
+pillage,--and all sanctioned in the name of religion!"
+
+"Even so, is not the name of harami (brigand) accounted honorable among
+the desert tribes?" asked the youth, quickly.
+
+"Alas, yes. Ye reck not that it has been said, 'Thou shalt not steal.'
+But you, Kedar, care not for the Jewish Scripture. Why need I quote it
+to you."
+
+"Arabian religion, Arabian honor, for the Arab, say I!" returned the
+youth haughtily. "Let me roam over the wild on my steed, racing with the
+breeze, lance in hand, bound for the hunt or fray; let me swoop upon the
+cowardly caravans whose hundreds shriek and scream and fall back before
+a handful of Bedouin lads, if I will. More honorable it is to me than to
+plod along in a shugduf on a long-legged camel with a bag of corn or a
+trifle of cloth to look after. Be the Jew if you will, but give me the
+leaping blood, the soaring spirit of the Bedouin!"
+
+The woman sighed again. "You will be killed, Kedar," she said. "Then
+what will all this profit you?"
+
+"To die on the field is more glorious than to breathe one's life out
+tamely in bed," replied the other.
+
+There was no use of reasoning with this rash youth.
+
+"And think you this Mohammed is worthy of your sacrifice?" she asked.
+
+"If he be really inspired, as hundreds now believe, is he not worthy of
+every sacrifice? Does he not promise his followers an eternal felicity?"
+
+"A vile impostor!" exclaimed the woman harshly. "Yet you will not
+believe what I say, until your own eyes see and your own ears hear! Go!
+Go! I shall talk no more to you! If you fall it shall be no fault of
+Lois'!"
+
+She arose and waved him off with an impatient gesture. Yet he lingered.
+
+"You will forgive me, mother?" he asked, gently.
+
+The woman's mother-heart welled to the brim. She answered brokenly:
+
+"My son, my son! Could I do aught else? Take my blessing with you! And
+now, here comes your father."
+
+Musa was feebler than upon that first night when he met Yusuf in his
+tent, and his hair had become almost white, yet there was the same
+dignity in his appearance.
+
+"Go, Kedar," he said, "and prove that you are indeed the son of Musa.
+Go, and see that you bring back good news of battle!"
+
+Kedar bent his head in token of assent.
+
+Before an hour had passed he was mounted on the swiftest of his father's
+horses--a short, fleshless animal, with legs thin and of steel-like
+muscle. But its slender neck, its small, snake-like head, its dilating
+nostrils, through which the light shone crimson, and its fiery,
+intelligent eye, showed its blood as it pawed the ground and neighed
+impatiently. A noble animal and a noble rider they looked as they were
+off like an arrow, Kedar's fine figure swaying with the movement of the
+steed as though rider and horse were one.
+
+All alone went the youth across hill and valley, over rock and torrent,
+fearless and swift as an eagle; for Kedar scorned to seek the protection
+of numbers, although quite aware of the fact that a large caravan, under
+Abu Sofian, was even then on its way from Syria to Mecca, and was within
+three hours' journey from him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ABU SOFIAN'S CARAVAN.
+
+
+While Kedar was thus speeding towards Medina, the caravan was also
+proceeding more slowly towards the south. It consisted of thirty
+horsemen and one thousand camels richly laden with grain, with spices,
+with purple of Syria, richest cloths of Damascus, and choicest perfumes
+of the northern regions.
+
+It was the month Ramadhan, and the peaceful traders went confidently and
+securely on their way, well pleased with the success of their journey
+and hopeful in anticipation of the large gain they were to make during
+the great bazar of the pilgrimage.
+
+While thus proceeding leisurely on, the leaders were somewhat surprised
+to see a solitary rider coming towards them in the greatest haste. He
+was mounted on a swift dromedary, and with head bent down so that his
+turban concealed his face, he kept striking the animal with his short
+camel-stick and urging it on with his shrill "Yákh! Yákh!"
+
+All breathless he at last reached the caravan. "Is Abu Sofian here?" he
+cried.
+
+"I am Abu Sofian," said the sturdy old chief. "What do you desire of
+me?"
+
+"I have been sent by Amzi the benevolent," returned the other. "He bids
+me say to Abu Sofian that it will be well for the caravan to advance
+with the greatest caution, as Mohammed and his forces are in ambush on
+the way."
+
+"What guarantee have I," said Abu Sofian, "that you are truly from Amzi
+the Meccan, and not an emissary of Mohammed sent to entrap us into some
+narrow glen?"
+
+"Here is your guarantee," replied the stranger, stretching forth his
+hand. "Recognize you not this ring?"
+
+"It is well," answered Abu Sofian, satisfied. "We are much beholden to
+you and to our friend Amzi, who we had feared was but too good a friend
+to this same Mohammed."
+
+"Can you trust Amzi?" asked one near, anxiously.
+
+"As my own soul," returned the leader. "Amzi's heart is gold; Amzi's
+words are jewels of purest luster. He speaks truth." Then to the
+messenger, "Know you what route Mohammed will take?"
+
+"I know not. He has, doubtless, spies, who will inform him of your
+movements, and thus enable him to act accordingly."
+
+"Then it remains for us to meet him by his own tactics," said Abu
+Sofian, "and no time is to be lost. You, Omair my faithful, speed to
+Mecca with what dispatch you may. Go by the by-paths which you know so
+well. Tell Abu Jahl, whom I have left in charge, to send us help
+quickly."
+
+Omair made obeisance and left at once.
+
+"You, Akab and Zimmah," continued the leader, "go by the hills ahead and
+find out what you can. As for us, we will keep our lips closed and our
+eyes and ears open. Abu Sofian is not yet so old that he has forgotten
+the signs of the wilderness."
+
+The vast procession moved on again slowly and in a dead silence, broken
+only by the trampling of the beasts and the moans of the camels.
+
+Presently, on coming near a spot which might be deemed hazardous ground,
+Abu Sofian ordered a halt and went forward himself, alone and on foot.
+With eye on the alert, ear on a tension to catch the slightest sound,
+and body bent downward to facilitate the closest scrutiny of the ground,
+the keen old man proceeded slowly, stepping with cat-like precision and
+quietness.
+
+Suddenly he uttered an exclamation. A small object lay dark on the
+yellow sand. He picked it up. It was a date-stone. He examined it
+closely. It was slightly smaller than the stones of the ordinary fruit.
+
+"A Medina date!" he exclaimed; "whoever has thrown it there!"
+
+Going a few paces further, he found several similar ones thrown by the
+wayside. The trampling of the sand, too, showed that a considerable
+force had been on the road at no distant time.
+
+He bent down again and directed his keen scrutiny on the road, then
+retraced his steps for a short distance. There were tracks pointing in
+both directions, but at one point the company seemed to have turned.
+
+It was clear, then, that for some reason the force had been ordered to
+turn and go back for a distance, probably to await the caravan in some
+ravine, and that they were now not very far away. It was necessary,
+then, to be as expeditious as possible.
+
+He hastily returned and gave the order that the route of the caravan be
+changed, and that the party should cross over the hills and proceed by a
+route close to the Red Sea until the place of danger was left behind.
+
+This was accordingly done, and the long lines passed anxiously yet
+laboriously onward over flinty summits, down steep and rugged
+hill-sides, past rocky clefts and over barren desert spots peopled only
+by the echoes that rang from the mountain sides, until at last the
+sparkling waters of the Red Sea lay below, and the anxious travelers
+felt that, for the present at least, they were safe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE BATTLE OF BEDR.
+
+    "A Prodigy of Fear, and a portent
+    Of broached mischief to the unborn times."
+
+                              --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+The afternoon was intensely warm. Although the heat of the day was past,
+the houses of Mecca seemed to bake in the sun, the sand burned like a
+furnace, and a visible, shimmering heat seemed to fill the air.
+Nevertheless the ceremonies of Tawaf and the ablutions of Zem-Zem went
+on unceasingly, for it was the month of Ramadhan, and the half-naked
+pilgrims, with their scanty white garments, shaven heads, and bare feet,
+kept up the perpetual promenade about the temple, even when so hot as to
+be ready to drop of exhaustion. The courtyard was crowded with people,
+the carriers of Zem-Zem water were in constant demand, and, in the
+cooler recesses of the covered portico around the great yard, a humming
+trade went on, the venders' cries rising above the prayers of the
+pilgrims.
+
+Such was the scene upon which Omair suddenly staggered, all breathless,
+with haggard face, turban awry, and thin wisps of hair streaming in wet
+hanks over his brow.
+
+"Where is Abu Jahl?" he cried, gasping.
+
+"Why, what is wrong? Tell us!" cried the curious crowd in some
+consternation. "Where is Abu Sofian? Where is the caravan? Why have you
+come alone?"
+
+"Send me Abu Jahl!" was his only reply.
+
+The old man happened to be at the Caaba, and came anxiously at the
+unexpected summons.
+
+"Omair!" he exclaimed. "Allah! What has happened?"
+
+"Send them help!" gasped Omair. "Send them help at once, or not one in
+our fair caravan may escape! Mohammed is lying in wait for them in the
+mountain passes."
+
+"May Allah have mercy!" ejaculated the old man; and the crowd about
+shrieked and groaned.
+
+"Bring me the stair!" called Abu Jahl. "Place it close to the Caaba!"
+
+This done, he ascended to the roof where all might see him. His snowy
+beard descended to his waist over his flowing garments, and his white
+locks fell thinly from beneath his kufiyah.
+
+Silence fell upon the assembly below, and from every street men came
+hurrying in to hear the strange tidings.
+
+"In the name of Allah, hear!" called Abu Jahl in loud tones. "Ye of the
+tribe of Koreish, hear! Ye who love Abu Sofian, hear! Ye who have
+friends or goods in the great caravan from Syria, hear! Ye above whom
+the arch-impostor, Mohammed, aspires, and whom he would fain crush
+beneath his feet as the vile serpent in the dust, hear! He hath beset
+our friends in the fastnesses of the mountains. He swoopeth upon them as
+the eagle upon the defenceless lamb out of the fold! Who, then, among
+you, will follow Abu Jahl to deliver them?"
+
+An approving murmur rose, long and loud; then a hush fell as the aged
+man continued, appealing to the courage of his hearers:
+
+"Ye who fear not the foul rebel's sword, ye who would uphold the honor
+of your wives and little ones, nor send your children out upon the world
+as the offspring of cowards, beseech your gods for blessing, then mount,
+and meet me as soon as may be outside the temple gates. In the name of
+Allah, good-speed!"
+
+A shout of assent arose. The thoroughly excited multitude swayed and
+surged like the waves of the sea. Hundreds hurried off to do the behest
+of their leader, and, returning, hastened to perform Tawaf about the
+Caaba before setting out on their perilous journey.
+
+Yusuf, as a Christian, dared not enter the temple; but he heard the news
+from without. His heart was moved with compassion for the poor,
+defenceless traders, caught like mice in a trap, and he decided to fall
+into the ranks of the rescue party, intending, if his life were spared,
+to pay a visit to Amzi, at Medina.
+
+While the recruits were gathering, Henda, the wife of Abu Sofian, rushed
+up, her face wild and haggard with terror, her long black hair streaming
+on the wind, her eyes flashing with excitement, and her lips drawn back,
+exposing her yellow, fang-like teeth. A tigress she looked in her fury,
+and it was with difficulty that Abu Jahl prevented her from going with
+the expedition, which, in the cooler shades of evening, started off at a
+rapid pace, leaving her to nurse her vengeance until a later day.
+
+Hurried, yet long and tedious, was the journey, and the anxiety and
+impatience of the volunteers made it seem almost interminable.
+
+[Illustration: The youth made a quick lunge, piercing the priest's
+shoulder.--See page 46.]
+
+At length news was brought of the safety of the caravan, and of its
+deviation towards the sea. But the blood of the Meccans was up, and the
+fiery old leader was determined to punish Mohammed for his misconduct,
+and thus, perhaps, prevent him from committing similar atrocities in the
+future. Accordingly he sent part of his troops for protection to the
+caravan, and commanded the rest, about nine hundred in number, to push
+on; and among those ordered forward to the field was Yusuf.
+
+Mohammed, with three hundred and thirteen soldiers, mounted chiefly on
+camels, received word of this advance. His men were lying between Medina
+and the sea, and, as he thought, directly between the caravan and Abu
+Jahl's army. He told his men to be of good cheer, as Allah had promised
+them an easy victory; yet he was careful to omit no human means of
+securing an advantage. He posted his troops beside the brook Bedr, and
+had them hastily throw up an entrenchment to cover the flank of his
+troops. Then, sure of a constant supply of water, and safe from fear of
+surprise, he awaited the Meccan army.
+
+He himself ascended a little eminence, accompanied only by Abu Beker,
+and, in a small hut made of branches, he prayed for the assistance of
+three thousand angels. In his excitement, one of his old paroxysms came
+on, but this was regarded as auspicious by his men, to whom,
+superstitious as they were, every occurrence of this kind was an
+additional presage of victory and an additional spur to bravery in
+battle.
+
+And now the opposing force appeared, coming down the opposite hill, the
+men hot, weary, and covered with dust.
+
+After a preliminary skirmish between individual combatants, the battle
+began,--not a systematic charge in close ranks, not the disciplined
+attack of trained warriors, but a wild mêlée of camels, horses, flashing
+scimitars, gleaming daggers and plunging spears, in the midst of clouds
+of dust and streaming scarfs.
+
+The combat was long, and at one time the party of Mohammed seemed to
+waver. The prophet rushed out, threw a handful of dust into the air and
+exclaimed:
+
+"May confusion light upon their faces! Charge, ye faithful! charge for
+Allah and his prophet!"
+
+Nothing could withstand the wild dash made by his men. Filled with the
+passion of enthusiasm, the zeal of fanatics, and the confidence of
+success, they bore down like madmen. The Koreish, many of whom were
+fearful of enchantment by the prophet, were seized with sudden panic. In
+vain Abu Jahl tried to rally them. He was torn from his horse by a
+savage Moslem, and his head severed from his body. His troops fled in
+terror, leaving seventy men dead on the field and seventy prisoners.
+
+The bodies and prisoners were robbed, and the spoil divided. Mohammed,
+in order to avert dispute over the booty, very conveniently had a
+revelation at the time.--"Know that whenever ye gain any spoil, a fifth
+part thereof belongeth unto God, and to the apostle, and to his kindred,
+and the orphans, and the poor, and the traveler."
+
+Upon this occasion he claimed a considerable amount of silver, and a
+sword, Dhu'l Fakar (or the Piercer), which he carried in every
+subsequent battle.
+
+During the battle, Yusuf, the priest, had fought bravely. Mounted on a
+magnificent horse, his commanding figure had marked him out as an object
+worthy of attack. Accordingly he was ever in the thickest of the fight.
+With cool and calm determination his blows fell, until suddenly an event
+occurred which completely unmanned him, and gave his enemies the
+advantage.
+
+Among the opponents who singled him out for attack was a youth mounted
+on a horse of equal power and agility. The youth was rather slight, but
+his skill in thrusting and in averting strokes, and his evidence of
+practice in every exercise of the lance, rendered him a fitting
+adversary for the priest with his superior strength.
+
+For some time their combat had gone on single-handed, when the youth's
+head-dress falling off revealed a face strikingly familiar to Yusuf. It
+was Manasseh's own face, pale, and with clots of blood upon it!
+
+The priest was horror-stricken. He forbore to thrust, and the youth,
+seizing the opportunity, made a quick lunge, piercing the priest's
+shoulder, and felling him to the ground. A new opponent came and engaged
+the youth's attention; the panic fell, and the priest, seeing that it
+was useless to remain, managed to mount and ride off after the
+retreating troops.
+
+Scarcely injured, yet covered with blood, he dismounted at Amzi's door
+in Medina.
+
+"Yusuf! My brother!" cried the Meccan in astonishment, "what means
+this?"
+
+In a few words Yusuf told the tale of the battle, and Amzi placed him
+comfortably upon a soft couch, insisting upon ministering to him as
+though he had been severely wounded.
+
+"So, Yusuf the gentle too has become a seeker of man's blood!" he said.
+"Verily, what an effect hath this degenerate age!"
+
+"Believe me, friend," returned the other, earnestly, "you too would have
+gone had you been in Mecca and had heard of our poor friends, all
+unarmed, and apparently in the power of the enemy. When the advance to
+Bedr was ordered, I was one under authority, and had no choice but to
+submit, though I had little enough love for the stench of blood."
+
+"Yet," returned Amzi, "Yusuf's life is too precious to be risked in such
+madness. It is not necessary for him to court death; for the time may
+soon come when he shall be forced to fight in self-defence. Till then,
+let foolish youths dash to the lance's point if they will."
+
+Yusuf bowed his head, and in a low tone replied: "'O God, the Lord, the
+strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of
+battle. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was
+against me. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
+death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. He that dwelleth in
+the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
+Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my
+God; in him will I trust.' Amzi, whether in life or in death, it shall
+be as he wills."
+
+Amzi looked at him curiously. "Yusuf," he said, "is there no extremity
+of your life in which your religion fails to give you comfort? It seems
+to furnish you with words befitting every occasion."
+
+"Comfort in every hour of need," returned Yusuf, "deliverance in every
+hour of temptation, is our God able to bestow if we seek him in spirit
+and in truth. Things temporal, as well as things spiritual, call for his
+almighty love and attention; and our love for him brightens every
+pathway in life. It is the knowledge of this which has upheld his
+children in all the ages;--not one of them who has not gloried in
+feeling that 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
+time of trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be
+removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.'
+Not one of them but has at some time found comfort in the promises,
+'When the poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their
+tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them; I, the God of
+Israel, will not forsake them. He that keepeth Israel slumbers not, nor
+sleeps. Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy
+God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold
+thee with the right hand of my righteousness.' Think of this help, Amzi,
+in every struggle: in the struggle, worse than any time of battle, with
+one's own sinful heart. And there is not one of God's children but has
+realized the blessedness of following the commands of Jesus, 'Have faith
+in God. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
+and it shall be opened unto you.' Amzi, you who love gentleness and
+peace, truth and humility, cannot you find in Christ and his loving
+precepts all you would ask? Can anything appeal to your warm heart more
+than such injunctions as these?--'Love your enemies, bless them that
+curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that
+despitefully use you and persecute you. When thou doest alms, let not
+thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Let your light so shine
+before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
+which is in heaven. Judge not, that ye be not judged. Watch ye,
+therefore, and pray always. Pray that ye enter not into temptation.'"
+
+He paused, out of breath; for such had been his study of the Scriptures
+that the words came in a flood to his lips.
+
+Amzi sighed. "Yes, Yusuf," he said, "such words seem to me full of
+goodness and sweetness; yet, try as I may, I cannot realize their true
+import. I cannot rejoice, as you and your friends do, in your religion
+and its promises."
+
+"My Amzi," returned the priest, "how can you be warmed except you come
+to the fire? Remember the man with the withered hand. Did he not stretch
+it out in faith? My friend, like him, act! Reach out your heart to God.
+He will not fail you. Look not upon yourself. Look upon God, who is,
+indeed, closer to you than you can imagine. Put your hand in his, behold
+his love manifested to us in the coming of his dear Son, and feel that
+that love is to-day the same, proceeding from the Father in whom is 'no
+variableness, neither shadow of turning.'"
+
+Amzi sighed. "Yusuf," he said, "it appears all dark, impenetrable, to
+me. A wall of adamant seems to stand between me and God. Pray for me,
+friend. In this matter I fear I am heartless."
+
+In spite of this assertion, there was genuine concern in the tone, and
+the priest's face flushed in the glad light of hope.
+
+"Amzi," he exclaimed, "my hope for you increases. Even now, you begin to
+realize your own self: it remains for you to realize God's self. Know
+God--would I could burn that upon your heart! All else would be made
+plain."
+
+Amzi sighed again. For a time he sat in silence, then he said:
+
+"I have been reading of the tabernacle, and of the sacrifices therein."
+
+"Typical of the death of Christ," returned Yusuf. "A constant emblem of
+that mind which was, and is to-day, ready to suffer, that we may
+understand its infinite love."
+
+"Strange, strange!" said Amzi, musingly. Then after a long silence:
+"Yusuf, have you ever noted the resemblance of the Caaba to the reputed
+appearance of the tabernacle?"
+
+"The resemblance struck me from the first glance--the courtyard, the
+temple itself, and the curtain (or 'Kiswah') corresponding to the veil
+of the tabernacle. This same Caaba may trace its origin in some dim way
+to the ancient tabernacle, of which, in this land, the significance must
+have become lost in the centuries during which the Ishmaelitish race
+forgot the true worship of God."
+
+"And what think you of the course which affairs are now taking in
+Arabia?" asked Amzi. "You believe in the supervision of God; why, then,
+does he permit such outbreaks as the present one is proving to be?"
+
+"I certainly believe that the Creator sees and knows all things. I
+believe, too, that even to Mohammed, at one time in his life, the Holy
+Spirit appealed, as he did to me, and, I hope, does now to you,
+Amzi,--for his pleadings come sometime to all men; but, I think that if
+in earnest at first, Mohammed--if, indeed, he be not a monomaniac on the
+subject of his divine calling--has given himself up to the wild
+indulgence of his ambition, forgetting Him whose power is able to direct
+us all aright. Hence, he guides himself, rather than seeks to be guided,
+and, in such a case, he may sometimes be allowed to go on in his own
+way, bearing with him those who are so foolish as to accept his
+teaching. Something of this kind may, indeed, be one of the secrets of
+the crimes and calamities which enter into many human lives. God leaves
+us free to choose. When we come to know him we choose to be his
+followers. If we are indifferent to him, he may, at times, look on
+without interfering in our lives except to send us occasionally great
+trouble, or great joy, as an appeal to us. His mercy is great. He pities
+and pleads with us, yet he leaves us free."
+
+"And what, think you, will be the effect upon Arabia of this rising?"
+
+Yusuf shook his head. "I know not," he said. "We cannot see now, nor
+mayhap until ages have rolled by; but 'at eventide it shall be light.'"
+
+So talked Amzi and the priest until the gray dawn shone in, and the
+voice of Bilal, the muezzin, was heard calling from the mosque:
+
+"God is great! There is no God but God! Mohammed is the prophet of God!
+Come to prayers! God is great!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE PERSECUTION BEGINS.
+
+    "In doing good we are generally cold and languid and
+    sluggish.... But the works of Malice and Injustice are quite in
+    another style."--_Burke._
+
+
+Among those left dead on the field of Bedr were the father, uncle and
+brother of Henda, the wife of Abu Sofian. Fierce and savage as was her
+nature, she was yet capable of deep feeling, and her love for her
+kindred was one of the ruling passions of her life.
+
+When the caravan at last reached Mecca in safety, she rushed to meet Abu
+Sofian, weeping wildly, wringing her hands in grief, and throwing dust
+on her long hair. She besought him frantically to avenge their death,
+and he, knowing that the debt of "blood revenge" was now upon him, and
+that blood alone would wipe the stain from his honor, gathered two
+hundred swift horsemen and set out almost immediately for Medina.
+
+On the way he ravaged the whole country, burning the villages and
+date-groves of Mohammed's followers.
+
+When within three miles of Medina the prophet sallied out to meet him. A
+brief contest took place, and Abu Sofian was once more defeated in what
+was jestingly called the Battle of the Meal Sacks.
+
+The Moslems were exultant over their success, but Abu Sofian returned to
+Mecca, the blood-dues still unpaid, and with bitter enmity gnawing at
+his heart.
+
+In the meantime Mohammed began to assume all the airs of an independent
+sovereign. He married a beautiful maiden, Hafza, to whom he entrusted
+the care of the Koran, according as it was revealed; and shortly
+afterwards he issued a decree by which all true believers were ordered
+to face Mecca when praying. Thus early in his career of conquest he had
+fixed upon Mecca as the future holy city of the Moslems. As usual, the
+Koran was called in to authorize him in thus fixing the Kebla, or point
+of prayer.
+
+"Unto God belongeth the East and the West. He directeth whom he pleaseth
+in the right way. Turn, therefore, thy face towards the holy temple of
+Mecca; and wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that place."
+
+At this time also he sanctioned the retaining of the holy fast of
+Ramadhan and the pilgrimages connected therewith. As he was well aware
+that the doing away with the great bazar upon which the prosperity of
+Mecca so largely depended would loose a host of enemies upon him, he
+declared:
+
+"O true believers, a fast is ordained you, as it was ordained unto them
+before you, that ye may fear God. The month of Ramadhan shall ye fast,
+in which the Koran was sent down from heaven, a direction unto men."
+
+Henceforth, during the fast, all true believers were to abstain from
+eating or drinking, and from all earthly pleasures, while the sun shone
+above the horizon and until the lamps at the mosques were lighted by the
+Imaums. It is needless to say that the Moslems obviated this
+self-sacrifice by sleeping during the day as much as possible, giving
+the night up to all the proscribed indulgences of the interdicted
+season.
+
+And now Mohammed's hatred to the Jews began to show itself, and the
+awful persecution of the little Jewish band in Medina commenced.
+
+Poor Dumah was one of the first to bring the rod of wrath upon himself.
+When wandering down the street one day, not very long after the Battle
+of Bedr, he paused by a well, just as Mohammed, accompanied by his
+faithful Zeid, appeared in the way. Dumah saw them and at once began to
+sing his thoughts in a wild, irregular lament. His voice was peculiarly
+sweet and clear, and every word reached the ear of the enraged prophet.
+The song was a weird lament over those slain at Bedr:
+
+    "They are fallen, the good are fallen,
+    Low in the dust they are fallen;
+    And their hair is steeped in blood;
+    But the poison-wind shrieks above them,
+    Sighing anon like the cushat,
+    And breathing its curses upon him,
+    Upon him, the chief of impostors.
+    As he passes the leaflets tremble,
+    And the flowers shrink from his pathway;
+    And the angels smile not upon him,
+    For he maketh the widow and orphan;
+    And the voice of Rachel riseth
+    In mourning loud for her children.
+    And no comfort doth fall upon her.
+    Soft like the balm of Gilead."
+
+Turning to one of his followers, Mohammed commanded angrily:
+
+"Seize that singer!"
+
+Dumah heard the exclamation, and was off like the wind, followed by two
+or three Moslems, each anxious to secure the victim first, and thus win
+the approval of the august Mohammed.
+
+On, on, straight to the house of Amzi fled Dumah. Bursting open the
+door, he rushed in, his long hair disordered, his face purple with
+running and his eyes wide with terror.
+
+"Save me, Yusuf! Save me, Amzi!" he cried. "Mohammed will kill me!
+Mohammed will kill me!"
+
+Yusuf sprang to the door, and the poor fugitive threw himself at Amzi's
+feet, clinging to his garments with his thin, white hands.
+
+But the pursuers were already upon him. Yusuf strove in vain to detain
+them, to reason with them.
+
+"Can you not see he is a poor artless lad? Can you not have mercy?" he
+cried.
+
+"It is the order of the prophet of Allah!" was the response.
+
+Yusuf resisted their entrance with all his might, but, unarmed as he
+was, he was quickly thrown down, and the terrified Dumah was dragged
+over his body and hurried off to be put in chains in a Moslem cell.
+
+Amzi was distracted. There seemed little hope for Dumah. The small
+Jewish band then in Medina could not dare to cope with the overwhelming
+numbers of Moslems that swarmed in the streets. If Dumah were delivered
+it must be by stratagem; and yet what stratagem could be employed?
+
+Early in the evening Amzi and the priest withdrew to the roof for
+consultation.
+
+"You believe that your God is all-powerful--why do you not beseech him
+for our poor lad's safety?" cried Amzi passionately.
+
+"I have not ceased to do so since his capture," returned Yusuf. "But it
+must be as the Lord willeth. He sees what is best. Even our blessed
+Jesus said to the Father, 'Not my will, but thine be done.'"
+
+Amzi was not satisfied. "Can he then be the God of Love that you say, if
+he could look upon the death of that poor innocent nor exercise his
+power to save him?"
+
+"Amzi, I do not wonder at you for speaking thus. Yet consider. We will
+hope the best for our poor singer. May God preserve him and enable us,
+as instruments in his hands, to deliver him. But God may see differently
+from us in this matter. Who can say that to die would not be gain to
+poor Dumah? All witless as he is, he shall have a perfect mind and a
+perfect body in the bright hereafter. We know not what is well. We can
+only pray and do all in our power to effect his deliverance; we must
+leave the issue to God."
+
+Amzi bowed his head on his hands and groaned. Yusuf raised his eyes
+towards heaven; the tears rolled down his cheeks, and his lips moved.
+Even he could not understand the mysteries of this strange time. Yet he
+was constantly comforted in knowing that "all things work together for
+good to them that love God."
+
+Saddest of all was the vision of the handsome, dark face that, contorted
+in the fury of combat, had glared upon him from the Moslem ranks in the
+Battle of Bedr, while Manasseh's hand showered blows upon the head of
+his best friend--for the sake of the prophet of Islam.
+
+"Manasseh! Manasseh!" he exclaimed in bitter sadness. "Why hast thou
+forsaken thy father's God? O heavenly Father, do thou guide him and lead
+him again into thy paths!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+AMZI FINALLY REJECTS MOHAMMED.
+
+    "'Do the duty which lies nearest thee' which thou knowest to be
+    a duty! Thy second duty will already have become
+    clearer."--_Carlyle, "Sartor Resartus."_
+
+
+Upon the following morning Yusuf hastened to obtain an interview with
+Mohammed. The prophet lived in an ostentatiously humble abode--a low,
+broad building, roofed with date-sticks, and thatched with the broad
+leaves of the palm tree.
+
+Mohammed absolutely refused to see him. Ayesha, the youngest and fairest
+of the prophet's wives, sent to inform him that Mohammed had nothing to
+say to the Christian Yusuf. So with heavy heart he turned away and
+sought the house of Zeid, deeming that he, as the prophet's adopted son
+and most devoted follower, might have some influence in obtaining
+Dumah's release.
+
+Zeid sat in a low, airy apartment, through whose many open windows a
+cool breeze entered. By him sat his newly-wedded wife, unveiled, for at
+that time the rules in regard to veiling were not so strictly insisted
+upon as at a later day, when the prophet's decree against the unveiling
+of women was more rigorously enforced.
+
+Even Yusuf noted her marvelous beauty. There was a peculiarity of
+action, a something familiar about her, too, which gave him a hazy
+recollection of having seen her before; but not for several moments did
+the association come up in his memory, and he saw again the little
+Jewish home of Nathan in Mecca, the dim light, and the beautiful child
+whose temples Nathan's wife was so tenderly bathing. Yes, after the
+lapse of years, in a flash he knew her for Zeinab!
+
+She listened with interest to the tale of the Jewish singer; but there
+was a heartlessness in her air, and a certain contempt in the look which
+she bent upon the Christian who was thus making intercession for an
+unworthy Jew.
+
+"I have neither eyes to see, tongue to speak, nor hands to act, save as
+the prophet is pleased to direct me," was Zeid's reply, in the most
+determined tone.
+
+Yusuf, seeing no hope, left the house, and shortly afterwards Zeid, too,
+went down into the town. Scarcely had he left when Mohammed entered.
+
+Zeinab was still at the window, which opened directly on the courtyard.
+A myrtle bush grew near, and she listlessly plucked some of the white
+blossoms and twined them in the braids of her glossy black hair. She
+wore a loose gown of sky-blue silk with a drape of crimson, and deep
+pointed sleeves of filmy, white lace. Her veil was cast aside, and when
+the prophet entered she turned her magnificent dark eyes, with their
+shading of kohl, full upon him.
+
+Ever susceptible to the influence of beauty, he exclaimed, "Praise be
+God, who turneth the hearts of men as he pleaseth!" And he at once
+coveted her for his wife; although according to law she bore the
+relation of daughter to him.
+
+He intimated his desire to Ali, who, in turn, broke the news to Zeid.
+Zeid returned pale and trembling to his home. He loved his wife deeply;
+yet his devotion to the prophet and the sense of obligation which he
+owed him as foster-father, for having freed him from servitude, appealed
+to him strongly. Bowing his head upon his wife's knee, he wept.
+
+"Why do you weep, Zeid?" she asked.
+
+"Alas!" he cried, "could one who has known thee as wife forbear to weep
+at having thee leave him?"
+
+"But I will never leave my Zeid."
+
+"Not even to become the wife of the prophet?"
+
+"Mohammed does not want me for his wife," she said quickly.
+
+Zeid sighed. "Could you be happy were you his wife?" he asked.
+
+The beauty's ambitious spirit rose, but she only said: "Were I made his
+wife, it would be the will of Allah."
+
+Zeid pushed her gently from him, and went out. "Mohammed," he said,
+seating himself at the prophet's feet, "you care for Zeinab. I come to
+offer her to you. Obtain for your poor Zeid a writ of divorce."
+
+The prophet's face showed his satisfaction. "I could never accept such a
+sacrifice," he said, hesitatingly.
+
+"My life, my all, even to my beloved wife, belongs to my master,"
+returned Zeid. "His pleasure stands to me before aught else."
+
+"So be it, then, most faithful," said the prophet. "O Zeid, my more than
+son, a glorious reward is withheld for you."
+
+Then, as ever, a revelation of the Koran came seasonably ere another
+day, to remove every impediment to the union of Mohammed and Zeinab.
+
+"But when Zeid had determined the matter concerning her, and had
+resolved to divorce her, we joined her in marriage unto thee, lest a
+crime should be charged on the true believers in marrying the wives of
+their adopted sons: and the command of God is to be performed. No crime
+is to be charged on the prophet as to what God hath allowed him."
+
+There were those in Medina who resented Mohammed's selfishness in thus
+appropriating Zeinab to himself, and there were those who questioned the
+honor of such a proceeding; but this questioning went on mostly among
+the few Bedouin adherents who had flocked into the town in his service,
+for the most sacred oath of the highest class of Bedouins has long been,
+"By the honor of my women!"
+
+In none did the prophet's action inspire more disgust than in our two
+friends, Yusuf and Amzi. Amzi had long since lost all faith in the
+prophet as a divine representative; and this marriage with Zeinab only
+confirmed his distrust.
+
+"Pah!" he said to Yusuf, "he not only lets his own impulses sway him,
+but he uses the sanction of heaven to authorize the satisfaction of
+every desire, no matter who is trampled upon in the proceeding. Was
+there ever such sacrilege?"
+
+Yusuf returned: "For this I am thankful, brother: that you at last
+apply the term 'sacrilege' to the claims of this impostor."
+
+"Think you he is no longer in earnest at all for the raising of his
+countrymen from idolatry?"
+
+"He seeks to throw down idols, but to raise himself in their stead.
+Cupidity and ambition, Amzi, have well-nigh smothered every struggling
+seed of good in Mohammed's haughty bosom."
+
+"Do you not think that, at the beginning, he imagined himself inspired?"
+
+"Mohammed is strangely visionary. At the beginning he, doubtless,
+thought he saw visions, but, if the man thinks himself inspired now, he
+is mad."
+
+"Yet what a personality he has!" said Amzi, musingly. "What a charm he
+bears! How his least word is sufficient to move this crowd of howling
+fanatics!"
+
+"A man who might be an angel of light, were he truly under divine
+guidance," returned Yusuf. "And, mark me, Amzi, his influence will not
+stop with this generation. The influence of every man on God's earth
+goes on ever-rolling, ever-unceasing, down the long tide of eternity;
+but, in every age, there are those who, like Mohammed, possess such an
+individuality, such a personality, that their power goes on increasing,
+crashing like the avalanche down my native mountains."
+
+"How eloquently such a thought appeals to right impulse, right action!"
+said Amzi, thoughtfully. "Did a man realize its import fully, he would
+surely be spurred on to act, not to sit idly letting the world drift
+by."
+
+"'No man liveth unto himself,'" said Yusuf slowly. "Whether we will it
+or not, we are each of us ever exerting some influence for good or for
+ill upon those with whom we come in contact. No one can be neutral. Acts
+often speak in thunder-tones, when mere words are heard but in
+whispers."
+
+"I fear me, Yusuf," said the Meccan, with a half-smile, "that Amzi has
+neither thundered in action, nor even whispered in words. So little good
+has he done, that he almost hates to think of your great influence
+theory."
+
+Yusuf smiled and slipped his arm about the Meccan's shoulder. "Amzi,
+the name of 'benevolent' belies your words," he said. "Think you that
+your home duties faithfully performed, your pure and upright life, pass
+for naught?"
+
+"You would stand aghast, Yusuf," returned Amzi, "if I told you the
+amount of time that I have squandered, simply in dreaming, smoking, and
+taking my ease."
+
+"Time is a precious gift," replied Yusuf, "it flows on and on as a great
+river towards the sea, and never returns. It appears to me, every day,
+more clearly as the talent given to all men to be used rightly. I, as
+well as you, have let precious hours pass, and, in doing so, we have
+both done wrong. Yet I pray that we may every day see, more and more,
+the necessity of well occupying the hours,--'redeeming the time, because
+the days are evil.'"
+
+"Would that I had your decision of purpose, your firmness of will!" said
+Amzi, wistfully. "Yusuf, it would be impossible for me to spend all my
+time as you do,--visiting, relieving, studying, speaking ever the word
+in season, and ever working for others. I should miss my _kaif_."
+
+"Even if you know it was in the cause of the Lord?" asked Yusuf, with
+gentle reproof. "Yet, Amzi, you have done as much as I, considering your
+opportunities. The great thing is to do faithfully whatever comes to
+one's hand, whether that be great or small. Know you not that it was
+said to him who had received only two talents, 'Well done, good and
+faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make
+thee ruler over many things.' As bright crowns await the humble
+home-workers as the great movers of earth, provided all be done 'as unto
+the Lord.'"
+
+"But," returned Amzi, impatiently, "my 'good works,' as you call them,
+have not been done 'as unto the Lord.' My charities have been done
+simply because the sight of misery caused me to feel unhappy. I felt
+pity for the wretched, and in relieving them set my own mind at ease,
+and gave satisfaction to myself. I feel that it is right to do certain
+things, and so I do them under a sense of moral obligation."
+
+"Then," said Yusuf, "has this acting under a sense of moral obligation
+brought you perfect satisfaction, perfect rest?"
+
+"Frankly, it has not."
+
+Yusuf rose, and, placing both hands on Amzi's shoulders, said earnestly:
+"My friend, who can say that every good impulse of man may not be an
+outcome of the divine nature implanted in him by the Creator, and which,
+if watered and developed, will surely burst into the flower of goodness
+when once the influence of God's Spirit is fully recognized and ever
+invoked? Amzi, you have many such seeds of innate good. Your very
+longings for good, your tone of late, show me that you are near this
+blessed recognition. Why will you not believe? Why will you not embrace
+the Lord Jesus Christ? We are all weak of ourselves, but we have
+strength in him. Amzi, my friend, pray for yourself."
+
+He turned abruptly and left Amzi alone, to ponder long and earnestly
+over the conversation of the past hour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE FATE OF DUMAH.
+
+    "Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the
+    physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of
+    him whom time cannot console."--_Colton._
+
+
+And now began a veritable reign of terror for the Jews of Medina. The
+first evidence of the closing of Mohammed's iron hand was shown in his
+forcing them to make Mecca, rather than Jerusalem, their kebla, or point
+of prayer. Many refused to obey this command, and were consequently
+dragged off to await the pleasure of the prophet.
+
+At first the keenest edge of Moslem vindictiveness seemed to be directed
+against the bards or poets, for the power of stirring and pathetic
+poetry in arousing the passionate Oriental blood to revenge was
+recognized as an instrument too potent to be overlooked.
+
+Ere long even the form of imprisonment was, to a great extent, set
+aside, and the knife of the assassin was set at work. Among those who
+thus fell were Kaab, a Jewish poet who strove to incite the Koreish to
+aggressive measures against the Moslems; and Assina, a young woman who
+had been guilty of writing satires directed against the prophet himself.
+
+Yusuf and Amzi became greatly alarmed for the safety of Dumah. Every
+possible means of rendering assistance to the poor singer seemed to be
+cut off. They could not even find any clue to his whereabouts, and
+feared that he, too, had fallen beneath some treacherous blade.
+
+As yet, Amzi and Yusuf had been permitted to wander at will. For hours
+and hours did they roam about the streets seeking for some clue to
+Dumah's place of imprisonment, but all efforts were futile, until one
+day Amzi heard a faint voice singing in the cellar of one of the Moslem
+buildings. He lay down by the wall, closed his eyes, and strained his
+ears to catch the sound. It was assuredly Dumah, singing weakly:
+
+    "Oh, why will they not come,
+    The friends of Dumah!
+    For living death is upon him,
+    And the walls of his tomb close over,
+    Yet will not in mercy fall on him.
+    Does the sun shine still on the mountain,
+    And the trees wave?
+    Do the birds still sing in the palm-trees,
+    And the flowers still bloom in Kuba?
+    And yet doth Dumah languish
+
+    "But Dumah's friends have forgotten him,
+    Nor seek him more,
+    And even the angels vanish,
+    And the tomb is all about him:
+    O Death, come, haste to Dumah!"
+
+The voice sank away in a low wail, and Amzi sprang up. His first impulse
+was to rush in and batter at the door of Dumah's cell; his second, to
+call words of comfort through the wall. Yet either would be imprudent
+and might ruin all, so he hastened home to Yusuf.
+
+"I will go to him immediately," said the priest.
+
+"But how?"
+
+"In disguise if need be," was the reply.
+
+"In disguise!" exclaimed Amzi. "Friend, with your physique, think you
+you can disguise yourself? Not a Moslem in Mecca who does not know the
+figure of Yusuf the Christian. Nay, Yusuf, your friend Amzi can effect a
+disguise much more easily. Here,"--running his fingers through his gray
+beard,--"a few grains of black dye can soon transform this; some stain
+will change the Meccan's ruddy cheeks into the brown of a desert Arab.
+The thing is easy."
+
+"As you will, then," said the priest; and the two were soon busy at work
+at the transforming process.
+
+With the garb of a Moslem soldier, Amzi was soon, to all appearance, a
+passable Mussulman, with divided beard, and chocolate-brown skin.
+
+He set out, and, having arrived at the door of the sort of barracks in
+which Dumah was imprisoned, mingled with the soldiers, quite unnoticed
+among the new arrivals who constantly swelled the prophet's army.
+
+With the greatest difficulty, yet without exciting apparent suspicion,
+he found out the exact spot in which Dumah was confined. Upon the first
+opportunity he slipped noiselessly after the attendant who was carrying
+the prisoner's pittance of food. Under his robe he had tools for
+excavating a hole beneath the wall, and his plan was to step silently
+into the room, secrete himself behind the door, and permit himself to be
+locked in, trusting to subsequent efforts for effecting the freedom of
+himself and Dumah.
+
+Silently he glided into the darkened room behind the keeper. All within
+seemed dark as night after the brighter light without; but Dumah's eyes,
+accustomed to the darkness, could see more clearly. He penetrated the
+disguise at once.
+
+"Amzi! Amzi!" he cried out delightedly, "you have come! You have come!"
+
+Amzi knew that all was undone.
+
+"Treachery!" called the keeper.
+
+The Moslems came pouring into the room. Amzi was overpowered, and
+pinioned on the spot.
+
+"What means this?" cried Asru, the captain of the guard.
+
+"Treachery, if it please you," returned the keeper. "An asp which has
+been in our camp with its poison-fangs hid! No Moslem, but an enemy--a
+friend of this dotard poet!"
+
+"Search him!" was the order.
+
+The tools were found.
+
+"Aha!" said the captain. "Most conclusive proof, wretch! We will teach
+you, knave, that foxes are sometimes trapped in their own wiles. Off
+with him! Chain him!"
+
+Amzi was hurried off, and Asru strode away to execute some other act of
+so-called justice. He was a man of immense stature, heavy-featured, and
+covered with pock-marks, yet his face was full of strength of character,
+and bore traces of candor and honesty, though the lines about the mouth
+told of unrestrained cruelty and passion.
+
+At home Yusuf waited in an agony of suspense. The day passed into night,
+the night into day, the day into night again, yet Amzi did not come.
+Yusuf could bear it no longer. Anything was better than this awful
+waiting. Only once he almost gave up hope and cried in the words of the
+Psalmist, "O Lord, why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy
+face from me?" Then like balm of healing came the words, "Cast thy
+burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee; he shall never suffer
+the righteous to be moved."
+
+Dressed in his quiet, scholarly raiment, and quite unarmed, he set out
+in search of Amzi. Arriving at the place, he saw none whom he knew. He
+was stopped at the door.
+
+"I wish to see the captain who has command here," he said.
+
+"You are a peaceable-looking citizen enough," said a guard, "yet we have
+orders to search all new-comers, and you will have to submit, stranger."
+
+Yusuf was searched, but as neither arms nor tools were found upon him,
+he was allowed to have audience with the captain.
+
+"Ah!" said Asru, recognizing him at once. "What seeks Yusuf, a
+Christian, of a follower of Mohammed the prophet?"
+
+"I seek but the deliverance of two harmless, inoffensive friends," he
+replied.
+
+"A bold request, truly," said the other. "Yet have I not forgotten my
+debt of gratitude to you. I have not forgotten that it was Yusuf who
+nursed me through the foul disease whose marks I yet bear, when all
+others fled;" and he passed his hand over his pock-marked face.
+
+"Of that speak not," returned Yusuf, with a gesture of impatience.
+"'Twas but the service which any man with a heart may render to a needy
+brother. However, if you are grateful, as you say, you can more than
+repay the debt, you can make me indebted to you, by telling me aught of
+Amzi, the benevolent Meccan, whose hand would not take the life of a
+worm were he not forced into it."
+
+"He is here in chains," said Asru haughtily, "as every spy who enters a
+Moslem camp should be."
+
+"Amzi is no spy!" declared Yusuf emphatically.
+
+"His sole object, then, was to free that half-witted poet?" asked Asru,
+incredulously.
+
+"It was none other. He loves him as his own son, as do I. Amzi would
+suffer death willingly, Yusuf would suffer death willingly, would it
+spare that poor, confiding innocent!"
+
+The priest's eyes were flashing, and his tones bore witness to his
+earnestness. He did not notice, nor did Asru, a pair of bright eyes that
+peered at him from the chink of the doorway; he did not know that a face
+full of petty, vindictive spite was partially hidden by the darkness
+without, or that two keen ears were listening to every word he said.
+
+"Yusuf," returned the captain in a low tone, "you are the only man who
+has ever seemed to me good. Your words, at least, are ever truth. You
+wonder, then, that I follow the prophet? Simply because the excitement
+of war suits me, and"--he shrugged his shoulders with a laugh--"it is
+the best policy to be on the winning side. Most of these crazed idiots
+believe in him, and fear that he will work enchantments upon them if
+they do not; but the doctrine of the sword and of plunder goes farther
+with a few, of whom Asru is one. Because I believe in you, Yusuf, I
+shall try to carry out your request. But it would cost me my life were
+it found out, so it must be seemingly by chance. Rest assured that, bad
+as I am, cruel as I am, I shall see that Yusuf's friends have some
+'accidental' way of escape."
+
+So spoke Asru, nor knew that a pair of feet were hurrying and shuffling
+towards the prophet, while a soldier kept guard at the door.
+
+"May heaven bless you for this!" cried the priest. "So long as Amzi and
+Yusuf breathe you shall not lack an earthly friend."
+
+"Tush!" exclaimed the captain. "'Tis but the wish to make old scores
+even. You serve me; I serve you. We are even."
+
+"Then I shall leave you," said Yusuf, rising with a smile.
+
+Asru opened the door.
+
+"Hold!" cried a guard. "By order of the prophet, Asru is my prisoner!"
+
+"Wherefore?" cried Asru, attempting to seize his dagger.
+
+"Because, though it is politic to be on the winning side, it is not
+always safe to be a traitor and to countermand Mohammed's orders,"
+replied the prophet's musical voice, as the soldiers gave way to permit
+his advance.
+
+Asru freed himself and dashed forward, wielding his dagger right and
+left, but it was a rash effort. He was instantly overpowered and bound
+hand and foot. The priest shared the same fate.
+
+The prophet looked down upon the captain. "Asru," he said, "you whom I
+deemed a most faithful one, you who have proved false, know that death
+is the meed of a traitor. Yet that you may know Mohammed can show mercy,
+I give you your life. For the sake of your past services I grant it you,
+and trust that, having learned obedience and humility, you may once
+again grace our battle-fields nobly. Guards, chain him, yet see that he
+is kept in easy confinement and lacks nothing. Send me Uzza."
+
+The Oman Arab came forward. He was a dark-browed man, under-sized, and
+with one shoulder higher than the other. His eyes were long and narrow,
+with a look of extreme cunning about them, and his mouth was cruel, his
+lips being pressed together so tightly that they looked like a long
+white line.
+
+"Upon you, Uzza, O faithful, as next in command, I confer the honor of
+the position left vacant by Asru. Do thou carry out its obligations with
+honor to thyself and to the prophet of Allah."
+
+Uzza prostrated himself to the ground.
+
+Mohammed turned to Yusuf. "Whom have we here? What said you in your
+accusation, Abraham? An accomplice of Asru, was it?"
+
+The little peddler, the silent watcher at the door, came forward,
+hopping along as usual, but with malignant triumph in his face.
+
+"This, O prophet," he said, making obeisance, "is not only an accomplice
+of Asru, but a sworn enemy of the prophet of Allah and of all who
+believe in him."
+
+"Why, methinks I have seen him before," said Mohammed, passing his hand
+over his brow. "Is not this the gentle friend of Amzi?"
+
+"He is the friend of Amzi," returned the Jew, "but even Amzi lies in
+chains as a spy among the Moslems."
+
+"I had forgotten," said the prophet. "Yet what harm hath this gentle
+Meccan done?"
+
+"He is Yusuf, the Magian priest," said the Jew. "And believe, O prophet
+of Allah, the Magians are your most bitter enemies."
+
+Uzza started and leaned forward with intense interest. Yusuf felt his
+burning gaze fixed on his face.
+
+"What proof have you that this is a Magian priest?" asked the prophet,
+wearily.
+
+"See!" exclaimed the Jew.
+
+He tore back the priest's garment, and there was the red mark of the
+torch outlined distinctly against the white skin.
+
+"Ha!" cried Uzza, starting forward, the veins of his forehead swelling
+with excitement. "The very mark! The secret mark of the priests among
+those who worship fire and the sun! This, O Mohammed, is not only a
+priest, but a priest who has fed the temple fires, and as such has been
+pledged to uphold the Guebre religion at whatever cost."
+
+Yusuf said nothing.
+
+"Can you not speak, Yusuf?" asked Mohammed. "Have you no word to say to
+all this?"
+
+"It is all true, O Mohammed," replied Yusuf, quietly. "It is true that
+in my youthful days I was a priest at Guebre altars. Now, I am not Yusuf
+the Magian priest, but Yusuf the Christian, and a humble follower of our
+Most High God and his Son Jesus."
+
+"Dare you thus proclaim yourself a Christian to my very face?" exclaimed
+Mohammed. "Magian or Christian, ye are all alike enemies. Off with him!
+Do with him as you will, Uzza,--yet," relenting, "I commend him to your
+mercy." He turned abruptly and left the apartment.
+
+Yusuf was immediately taken and thrown into a close, dark room. He was
+still bound hand and foot.
+
+The little Jew entered, and sat down with his head on one side.
+
+[Illustration: "He knows that Yusuf's hands reek with blood," said
+Uzza.--See page 58.]
+
+"Now, proud Yusuf," he said, "has come Abraham's day. Once it was
+Yusuf's day; then the poor peddler, the little dervish, was scourged and
+chained, and well-nigh smothered in that vile Meccan chamber. Now it has
+come Abraham's day, and Yusuf and Abraham will be even. How does this
+suit your angelic constitution? Angelic as you are, you cannot slip
+through chains and bolted doors so easily as the little Jew. Oh, Yusuf,
+are you not happy? Uzza hates you; I saw it in his face. Did you ever
+know him before?" The Jew's propensity for news was to the fore as
+usual.
+
+Yusuf answered nothing.
+
+"Tell me," said the Jew, giving him a shake, "what does Uzza know of
+you?"
+
+"He knows," said a thin, grating voice from behind, "that Yusuf's hands
+reek with the blood of Uzza's only child, the fair little Imri, murdered
+in the cause of religion; and ere I could reach him--yes, priest, with
+vengeance in my heart, for had I found you then your blood would have
+blotted out the stain of my child's on your altar!--the false priest had
+fled, forsaken the reeking altar, left it black in ashes, black as his
+own false heart. And then, that vengeance might be satisfied, was Uzza's
+blade turned against the aged grandmother who had delivered the little
+one up to Persian gods. O priest, your work is past, but not forgotten!"
+
+"Uzza," cried the priest, "I neither ask nor hope for mercy. Yet would
+God I could restore you your child! Its smile and its death gurgle have
+haunted my dreams through these long years! 'Twas in my heathendom I did
+it!"
+
+"That excuse will not give her back to me," said Uzza, stepping out of
+the room with the Jew, as the warden came with the keys.
+
+It was not Uzza's purpose to bring about Yusuf's speedy death. As the
+cat torments the mouse which has fallen into its power, so he resolved
+to keep the priest on the rack for a considerable length of time.
+
+Hearing of the conversation between him and Asru, he knew that exquisite
+torture could be inflicted on the priest through Dumah, and determined
+to strike at him first through the poor singer. Dumah's execution was,
+accordingly, ordered.
+
+Early one morning, Amzi, looking out of a little chink in his window
+through which the bare court-yard below was visible, was horrified to
+see a scene revolting in its every detail, and over which we shall
+hasten as speedily as may be.
+
+There in the gray morning light stood Yusuf, bound and forced to look on
+at the death of the bright-haired singer, whose sunny smile had been as
+a ray of sunshine to the two men.
+
+Amzi looked on as if turned to stone--heard Dumah's last cheerful words,
+"Do not weep, Yusuf; it will be all flowers, all angels, soon. Dumah is
+going home happy,"--then, he fell on his face, and so lay for hours
+unconscious of all. Reason came slowly back, and he realized that
+another of the tragedies only too common in those perilous days had
+taken place.
+
+"I am going home happy," rang in his ears. The cold moonlight crept in,
+shining in a dead silver bar on the ceiling. Amzi lay looking at it,
+until it seemed a path of glory leading, for Dumah's feet, through the
+window and up to heaven.
+
+"I am going home happy." Was that home Amzi's home too? Ah, he had never
+thought of it as his home, though he remembered the words--"In my
+Father's house are many mansions." He imagined he saw Dumah in one of
+those bright mansions, happy in eternal love and sunshine, while he,
+Amzi, was without.
+
+For the first time in his life Amzi was concerned deeply about his soul;
+and now there was no Yusuf to answer his questions. Ere another day had
+passed he, too, might be called upon to undergo Dumah's fate. He could
+not say "I am going home happy." How, then, might this blessed assurance
+be his? He strove to remember Yusuf's words, but they seemed to flit
+away from his memory. His whole life appeared so listless, so selfish,
+so taken up with gratification of self! At last he seemed a sinner. How
+could he obtain forgiveness?
+
+He turned over in agony, and the little stone tablet fell against his
+bosom. With difficulty, on account of the manacles on his hands, he drew
+it forth and traced the words with his finger.
+
+"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
+life."
+
+As when a black cloud passes away from the moon and a flood of
+brightness fills the whole air below, so the light burst upon Amzi. He
+saw it all now! His talk with Yusuf on the love of God came back to him,
+and he shouted aloud with joy:
+
+"Praise the Lord, he hath set me free!"
+
+"Then for the sake of mercy, help me to get out of this too," said a
+voice from the other side of the partition. It was Asru.
+
+"Alas, my friend," returned Amzi, "chains are still on my body. It is my
+soul that soareth upward as an eagle."
+
+"Wherefore?"
+
+Amzi read the verse of Scripture aloud.
+
+"I have heard somewhat of that before," said Asru. "Read it again."
+
+Amzi did so, and explained it as well as he could. Asru listened
+eagerly. This new creed interested him by its novelty, especially since
+he was in forced inaction and had nothing else to think of. But it also
+appealed to a heart which had some noble traits among many evil ones;
+and as Amzi talked, sorrow for his sins came upon him.
+
+"But the promise cannot be given to such as I," he said, wistfully. "A
+long life of wickedness surely cannot win forgiveness."
+
+"O friend," returned Amzi, eagerly, "'believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
+and thou shalt be saved.' How often did they tell me those words and I
+would not believe, could not understand!"
+
+And then Amzi told the story of the thief on the cross, as he had read
+it and talked it over with Yusuf. His voice thrilled with eagerness,
+and, on the other side of the wall, Asru wept tears of repentance. To
+him too, the door was opening, and a great longing for the love of
+Christ and for a better life filled his bosom. So they talked until the
+noise of the awakening Moslems in the passage without rendered it
+impossible for them to hear each other. But joy had come to both Amzi
+and Asru within the prison-walls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A SCENE IN PALESTINE.
+
+    "I had rather choose to be a pilgrim on earth with Thee than
+    without Thee to possess heaven. Where Thou art, there is
+    heaven: and where thou art not, there is death and
+    hell."--_Thomas á Kempis._
+
+
+It was a scene perfect in its calm beauty. A small, low, white house,
+flat-roofed, and dazzlingly clean, nestled at the foot of one of the
+fairest hills in Palestine; and before the door swept the river Jordan,
+plashing with that low, soft ripple which is music everywhere, but
+nowhere more so than in the hot countries of the East.
+
+A grove of banana and orange-trees sheltered the house, and the delicate
+fragrance of the ripening fruit mingled with the perfume of late roses.
+On the green hills near, sheep rambled at will, and an occasional low
+bleat arose above the busy hum of bees, giving an air of life to the
+quiet scene.
+
+In the shade of the trees sat Nathan, his wife and Mary. They had been
+talking of Manasseh,--poor Manasseh, left behind in barren Arabia!
+Nathan too had wanted to stay with his distressed countrymen, but
+failing health had forced him to seek the more genial atmosphere of the
+North; and, after a long, tedious journey, he at last found himself safe
+once more in his beloved Palestine, poor in worldly goods, yet serene
+and hopeful as ever.
+
+And fortune was at last smiling on the Jewish family. Nathan's health
+had come back to him in the clearer, more bracing air of the Northern
+land, his flocks were increasing, and the only gloom upon their perfect
+happiness was the absence of Manasseh, from whom they were not likely to
+hear soon. And yet they gloried in knowing that Manasseh had chosen to
+meet tribulation for the sake of his faith, and that, wherever he was,
+he was helping others and fighting on the side of right.
+
+"Father," said Mary, "how grand it is to be able to do something great
+and noble in the cause! Were I a man, I would go with Manasseh to fight
+for the Cross."
+
+Nathan stroked her hair softly. "The life of everyone who is consecrated
+to God is directed by him," he said. "To Manasseh is given the
+privilege of defending the faith and helping the weak by his strong,
+young arm; to Mary is given the humble, loving life in which she may
+serve God just as truly and do just as great a work in faithfully
+performing her own little part. Think you not so, mother?"
+
+"Ah, yes," returned the mother, with her gentle smile. "Life is like the
+cloth woven little by little, until the whole pattern shows in the
+finished work; and it matters not whether the pattern be large or small.
+So the little things of life, done well for Christ's sake, will at last
+make a noble whole of which none need be ashamed."
+
+"But mother, watching the sheep, grinding the meal, washing the
+garments, seem such very little things."
+
+"Yet all these are very necessary things," returned the mother quietly,
+"and if done cheerfully and willingly, call for an unselfish heart. A
+gentle, loving life lived amid little cares and trials is no small
+thing, my child."
+
+Mary kissed her mother. "Mother, you always say what comforts one; you
+always make me wish to live more patiently and lovingly."
+
+"And yet, Mary," said her father, "mother's life has been one round of
+small duties."
+
+Mary sat thinking for a moment. "Yes, father," she answered slowly, "I
+see now that mother's life has been the very best sermon on duty. I
+shall try to be patient and happy in simply doing well whatever my hands
+find to do. But I wish Manasseh were home;" and she looked wistfully to
+the west, where bands of color were spreading up the sky, saffron at the
+horizon, blending into gold and tender green above, while all melted
+into a sapphire dome streaked and flecked with rosy pink rays and bars.
+
+"How he would enjoy this glorious sunset! Oh, father, how dreadful if he
+were to be killed!--if he were nevermore to sit with us looking at the
+sunsets!" Her voice trembled a little as she spoke.
+
+"We are committing him to the care of Almighty God," returned Nathan,
+solemnly. "God is love, and whatever he does will be best."
+
+"You find great comfort, father, in believing that 'all things work
+together for good to them that love God,'" said Mary.
+
+"For the children of God, everything that happens must be best."
+
+"Even persecution and death?"
+
+"Even persecution and death, if God so will."
+
+Mary looked at his placid face for a long time, then she said: "How very
+peaceful you and mother are!"
+
+"How could we be otherwise," the father replied, smiling, "with Jesus
+with us each hour, each moment? And we know that he 'will never leave
+nor forsake us.' I think, too, that he is very close to my daughter.
+Mary, is there anything in this world that could take the place of Jesus
+to you? Would wealth or honor or any earthly joy make you perfectly
+happy if you could never pray to Jesus more, never feel him near you as
+an ever-present Friend, nevermore have the hope of seeing his face?"
+
+Mary clasped her hands, and her face glowed. "Never, oh, never!" she
+cried. "I would rather be like poor blind Bartimeus begging by the
+wayside, yet able to call, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!'"
+
+The sun had now set, and the sky had faded with that suddenness common
+in Eastern lands.
+
+Nathan arose. "Let us now offer up prayer for the safety of Manasseh,
+and for the steadfastness of the brethren; for we know that where two or
+three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there is he in the midst of
+them. Let us pray!"
+
+The three knelt in the dim chamber, with silence about and the evening
+stars above, and prayed for the lad who, amid very different scenes, was
+in the heart of the strange revolution. And then they sang the words of
+that sublime psalm, than which no grander poem was ever written:
+
+    I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
+
+    My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
+
+    He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee will
+    not slumber.
+
+    Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
+
+    The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
+
+    The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
+
+    The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy
+    soul.
+
+    The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
+    time forth, and even for evermore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE BATTLE OF OHOD.
+
+    "Dost thou not know the fate of soldiers?
+    They're but Ambition's tools, to cut a way
+    To her unlawful ends."
+
+                              --_Southern._
+
+
+While these events had been taking place in the North, Henda had given
+Abu Sofian little peace, urging him every day to pay the dues of
+blood-revenge for her relatives, and taunting him with cowardice in his
+long delay.
+
+At length, in the third year of the Hegira he gathered a considerable
+army, and with three thousand men of the Koreish tribe, among whom were
+two hundred horsemen, left Mecca, accompanied by Henda and fifteen of
+the matrons of Mecca bearing timbrels and singing war-like chants.
+
+The whole army advanced with the intention of besieging Medina, but
+Mohammed's men entreated him to let them encounter Abu Sofian outside of
+the city, and he yielded to their entreaties. With only one thousand
+men,[10] fifty of whom were chosen archers, the prophet took up his
+stand on a declivity of Mount Ohod, about six miles north of the city.
+There, on its black and barren slope, he divided his army into four
+parts, three of which bore sacred banners, while the great standard was
+placed before Mohammed himself.
+
+In order to imbue his men with courage, he came out in full view of the
+whole army, and, in a loud voice that penetrated even the farthest
+ranks, gave promise of victory. Then, for the sake of those who should
+be killed in battle, he expatiated upon the delights of that Paradise
+which surely awaited all who should be slain in the cause, representing
+it such a paradise as would be peculiarly adapted to the tastes and
+stimulating to the imagination of the Arabs--a race accustomed to arid
+wastes, burning sands, and glaring skies; a paradise of green fields and
+flowery gardens cooled by innumerable rivers and sparkling fountains,
+which glittered from between shaded bowers inter-woven with perfumed
+flowers. He gave them promise of streams literally flowing with milk and
+clearest honey; of trees bending with fruit which should be handed down
+by houris of wondrous beauty; he told them of treasures of gold, silver,
+and jewels. "They shall dwell in gardens of delight, reposing on couches
+adorned with gold and precious stones.... Upon them shall be garments of
+fine green silk and brocades, and they shall be adorned with bracelets
+of silver, and they shall drink of a most pure liquor--a cup of wine
+mixed with the water of Zenjebil, a fountain in Paradise named
+Salsabil."
+
+Such was the sensual character of the paradise promised to his followers
+by Mohammed. The soldiers were listening eagerly to the words when the
+army of Abu Sofian was seen, advancing in the form of a crescent, with
+Abu Sofian and his idols in the center, and Henda and her women in the
+rear, sounding their timbrels, and singing loud war-chants.
+
+The horsemen of the left wing of the Koreish now advanced to attack the
+Moslems in the flank, but the archers fired upon them from the top of
+some steep rocks, and they retired in confusion.
+
+Hamza, a Moslem leader, then shouted the Moslem cry, "Death! Death!" and
+rushed down the hill upon the center. The crash and roar of battle
+began. High in air gleamed spear and lance; horses shrieked and reared,
+and tossed their long manes; dark, contorted visages and shining teeth
+shone out from clouds of dust; sashes floated on the air, and sabres
+flashed in the sunlight; all was mad confusion.
+
+In the mêlée two young men met hand to hand. Both were tall and slight,
+and had dark, waving hair. So like were they that a warrior near them
+called out, "Behold, doth Manasseh fight with Manasseh!" But the youths
+heard not, recked not. Their blows fell thick and fast, until at last
+the Moslem gave way, and fell, wounded and bleeding, in the dust by the
+side of Hamza, who lay stiffening in death.
+
+Then arose the shout, "The sword of God and his prophet!" and Abu
+Dudjana, armed with the prophet's own sword, waved it above his head and
+dashed into the thick of the battle.
+
+Mosaab, the standard-bearer, followed close and planted the standard at
+the top of a knoll. An arrow struck him in the eye. He fell, and the cry
+arose that the prophet himself had fallen. Ali seized the standard and
+floated it aloft on the air; but the Moslems, seized with confusion,
+would not rally, and withdrew to the hill-top.
+
+The Koreish, thinking Mohammed killed, forbore to follow them, and began
+the revolting work of plundering the dead. Henda and her companions
+savagely assisted in the gruesome task; and, coming upon Hamza, the
+fierce woman mutilated his dead body.
+
+By him she found the handsome youth, whom she believed to be Manasseh,
+so torn and covered with blood as to conceal his Moslem adornments. To
+Manasseh she had taken a strange fancy, and she now ordered the youth to
+be conveyed in safety to the camp, with the army which was forming in
+line of march.
+
+The band of Jews who had come with the forces of Abu Sofian, mainly for
+the purpose of delivering those of their afflicted brethren who had
+refused to join Mohammed, and of whom many were imprisoned in Medina,
+now joined with a band of the Koreish, who desired the freedom of some
+of their tribe, and, while the excitement of battle was still fresh, the
+party entered the city by stealth, then, dashing furiously down the
+street to the guard-house, overpowered the guards and battered open the
+doors, setting many of the prisoners free. Among these were Amzi, Asru,
+and Yusuf.
+
+It was Manasseh himself who broke in the door of the apartment in which
+Yusuf was confined.
+
+An exclamation of pleasure burst from him on recognizing the priest, and
+he threw his arms about his neck.
+
+"Yusuf! My dear Yusuf!" he cried.
+
+"My boy!" exclaimed the priest, in astonishment. "What means this?"
+
+"It means that you are free," said the youth as he knocked off the
+chains. "Haste! We must on to the camp ere the Moslems return. Anything
+more than this I will tell you on the way."
+
+Once again Yusuf stepped out into the pure air, along with many others
+who bore part of their chains in the broken links that still clanked
+upon their wrists and ankles.
+
+In passing through the court-yard, the priest noticed some one crouched
+in a pitiable heap in a corner of the yard. Manasseh hauled him out. It
+was the peddler, with ashen face and eyes rolling with fear.
+
+"Come along, my man!" laughed Manasseh. "Like the worm in a pomegranate,
+you are apt to do harm if left to yourself."
+
+Abraham writhed and begged for mercy.
+
+"Come along!" said Manasseh, impatiently. "I shall not hurt you; I shall
+merely look after you for awhile."
+
+Thus consoled, the peddler hopped on with alacrity. A hasty mount was
+made and the party set out for the camp of Abu Sofian.
+
+Yusuf then had a chance to ask the question burning at his heart. "How
+comes it, Manasseh, that you again fight against the prophet? When last
+I saw you, you wore the green of the Moslem."
+
+"I!" said the youth in astonishment. "You jest, Yusuf!"
+
+"It was surely you who met me on the field of Bedr."
+
+"Yusuf, are you mad? It was never I."
+
+"Then who can it have been? It was your very face."
+
+"For once, Yusuf, your eyes have played you false. How could you have
+believed such a thing of Manasseh?"
+
+"A strange resemblance!" mused Yusuf; then--"Whom see I before me
+yonder?"
+
+"Manasseh's eyes do not play him false, and he declares it to be Amzi,"
+said the youth.
+
+They hastened up the narrow street, now crowded with soldiers,
+prisoners, camels, and horses; and, escaping the missiles thrown by
+infuriated Moslem women from the housetops, soon overtook Amzi and Asru.
+All proceeded at once to the camp of Abu Sofian.
+
+Some large tents were set apart for the wounded Koreish, and here Yusuf
+and Amzi found speedy occupation in binding wounds, and giving drinks of
+water to the parched soldiers. Manasseh entered with them.
+
+"What means this?" cried Henda. "Did I not have you conveyed, soaked
+with blood, among the wounded of the Koreish?"
+
+"I have not been wounded to-day," returned Manasseh. "Read me this
+riddle, Henda. There must be a second self--"
+
+"Here, Manasseh!" interrupted Yusuf from one side. "Had you a twin
+brother, this must be he."
+
+Yusuf was bending over a youth whose dark eyes spoke of suffering, and
+who lay listlessly permitting the priest to bathe his blood-covered
+brow. His eyes were fixed on Manasseh, who was quickly coming forward,
+and those near wondered at the striking resemblance, more marked than is
+often found between brothers.
+
+"Who are you, friend?" asked Manasseh, curiously.
+
+"Kedar the Bedouin!" returned the youth, proudly. "Though how I came
+into a Koreish camp, is more than I can explain."
+
+"For that you may thank your resemblance to me," laughed Manasseh. "You
+are weak, Kedar, my proud Bedouin, and we will ask you to talk but
+little; yet, I pray you, tell me, who was your father?"
+
+"Musa, the Bedouin Sheikh,"--haughtily.
+
+"And your mother was Lois, daughter of Eleazar?"
+
+"Even so," returned the other, wonderingly.
+
+"My cousin!" exclaimed Manasseh, delightedly seizing his hand.
+
+"And son of my Bedouin friend, Musa!" exclaimed Yusuf.
+
+So the Bedouin youth, the rash, hot-headed Moslem recruit, found himself
+among friends in a Koreish camp.
+
+Night had now fallen, and under cover of darkness, Mohammed's army
+silently returned to Medina.
+
+There were those who censured the prophet for his conduct at this
+battle; and some even dared to charge him with deception in promising
+them victory. But Mohammed told them that defeat was due to their sins:
+"Verily, they among you who turned their backs on the day whereon the
+two armies met at Ohod, Satan caused them to slip for some crime which
+they had committed."
+
+To quiet those who lamented for their slain friends, he brought forth
+the doctrine that the time of every man's death is fixed by divine
+decree, and that he must meet it at that time, wherever he be.
+
+In the morning the majority of Abu Sofian's forces set out for Mecca.
+Among them were Yusuf and Amzi, also Asru the captain; and it was with
+no small sense of comfort that the half-starved prisoners sat again
+about Amzi's well-stocked board.
+
+Manasseh was with them. Kedar, scorning to desert the Moslem army, had
+refused to leave Medina, and, by the earnest intercession of Yusuf and
+Amzi, whose word was of some import in Meccan ears, he had been given
+his freedom.
+
+It was with deep relief that all felt the short respite from the blare
+of battle; and, though they looked forward to the future with anxious
+forebodings, and though their joy was clouded by the death of Dumah,
+they were thankful for present blessings. Not alone prayer, but praise,
+was an essential part of their religion, and their voices ascended in
+song,--
+
+    I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be
+    in thy mouth.
+
+    My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear
+    thereof, and be glad.
+
+    O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
+
+    I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my
+    fears.
+
+    They looked unto him, and were lightened; and their faces were not
+    ashamed.
+
+    This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of
+    all his troubles.
+
+    The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and
+    delivereth them.
+
+    O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that
+    trusteth in him.
+
+    O fear the Lord, ye his saints; for there is no want to them that
+    fear him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE DITCH.
+
+    "Blood! blood! The leaves above me and around me
+      Are red with blood."
+
+
+In the year which followed, Mohammed's forces were more than once
+directed against Syrian caravans, and the plunder divided among the
+Moslem troops after one-fifth had been appropriated by the prophet; but
+otherwise the truce was unbroken, until at the end of the year, the
+Koreish, uniting with neighboring tribes, many of whom were Jews, formed
+the plan of a grand attack which was to free El Hejaz forever from the
+power of the Islam despot.
+
+From the Caaba the call was given to all who could be appealed to
+through religion, through the interests of commerce, or through desire
+for blood-revenge in consequence of the battles of Bedr and Ohod. To the
+more earnest Jews the undertaking took the form of a vast religious war,
+undertaken against the hosts of Satan for the deliverance of a land in
+bondage; to the Meccan merchants it assumed the guise of a commercial
+transaction which would again restore the trade so long ruined by
+Mohammed's hostile measures; to the Koreish and the desert tribes it
+seemed the grand opportunity of clearing the honor stained by the
+unrevenged death of their friends.
+
+Accordingly a host of volunteers to the number of one hundred thousand
+offered themselves, and the vast array set out. Among the volunteers
+were Yusuf, Amzi, Asru, and the valiant Manasseh, all of whom deemed the
+necessity of the hour a sufficient reason for entering upon a course
+foreign to the laws of peace which they would fain have seen
+established.
+
+A mighty host it seemed in a land whose battles had chiefly been
+confined to skirmishes between different tribes. As it wound its way
+down the narrow valley, the women of Mecca stood upon the housetops,
+listening to the trampling, and beseeching their household gods to bless
+the enterprise.
+
+Long ere they reached Medina the prophet had received word of their
+advance, and had had a ditch or entrenchment dug about the city as a
+sort of fortification.
+
+Abu Sofian ordered his tents to be pitched below on the plain, and, this
+done, he at once laid siege to the city.
+
+But his bad generalship ruined the undertaking. For a month he kept his
+men wholly inactive, and during that time Mohammed busied himself in
+sending emissaries in the midst of Abu Sofian's men for the purpose of
+sowing disaffection among them; and so completely was this done that the
+besieging force became hollow and rotten to its core. Tribe after tribe
+left. The few faithful besought their leader to permit them to attack
+the city, and when at last the order was given, but a feeble remnant of
+the original host remained. Notwithstanding this, the command "Forward!"
+was hailed with tumultuous joy, and the besiegers pressed forward in
+irregular yet serried masses.
+
+Scarcely had the attack begun when a terrific storm arose. It was in the
+winter season, and a sudden hurricane of cold winds came shrieking
+through the gaps of the mountains to the north.
+
+Amzi, having, as an influential Meccan, been appointed to the command of
+a division, charged boldly forward in the teeth of the tempest, waving
+his sword above his head and cheering his men on with his hopeful voice.
+Yusuf, Asru and Manasseh pressed forward close behind him. A cloud of
+arrows met them, yet they poured impetuously on. And now the bank was
+climbed and the conflict became almost hand-to-hand. The priest's tall
+form rendered him conspicuous in the fray. Some one came hacking and
+hewing his way towards him. It was the agile Uzza. The priest was beset
+on all sides and was defending himself against fearful odds, when the
+face of Uzza, fiend-like in its hate, burst upon him as a new opponent.
+He raised his weapon for a blow, but the vision of a Guebre altar upon
+which a little, bleeding child lay, rose before him, and his arm fell.
+
+Uzza perceived his advantage. With a howl of triumph he cried, "False
+priest, you shall not escape me this time!" and made a fierce stroke
+with his scimitar. But the blow was parried.
+
+"Simpleton! Would you let him kill you?" cried a harsh voice close by
+the priest. And the next moment Uzza fell with a death-groan at the feet
+of Asru.
+
+And now the storm struck with full fury, howling among the houses of
+Medina, whistling shrilly on the upper air, and bending the palm trees
+low along its furious path. Thatches were torn from the roofs and
+carried whirling through the air; clouds of dust were blown high along
+the streets, and black, ragged clouds scurried across the sky as if
+urged on by demon-force. Horses neighed loudly. Many of them became
+unmanageable, and dashed, with terrified eyes and distended nostrils,
+through the midst of the flying soldiery. The tents of Abu Sofian were
+torn from their pegs and hurled away. Then the rain descended in sheets,
+or, whirled round by the wind, swirled along in columns with almost the
+force of a water-spout.
+
+Suddenly a cry was raised: "It is Mohammed! The prophet has raised the
+storm by enchantment!"
+
+The cry echoed from mouth to mouth above the roar of the tempest. The
+superstitious Arabs were seized with terror and fled precipitately,
+believing themselves surrounded by legions of invisible spirits. Amzi
+and his little band stayed until the last; then, deserted by all and
+blinded by the descending torrents, they, too, were obliged to withdraw,
+and another victory, that of the Battle of the Ditch, had fallen to the
+prophet.
+
+This was the last expedition undertaken by the Koreish against their
+victorious enemy. Mohammed, of course, attributed his great conquest to
+divine agency. In a passage from the Koran he declared:
+
+"O true believers, remember the favor of God toward you, when armies of
+infidels came against you, and we sent against them a wind and hosts of
+angels which ye saw not."
+
+The heart sickens in following further Mohammed's willful career of
+blood. During the following five years he is said to have commanded
+twenty-seven expeditions and fought nine pitched battles. Against the
+Christian Jews in particular the bitterest expressions of his hate were
+directed; and to his dying day this incomprehensible man, from whose
+lips proceeded words of mercy and of deadliest rancor, words of love and
+of hate, words of purity and of gross sensuality--this strange man
+persecuted them to the last, nor ever ceased to direct his arms against
+all who followed that gentle Jesus of Nazareth of whose power this
+blood-marked, self-proclaimed prophet of Allah was envious.
+
+His followers, dazzled by the glare of his brilliant victories or
+solicitous for self-preservation, constantly swelled in numbers, but
+there were a few who, like Kedar, had heard of the peaceableness of the
+religion of Jesus Christ, and who began to sicken of the flow of blood
+which deluged the sands of El Hejaz, and ran even into the Nejd, the
+borders of Syria, and of Arabia-Felix.
+
+Kedar often longed for the friendly touch, the hearty, kindly words, of
+the friends whom he had met and parted from as in a dream. He had soon
+refused to believe in Mohammed's divine appointment. Even this Bedouin
+youth had enough penetration to see that religion must stand upon its
+results, and that the private life of Mohammed would not stand the test
+of inspection. Fain would he have left his ranks many and many a time.
+The brand of coward he knew could not be attached to him for leaving
+victorious ranks to ally himself with the few and feeble Jews, yet there
+was something in the idea of "turning his coat" which he did not like.
+He imagined in a vague way that such a proceeding would compromise his
+principles of honor, and he had not reached the wisdom of that great
+educator, Comenius, who, not long ere his death, wrote a treatise upon
+"the art of wisely withdrawing one's own assertions." So he fought
+doggedly on, until circumstances again threw him into the bosom of his
+friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE FAMILY OF ASRU.
+
+    "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world."
+
+
+On the evening upon which the Battle of the Ditch was fought, the wife
+of Asru, and his daughter, Sherah, now almost grown to womanhood, were
+returning from performing Tawaf at the temple. They had prayed for the
+success of the Koreish expedition; they had drank of the well of Ismael,
+Zem-Zem, and had poured its water on their heads. Now they were
+hastening home to offer prayers to their household gods in the same
+cause, for, during Asru's apostasy to the Moslem ranks, his wife, a
+woman of the Koreish, and her family had never swerved from their
+hostility to Mohammed and all connected with him. For their obstinacy in
+this, they had been cruelly abused by Asru, who, with the superiority
+which most men in the East assume over women, ruled as a tyrant in his
+house.
+
+It was with unspeakable satisfaction that Sherah and her mother found
+that Asru had at last broken all connection with the prophet, but a
+change had come into his manner which was to them most unaccountable.
+Instead of cruelty now was kindness; instead of stormy petulance, now
+was patience; and yet, Asru had not mentioned the cause of his new life.
+A sort of backwardness on the subject, a desire to know more of it
+before communicating with others, strove with him against the dictates
+of his conscience, and he had as yet been dumb. He had not concealed his
+connection with the little band of Jewish Christians. In spite of the
+jeers of his friends among the Koreish, he had attended their meetings
+regularly. That had been the extent of his active Christian work; yet
+his life had been preaching while his lips were still.
+
+Sherah and her mother talked of him as they walked.
+
+"Mother, however it be, father was never kind until he went to the
+Jewish meetings."
+
+"True. Yet many of these same Jews are wicked, thieves, low robbers, not
+fit for such as Asru to mingle with," said the mother haughtily.
+
+"Yet not the Jews who attend the church," returned the girl, quickly. "I
+know them. Most of them are poor, but not thieves; they seem quiet,
+industrious people. Then, Amzi attends there now, you know, and Yusuf,
+who, when the plague was raging, spent weeks in attending the sick. Did
+he not come to father and sit with him night after night, when,
+mother--I shame to say it--both you and I fled!"
+
+The mother walked in silence for a moment.
+
+"There must be some strange power that urges a man to do such acts," she
+said, musingly. "It would be easier far to go out to battle, urged on
+by the enthusiasm of conquest, and cheered by the music and clash of
+timbrels to deeds of bravery. It takes a different spirit to enter the
+houses of filthy disease, to court death in reeking lazar-houses, to sit
+for weeks watching hideous faces and listening to the ravings of madmen
+through the long, hot nights of the plague-season."
+
+"Mother, I am convinced that their religion prompts them to do it. What
+else can it be?"
+
+"What is their religion?"
+
+"I know not; yet we may know for the going, perhaps. See, the lights
+gleam in their little hall. They hold meeting to-night. Let us go."
+
+"What! And let the proud tribe of the Koreish, the guardians of the
+Caaba, see a woman of the Koreish enter there?"
+
+"We can go in long cloaks, mother, and it is well-nigh dark. Come, will
+you not?"
+
+The pleading voice was so earnest that the mother consented. Yet, that
+the influence of the gods in the result of the battle might not be lost,
+they first entered their own house, prostrated themselves before the
+gods, and besought their aid in the Koreish cause. Then, donning long
+outer cloaks, and veiling their faces closely, the two slipped out of a
+back way and stealthily hastened towards the Jewish church.
+
+It was late when they arrived. Neither Yusuf nor Amzi was present to
+raise the hearts of their hearers with words of simple and earnest
+piety, no voice of Manasseh was there to lead in the songs of praise,
+but an old man with snowy hair and a saint-like face was standing behind
+a table, a volume of the Scriptures before him, and the voices of the
+congregation, some twenty in number, arose in the old, yet ever new
+words:
+
+"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in
+green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my
+soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
+Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
+fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
+me."
+
+The Koreish woman listened. She could not understand all this. Yet it
+was beautiful,--"green pastures," "still waters." Could it be that these
+people knew of an Elysian spot, unknown to Meccans--that their God led
+them to such favored retreats? She could restrain her impatience no
+longer.
+
+"Where are the green pastures and still waters?" she cried, impetuously,
+"that I too may go to them!"
+
+The old man smiled with serene kindness. "Daughter," he said, "the green
+pastures and still waters are the pleasant places of the soul. Hast thou
+never known what it was to have doubts and fears, restlessness and
+dissatisfaction in the present, uncertainty for the future, a feeling
+that there is little in life, and a great gulf in death?"
+
+"I have felt so almost every day," she replied, passionately.
+
+"Hast thou not found comfort in thy gods?" he asked, gently.
+
+"Alas, I fear to say that I have not!" she exclaimed.
+
+"And why fearest thou thus?" he said.
+
+"Ah, knowest thou not that the gods are gods of vengeance?" she replied
+in an awed whisper.
+
+"I know naught of your gods," he returned. "Our God is a God of love. He
+gives us the certainty of his presence ever with us in this life, his
+companionship in death, and the privilege of looking upon his face and
+being 'forever with the Lord' in the world to come."
+
+"And are you not afraid of death?" she asked. "To me it seems a dreadful
+thing. It makes me shudder to think that I too must one day suffer the
+struggle for breath, and then lie still and cold."
+
+"To those who love the Lord 'to die is gain,'" he said. "Have we not
+sung 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
+will fear no evil, for Thou art with me'? Surely one who believes that,
+and knows that he is going to be always with the Lord, always able to
+look on his face, need not fear death."
+
+"It is a beautiful thought," the woman said, bowing her head on her
+hands.
+
+"Yet not more beautiful than the thought that the Holy Spirit is ever
+with us; that Jesus himself is our brother, and understands all our
+little troubles; that he has promised to help us in overcoming all evil.
+'For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and
+to him that knocketh it shall be opened.' 'If a son shall ask bread of
+any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? If he ask a fish,
+will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will
+he offer him a scorpion? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good
+gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give
+the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.' Daughter, these are the very
+words of Jesus. Do they not show you the way to the still waters and
+green pastures? Do you not see that the love of our God acts upon the
+heart as gentle showers upon the barren land, causing it to rejoice and
+bring forth fruit worthy of being presented to our Lord and Master? 'He
+hath loved us with an everlasting love.' He loves us ever, therefore in
+our returning this love to him doth the 'peace of God that passeth all
+understanding' lay hold upon our hearts."
+
+"But ye are Jews!" she said. "Such promises are not for the Koreish."
+
+"Such promises are for all," was the confident reply. "Jesus said
+whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
+None so sinful that Jesus cannot wash out the stain; none are excluded
+from his mercy. Daughter, believe, receive. Let the love of God enter
+thine heart, and repent best by doing thine evil deeds no more. Only
+come to Jesus himself. Only have faith in him."
+
+The Koreish woman hid her face in her hands again, and answered nothing.
+The old man turned to the Scriptures and read the story of Jesus and the
+woman of Samaria, raising his voice in triumphant fervor as he reached
+the words: "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
+never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a
+well of water springing up into everlasting life."
+
+Then he turned to the words spoken by Jesus to his disciples just before
+his betrayal, and read: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto
+you. Let not your heart be troubled," and, "Abide in me, and I in you.
+As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine,
+no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the
+branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
+much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing."
+
+The woman listened. With the quick appreciation of the Arab for metaphor
+and simile, she grasped the meaning of the words, and a new, wonderful
+train of thought came into her mind as she sat with bowed head while
+simple, pleading, heart-offered prayer was sent up to the Throne of
+Grace, and the parting hymn was sung.
+
+Then the little band gathered around her, speaking words of cheer, and
+the aged leader dismissed her with a gentle, "Come again, daughter."
+
+As Sherah and her mother walked home, the last remnant of the fearful
+storm that had visited Medina passed over Mecca. They saw the ragged
+clouds borne wildly over the northern hills; they saw the stunted aloes
+bending low beneath the sweep of the wind. Yet to them there was a
+grandeur in it, for there was still upon them the influence of the
+Divine presence, and they thought of Him who "walketh upon the wings of
+the wind."
+
+And as they went on, bowing their heads before its spent fury, Asru,
+Amzi, and Yusuf, far to the northward, struggled on with the fugitive
+army, wondering at the continued triumph of the false prophet, yet
+serene in the confidence that in the Divine Hands all was well, and that
+in the far-distant end, however blurred to human vision, all must work
+for good to those who love God, even though the reason of his working,
+the seeming mystery of the fortunes of the great conflict, might not be
+unravelled until in the bright hereafter, when all things will at last
+be made plain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+MANASSEH AND ASRU AT KHAIBAR.
+
+    "Spirit of purity and grace,
+      Our weakness, pitying, see!
+    O make our hearts thy dwelling-place,
+      And worthier Thee."
+
+
+The Koreish, after their disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Ditch,
+returned in bitter disappointment to Mecca. Many even of the bravest of
+the tribe felt that it was hopeless to strive against the prophet, whose
+phenomenal success seemed to render his troops invincible. Many, too,
+with the superstition at all times common to the Arabs, were in deadly
+dread of his "enchantments," and were only too ready to listen to his
+bold assertions that the momentous storm at the siege of Medina had been
+caused in his favor by heavenly agency; that a great host of angels had
+been in invisible co-operation with the Moslems and had drawn their
+legions about the ill-fated company, crying, "God is great!" and
+striking panic to the hearts of the besiegers.
+
+Because of these superstitions the hearts of the Arabs failed them, and
+they day after day lessened in their hostility, and increased in their
+spirit of submission to the now famous prophet of El Islam.
+
+The Jews, however, held out to the last, and against them the reeking
+blades of Mohammed's army were turned. The Jewish tribes of the
+Koraidha, Kainoka, and the Nadhirites, in the vicinity of Medina, were
+speedily overthrown, and their goods taken possession of by the Moslems.
+Then, before the blood cooled on the scimitars, these conquests were
+followed by the dastardly assassination of the few Jews who were still
+in Medina, and, being possessed of considerable property, were a
+tempting bait to the avaricious prophet, who now, making religion a
+cloak to cover his greed and ambition, went to the wildest excesses in
+attaining his objects.
+
+Many of the Jews, escaping dearly with their lives, fled to the city of
+Khaïbar, five days' journey to the northeast of Medina, a city inhabited
+by Jews, who, living in the midst of a luxuriant farming district, had
+grown rich in the peaceful arts of agriculture and commerce. Others
+hastened thither in the hope that Khaïbar might become the nucleus of a
+successful resistance of Mohammed's power in the near future; and among
+the latter class was Manasseh.
+
+Late one afternoon he arrived in the rich pasture-lands surrounding the
+city. The air of peace and prosperity, the lowing of herds and bleating
+of sheep, delighted him; and, though weary from his journey, it was with
+a light heart that he urged his flagging horse between the long groves
+of palm-trees until the city came in sight.
+
+His martial spirit glowed as he noted the heavy out-works, and the
+strength of the citadel Al Kamus, which, built on a high rock, and
+towering ragged and black against the orange sky of the setting sun,
+seemed to the young soldier almost impregnable.
+
+He was welcomed at the gates as another recruit to the gathering forces,
+and, on his request, was at once directed to the house of the chief,
+Kenana Ibn al Rabi, a man reputed to be exceedingly wealthy. Here he was
+courteously received by Kenana and his wife Safiya; and, in a long
+conference, he informed the chief of the numbers and zeal of Mohammed's
+army, urging upon him the immediate strengthening of the city, as it was
+highly probable that the prophet would not long desist from making an
+attempt upon a tid-bit so tempting as that which Khaïbar presented.
+
+That evening an informal council of war was held in the court-yard of
+the chief's house. Al Hareth, a brother of Asru, a man who, although an
+Arab, had been appointed to high office, and had proved himself one of
+the most distinguished commanders of the Jewish colony, was present;
+and, among others, Asru himself entered.
+
+"Asru!" exclaimed Manasseh, delightedly, hurrying him aside to an
+arbor, "you here! I thought I had become separated from you all in that
+ill-fated storm. Where are Amzi and Yusuf, know you?"
+
+"Gone to Mecca with Abu Sofian's remnant of an army--as miserable and
+hang-head lot of fugitives as ever disgraced field!" said Asru
+contemptuously. "By my faith, it shamed me to see our brave friends in
+their company, even for the journey!"
+
+"Why did they go to Mecca?"
+
+"Because they were firmly convinced that Mecca will be the next point of
+attack," said Asru, "but methinks they shall find themselves mistaken.
+Mohammed will keep Mecca as a sort of sacred spot, dedicated to his
+worship--and the worship of Allah!" with infinite scorn. "But Khaïbar is
+a pomegranate of the highest branches, too mellow, too luscious, too
+tempting, to elude his grasp. Yes, Manasseh, Khaïbar will be his next
+point of attack. However, I am truly glad that Yusuf and Amzi have gone
+home. The Jews and Christians in Mecca will be safe enough for some time
+to come, and our friends are getting too old to endure much fatigue of
+battle."
+
+"Aye, Asru, you and I are better fitted to face the brunt of the charge
+and the weariness of the march. The work of Yusuf and Amzi should be
+milder, though not less glorious, than ours."
+
+"You say well," returned the other, with kindling eye. "Asru, for one,
+can never forget what they have done for him."
+
+"Asru, are all the stories of the wickedness of your past life--your
+cruelty, your treachery, your blasphemy--true?"
+
+"Manasseh, let my past life go into the tomb of oblivion if you will.
+'Tis a sorry page for Asru to look upon. The cruelty, the
+blasphemy,--aye, boy, I was full of it; but treacherous, never! Whatever
+Asru was, and no devil was blacker than he in many ways, he was never
+guilty of perfidy, except you call the trying to free Amzi and poor
+Dumah perfidy."
+
+"I am glad," returned Manasseh, quietly; "yet it would not matter now,
+since our Asru is a changed man."
+
+Asru looked at the youth earnestly. "Manasseh," he said, "does the old
+nature never come back upon you? Or have you never known what it was to
+feel wrong impulses?"
+
+"Wrong impulses!" exclaimed the other. "Yes, Asru, many and many a time.
+Yet, when one does not even look at the evil, but keeps his face turned
+steadfastly towards the right, the old self seems to lose its hold. In
+drawing near to God we draw away from evil."
+
+"Your words, I know, are true," returned the other; "yet the keeping
+from doing wrong seems to me the hardest thing in living a Christian
+life."
+
+"But, Asru," said Manasseh, "perhaps you are not loving enough. The more
+you love Jesus, and the more you feel him in your life, the easier it
+will be to turn from temptation--to hate the thing that inspires it. If
+you really love him you simply cannot do what will pain him."
+
+"But the temptation to act hastily, to speak unkindly, comes upon me so
+often, Manasseh, that I grow discouraged."
+
+"The only safety is in always looking Above for help. Believe me, Asru,
+I speak from experience. Temptation in itself is not sin; the yielding
+to it is. Little by little the temptations bother us less, and we grow
+in grace. You know this is expected of us. Paul speaks of 'perfecting
+holiness in the fear of the Lord.' He says, too, 'The weapons of our
+warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of
+strongholds.' He said, also, to the Philippians, 'It is God that worketh
+in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure,' and the Lord
+himself has said, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is
+made perfect in weakness.' So, Asru, my friend, the whole secret is in
+accepting that gift, in knowing him, and in keeping the soul in a
+constant state of openness for the working of the Holy Spirit--a
+'pray-without-ceasing' attitude in which one's whole life is resolved
+into the prayer: 'Thy will, not mine, be done.'"
+
+Asru regarded Manasseh curiously.
+
+"How is it, young as you are," he said, "that these things are so plain
+to you?"
+
+"Ah, you forget," said Manasseh, "what a blessed home training I have
+had, and that from my childhood I have had Yusuf for my counsellor. For
+these Christian friends of my childhood, I never cease to be thankful."
+
+Asru turned his face away. "And I, too, have children, Manasseh," he
+said in a low voice, "children who, with their mother, are little better
+than idolaters, and I have never told them differently."
+
+"But you will teach them?" returned Manasseh.
+
+"Ah, yes, if God spares me through this perilous time I shall teach
+them."
+
+"Have you heard or seen aught of Kedar, lately?" asked Manasseh,
+abruptly.
+
+"In the Battle of the Ditch I saw him for a moment, charging furiously
+against one of Abu Sofian's divisions. He was in advance of the rest,
+riding with his head bent in the teeth of the tempest. On a knoll above
+me, I saw him for a moment, between me and the sky, his hair and long
+sash streaming in the wind; then the rain came, and I saw him no more.
+Aye, but he is a brave lad!"
+
+"Poor cousin!" said Manasseh. "It is misplaced bravery. Would he were
+one of us!"
+
+"He is not a Christian; and, unless he were so, a spirit like his would
+scorn to be one of such a craven, contention-torn mob as that which Abu
+Sofian brought to the field. Strange, is it not, that the little band of
+Christians find themselves allied to a set of idolaters, against one who
+would cast idols down?"
+
+"Aye, but Mohammed would trample Christians and idolaters alike. Think
+you that defeat was owing wholly to cowardice of the soldiers?"
+
+"Not so much, perhaps, as to bad generalship of the leader," returned
+Asru. "Nevertheless the superstition of the heathen Arabs, and their
+fear when the cry of Mohammed's enchantment was raised, made a craven of
+every one of them. Manasseh, had we had ten thousand Christian Jews,
+there might have been a different story."
+
+"We are nearly all Jews, here," said Manasseh, proudly. "Have you happy
+forebodings for the issue of the next combat?"
+
+Asru shook his head, gloomily. "There will be a brave resistance on the
+part of our garrisons," he said, "although many of the men are well-nigh
+as ignorant and superstitious as the heathen Arabs; but Mohammed's
+forces have swelled wondrously since the 'enchanted' storm. Well, we can
+but do our best. Now, I see that the council has assembled. They call
+us. Come."
+
+The two left the arbor and joined the others in the middle of the
+garden. And there, while the stars shone peacefully above in the evening
+sky, and the palm-trees waved, and a little bird twittered contentedly
+over its nest in an olive bush, these men talked of measures of
+fortification, of tactics of war, and schemes of blood-shed; a
+conversation forced upon them, not as a matter of choice but of
+necessity--the necessity of a desperate few, earthed by a relentless
+conqueror and a ruthless despot, whose intolerance to all who denied his
+claims has never been surpassed in earth's history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+MOHAMMED'S PILGRIMAGE.
+
+    "Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us, viz.: Avarice,
+    Ambition, Envy, Anger, and Pride."--_Petrarch._
+
+
+In the meantime Yusuf and Amzi had taken up the old routine of life in
+Mecca--the faithful doing of the daily round, the little deeds of
+charity, the duties of business, the attendance at meetings in the
+little church. Everything seemed to sink back into the old way, yet
+there was not a man in the city but held himself in readiness to take
+up arms were an attack made upon them to wrest from them their freedom.
+
+And word came that Mohammed was coming,--coming, not in war, but in
+peace, on his first pilgrimage to the Caaba. Mecca was instantly thrown
+into the wildest confusion. Some deemed the prophet's message honorable,
+but the majority were dubious, and thought that if Mohammed once gained
+an entrance, notwithstanding the fact that it was the sacred month Doul
+Kaada, his coming would be but to deluge the streets with blood.
+
+A hasty consultation was held, and a troop of horse under one Khaled Ibn
+Waled, was sent out to check the prophet's advance. Mohammed, however,
+by means of his spies, early got word of this sally, and, turning aside
+from the way, he proceeded by ravines and by-paths through the
+mountains; and, ere the Meccans were aware of his proximity, his whole
+force was encamped near the city.
+
+A deputation came from his army to the dignitaries of Mecca bearing
+messages of peace; but their reception was haughty.
+
+"Go to him who sent you," was the reply to their overtures, "and say
+that Meccan doors are shut to one against whom every family in Mecca
+owes the revenge of blood."
+
+For days the deputation was sent, with the same result, until at last
+ambassadors of the prophet entered with the offer of a truce for ten
+years.
+
+The promise of a long respite from blood, and the hope of securing time
+to recuperate their forces, caught the ear of the Meccans. A deputation
+was appointed to treat with the prophet, and Amzi, though a Christian,
+by reason of his wisdom and learning was chosen as one of the
+representatives.
+
+Yusuf accompanied him to an eminence above the defile in which the
+Moslem tents were pitched. A strange sight it was. Far as eye could
+reach, tents, white and black, dotted the narrow valley; horses were
+picketed, and camels browsed; and in the foreground one thousand four
+hundred men were grouped, waiting to hear the issue of the
+conference,--one thousand four hundred men, bare-footed, and with
+shaven heads, and each wearing the white skirt and white scarf over the
+shoulder, assumed by pilgrims. Strangely different were they from the
+ordinary troops of the prophet, strangely unrecognizable in their garb
+of humility and peace; yet a second glance revealed the fact that each
+carried a sheathed sword.
+
+Yusuf remained above, but Amzi descended with the embassy sent with the
+message that the treaty, if suitable, would be at once ratified.
+Mohammed, who, in place of his green garb, now with obsequious humility
+wore the pilgrims' costume, expressed his pleasure at the amicable
+attitude of the Meccans. He was seated upon a white camel named El Kaswa
+in honor of the faithful beast which had borne him in the earlier
+vicissitudes of his fortunes. Beside him, at a table placed on the sand,
+sat his vizier and son-in-law, Ali, to whom was given the task of
+writing the treaty as dictated by Mohammed.
+
+"Begin, O Ali," said the prophet, "'In the name of the most merciful
+God'--"
+
+Sohail, the spokesman of the Meccan deputation, immediately objected,
+"It is the custom of the Meccans to begin, 'In Thy name, O God.'"
+
+"So be it," assented the prophet; then, continuing, he dictated the
+opening of the body of the treaty--"'These are the conditions on which
+Mohammed, the apostle of God, has made peace with those of Mecca.'"
+
+A deep murmur of disapproval arose throughout the Meccan embassy.
+
+"Not so, O Mohammed!" cried Sohail again. "Had we indeed acknowledged
+you as the prophet of God, think you we would have sent Khaled Ibn Waled
+with armed men against you? Think you we would have closed the streets
+of Mecca against one whom we recognized as an ambassador of the Most
+High? No, Mohammed, son of Abdallah, it must not be 'apostle of God.'"
+
+Mohammed again bowed in token of submission. "Write thus, then, O Ali,"
+he said. "'These are the conditions on which Mohammed, son of Abdallah,
+has made peace with those of Mecca.'"
+
+He then proceeded to the terms of the treaty, stipulating that the
+prophet and his followers should have access to the city at any season
+during the period of truce, provided they came unarmed, habited as
+pilgrims, and did not remain over three days at a time.
+
+This business concluded, the embassy from Mecca retraced its way; and
+Mohammed, changing his mind about entering the city at that time,
+ordered that prayers should be offered up on the spot, that seventy
+camels should there be sacrificed, and that the pilgrims should then
+return home.
+
+This was accordingly done, and the people went back in some
+disappointment to Medina, where the prophet announced the success of his
+mission in a new passage from the Koran:
+
+"Now hath God verified unto his apostle the vision wherein he said, Ye
+shall surely enter the holy temple of Mecca, if God please, in full
+security."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE SIEGE OF KHAIBAR.--KEDAR.
+
+    "The drying up a single tear has more of honest fame than
+    shedding seas of gore."
+
+
+In the same year, the seventh year of the Hejira, Mohammed made the
+expected attack on Khaïbar. The chief, Kenana, got word of his approach,
+and ordered that the country for miles around the capital should be laid
+waste. For days the long roads leading into the city from every
+direction, swarmed with a moving line of anxious-faced people, driving
+their camels and sheep ahead of them, and leading mules laden with
+household property. Low wagons creaked beneath the weight of fodder for
+the animals, and corn and dates for the people; and the loud "Yákh!
+Yákh!" of the camel-drivers mingled with the thud of the camel-sticks
+falling upon the thick hides of the lazy animals.
+
+Asru was given charge of the expedition for laying waste the country;
+and never was a more considerate destroyer.
+
+"Here, here!" he would cry to an aged man, "let me load that animal for
+you!" and he would lift the heavy burden to the back of the pack-mule,
+while the old man would say, "You are surely a kind soldier after all."
+
+"I will carry this sick girl," he would say, to another, and would lift
+her as gently as a mother and place her in the shugduf in which she was
+to be conveyed to the city.
+
+His spirit of gentleness spread among his men.
+
+"Let us be kind to our friends, men," he would urge upon them. "The day
+is fast coming when we can scarcely be kind to our enemies, be we never
+so willing."
+
+So the people, though sad as they looked back upon their smouldering
+homes and blazing palm trees, were filled with love for the gentle
+soldiers, and went up with a new motive in striking for their liberty,
+for there is naught that will bring forth the strongest powers of action
+like the impulse of love.
+
+Ah, the blight and misery of war! Manasseh looked out from the citadel
+upon the scene which he had deemed so fair--the waving corn-fields, the
+groves of palms and olives and aloes, the nestling houses, the pastures
+covered with flocks--now but a blackened and smoking waste, with here
+and there the skeleton of a palm tree pointing upward like a bony
+finger; and here and there a reeking column of black smoke, or the dull
+glare of a burning homestead.
+
+The people murmured not. "Better let it lie in ashes than permit it to
+fall into the hands of the impostor!" they cried, and they muttered
+curses upon the head of the destroyer of their happiness and prosperity.
+
+All were at last in and the anxious waiting began. Keen eyes peered from
+the citadel night and day. Watchmen were posted at every point of the
+out-works and spies were sent broadcast through the country.
+
+Then the fateful word came. Breathless scouts told of an army fast
+approaching, twelve hundred men and two hundred horse, commanded by the
+prophet himself, his vizier Ali, and his friend Abu Beker.
+
+Al Kamus, the citadel, was immediately crowded with men, and soldiers
+were posted along the walls, neither strong in numbers nor in arms, for
+many were armed but with staves and stones. Desperation was in their
+hearts, and calm, resolute faces looked forth for the advancing host.
+
+Just as the morning sun flashed defiantly from the towers of Al Kamus,
+the Moslem army came in sight. At first it seemed like a moving,
+shapeless mass over the blackened fields,--and as the rising sun fell
+upon it, the moving mass became dotted with glints and lines of silver,
+like the ripple of waves on a sunlit sea; but the watchers recognized
+the deadly import of those bright gleams, and by the flash of scimitars
+and lances were able to compute in a vague way the strength of their
+opponents.
+
+On they came until the stony place called Mansela was reached, and
+there, beneath a great rock, the host halted. The anxious watchers from
+the city could not discern the exact meaning of this, but more than one
+guessed that the halt was made for the offering of ostentatious prayer
+by the prophet.
+
+This indeed was the case. As Mohammed came in full view of the citadel
+he cried out: "There, O believers, is the eyrie to which ye must climb.
+But victory has been promised us. Angels shall again lend us their
+invisible aid. Therefore have courage, O believers! Remember that for
+each of those vile infidels slain, a double joy awaits you in paradise.
+Know ye that every drop of an unbelieving Jew shed is as the crystal
+drops of nectar of paradise to the happy follower of Mohammed, the
+prophet of God. And fear not that ye be slain in this combat, O
+faithful! Ye will not be slain except your appointed time has come, when
+ye must in any case die. Remember that to be slain in battle for the
+cause of Islam is to reap a glorious reward!"
+
+Then, mounting the great rock, he called with a loud voice: "La illaha
+il Allah! Mohammed Resoul Allah!" (There is no God but God! Mohammed is
+the prophet of God!)
+
+And while the fanatics below prostrated themselves he prayed long and
+loudly.
+
+Then the tents were pitched and the siege began. For many days it
+lasted. So abundant had been the supplies of food, and so numerous the
+droves of animals brought into the city, that those within the walls had
+no fear of famine. But so complete was the devastation of the country
+that the prophet's troops began to suffer for want of food. Yet they
+waited, as a suitable time of attack had not arrived. In the meantime
+they were engaged in digging trenches as a protection to the troops.
+
+Manasseh and Asru were much together. They had become like brothers, and
+night after night they met on the citadel and looked out over the
+strange scene that was presented to the inhabitants of Khaïbar every
+evening during the siege. For, daily, just as the sun was setting, the
+whole Moslem army, with the prophet praying loudly at its head, set out
+in solemn procession, then proceeded round and round the city until
+seven circuits were completed, as in Tawaf at the Caaba.
+
+Many among the more superstitious Jews of Khaïbar and their few Koreish
+adherents felt a thrill of awe as they looked upon this ceremony,
+fearing that the prophet was again practicing his arts of enchantment
+upon them; but the performance never failed to bring the smile of scorn
+to Asru's lips.
+
+"Blind fanatics!" he exclaimed one evening. "A precious set of idiots!"
+
+But Manasseh looked serious. "Asru," he said, "of course, I do not
+believe in all this; yet there is a something solemn in it to me. It
+makes me think of the seven circuits made about Jericho, when the
+priests blew upon the trumpets and the walls fell."
+
+"Ah, but the voice of Jehovah gave the order then; now,"--and he smiled
+contemptuously--"the commanding voice is that of Mohammed, the peaceful
+Meccan trader, anon the gentle prophet of Allah, anon the blood-thirsty
+vulture and cut-throat robber, destroyer of life and liberty."
+
+"Verily, Asru the Moslem soldier has completely changed," returned
+Manasseh, smiling.
+
+"Aye, Manasseh, thanks to the peaceful Gospel of Jesus, Asru the Moslem,
+the lover of war, would now fain see this fair land smiling with happy
+homes and peaceful tillers of the soil. What is that about the child and
+the cockatrice?"
+
+"'And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the
+weaned child shall lay its hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not
+hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of
+the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,'" quoted
+Manasseh solemnly.
+
+Asru looked thoughtfully out towards the distant hills, but he did not
+see them. He saw a quiet home in Mecca, where a pale-faced wife, a
+beautiful daughter, and two bright-eyed boys, sat.
+
+"Manasseh," he said at length, "it may be that I shall be killed in this
+battle. If I am and you are spared, go to my wife and children. Tell
+them the Gospel for me. My great regret is that I myself put it off
+until too late. Will you, Manasseh?"
+
+Manasseh pressed his friend's hand warmly. "You may trust me, if I
+live," he said simply. And the soldier was satisfied.
+
+"Manasseh, I am rich," he continued. "See that my wealth is used for the
+best."
+
+Manasseh pressed his hand again, and the tall soldier left him, feeling
+that, whatever happened, this young man's fidelity and integrity could
+be depended upon.
+
+And now the Moslem army began to weary of inaction. Several desultory
+attacks were made by them, and battering-rams were set in play against
+the walls, but with no effect, until a grand attempt was decided upon.
+Night had scarcely faded into morning, and the rock of Mansela still
+stood black and shapeless against a gray sky, when a commotion was seen
+in the Moslem camp. Mohammed's troops no longer made the wild onslaught
+of untrained Bedouin hordes. The experience of scores of engagements had
+taught their leader the necessity of system; and now the host began to
+move in regular order in three main divisions. Above the center one
+floated the sacred flag of the prophet; to the right waved Ali's
+standard, a design of the sun; and to the left fluttered the Black Eagle
+of Abu Beker's division.
+
+The battle began by an assault led by Abu Beker. Scaling-ladders were
+placed, and the Moslems swarmed up the walls, but a desperate band led
+by Al Hareth met them, and the besieging party, after a sharp fight, was
+compelled to withdraw. Shouts of triumph and jeers of derision arose
+from the city walls. The Moslems were frantic. Cries of vengeance were
+heard from their ranks.
+
+Then Ali, shouting, "For God and the prophet!" dashed forward. He was
+dressed in scarlet, and wore a cuirass of steel. Over his head he waved
+the prophet's sword, and at the head of his division floated a sacred
+banner. Straight on he dashed towards a breach in the wall, and there,
+on a pile of loose stones, he fixed the standard.
+
+Al Hareth rushed to the fore, and a desperate, single-handed combat
+ensued. The Moslem army and the garrison of the city alike held their
+breath. The contest was unequal. In a moment Al Hareth had fallen, and a
+mighty cheer burst from the prophet's men.
+
+Manasseh was stationed at the head of a band of horsemen, whom he was
+now with difficulty keeping in check. Yet for a moment he forgot all in
+watching a figure that was ascending the breach.
+
+Whose but Asru's that gigantic form? Whose but Asru's that floating
+turban of white--that helmet in which flashed a diamond placed there by
+Kenana's own hand? Whose but Asru's that clanking sword and that
+three-pronged spear which none but he could wield?
+
+"Surely now the Moslem will waver!" thought the youth; and with bated
+breath he watched this second combat, waged beside the bleeding form of
+Asru's dead brother.
+
+With dauntless air the Moslem awaited the coming of Asru. They closed
+upon each other. The armies looked on, motionless, breathless, the
+combatants struggled, a writhing mass, broken only by the flash of the
+spear and glitter of the lance, as deadly blows were dealt or
+parried--and the sunshine rained from above. The very air seemed to
+stand still in watching, and the clash of every stroke was borne, with
+painful distinctness, to the ears of Asru's friend.
+
+The combat was an equal one, Ali's agility matching well the superior
+strength of his antagonist, and it was not soon over. At last the Moslem
+seemed to stagger.
+
+There, there, Asru, strike! He falls, he falls! There is your advantage!
+Strike! Joy, joy! victory is ours!
+
+But no! Ye gods, what is wrong! Why stands Asru there, helpless? Why
+does he not act? By Allah, he loses time! Ha! his turban end has become
+twisted over his eyes beneath his helmet! Help! Help! Ye gods! Ha! Ali
+rises with a sharp recoil! He strikes! Woe! Woe! Asru is down!
+
+A shout breaks afresh from the Moslem army as the brave Asru's body is
+dragged to one side of the breach. And now the Moslems dash forward like
+an avalanche. The breach widens; the green and yellow turbans swarm
+within the walls. Manasseh's horse dash forward. Over the open square a
+detachment of Moslem horse is spurring, the horsemen bending low as they
+ride, their maddened animals, gorgeous in trappings of scarlet, yellow
+and blue, with tails knotted at the ends, "like unto the heads of
+serpents." With regular sway the long spears swing with the motion of
+the horses.
+
+Clash! The opposing forces meet. Men fall. Horses roll over in the dust.
+Back! Back! The Moslems are in headlong flight! Yet one youth fights on.
+Straight for the young Jewish leader he dashes. Blows rain on each side.
+Some of the Jewish horse close round.
+
+"Keep off, men!" shouts Manasseh. "Would ye attack a man fifty to one?"
+
+Blows fall faster and breath comes in short gasps.
+
+The Moslem's horse gives way beneath him, and falls with a shriek
+backwards. The gallant youth springs to his feet, then throws up his
+arms and falls. His turban drops off from his brow, and, for the first
+time, Manasseh recognizes Kedar.
+
+He turns sick. Is the Moslem dead? No, his heart still beats. "Here,
+men, take him into that house. I will seek him later."
+
+On goes the young leader to a fresh scene of battle. Alas! in the
+meantime the poorly-armed Jews have been everywhere driven back. The
+Moslems have entered the citadel; the Jews give way before them
+everywhere. Even his own hopeful spirit cannot revive them. They are
+seized with a panic and fly, leaving the brave youth almost alone.
+
+Manasseh was soon overpowered, bound, and thrown into the corner of a
+great hall of the citadel, where he lay apparently forgotten, listening,
+with heavy heart, to the shrieks and cries of his countrymen without,
+and to the hum of war, gradually growing fainter, until it ceased, and
+he knew that the conflict was over. The Moslems began to enter the hall,
+among them Mohammed.
+
+The prophet took his seat at the end of the apartment, and presently
+several of the chief citizens were brought in with hands bound. Manasseh
+perceived that a tribunal was being held, and, from his corner, listened
+eagerly to the sentence passed upon each.
+
+It soon appeared that treasure was the prophet's aim. Exorbitant demands
+were made upon the rich merchants, who, pale and trembling, offered
+their all in exchange for their lives. Among the rest, Kenana, with his
+handsome wife, was brought in.
+
+"They tell me, Kenana," said the prophet, "that you have immense wealth
+stored up in this citadel. If you desire your life, inform me where this
+treasure is."
+
+"I have no treasure in the citadel," said Kenana, proudly; "and if I
+had, the apostle of Azazil should not know of it."
+
+The prophet's face colored with passion. "Apostle of Azazil! O
+blasphemer!" he exclaimed. "Do you then thus defy the only, the true
+prophet of Allah?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then we shall see what can be done with a stubborn infidel spirit!"
+returned Mohammed. "Hither! Apply the torture!"
+
+A machine of fiendish invention was applied to the chief's hands. His
+fingers were squeezed until the bones cracked; his veins swelled in
+agony; yet no sound escaped his lips. He could not, or would not, tell
+where the treasure was concealed, and he was handed over to a Moslem
+whose brother Kenana had slain. Manasseh closed his eyes in horror, for
+he knew that Kenana's fate was sealed.
+
+[Illustration: The Moslem's horse gives way beneath him!--See page 76.]
+
+Kenana's wife, Safiya, was taken by Mohammed, and on the homeward march
+she became the wife of the prophet.
+
+Manasseh lay there in great depression of spirit. He was weary in mind
+and cramped in body, and it almost seemed as though he were completely
+forsaken. Yet his ever-present source of comfort returned to him, and
+like a sweet refrain came the words into his mind: "Thou hast been a
+strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge
+from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible
+ones is as a storm against the wall."
+
+The half-starved Moslem troops now began to clamor for food, and the
+defenceless Jewish women were forced to prepare victuals and to serve
+their conquerors. Among these women entered Zaynab, the niece of Asru.
+She placed a shoulder of mutton before the prophet, then went towards
+the door. Perceiving Manasseh in the corner, she severed his bonds with
+a quick stroke of a small dagger, then, shielding him as best she might,
+she bade him begone.
+
+"Have hope!" she whispered in his ear. "I have poisoned the prophet."
+
+Manasseh uttered an exclamation of horror.
+
+"Why not?" she said, with a laugh. "Manasseh fights with a lance, Zaynab
+with poison. Now, fly, ere they see you!"
+
+Manasseh hastened down the dark streets to the house in which Kedar had
+been placed. He found the youth moaning feebly. Hurrying out, he caught
+a couple of stray camels, and fastened a shugduf in its place. Then,
+raising the youth in his strong arms, he laid him in the shugduf, and
+set off in the darkness.
+
+To Mecca he must go. It was a long, weary way. He had little money, and
+the few provisions which a Jewish woman in the house gave him would not
+last long; yet he trusted to Providence, and remembered with
+satisfaction that the dates were now at their ripest. He would nurse
+Kedar tenderly; they would journey in the cool shades of night when
+there was less danger of being stopped on the way. Planning thus, he
+proceeded, as noiselessly as possible, with his precious burden, through
+a gap in the wall, and urged his faithful beasts on in the cool night
+breezes over the blackened plain.
+
+Then he thought of Asru. Asru must not be left to be rudely thrown into
+a grave by infidel hands. There was danger in it, but he must go back.
+Kedar was sleeping. He fixed the camels by a charred palm grove, and
+went back, with flying feet, through the gloom. The towers of Al Kamus
+rose above him, with lights twinkling on the battlements. He wondered if
+the prophet were yet alive and what would be the result to Arabia if he
+were dead. On, on, through the darkness, until the fatal breach was
+reached. It was quite deserted, peopled only by a heap of dead bodies,
+from which, in the night time, the superstitious Arabs shrank in horror.
+Groping among them, he soon came upon Asru's huge form, which he readily
+recognized by its armor. He dragged the precious clay of his friend from
+the mass of dead and brought it, with difficulty, outside of the wall;
+and there beneath a palm tree, he hollowed out a lonely grave,
+loosening the clay with a battle-axe taken from a dead Arab, and
+throwing the clods out with his shield. He then cut a wisp of hair from
+the dead soldier's long locks, placed it in his bosom, kissed the cold
+brow, and uttered a short prayer over the lifeless form. Tenderly he
+placed the body in the shallow grave, and covered it with the clay,
+then, breathing a last farewell, left Asru forever in this life.
+
+In the meantime Mohammed and one of his followers had begun to eat of
+the poisoned mutton. The soldier was ravenous with hunger, and set upon
+the tempting roast with eager relish. Mohammed partook of it more
+slowly.
+
+Suddenly the soldier threw up his arms, and fell back in a convulsion.
+Mohammed started back in consternation. He, too, felt pain, and raised
+the cry of "Poison!" The Moslems came rushing in in great alarm.
+Antidotes were given him, and he shortly recovered, with but a slight
+sensation of burning in his head. The poor soldier was soon stiff in
+death.
+
+Mohammed sent for the woman who had brought him the mutton. She came at
+once.
+
+"Know you who put the poison in this meat?" he asked.
+
+"It was I," she confessed, boldly.
+
+"And how dared you perpetrate so wicked a scheme?"
+
+"If you were a true prophet," she replied, "you would have known that
+the meat was poisoned; if not, it were a favor to Arabia to rid it of
+such a despot."
+
+"See then," exclaimed the prophet, "how Allah hath preserved the life of
+his apostle! Behold, I forgive you. Return to your tribe, and sin not in
+like manner again."
+
+So saying, with one of his strange freaks of magnanimity, he waved her
+off, and soon afterward went to rest.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+MANASSEH AND KEDAR AT MECCA.
+
+    "Home, sweet home."
+
+
+The flame of a smoky oil-dip dimly lighted a spacious room in the house
+of Amzi. At the low table sat Yusuf and his friend with a chart before
+them, anxiously following, with eye and finger, the course of Mohammed's
+northern exploits.
+
+The thoughts of both were with Manasseh. A knock sounded at the bolted
+door. Yusuf opened it, and there, like a cameo in the setting of
+darkness, was the youth himself.
+
+"Manasseh, my son!" cried both in astonishment.
+
+He stepped in, now laughing, now brushing tears from his eyes. "There!"
+he said, freeing himself from their embraces, "I have one more surprise.
+I come like a grandee, bearing my company in a litter. Help me bring him
+in."
+
+They stepped out, and Manasseh's second face, that of Kedar, peered from
+the curtains of the shugduf. None the less warm was the greeting
+extended to the Moslem, whose weak and trembling frame was an instant
+call upon their sympathy.
+
+"Now," said Manasseh, piling up a heap of cushions, in his impetuous
+way, "get us some supper, will you not? I can eat my own share, and half
+of Kedar's. Like the birds, he takes but a peck at a time."
+
+Supper was ordered, and soon attendants entered bearing platters, until
+the copper table was burdened with the most tempting dishes of
+Mecca--roast of spiced lamb, slices of juicy melon and cucumber,
+pyramids of rice, pomegranates, grapes of Tayf, sweetmeats, fragrant
+draughts of coffee.
+
+Kedar watched with a languid smile. The peace of this quiet home life
+affected him almost to tears. Strange had been his emotions when he
+awoke to consciousness in the shugduf, alone with Manasseh, in the
+wilderness--feelings first of indignation, then of gratitude, then of
+admiration for Manasseh, in whom he now discovered the leader of the
+Jewish horse. And on the way this admiration had ripened into love for
+the unselfish Jewish youth.
+
+The weariness of the long journey began to tell upon him now, and he was
+glad that he was among friends. He could eat but little, and was content
+to listen to Manasseh's bright talk, and to watch him as, with flashing
+eye and eloquent gesture, he fought over again the Battle of Khaïbar, or
+when, with hushed tone and tearful eye, he told of the death of Asru,
+and his lonely burial.
+
+"I must seek his widow and his children," said he. "This is all I have
+brought them;" and he drew the tangled, blood-stained lock of hair from
+his bosom.
+
+Silence fell on the little group as they looked upon it, then Yusuf's
+tones, falling like the low, deep cadence of a chant, repeated the
+words:
+
+"And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb
+shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his
+face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no
+night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the
+Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign forever and forever."
+
+"Amen!" responded Amzi, fervently. And Manasseh looked out of the window
+towards the bright heavens above Abu Kubays, imagining that he could see
+Asru, clad in shining apparel, with a happy smile on his lips, and the
+courageous eyes of old looking forth with a new love-light from his
+radiant countenance.
+
+"Do you know his family?" he asked.
+
+"Ah, yes; they are now regular attendants at the Christian church. They
+have destroyed all their household gods."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Manasseh, "is this true! How I wish Asru had known it!
+What joy it would have given him!"
+
+Amzi smiled. "Dare you think, Manasseh, that he does not know it long
+ere this,--that he did not know it even at the breach of Khaïbar? I like
+to think that our Asru now has a spiritual body wholly independent of
+time or space, capable of transporting itself whenever and wherever the
+mind dictates."
+
+"We cannot know these things as they are, in this time," remarked Yusuf.
+"But the day is not very far distant now, Amzi, when you and I shall
+explore these mysteries for ourselves."
+
+So the talk went on. Kedar listened with interest. He thought it a
+curious conversation, and felt so strangely out of place that it seemed
+as though he were dreaming, and listening to the talk of genii.
+
+Next morning he was in a decided fever. Then came long days of pain and
+nights of delirium, in which Manasseh and his two friends hovered like
+ministering spirits about the youth, whose wounds had healed only to
+give place to disease far more deadly. In those terrible nights of
+burning heat his parched tongue swelled so that he could scarcely
+swallow; he tossed in agony, now fancying himself chained to a rock
+unable to move, while the prophet urged him on to the heights above
+where the battle was raging; now imagining himself fastened near a
+burning furnace whose flames were fed by the bodies of those whom he had
+slain. He would cry out in terror, and beads of perspiration would start
+upon his forehead. He lived the whole war over again, and his only rest
+was at times when, partially conscious, he felt kindly hands placing
+cool bandages on his burning head, or gently fanning his face.
+
+The time at last came when he sank into a heavy sleep, and awoke calling
+"Mother."
+
+It was Manasseh who came, almost startled by the naturalness of the
+tone.
+
+"I have been very ill, Manasseh?"
+
+"Very."
+
+"Long?"
+
+"For weeks. But you must not talk. You will soon be well now."
+
+The invalid closed his eyes, not to sleep, but to think. Presently he
+opened them.
+
+"Manasseh, if I had died, would I have seen Asru?"
+
+Manasseh was embarrassed. "I--I cannot say," he stammered. "I do not
+know you well enough to be sure."
+
+"You do not think I should. I do not think so either," he returned
+decidedly, and closed his eyes again.
+
+In a few days he was able to talk.
+
+"Manasseh, did I hear Yusuf praying for me once when I was ill?"
+
+"He prayed for you every day,--not only that you might be spared to us,
+but that you might come to know Jesus, and to reject Mohammed."
+
+"I do not think that I ever accepted him--that is, in a religious
+sense," he returned.
+
+Manasseh's eyes opened wide in astonishment. "Then why did you follow
+him?" he asked.
+
+"Because, I suppose, his successes dazzled me. It seemed a grand thing
+to be a hero in the war--to ride, and charge, and drive all before me.
+Aye, Manasseh, it is after the war that the scales fall from one's
+eyes."
+
+"How could you, then, follow one whom you did not accept, and must,
+therefore, have deemed an impostor?"
+
+"I tell you, Manasseh, I gave little heed to matters of religion. For
+the first time, during the last few days, I have thought of a religious
+life, or of a hereafter, as I lay here feeling that but for you and your
+friends, I should even now be in the unknown land beyond the grave."
+
+Manasseh talked long and earnestly to the now convalescent youth. Yusuf
+and Amzi too talked gently to him when he seemed inclined to hear, but,
+in his present weak state, they deemed that the consciousness of living
+in a godly house would appeal more strongly than words of theirs. The
+weeks passed on, yet he gave no indication that their hopes were being
+realized. Once indeed he said:
+
+"Manasseh, would that I had had a godly training such as yours!"
+
+"Did your mother not tell you of these things?"
+
+Kedar shook his head. "My poor mother drifted away from her early
+training in our half-heathen Bedouin atmosphere," he said. "The
+Bedouins know little of Christ. They have traditions of the creation, of
+the deluge, and such old-time stories; in all else they are almost
+heathen. When I am well, Manasseh, we will go to them--to my father--and
+you will tell them, Manasseh?"
+
+Manasseh nodded a smiling assent.
+
+It was with no little trepidation that Yusuf and Amzi watched for some
+sign of spiritual growth in the young Bedouin. As the days wore on, and
+he was able to get about, though still weak, he was willing to attend
+the Christian meetings; but he sat in silence, and persisted in wearing
+the garb of a Moslem. The friends did not understand his attitude. They
+did not recognize the sort of petulant shamefacedness that hindered him
+from coming forth boldly in defence of principles which he fully
+endorsed in his secret heart, and made him fear to cut himself loose
+from the side on which he had taken so bold a stand, lest the epithet of
+"turncoat," be fixed upon him. Kedar had not yet been touched by that
+"live coal" which alone can set man in touch with God, and free him from
+all human restrictions. But though he said little, he was thinking
+deeply. He was not indifferent; and there is ever great room for hope
+where there is not indifference.
+
+And while the little Meccan household was thus engrossed in its own
+circle, momentous events were happening without the capital.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+INTERVENING EVENTS.
+
+
+During the months that followed, Mohammed still went on in his career of
+conquest--a course rendered easier day by day, as his enemies were now
+weak indeed. The tribes of Watiba, Selalima and Bedr speedily gave way
+before him, but were permitted to remain in their homes upon the
+payment of a heavy yearly tribute.
+
+He made one more pilgrimage to Mecca, and on this occasion the Koreish,
+in accordance with the truce, offered no resistance; hence for three
+days the prophet and his shaven followers walked the streets of Mecca,
+and performed Tawaf at the Temple.
+
+Mohammed found the Caaba still desecrated by idols, and, while pressing
+his lips to the sacred Black Stone, he solemnly vowed to conquer Mecca
+and to remove the pollution of images from the floor of the sanctuary.
+
+In the meantime, the prophet enticed many of the most prominent families
+of Mecca to his standard. By his marriage with the aunt of Khaled Ibn
+Waled he secured the alliance of that famous soldier; and by marrying
+Omm Habiba, daughter of Abu Sofian, he hoped to gain the friendship of
+his ancient and inveterate enemy.
+
+But time seemed to lag, and his restless spirit soon set itself to look
+about for some pretext by which he might attack Mecca. A casual skirmish
+of a few soldiers of the Koreish with a detachment of his soldiers gave
+the necessary excuse, and he at once charged the Koreish with having
+broken the truce. They were anxious to make overtures of peace, but
+Mohammed would listen to nothing.
+
+All saw plainly that no concessions would conciliate a conqueror thus
+bent upon hostility, and the attitude of Mecca became that of a patient
+waiting, a dread looking for a surely impending calamity ready to fall
+at any hour.
+
+And yet, when it did come, the Meccans were not expecting it, so silent,
+so sudden was the swoop of the conqueror. Every road leading to Mecca
+was barred by Mohammed, so that none might tell of his plans. All his
+allies received a mysterious summons to meet him at a point some
+distance from Mecca, and they came none the less readily that they did
+not know why they were thus assembled.
+
+With a host of ten thousand men, Mohammed set out over the barren
+plains, and through the defiles of the mountains. Like a vast funeral
+procession the long train wound its way in a silence broken only by the
+dull tread of the beasts and the whispered ejaculations of the soldiers.
+In the night they reached the appointed valley. Lines of men came
+pouring in from every side, and at last, as a signal to all the rest,
+Omar, the chief in command, gave the order that the watch-fires be
+lighted,--and at once every summit sent up its spire of flame.
+
+The citizens of Mecca were stricken with awe.
+
+"I myself will go and see what this means," said Abu Sofian; and with a
+single companion he set out over the hills. As they stood in sight of
+the great host below, the step of men sounded near them. They were
+seized as spies, and hurried off to the tent of Omar.
+
+The bright light of Omar's camp-fire revealed the white hair and
+flashing eye of the grim old warrior.
+
+"By the prophet of Allah! Ye have brought in a rich prize!" exclaimed
+Omar, and his dagger flashed in the firelight as he drew it to plunge
+into Abu Sofian's bosom. But deliverance was near. Out from the darkness
+galloped Al Abbas, uncle of Mohammed, mounted on the prophet's white
+mule. He caught the Meccan up with him, and hastened off to the tent of
+the prophet.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Mohammed, "you have come at last, Abu Sofian, to
+acknowledge the supremacy of the prophet of Allah?"
+
+"I come," said Abu Sofian surlily, "to beg mercy for my people."
+
+"Will you, then, acknowledge Mohammed as the prophet of God? Do this,
+Abu Sofian, and thy life shall be spared, and terms of peace granted to
+all Meccans who are willing to follow their leader's example."
+
+Abu Sofian gave a surly assent, and was set free. Favorable terms for
+the inhabitants of the city were then presented to him; and, that he
+might be able to take back with him a full account of the strength of
+the prophet's army, he was placed with Al Abbas at the head of a narrow
+defile, through which the whole army, with fluttering banners and
+proudly flapping standards, passed before him.
+
+Even the stern old warrior stood aghast at the mighty multitude. He
+returned to the city, and, from the roof of the Caaba, once more
+assembled the people of Mecca. Then, while they listened, with bowed
+heads and heaving sobs, he told them of the great host, of the
+uselessness of resistance, and of the terms offered in case of
+submission. To this course, humiliating as it was, he strongly urged
+them. Silent in despair, or weeping wildly, they returned to their
+homes, and that night the darkness which fell seemed like a pall upon
+the stricken city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE TRIUMPHANT ENTRANCE INTO MECCA.
+
+    "One murder made a villain; millions, a hero."--_Porteus._
+
+
+Upon the following morning ere the sun rose, a deputation was sent to
+the prophet to inform him that his terms had been accepted.
+
+The people of Mecca were curious to note the triumphant entrance of the
+great conqueror. Many, indeed, threw themselves upon their faces in
+agony of lost hope; but the housetops swarmed with people, and the side
+of Abu Kubays was moving with a dense crowd of women and children, who,
+at a safe distance, watched for the strange pageant.
+
+The prophet was allowed to enter the borders of the town unmolested, but
+when the deserter, Khaled Ibn Waled, appeared, the rage of the Koreish
+knew no bounds; a howl of derision arose, and an ungovernable mob fired
+straight upon him with their arrows. Khaled dashed upon them with sword
+and lance, but Mohammed, noting the commotion, rode up and ordered him
+to desist.
+
+The mêlée subsided, and, just as the sun rose over Abu Kubays, the
+conqueror entered the city. He was habited in scarlet, and mounted upon
+a large Syrian camel; and, as he rode, followed by the whole host of his
+army, he repeated aloud passages from the Koran.
+
+Straight on towards the Caaba he went, looking neither to right nor to
+left. Its gates were thrown open before him, and the vast procession,
+with the prophet at its head, performed Tawaf about the temple. Then,
+ere the mighty trampling ceased, Mohammed entered the Caaba--that Caaba
+in which he had been spat upon and covered with mud thrown by derisive
+hands. Little wonder that he felt his triumph complete!
+
+Three hundred and sixty idols still stared from the walls of the temple,
+and, ere night fell, not an image remained to pollute an edifice in
+which, if in ever so blind a manner, the name of the living God had been
+once mentioned.
+
+Mohammed then took his stand upon the little hill Al Safa, and gave the
+command that every man, woman, and child in Mecca, save those detained
+by illness, should pass before him.
+
+Kedar found his weakness a sufficient reason for remaining at home, but
+Yusuf, Amzi, and Manasseh were forced to join the long procession.
+
+One by one, the inhabitants knelt before the victor, renouncing idolatry
+and declaring their fealty to him as their governor and spiritual head.
+But a few among the Christian Jews refused to acknowledge him as the
+prophet of God.
+
+"As conqueror we accept you," they said; "as subjects we will obey you
+in all that does not interfere with our worship of the true God, and his
+Son, the Christ. But as Mohammed prophet of God, we will not acknowledge
+you."
+
+The prophet, however, was in a lenient frame of mind. At no time a cruel
+tyrant when victory was once assured, he was still less inclined to be
+so upon a day when everything augured so favorably for the future.
+Moreover, when it seemed to him practicable, Mohammed delighted in
+showing mercy. This trait is but one of the incomprehensible features of
+his strange, contradictory character.
+
+"So be it," he returned, graciously. "I give you your lives and
+property. They are a gift from the prophet ye despise. Yet, lest ye be
+stirrers up of sedition, I enjoin you to leave the city with what
+expedition ye will. Go where ye please, provided it be out of my
+dominions; take what time ye need to settle your affairs, and dispose of
+your property; then, in the name of Allah, I bid you good speed."
+
+The Jews, among them Yusuf and Amzi, passed thankfully on. A tall,
+gaunt, Bedouin woman, with flashing eyes and hands showing like the
+claws of a vulture beneath her black robe, came next. It was Henda in
+disguise.
+
+"What!" exclaimed the prophet, with a smile, "has Abu Sofian taken to
+the hills again, that his wife thus comes in Bedouin garb?"
+
+Henda, seeing that her disguise was penetrated, fell at his feet
+imploring for pardon.
+
+"I forgive you freely," he said, raising her to her feet. "You will now
+acknowledge your prophet?"
+
+"Never!" cried the Koreish woman.
+
+"Boldly said!" returned Mohammed. "The wife of Abu Sofian doth not
+readily follow in the path of her master. He has trained her but poorly.
+Yet, go in peace, O daughter of the Koreish, and know that the prophet
+of Islam has a merciful heart."
+
+Thus passed the whole long day until the stars shone through the blue;
+and Mohammed went to rest, serene in his triumph, yet troubled by bodily
+pain, for, ever since he had eaten the poisoned mutton at Khaïbar, his
+health had been steadily declining.
+
+In a few days he returned to Medina. A fresh revelation of the Koran,
+commending fully his doctrine of the sword, was there proclaimed from
+the mosque; and to Khaled was given the task of subjugating the
+remaining tribes.
+
+The prophet's health now began to give way rapidly, and he resolved upon
+a last pilgrimage to the holy city. In the month Ramadhan, at the head
+of one hundred thousand men, the mightiest expedition he had ever led,
+he started for Mecca. He rode in a litter, and about him were his nine
+wives, also seated in litters; while, at the rear of the procession,
+trudged a great array of camels destined for sacrifice, and gayly
+decorated with ribbons and flowers.
+
+About a day's journey from Mecca, at twilight, the vast host met the
+troops of Ali, returning from an expedition into Yemen, and these
+immediately turned with the pilgrimage. It was a weird and impressive
+scene. In the night, the augmented host now pressed onward, with
+increased impatience, over a plain strewn with basaltic drift. The soft
+thud of padded feet sounded over the hard ground. Huge camels loomed
+shapelessly through the uncertain haze. No voice of mirth or singing
+arose from the vast assemblage, but the night-wind sighed through the
+ribs of the scant-leaved acacias above, and stooped to blow the red
+flames of the torches back in a smoky glare; while, here and there, a
+more pretentious light, issuing from between the curtains of a shugduf,
+shed a passing gleam upon the dusky faces of the pilgrims, plodding like
+eerie genii of the night over the barren wilds.
+
+Next morning, the host reached Mecca. The prophet once more entered the
+sacred court-yard of the temple, and was borne sadly about the Caaba in
+Tawaf. Then, weak as he was, he insisted upon taking part in the
+sacrificial ceremony. With his own hand he slew sixty-three camels, one
+for each year of his life. Then he ascended the pulpit and preached to
+the people.
+
+Upon his return to Medina, he preached again from the mosque, enjoining
+upon the faithful strict compliance with the form of worship set forth
+in the Koran and by the example of the prophet--the giving of alms;
+prayer towards the kebla; the performance of Tawaf, and ablutions at
+Zem-Zem; prostration prayers at the Caaba, and all the rites of
+pilgrimage. Thus did Mohammed formulate the rules for the future
+guidance of the Moslem world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+KEDAR AT THE CAABA.
+
+
+Once more the shades of night hung over the Eastern world. And there,
+while the hush of slumber fell upon the hills of the North, the cities
+of the South awoke to life and bustle, for during the earlier half of
+the hours of darkness the Oriental awakes from the lethargy of the day,
+and really begins to live. The moon, almost at full, and glowing like a
+silver orb on a purple sea, rose slowly over the black top of Abu
+Kubays, tipping its crest with a shimmering line of light, and throwing
+its radiance across the vale below, where all lay shapeless in shade
+save the top of the huge temple, which, with its pall-like kiswah
+(curtain), arose like a bier above the low houses about it. Upon it the
+moonbeams fell with solemn, white light, and the young man standing
+alone by one of the pillars of the portico felt a thrill of awe as he
+looked upon the mysterious structure, and thought of the great antiquity
+of the institution.
+
+For the moment, lost in contemplation, he was oblivious to the swarming
+of the dusky multitudes now pouring into the court-yard on all sides.
+Then, as the increasing hum fell upon his ears, he gave them his
+attention. It was the scene of which he had so often heard, and upon
+which he now looked for the first time. There were the people at Tawaf,
+walking, running, or standing with upturned eyes, sanctimoniously
+repeating passages of the Koran; there were the frantic few clinging to
+the great folds of the kiswah, as though its contact procured for them
+eternal salvation; there were the crowds gulping down copious draughts
+of the brackish water of Zem-Zem, or pouring it upon their heads.
+
+There, too, within a stone's throw of the temple, were the busy stalls
+of the venders, whence issued cries of:
+
+"Cucumbers! Cucumbers O!"
+
+"Grapes! Grapes!--luscious and juicy with the crystal dews of Tayf!
+Grapes, O faithful!"
+
+"Who will buy cloth of Damascus, rich and fit for a king? Come, buy thy
+lady a veil! Buy a veil to screen her charms blooming as the rosy light
+of morn, to screen her hair black as midnight shades on the hills of
+Nejd, and her eyes sparkling like diamonds of Oman!"
+
+"O water! Precious water from Zem-Zem! Water to wash away thy sin, and
+help thee into Paradise! O believer, buy water of Zem-Zem!"
+
+And there, beneath the twinkling lights of the portico, sat a group of
+Abyssinian girls, waiting to be sold as slaves.
+
+As the youth looked upon it all with no little curiosity he observed the
+crowd give way before a man clothed wholly in white, who proceeded
+directly to the Caaba and, pausing beneath the door, gave utterance to a
+loud prayer, while the people about fell prostrate on the ground. Then,
+in a loud voice, he commanded that the stair be brought. Attendants
+hastened to roll the bulky structure into its place, and the priest, or
+guardian of the temple, ascended, and received from his attendants
+several buckets of water which he carried into the edifice.
+
+Presently, small streams began to trickle from the doorway, and the
+guardian's white vestments again appeared, as he proceeded to sweep the
+water out, dashing it far over the steps. The people rushed beneath it,
+crowding over one another in their anxiety holding their upturned faces
+towards it and counting themselves blessed if a drop of it fell upon
+them. It was the ceremony of washing the Caaba.
+
+[Illustration: "Be not discouraged, my son," was Yusuf's reply.--See
+page 87.]
+
+The youth beside the pillar, though he wore Moslem garb, looked on in
+contempt; and, barely waiting for the conclusion of the ceremony, walked
+proudly from the enclosure, merely pausing to examine somewhat
+critically the Black Stone, which, deserted for the moment, was visible
+in the red light of a torch above. Then, passing through the nearest
+gate, he walked, rather feebly, towards the house of Amzi.
+
+Yusuf, wearied after a long day's work, was resting upon the carpeted
+Mastabah (platform) which forms a part of the vestibule of every
+comfortable house in Mecca. There was no light in the apartment save
+that afforded by the dim glimmer of a fire-pan, over which bubbled
+a fragrant urn of coffee. His thoughts had been wandering back over
+the events of his changeful life; events which would culminate, as
+far as his immediate history was concerned, in his early banishment
+from this city of his adoption. The little Jewish band would go
+together--precisely where, they did not know,--Amzi, Manasseh, the
+family of Asru, a few other devoted souls, and, it was to be hoped,
+Kedar.
+
+Yusuf's thoughts dwelt upon Kedar. To-night he seemed to feel a sweet
+assurance that his prayers in the youth's behalf were soon to be
+answered; and, in the darkness, he cried out for the lad's salvation,
+until the blessed Lord seemed so near that he almost fancied he could
+put forth his hand and feel the strong, loving, helping touch of Him who
+said, "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of
+mine.... And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I
+must bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold,
+and one shepherd."
+
+A step sounded on the door-stone, and the very youth of whom Yusuf was
+thinking entered.
+
+"Well, my Kedar," said the priest, "have you been enjoying the moon?"
+
+"I have been to the Caaba," returned Kedar, with amused contempt in his
+voice, "yet I have neither swung by the kiswah nor drenched myself, like
+a rain-draggled hen, at Zem-Zem."
+
+"And you have not kissed the Black Stone?"
+
+"Neither have I kissed the stone. By my faith, if it has become
+blackened by the kiss of sinners, those poor simpletons caress it in
+vain! On the word of a Bedouin, it can hold no more, since it is as
+black as well may be already."
+
+"The worship of our little church, then, suits you better?" The priest's
+tone scarcely concealed the anxiety with which he asked the question.
+
+"You seem to worship in truth," returned the youth, solemnly. "You seem
+to find a comfort in your service which these poor blindlings seek in
+vain. Aye, Yusuf, in living among you I have noted the peaceful tenor of
+your lives, the rest and confidence which nothing seems to overthrow.
+You rejoice in life, yet you do not fear death! Could such a life be
+mine, I would gladly accept it. But I do not seem to be one of you."
+
+The priest made no reply for a moment. Kedar did not know that he was
+praying for the fit word. Then his deep, tender tones broke the silence.
+
+"You believe in Jesus, whom we love?"
+
+"I believe that he was the Son of God; that he lived on the very hills
+to the north of us; that he died to reveal to us the greatness of his
+love. Yet--" He paused.
+
+"'Whosoever believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,'" said Yusuf in
+a low tone.
+
+"I know, but--" the youth hesitated again.
+
+"But what, Kedar?" asked the priest.
+
+"Jesus said to Nicodemus," returned the youth, "'Except a man be born
+again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.' Yusuf, this is what bothers
+me. I cannot understand this being born again."
+
+"Let us call it, then, just 'beginning to love and trust Jesus,'" said
+Yusuf quietly.
+
+Kedar almost started in his surprise. This aspect of the question had
+never appeared to him before. For a long time he sat, deep in thought,
+and Yusuf did not break in upon his meditations.
+
+"Is that all?" he asked at length.
+
+"That is all," returned Yusuf. "To trust him you must believe in him,
+love him, recognize his love, and leave everything to his
+guidance--everything in this physical life, in your spiritual life, and
+in the life to come. Then you will find peace. All your days will be
+spent in a loving round of happy labor, in which no work seems low or
+trifling--happy because love to Jesus begets the wish to do his will in
+every affair of life; and perfect love renders service, not a bondage,
+but the joyful spontaneity of freedom."
+
+Kedar was again silent, then he said slowly:
+
+"Yusuf, I begin to understand it all now; yet--is there something wrong
+still?--I have not the overpowering thrill of joy, the exuberance of
+feeling, the wondrous rapture of delight, which Amzi says he
+experienced, when, in the prison of Medina, he saw the light."
+
+"Be not discouraged, my son," was the reply. "To different temperaments,
+in religion as in all else, the truth appeals in different ways. If you
+are trusting implicitly now in God's love, go on without doubt or fear.
+Most Christians--growing Christians--find that at different stages in
+their experience certain truths stand out more clearly, and, as the days
+go by, their difficulties clear away like mists before the morning sun."
+
+"Yusuf, can I ever become such a Christian as you?" returned Kedar, in a
+half-awed tone at the thought.
+
+"My son, look not on me," returned Yusuf, tenderly. "Strive only to
+perceive Jesus in all your life, to find him a reality to you--a
+companion, ever with you, walking by your side in the hot mart, riding
+by you in the desert, sitting by you in solitude,--then, where he is,
+evil cannot come. Your life will become all upright, conscientious, and
+loving, for his life will show through yours."
+
+"And do temptations never come to those so blessed?"
+
+"Ah, yes, Kedar, so long as life lasts 'our adversary, the devil, goeth
+about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.' Yet, think you
+that the God who 'stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, who layeth
+the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his
+chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who maketh his angels
+spirits, his ministers a naming fire'--think you that such an One is not
+able to stand between you and the tempter? Think you that he before whom
+devils cried out in fear, is not able to deliver you from the power of
+evil? Kedar, know that the Christian may even glory in his own weakness,
+for Jesus has said, 'My strength is made perfect in weakness;' and yet,
+while thus feeling his helplessness, the believer must ever be conscious
+of the unconquerable strength of Christ, and should rest serene in the
+knowledge that, clothed in the full armor of God, he is able to
+withstand all the darts of the wicked one."
+
+Kedar said no more, but from that hour his humility, his patience, his
+gentleness, began to show forth as the outcome of the power of that
+working of the Spirit, whose fruit is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
+gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+KEDAR RETURNS TO HIS HOME.
+
+    "Death exempts not a man from being, but only presents an
+    alteration."--_Bacon._
+
+
+When Kedar left Yusuf on that memorable night it was not to sleep. He
+ascended the stair and went out upon the hanging balcony, where he could
+look at the sky and the mountains, and ponder over the conversation of
+the evening. His was not the excitable, rapturous joy experienced by
+many, but a feeling of quiet contentment that settled upon his soul, and
+brought a calm smile to his features.
+
+So he sat, when Manasseh burst upon him exclaiming, "What! my invalid
+able to stay up all the night as well as half the day! Come, listen to
+me! I have news!"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"This evening a courier from Medina arrived in the city. He has with him
+a proclamation requiring all unsubmissive Jews to leave Mecca by
+to-morrow night at the latest."
+
+"So soon!" exclaimed Kedar. "Where are they to go?"
+
+"I have just talked with Yusuf, and with Amzi, who, poor fat man! is
+trying to get a little sleep in the fresh air of the housetop. They
+propose that we join my father's family in Palestine. Of course, I do
+not object!" added the youth, with a smile.
+
+"Think you it will be safe for so small a band to face the dangers of
+the desert alone?" asked Kedar.
+
+"A caravan leaves for Damascus to-morrow," replied Manasseh.
+"Fortunately we may obtain its protection."
+
+"Good! Then I shall turn aside to the table-lands of Nejd and see my
+parents again," said Kedar.
+
+"Think you your parents would join our band?"
+
+Kedar shook his head. "Not likely. You see my father has lived all his
+days as a Bedouin. To be tied down to commerce he would consider a
+degradation. Neither would he become a shepherd, as watching sheep is a
+task held fit for women only in our tribe."
+
+"And will you stay with them, Kedar?" asked Manasseh.
+
+"I know not. We will see what the future has in store; but, at any
+rate," he added, half slyly, "your cousin Kedar will wear the Moslem
+turban no more."
+
+The tone, rather than the words, told all. Manasseh took a quick, sharp
+look at the face smiling quietly in the moonlight, then he seized
+Kedar's hand warmly and whispered, "I am glad."
+
+The following day was spent in packing and bidding adieux. Yusuf and
+Amzi passed the last hours among their poor, and, from the housetop,
+Kedar and Manasseh saw them returning in the evening, followed by a
+ragged crowd who clung to their gowns or wiped tearful eyes with
+tattered sleeves.
+
+The sun went down as the caravan left the city, and on an eminence
+above, the little Jewish band stopped to take a last look at their old
+home--Mecca, with its low houses, its crooked streets, its mystic Caaba,
+and its weird mountain scenery.
+
+All gray it lay beneath the shades of falling night; yet, as they
+looked, a wondrous change ensued. Gradually the landscape began to
+brighten; the houses shone forth; the aloe trees became green; the side
+of Abu Kubays sparkled with a seemingly self-emitted light; the rocks of
+the red mountain were dyed with a rosy glow; the Caaba grew more and
+more distinct, until even the folds of its kiswah were visible; and the
+sand of the narrow valley shone, beneath a saffron sky above, with a
+coppery radiance. It was the wondrous "after-glow" of the Orient,--a
+scene unique in its beauty, yet not often beheld in so sheltered a spot
+as Mecca.
+
+The exiles, with tearful eyes, looked upon the fair landscape, which
+thus seemed to bid them an inanimate farewell. Then, as the glow paled
+and the rocks again took their sombre hue, and the city faded in
+redoubled shadow, the little band turned slowly away, and followed in
+the wake of the caravan now winding through the pass at some distance.
+
+The Hebrew band consisted of twenty souls, among whom were Sherah, the
+daughter of Asru, and her mother, and the old white-haired man Benjamin,
+who had preached in the church and had become a father indeed to Asru's
+family.
+
+Needless to speak of the long, tedious journey. Suffice it to say that,
+while the caravan wound through the north of El Hejaz, Kedar and
+Manasseh turned aside to the fresher plateaux of the Nejd, and the
+Bedouin once more found himself amid the scenes of his boyhood.
+
+His spirits rose as the cool breeze from the plains struck him. The
+vision of sweet home--sweet to the roving Bedouin as to the pampered
+child of luxury--rose before him, and he urged his horse on with an
+ever-increasing anxiety.
+
+From neighboring tribes they found out the way to Musa's present
+encampment, then, spurring their horses on over a crisp plain, and
+beguiling the time with many a laugh and jest, they proceeded in the
+direction indicated, until, in a broad valley, the circle of tents lay
+before them.
+
+"Come, Manasseh," said Kedar, "let us give them a surprise. Let us take
+a turn up yonder hill and swoop down upon them like a falcon."
+
+"Agreed!" quoth Manasseh; and, with almost childish pleasure, they
+proceeded to make a short detour, and then galloped rapidly down from
+the hill-crest.
+
+The encampment was strangely quiet.
+
+"What is the matter, Manasseh?" asked Kedar. "There is scarcely anyone
+about."
+
+A few dogs now set up a savage barking, and a man came out with a heavy
+whip and drove them, yelping, away.
+
+"What is wrong, Tema?" asked Kedar, anxiously.
+
+"Alas, my young master," said the man, "your father will soon be no
+more."
+
+The youth sprang to the ground and entered the chief's tent. There lay
+the brave old Sheikh, dying, as he had scorned to die, in his bed, with
+pallid face and closed eyes, his gray hair damp and tangled, and his
+grizzled beard descending upon his brawny chest, from which the folds of
+his garments were drawn back. About him knelt his wife and children.
+Lois raised a tear-stained face to her son, then buried it again in her
+hands. Kedar threw himself beside the couch. The old man's lips moved.
+
+"Aha!" cried he, "it is blood-revenge! Mizni, bold chief, I have you
+now! Yes, fly up to your eyrie among the rocks, if you can. I shall
+reach you there! Blood must be spilled. My honor! My honor!"
+
+He was thinking of a fray of his youth in which he had paid the dues of
+blood for an only brother. Again, he seemed to be dashing on in the
+chase.
+
+"On, on, Zebe!" he cried, in a hoarse whisper, "on, good steed! The
+quarry is ahead there! See the falcon swoop! Good steed, on!"
+
+His voice was growing fainter, yet he continued to wave his arms
+feebly, and to move his lips in inaudible muttering. Once more the words
+became distinct:
+
+"Here, Kedar, little man! Let father put you on his horse. There, boy,
+there! You will make a son for a Bedouin to be proud of!"
+
+A tear rolled down Kedar's cheek as the dying man thus pictured a happy
+scene of his childhood. "Poor old father!" he murmured. "Manasseh, it is
+hard to see him die thus godlessly. Had I but come sooner!"
+
+The old Sheikh's breath came shorter. His hand moved more feebly; he
+turned his head uneasily and opened his eyes.
+
+He fixed them upon his son with a look of consciousness. His face
+brightened.
+
+"Dear father," whispered the youth, and kissed his cheek.
+
+A smile spread over the old man's face. His lips formed the words "My
+son!" His eyes closed, and the old Bedouin was dead.
+
+The women broke into a low wail, and Kedar, with a tenderness not of the
+old time, strove to comfort his mother. The rites of anointing the body
+for burial were performed, and all through the evening the different
+members of the tribe gathered mournfully in to take a last look at the
+brave old leader.
+
+When night fell Kedar went out; the atmosphere of the tent seemed to
+choke him. Manasseh stood silently by his side. The wail of the women
+sounded in a low burial-song from within, and groups of men, talking in
+whispers, gathered before the door.
+
+Kedar stood with folded arms and head thrown back, looking upon the
+heavens. A star fell. Every Bedouin bowed his head, for the Arabs
+believe that when a star falls a soul ascends to paradise.
+
+"Manasseh," said Kedar in a low tone, "I cannot let them bury him. They
+would do it with half-heathen rites."
+
+"Can none among all these conduct Christian service?"
+
+"Not one. My mother is the only one who knows aught of Christianity."
+
+"Then," said Manasseh, "if you will let me, I shall offer prayers above
+his grave."
+
+"No, Manasseh," said Kedar decidedly, "these people would resent it in
+a stranger. I shall do it; they will grant me the privilege as the right
+of a son."
+
+"And rightly," exclaimed Manasseh, surprised and pleased at the
+staunchness with which his cousin took his new stand.
+
+On the following day the funeral wound slowly up the defile to the place
+of the lonely grave. And there Kedar prayed simply and earnestly, a
+prayer in which the spiritual enlightenment of the sorrowful people
+about him was the chief theme. They did not understand all its meaning,
+but they were impressed by the solemnity and sincerity of the young
+Arab's manner.
+
+Then the little heap of sand was raised, and four stone slabs were
+placed, according to Bedouin custom, upon the grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE DEATH OF MOHAMMED.
+
+    "Nothing can we call our own but death"--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+While Musa thus lay dying in the tents of Nejd, the cold hand of death
+was fast closing upon another in the land of Arabia. Day by day the
+germs of disease pulsed stronger and stronger through the veins of
+Mohammed. Monarch of Arabia, originator of a creed which was eventually
+to push itself throughout Egypt, India, Afghanistan, Persia, and even to
+the wild steppes of Siberia, he must now die. He viewed the end with
+firmness, and it has been a matter of controversy as to whether in these
+later days he still had the hallucination of being a prophet.
+
+Too feeble to walk to the mosque, he lay, tended by his wives, in the
+tent of Ayesha, his favorite. Not many days before his death he asked
+that he might be carried to the mosque. Willing arms bore him thither,
+and placed him in the pulpit, from whence he could look down upon the
+city, and away to the palm-groves of Kuba. Then, turning his face
+towards the holy city, Mecca, he addressed the crowds of waiting people
+below.
+
+"If there be any man," said he, "whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit
+my own back to the lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation
+of any Mussulman?--let him proclaim my faults in the face of the
+congregation. Has anyone been despoiled of his goods?--the little that I
+possess shall compensate the principal and the interest of the debt."
+
+He then liberated his slaves, gave directions as to the order of his
+funeral, and appointed Abu Beker to supply his place in offering public
+prayer. This seemed to indicate that Abu Beker was to be his successor
+in office; and the long-tried friend accordingly became the first caliph
+of the Saracen empire.
+
+After this the prophet was conveyed again to the house of Ayesha. The
+fever increased, and the pain in his head became so great that he more
+than once pressed his hands upon it exclaiming, "The poison of Khaïbar!
+The poison of Khaïbar!"
+
+Once, perceiving the mother of Bashar, the soldier who had died of the
+poison in the fatal city, he said:
+
+"O mother of Bashar, the cords of my heart are now breaking of the food
+which I ate with your son at Khaïbar!"
+
+At another time, springing up in delirium, he called for pen and ink
+that he might write a new revelation; but owing to his weak state, his
+request was refused. In talking to those about him he said that Azraël,
+the Angel of Death, had not dared to take his soul until he had asked
+his permission.
+
+A few nights before his death, he awoke from a troubled sleep, and,
+starting wildly from his couch, sprang up with unnatural strength from
+his bed.
+
+"Come, Belus!" he cried to an attendant. "Come with me to the
+burial-place of El Bakia! The dead call to me from their graves, and I
+must go thither to pray for them."
+
+Alone they passed into the night; through the long, silent streets they
+walked like phantoms; up the white road of Nedj they glided, until the
+few low tombs of the cemetery to the southeast of the city were in
+sight.
+
+At the border of the bleak, lonely field, where the wind moaned among
+the tombs like the sighing of a weeping Rachel, Mohammed paused.
+
+"Peace be with you, O people of El Bakia!" he cried. "Peace be with you,
+martyrs of El Bakia! One and all, peace be with you! We verily, if Allah
+please, are about to join you! O Allah, pardon us and them! And the
+mercy of God and his blessings be upon us all!"
+
+Thus he prayed, stretching his hands towards the spot where his friends
+lay in their long sleep. His companion stood in awe behind him,
+shivering in superstitious terror, as the white tombs gleamed like
+moving apparitions through the gloom, and the night-owls hooted with a
+mournful cadence o'er the dreary waste.
+
+When he had concluded, the prophet turned towards home. But the
+excitement of mind which had endowed him with almost supernatural
+strength now deserted him. His steps grew feeble and he was fain to lean
+upon Belus on his painful way back.
+
+He grew rapidly worse. His wife Ayesha, and his daughter Fatima, wife of
+Ali, seldom left his bedside. When the last came, he raised his eyes to
+the ceiling and exclaimed, "O Allah, pardon my sins!" He then, with his
+own feeble hand, sprinkled his face with water, and soon afterwards,
+with his head on Ayesha's bosom, he departed, in the sixty-third year of
+his age, and the eleventh year of the Hejira, A.D. 632.
+
+The frenzied people would not believe that he was dead. "He will arise,
+like Jesus," they said. But no returning breath quivered through the
+cold lips or animated the rigid form of him whom they passionately
+called to life; and not until Abu Beker assured them that he was really
+no more, saying, "Did he not himself assure us that he must experience
+the common fate of all? Did he not say in the Koran, 'Mohammed is no
+more than an apostle; the other apostles have already deceased before
+him; if he die therefore, or be slain, will ye turn back on your
+heels?'"--not until then did they disperse, with deep groans.
+
+Mohammed was buried in the house in which he died, his grave being dug
+in the spot beneath his bed; but some years later a stone tomb was
+erected over the grave, and until the present day the place is held so
+sacred that it is at the risk of his life that anyone but a Mussulman
+dares enter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE NEW HOME.
+
+    "On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend,
+    The almost sacred joys of Home depend."
+
+                              --_Hannah More._
+
+
+In the quiet valley in Palestine life had been dealing gently with
+Nathan and his family. The long, long absence of Manasseh was the one
+thing lacking for their perfect contentment.
+
+"It is well," Nathan would say, yet his eyes would turn wistfully
+towards the South, as though he half-hoped to see the beloved face of
+his son appearing over the hill. The mother grew weary with waiting, yet
+she did not murmur, but whispered to her lonely heart, "Living or dead,
+it must be well." Only once she said, "Husband, he is surely dead," and
+Nathan replied:
+
+"Let us still hope, wife, that we may yet see the goodness of the Lord
+in permitting us to behold his face."
+
+So they hoped on, and worked on, amid their orange trees, their corn and
+vegetables, and their sheep browsing peacefully on the hills. And Mary
+tended the jasmine flowers and rose-bushes at the door, carrying water
+to them night and morning, that they might look at their prettiest when
+Manasseh came. Only one letter had reached them--a cheery, hopeful
+letter,--but it had been a long time on the way, and the events of which
+it told had taken place many weeks before it reached the Jordan valley.
+It had told them of Yusuf and Amzi, of the little church, of the
+sender's strange meeting with Kedar, and the news he had gathered of
+Lois. Then it had told of the war, and had closed with an affectionate
+farewell, in which the writer expressed his wish, rather than his
+expectation, of being able to make his way to the new home soon.
+
+How long it seemed to Mary since that last word had come! And he was not
+home yet! She kept the precious manuscript in her bosom, and twenty
+times a day she looked down the long valley for the well-known form. One
+morning she sat by the river, idly plashing her bare feet in its golden
+ripples, and looking at the shadows on the little stones near the shore.
+About her gamboled a pet lamb, and above, a soft blue sky was flecked
+with fleecy white clouds. She twirled a sprig of blossoms in her hand,
+but her thoughts were far away in dear, hot, dusty, dreary Mecca.
+
+"It is not so pleasant as this, though," she thought, "if Manasseh were
+only here."
+
+Just then the tinkle of a camel-bell was heard,--a strange sound in that
+secluded spot. Mary looked up, and saw what seemed to be a great many
+people coming over the hill, camels bearing shugdufs, too, and
+pack-mules, heavily laden.
+
+Trembling, she rushed into the house.
+
+"Oh, mother, what means this? See the people! Manasseh would not bring
+all of those with him?"
+
+The mother shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked forth, anxiously.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the train. Who were they? Not Manasseh; Manasseh
+would not come so slowly. Can it be? Not Yusuf! Not Amzi! Yes, yes! O
+joy! It is they!--and many other familiar faces smile also from the
+train!
+
+"Is Manasseh well?"
+
+"Yes, Manasseh is well, and happy."
+
+So questions were asked and answered in joyful confusion; and Nathan
+came in from the hills to bid the travelers welcome. Then the dusty,
+travel-stained tents were pitched once more, this time on a grassy slope
+by the rippling Jordan. A simple repast was spread, and the company
+dined in royal state.
+
+With what surprise did Nathan and his household greet the wife of Asru
+and her sweet-faced daughter as sisters in Christ, and with what
+sympathy did they hear of Asru's sad death!
+
+Then plans for the immediate settlement of the little party were made.
+Pasture-land in abundance was to be had; hence the majority of the
+new-comers would be speedily and comfortably provided with new homes.
+Amzi would take up his abode in some comfortable town-house not far
+distant, and Yusuf would remain with him for the present.
+
+Mary and Sherah were friends at once, and ere evening fell, they sat, as
+girls will, in a cozy nook by the river-side forming plans for walks and
+talks during the long, bright, summer days.
+
+Every cloud had drifted, for the time being, from the happy company;
+and, ere they retired to rest, all united with fervor in the words of
+the grand song:
+
+"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who
+forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who
+redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving
+kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things;
+so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord executeth
+righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.... Bless the
+Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion! Bless the Lord, O my
+soul!"
+
+And later in that same evening, another group came to Nathan's house.
+The door was closed, for the evening was chill without. A knock was
+heard. Mary opened the door, and there was Manasseh himself, radiantly
+happy; and close behind him was another Manasseh with Bedouin eyes.
+
+Mother, sister, and father pressed round the youth until he could
+scarcely move.
+
+"There, there!" he said, shaking them off playfully, "my cousin Kedar
+will be jealous. Mother, this is Lois' son, and there is someone in the
+darkness here still."
+
+The youth went out. Who was this that he assisted from the shugduf?--the
+living image of Lois in her girlhood days! Not Lois, but her daughter, a
+Bedouin maid, fresh as the breeze from her native hills. And can this be
+Lois--this sad-faced yet stately woman? It is, indeed, and the
+long-separated sisters are once more united. Kedar's brothers are there
+too, and one more family is added to the little community.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+A WEDDING IN PALESTINE.
+
+    "God, the best maker of all marriages."--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+For a moment let us look more closely at the little district where the
+Jewish band found a home after all their wanderings.
+
+They settled at a point where the Jordan River, that strange river
+flowing for its entire length through a depression one thousand feet
+below the level of the sea, is cut up by many a cataract; and the
+rushing noise of the water, carried from its mysterious source at the
+foot of Mount Hermon, fills the valley with a music not lost upon ears
+long accustomed to the dry wastes of Arabian deserts. To the north lie
+plains where cold blasts blow, and mountains whose crests gleam with
+never-failing snow; yet in the fair vales of Jordan the tempered breeze
+fans the air with the mildness of a never-ceasing-summer, and the soft
+alluvial soil is luxuriant with the rich growth of the tropics. To the
+west the rugged and picturesque mountains of Judea rise, and to the
+east, at a distance of some ten miles, lie the blue-tinted mountains of
+Moab, rich in associations of sacred history.
+
+In this favored spot, shaded by waving groves and hidden by vines, was
+the house of Asru's wife; and at a little distance from it was a well,
+an old-fashioned well such as is seen only in the East, walled about
+with ancient and worn flag-stones, between which, at one side, the water
+trickled and ran over mossy stones to the river below.
+
+A large tamarisk tree waved above it, and in its shade, with one knee
+resting on the flag-stone, her hands clasped behind her head, and her
+large eyes fixed upon the mountains of Moab beyond, stood Sherah, ere
+the sun rose, on one beautiful autumn morning.
+
+An earthen water-pitcher, such as is carried by the girls of the Orient,
+was beside her, yet she moved not to execute her errand.
+
+The sun arose behind the mountain; the amber sky became golden; the rosy
+pink clouds changed to radiant silver; the birds sang; the dew
+glittered; and the sun shone through the leaves of the trees with a
+flush of green-gold.
+
+The beauty of the scene touched the girl. In a low, clear voice,
+spontaneous as the song of a bird, she sang: "For the Lord shall comfort
+Zion; he will comfort her waste places: and he will make her wilderness
+like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness
+shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."
+
+The song brought comfort to her; for was she not soon to leave this
+fairy spot, this Aidenn, to return to the land of the Mussulman; not the
+land of--
+
+    "Deep myrrh thickets blowing round
+    The stately cedar, tamarisks.
+    Thick rosaries of scented thorn,
+    Tall Orient shrubs, and obelisks
+    Graven with emblems of the time,"
+
+but to the bleak, treeless plains of Nejd, breezy with the warm breath
+of desert-swept winds, bounded by rolling mountains, and dotted by the
+black tents of those roving hordes of whom it has been said that "their
+hand is against every man, and every man's hand is against them,"--the
+fierce, cruel yet generous, impulsive, courteous tribes of the desert.
+
+For Manasseh and Kedar were both going back to the desert tribes,
+braving the dangers of persecution, that they might exert an influence
+in christianizing the Bedouin tribes over whom the Moslems as yet had
+little power. Sherah was going back as Manasseh's wife, and this was her
+wedding-day. She was willing to go, yet she could not help feeling a
+little lonely on this last morning in her mother's home.
+
+Presently the call "Sherah! Sherah!" came through the olive groves, and
+the old nurse hobbled out. The woman was a thorough type of an aged
+Arab, lean, wrinkled, hook-nosed, with skin like shrunken leather, and a
+voice like a raven. Yet Sherah knew her goodness of heart, and loved her
+dearly. She was taking the old woman back with her, for, oddly enough,
+Zama had never felt at home in the new land, and often craved that her
+bones might be buried in the old soil.
+
+"Why disturb me, Zama?" said the young woman kindly. "See you not that I
+am bidding farewell to this dear valley?"
+
+"Aye, aye, child," muttered the old nurse, "but we must put the
+wedding-gown upon you, and twine jasmine in your hair." She stroked the
+glossy masses fondly. "Ah, to-morrow it must be braided in the plaits of
+the matron, and the coins will be placed about my precious one's neck;
+yet it seems only yesterday that she was a toddling baby at my feet."
+
+The two women, the one tall and lithe as a willow, the other bent and
+shrunken, took their way to the house. Mary was already there, and
+assisted in adorning the bride.
+
+The guests arrived, and the simple ceremony was soon over; then the
+company sat down to the wedding feast. Lois and her sister talked in low
+tones to the mother of Sherah, who grieved a little at the separation
+from her daughter. Happy jests and laughter passed about among the
+young people. Amzi went, with beaming face, from group to group; and
+Yusuf looked quietly on.
+
+In the midst of the entertainment some one came to the door.
+
+"It is a peddler!" cried one. "Let us see what he has--perhaps another
+gift for our fair bride."
+
+The young people gathered about the glittering trinkets. Manasseh came
+near, and, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, placed his hand on the
+man's shoulder. The peddler looked up, and his face blanched with fear.
+
+It was the little Jew, who, having escaped like an eel from Manasseh's
+care after the Battle of Ohod, and having become thoroughly frightened
+at the idea of remaining longer in a war-ridden district, had
+disappeared like magic from the plains of Arabia, and had become once
+more the insignificant Jewish peddler in the more secure provinces to
+the north.
+
+"Do not be frightened," laughed Manasseh. "We no longer take prisoners
+of war; yet, for the sake of old acquaintance, I claim you to partake of
+our feast."
+
+The little man was half-dragged to the table and given a place by
+Nathan, who spoke kindly to him. Yet he did not feel at ease. The stolen
+cup seemed to point an accusing finger at him; and he ate little, and
+talked less.
+
+Presently he caught a glimpse of Yusuf. The sight of the man whom he had
+so nearly delivered to death was too much for him. His little eyes
+darted about as if suspicious of some design upon his freedom. He could
+not understand the magnanimity of these people, and, deeming discretion
+the better part of valor, he sprang from the table, shouldered his pack,
+and was off, to be seen no more.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE FAREWELL.
+
+    "Sondry folk, by aventure y-falle in felaweschipe."--_Chaucer._
+
+
+And now, our tale draws to a close, and time permits but a parting
+glance at those who have been so long a goodly company of friends.
+
+Amzi has, in his descent to old age, developed a wonderful activity of
+mind and body. He has become one of the most influential members of the
+little town in which he has taken up his abode. Realizing as never
+before the duty which man owes to man, and fully awakened at last to the
+fact that our talents are given us to be exercised fully, he no longer
+dreams away time in the Arab Kaif; but, from morning to night, his plump
+figure and good-natured old face are seen, up and down, in the mart, in
+the council-chamber, in the church, wherever he can lend a helping hand.
+He has even assumed the role of schoolmaster, and upon the earthen floor
+of an unused hall he gathers day by day a troop of little ones, over
+whom he bends patiently as they cling to his gown for sympathy in their
+small trials, or as they trace upon their wax tablets, with little,
+uncertain hands and in almost illegible characters, the words of a copy,
+or text.
+
+"Aye," he says, "who knows what these little ones may some day become?
+They are as impressionable as the wax upon which they write. Heaven
+grant that the impression made upon them may be mighty for good!"
+
+Kedar has married a Bedouin maid, and is happy in his free life in the
+old land. Naught but the desert could satisfy him; he would stagnate in
+the calm life which those in the Jordan valley are finding so pleasant.
+
+As yet he and Manasseh have not been molested in their work by the
+Moslems; and in their remote mountain recesses they are persistently
+fighting against heathendom, and are leading many to live better and
+nobler lives.
+
+And Yusuf? He is in his home-land again. Once more he stands upon the
+highest point of the Guebre temple. The priests have not refused him
+admittance, for no one has recognized in this harmless old man the once
+Guebre Yusuf.
+
+Ah, it is heathen Persia still! The fires flicker upon the altar, and
+the idolatrous chants arise on the air. Yusuf covers his face with his
+mantle and weeps. He has but a few years of strength before him, but he
+will spend them in trying to bring the Gospel of love to these poor,
+blind people.
+
+He grieves for his benighted country; but when the moon slowly rises,
+shedding her soft rays over the old scene, the mountains, the valleys
+below, all calm, peaceful, radiant, he is comforted. He thinks of Him
+who "created the lesser orb to rule the night," and a great joy fills
+his heart that he has been led to a recognition of Him, and that he has
+been enabled to lead others to Him.
+
+His face glows with serene happiness and hope. He raises his eyes to the
+calm, deep heavens, and says:
+
+"O Father, I thank thee that 'mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
+hosts,' and his dear Son! I thank thee that thou hast led me to see
+Truth! O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I
+declared thy wondrous works! Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O
+God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this
+generation, and thy power to every one that is to come! And now, Father,
+'what wait I for? My hope is in thee,' the great God, the ever-loving
+Father, now and for evermore. Amen and amen."
+
+And there will we leave him.
+
+                      "May he live
+    Longer than I have time to tell his years!
+    Ever beloved and loving, may his rule be!
+    And when old Time shall lead him to his end,
+    Goodness and he fill up one monument!"
+
+                              --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The month of Ramadhan was held as holy prior to Mohammed's time;
+    its sanctity was but confirmed by him.
+
+[2] Medina at this time bore the name of Yathrib, but in this volume
+    we shall give it the later and better-known name of "Medina,"
+    derived from the earlier "Mahdinah."
+
+[3] The Moslems _now_ assert that the sacred fire went out of itself
+    at the birth of Mohammed.
+
+[4] A fourth, the "Darb-el-Sharki," or Eastern Road, has since been
+    built by order of the wife of the famous Haroun al Raschid.
+
+[5] Joseph Pitts, A.D. 1680, says: "Mecca is surrounded for several
+    miles with many thousands of little hills which are very near to
+    one another. They are all stony-rock, and blackish, and pretty
+    near of a bigness, appearing at a distance like cocks of hay,
+    but all pointing towards Mecca."
+
+[6] Burton says the black stone is volcanic, but is thought by some
+    to be a meteorite or aërolite. Burckhardt thought it composed of
+    lava. Of its appearance Ali Bey says: "It is a block of volcanic
+    basalt, whose circumference is sprinkled with little crystals,
+    with rhombs of tile-red feldspath on a dark background like
+    velvet or charcoal."
+
+[7] By the latest statistics the number of Mohammedans now scattered
+    throughout Asia, Africa, and the south-eastern part of Europe
+    amounts to some 176,834,372.
+
+[8] Moslems assert that upon this night Mohammed was carried through
+    the seven heavens of which El Islam tells.
+
+[9] The initial "A" is placed at the top of all Arabian writings. It
+    is the initial of "Allah" and the first letter of the alphabet,
+    and is symbolic of the origin of creation.
+
+[10] Burton gives seven hundred.
+
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+Obvious printing errors were repaired; these changes are listed below.
+
+Title Page     Original text: Elgin, Ill,
+               Correction: Elgin, Ill.,
+
+               Original text: David C Cook
+               Correction: David C. Cook
+
+Chapter V      Original text: may know thee as we should.'"
+               Correction: may know thee as we should."
+
+Chapter VI     Original text: This hullucination
+               Correction: This hallucination
+
+               Original text: McLellan, Psychology
+               Correction: McLellan, Psychology.
+
+               Original text: See page 23
+               Correction: See page 23.
+
+               Original text: called 'El Amin"
+               Correction: called 'El Amin'
+
+Chapter VII    Original text: be poured on my defenseless and
+               Correction: be poured on my defenceless and
+
+Chapter IX     Original text: Death is the end of life
+               Correction: "Death is the end of life
+
+               Original text: "Ikh! "Ikh!"
+               Correction: "Ikh! Ikh!"
+
+Chapter XIV    Original text: He forebore to thrust
+               Correction: He forbore to thrust
+
+Chapter XVI    Original text: For this I am thankful.
+               Correction: For this I am thankful,
+
+Chapter XVII   Original text: giving him a shake. "what
+               Correction: giving him a shake, "what
+
+               Original text: the fair little Imra
+               Correction: the fair little Imri
+
+Chapter XIX    Original text: "Here, Manasseh!" interupted Yusuf
+               Correction: "Here, Manasseh!" interrupted Yusuf
+
+Chapter XXIII  Original text: peace with those of Mecca."
+               Correction: peace with those of Mecca.'"
+
+Chapter XXVII  Original text: thus comes in Bedouin garb?'"
+               Correction: thus comes in Bedouin garb?"
+
+Footnote 2     Original text: derived from the earlier "Mahdinah"
+               Correction: derived from the earlier "Mahdinah."
+
+Footnote 6     Original text: like velvet or charcoal.
+               Correction: like velvet or charcoal."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED***
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Days of Mohammed, by Anna May Wilson</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Days of Mohammed</p>
+<p>Author: Anna May Wilson</p>
+<p>Release Date: December 31, 2005  [eBook #17435]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Amy Cunningham,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h1><span class="smcap">The Days of Mohammed.</span></h1>
+
+<h3><i>By ANNA MAY WILSON.</i></h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">David C. Cook Publishing Company, Elgin, <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: period missing in original">Ill.</ins>, and 36 Washington St., Chicago.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1897, by David <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: period missing in original">C.</ins> Cook Publishing Company.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><ins class="correction" title="Table of Contents added by transcriber">CONTENTS</ins></h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="2" summary="">
+<tr><td align='right'>Chapter</td><td></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><a href="#PRECEDING_EVENTS_SUMMARY">PRECEDING EVENTS&mdash;SUMMARY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>I.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">YUSUF BEGINS HIS SEARCH FOR TRUTH.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>II.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">A BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>III.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">YUSUF MEETS AMZI, THE MECCAN.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>IV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">WHEREIN YUSUF ENCOUNTERS A SAND-STORM IN THE DESERT, AND HAS SOMEWHAT OF AN EXPERIENCE WITH THE LITTLE DERVISH.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>V.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">NATHAN THE JEW.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">YUSUF'S FIRST MEETING WITH MOHAMMED.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">YUSUF STUDIES THE SCRIPTURES.&mdash;CONNECTING EVENTS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">WHEREIN IS TOLD THE STORY OF NATHAN'S LIBERATION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>IX.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">AMZI AT MEDINA.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>X.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">MOHAMMED'S ENTRANCE INTO MEDINA.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">MOHAMMED BECOMES INTOLERANT.&mdash;WAR.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">WHEREIN THE BEDOUIN YOUTH KEDAR BECOMES A MOSLEM.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">ABU SOFIAN'S CARAVAN.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XIV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">THE BATTLE OF BEDR.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">THE PERSECUTION BEGINS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XVI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">AMZI FINALLY REJECTS MOHAMMED.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XVII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">THE FATE OF DUMAH.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XVIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">A SCENE IN PALESTINE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XIX.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">THE BATTLE OF OHOD.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XX.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THE BATTLE OF THE DITCH.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">THE FAMILY OF ASRU.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">MANASSEH AND ASRU AT KHAIBAR.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">MOHAMMED'S PILGRIMAGE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXIV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">THE SIEGE OF KHAIBAR.&mdash;KEDAR.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">MANASSEH AND KEDAR AT MECCA.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXVI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">INTERVENING EVENTS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXVII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">THE TRIUMPHANT ENTRANCE INTO MECCA.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXVIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">KEDAR AT THE CAABA.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXIX.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">KEDAR RETURNS TO HIS HOME.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXX.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">THE DEATH OF MOHAMMED.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">THE NEW HOME.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">A WEDDING IN PALESTINE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">THE FAREWELL.</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In "The Days of Mohammed," one aim of
+the author has been to bring out the fact
+that it is possible to begin the heaven-life on
+earth. It is hoped that a few helpful
+thoughts as to the means of attaining this
+life may be exemplified in the career of the
+various characters depicted.</p>
+
+<p>An attempt has been made, by constant
+reference to the best works on Mohammed
+and Arabia, to render the historical basis
+strictly correct. Especial indebtedness is acknowledged
+to the writings of Irving,
+Burton, and the Rev. Geo. Bush; also to the
+travels of Burckhardt, Joseph Pitts, Ludovico
+Bartema and Giovanni Finati, each of
+whom undertook a pilgrimage to the cities
+of Medina and Mecca; also to the excellent
+synopsis of the life and times of Mohammed
+as given by Prof. Max M&uuml;ller in the introduction
+to Palmer's translation of the Koran.</p>
+
+<p>As the tiny pebble cast into the water
+sends its circling wavelets to the distant
+shore, so this little book is cast forth upon
+the world, in the hope that it may exert some
+influence in bringing hope and comfort to
+some weary heart, and that, in helping someone
+to attain a clearer conception of Divine
+love and companionship, it may, if in never
+so insignificant a degree, perhaps help on to
+that time when all shall</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Trust the Hand of Light will lead the people,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till the thunders pass, the spectres vanish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the Light is Victor, and the darkness<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dawns into the Jubilee of the Ages."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PRECEDING_EVENTS_SUMMARY" id="PRECEDING_EVENTS_SUMMARY"></a>PRECEDING EVENTS&mdash;SUMMARY.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Yusuf, a Guebre priest, a man of intensely
+religious temperament, and one of those
+whose duty it is to keep alive the sacred fire
+of the Persian temple, has long sought for a
+more heart-satisfying religion than that
+afforded to him by the doctrines of his country.
+Though a man of kindliest disposition,
+yet so benighted he is that, led on by a
+deep study of the mysteries of Magian and
+Sab&aelig;an rites, he has been induced to offer,
+in human sacrifice, Imri, the little granddaughter
+of Ama, an aged Persian woman,
+and daughter of an Arab, Uzza, who, though
+married to a Persian, lives at Oman with
+his wife, and knows nothing of the sacrifice
+until it is over.</p>
+
+<p>The death of the child, though beneath his
+own hand, immediately strikes horror to the
+heart of the priest. His whole soul revolts
+against the inhumanity of the act, which has
+not brought to him or Ama the blessing he
+had hoped for, and he rebels against the religion
+which has, though ever so rarely, permitted
+the exercise of such an atrocious rite.
+He becomes more than ever dissatisfied with
+the vagueness of his belief. He cannot find
+the rest which he desires; the Zendavesta of
+Zoroaster can no longer satisfy his heart's
+longing; his country-people are sunk in idolatry,
+and, instead of worshiping the God of
+whom the priests have a vague conception,
+persist in bowing down before the symbols<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+themselves, discerning naught but the objects&mdash;the
+sun, moon, stars, fire&mdash;light, all in
+all.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf, indeed, has a clearer idea of God;
+but he worships him from afar off, and looks
+upon him as a God of wrath and judgment
+rather than as the Father of love and mercy.
+In his new spiritual agitation he conceives
+the idea of a closer relation with the Lord
+of the universe; his whole soul calls out for
+a vivid realization of God, and he casts
+about for light in his trouble.</p>
+
+<p>From a passing stranger, traveling in
+Persia&mdash;a descendant of those Sab&aelig;an Persians
+who at an early age obtained a footing
+in Arabia, and whose influence was, for a
+time, so strongly marked through the whole
+district known as the Nejd, and even down
+into Yemen, Arabia-Felix,&mdash;Yusuf has
+learned of a new and strange religion held
+by the people of the great peninsula. His
+whole being calls for relief from the doubts
+which harass him. He is rich and he decides
+to proceed at once towards the west and to
+search the world, if necessary,&mdash;not, as did
+Sir Galahad and the knights of King
+Arthur's Table, in quest of the Holy Grail,
+but in search of the scarcely less effulgent
+radiance of the beams of Truth and
+Love.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1><span class="smcap">The Days of Mohammed.</span></h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>YUSUF BEGINS HIS SEARCH FOR TRUTH.</h3>
+
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"O when shall all my wanderings end,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all my steps to Thee-ward tend!"<br /></span>
+<br /></div></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap002"><span class="dropcap">"P</span></span>eace, oh peace!
+that thy light
+wings might now
+rest upon me!
+Truth, that thou
+mightest shine in upon
+my soul, making all
+light where now is
+darkness! Ye spirits
+that dwell in yon bright
+orbs far above me, ye
+that alone are privileged to bow before the
+Great Creator of the universe, ye that alone
+may address yourselves to the Great Omnipotent
+Spirit with impunity, intercede for
+me, I beseech you! Bow before that Great
+Sovereign of all wisdom and light, whom we
+worship through these vague symbols of fire
+and brightness; plead with him before
+whom I dare not come, in my behalf. Beseech
+of him, if he will condescend to notice
+his most humble priest, that he may lead
+him into light effulgent, into all truth, and
+that he may clear from his soul these vapors
+of doubt which now press upon him in blackest
+gloom and rack his soul with torment. If
+I sin in doubting thus, beseech him to forgive
+me and to lead me to a conception of
+him as he is. Ye that are his ministers, from
+your starry spheres guide me! Whether
+through darkness, thorns, or stony ways,
+guide me; I shall not falter if I may see the
+light at last! Oh, grant me peace!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus prayed Yusuf, the Magian priest. He
+paused. No sound passed from his lips, but
+he still stood with upraised arms, gazing into
+the intense depths of the Persian sky, purple,
+and flecked with golden stars, the "forget-me-nots
+of the angels."</p>
+
+<p>His priestly vestments were dazzlingly
+white, and upon his shoulders were fixed
+two snowy wings that swept downward to
+the ground. His black beard descended far
+over his breast, and from the eyes above
+shone forth the glow of a soul yearning towards
+the infinite unknown, whose all is
+God.</p>
+
+<p>Behind him, near the altar of the rounded
+tower,&mdash;round in the similitude of the orbs of
+light, the sun, moon, and stars,&mdash;danced the
+sacred fire, whose flames were said to have
+burned unceasingly for nearly one thousand
+years. The fiery wreaths leaped upwards toward
+the same purple sky, as if pointing
+with long, red fingers, in mockery of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+priest's devotion; and the ruddy glare,
+falling upon him as he stood so still there,
+enveloped him with a halo of light. It
+gleamed upon his head, upon his uplifted
+hands, upon the curves of the wings on his
+shoulders, silhouetting him against the darkness,
+and lighting his white habiliments until,
+all motionless as he was, he seemed like
+a marble statue dazzlingly radiant in the
+light of one crimson gleam from a sinking
+sun.</p>
+
+<p>And so he stood, heeding it not, till the
+moon rose, soft and full; the mountain-tops
+shone with a rim of silver, the valleys far
+below the temple looked deeper in the shade,
+and the fire burned low.</p>
+
+<p>Rapt and more rapt grew the face of the
+priest. Surely the struggle of his soul was
+being answered, and in his nearness to Nature,
+he was getting a faint, far-off gleam of
+the true nature of Nature's God. His glance
+fell to the changing landscape below; his
+arms were extended as if in benediction; and
+his lips moved in a low and passionate farewell
+to his native land. Then he turned.</p>
+
+<p>The fire burned low on the altar.</p>
+
+<p>"Sacred symbol, whose beams have no
+power to warm my chilled heart, I bid you a
+long farewell! They will say that Yusuf
+is faithless, a false priest. They will mayhap
+follow him to slay him. And they will
+bow again to yon image, and defile thine
+altars again with infants' blood, not discerning
+the true God. Yet he must be approachable.
+I feel it! I know it! O Great Spirit,
+reveal Thyself unto Yusuf! Reveal Thyself
+unto Persia! Great Spirit, guide me!"</p>
+
+<p>For the first time, Yusuf thus addressed a
+prayer direct to the Deity, and he did so in
+fear and trembling.</p>
+
+<p>A faint gleam shone feebly amid the ashes
+of the now blackening altar. It flared up
+for an instant, then fell, and the sacred fire
+of the Guebre temple was dead.</p>
+
+<p>"The embers die!" cried the priest. "Yea,
+mockery of the Divine, die in thine ashes!"</p>
+
+<p>He waited no longer, but strode with swift
+step down the mountain, and into the shade
+of the valley. Reaching, at last, a cave in
+the side of a great rock, he entered, and
+stripped himself of his priestly garments.
+Then, drawing from a recess the garb of an
+ordinary traveler, he dressed himself
+quickly, rolled his white robes into a ball,
+and plunged farther into the cave. In the
+darkness the rush of falling water warned
+him that an abyss was near. Dropping on
+his knees, he crept carefully forward until
+his hand rested on the jagged edge of a ledge
+of rock. Beside him the water fell into a
+yawning gulf. Darkness darker than blackest
+night was about him, and, in its cover, he
+cast the robes into the abyss below, then retraced
+his way, and plunged once more into
+the moonlight, a Persian traveler wearing
+the customary loose trousers, a kufiyah on
+his head, and bearing a long staff in his
+hand.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>A BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">"The cares that infest the day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And as silently steal away."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Longfellow.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap003"><span class="dropcap">M</span></span>any months after
+the departure of
+Yusuf from Persia
+a solitary rider on
+a swift dromedary
+reached the extreme
+northern
+boundary of El
+Hejaz, the province that stretches over a
+considerable portion of western Arabia. His
+face was brown like leather from exposure,
+and his clothes were worn and travel-stained,
+yet it scarcely required a second
+glance to recognize the glittering eyes of the
+Magian priest.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as if the excitement of danger
+and the long days of toil and privation had
+at last begun to tell upon his iron frame.
+His eye, accustomed by the fear of robbers
+to dart its dark glances restlessly, was less
+keen than usual; his head was drooped
+downward upon his breast, and his whole attitude
+betokened bodily fatigue. His camel,
+too, went less swiftly, and picked its way,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+with low, plaintive moans, over the rough
+and precipitous path which led into a wild
+and weird glen.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening, and the shadows fell in
+fantastic streaks and blotches across the
+arid valley, through whose barren soil huge,
+detached rocks of various-colored sandstone
+rose in eerie, irregular masses, veritable
+castles of genii of the uncanny spot.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf looked uneasily around, but neither
+sight nor sound of life was near, and he
+again allowed his faithful beast to slacken
+its pace and crop a few leaves of the coarse
+camel-thorn, the only sign of vegetation in
+the deserted place.</p>
+
+<p>A few trees, however, could be seen in the
+distance, and he urged his camel towards
+them in the hope of finding some water, and
+some dates for food. Reaching the spot, he
+found that a stagnant pool lay below, but
+there were no dates on the trees, and the
+water was brackish. A couple of red-legged
+partridges fluttered off, cackling loudly as
+they went. He would fain have had them
+for food, but their presence seemed like company
+to the poor wanderer, and he did not
+attempt to secure them; so, throwing himself
+at full length on the ground, he flung his
+arms across his eyes to shield them from the
+white glare of the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a step sounded near. Yusuf
+started to his feet and grasped his scimitar,
+but he was instantly beset by half a dozen
+wild Arabs, who dashed upon him, screaming
+their wild Arabian jargon, and waving
+their short swords over their heads.</p>
+
+<p>Blows fell thick and fast. Yusuf had a
+dazed consciousness of seeing the swarthy,
+wrinkled visages and gleaming teeth of his
+opponents darting in confusion before him,
+of hacking desperately, and of receiving
+blows on the head; then a sudden gush of
+blood from a wound on his forehead blinded
+him, and he fell.</p>
+
+<p>All seemed over. But a shout sounded
+close at hand. Several Arabs, splendidly
+mounted on nimble Arabian horses, and
+waving their long, tufted spears, appeared
+on the scene. The Bedouin robbers fled precipitately,
+and Yusuf's first sensation was
+that of being gently raised, and of feeling
+water from the pool dashed upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>The priest had not been severely wounded,
+and soon recovered enough to proceed with
+the party which had rendered him such
+timely aid.</p>
+
+<p>An hour's ride brought them to the head of
+another and more fertile glen or wady,
+through which a mountain stream wended
+its way between two bands of tolerably good
+pasturage. A full moon in all its brilliancy
+was just rising. Its cold, clear light flooded
+the wady, bringing out every feature of the
+landscape with remarkable distinctness. At
+some distance lay a group of tents, black,
+and pitched in a circle, as the tents of the
+Bedouins usually are. Camp-fires studded
+the valley with glints of red; and the barking
+of dogs and shouts of men arose on the
+night air above the hoarse moanings of the
+camels. Yusuf was indeed glad to see evidences
+of Arab civilization, and to look forward
+to the prospect of a good supper and
+a friendly bed.</p>
+
+<p>The return of the party was now noticed
+by the men of the encampment. A group of
+horsemen, also armed with long spears
+tufted with ostrich feathers, left the tents
+and came riding swiftly and gracefully towards
+their returning companions.</p>
+
+<p>An explanation of Yusuf's sorrowful plight
+was given, and he was conducted to the tent
+of the Sheikh, which was marked by being
+larger than the rest, and situated in the center
+of the circle, with a spear placed upright
+in the ground before the door.</p>
+
+<p>The Sheikh himself received the stranger
+at the door of his tent. He was a middle-aged
+man, of tall and commanding appearance,
+though the scowl habitual to the
+Bedouins by reason of their constant exposure
+to the sun, rested upon his face. He
+wore a kufiyah, or kerchief, of red and yellow
+on his head, the ends falling on his
+shoulders behind in a crimson fringe. His
+hair was black and greased, and his eyes,
+though piercing, were not unkindly. His
+person was thin and muscular, but he wore
+gracefully the long abba or outer cloak,
+white and embroidered, which opened in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+front, disclosing an undergarment of figured
+muslin, bound by a crimson sash. And there
+was native grace in every movement when
+he came courteously forward and saluted
+Yusuf with the
+"Peace be with you"
+of the Arabs. He then
+extended his hand to
+help the traveler to
+dismount, and led
+him into the tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Friend," he said,
+"a long journey and
+a close acquaintance
+with death are, methinks,
+a good preparation
+for the enjoyment
+of Bedouin hospitality,
+which, we
+sincerely hope, shall
+not be lacking in the
+tents of Musa. Yet,
+in truth, it seems to
+us that thou art a
+fool-hardy man to
+tempt the dangers of
+El Hejaz single-handed."</p>
+
+<p>"So it has proved,"
+returned the priest;
+"but a Persian, no
+more than an Arab,
+will draw back at the
+first scent of danger.
+Yet I deplore these
+delays, which but
+hinder me on my way.
+I had hoped long ere
+this to be at the end
+of my journey."</p>
+
+<p>"We will hear all
+this later," returned
+the Bedouin with
+quiet dignity; "for
+the present, suffice it to keep quiet and let us
+wash this blood from your hair. Hither, Aswan!
+Bring warm water, knave, and let the
+traveler know that the Arab's heart is warm
+too. Now, friend-stranger, rest upon these
+cushions, and talk later, if it please you."</p>
+
+<p>With little enough reluctance, Yusuf lay
+down upon the pile of rugs and cushions,
+and, while the attendants bathed his brow,
+looked somewhat curiously about him.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 299px;">
+<a href="images/p005.jpg"><img src="images/p005thum.jpg" width="299" height="400" alt="He stood with upraised arms, gazing into the depths of the sky." /></a>
+<span class="caption">He stood with upraised arms, gazing into the depths of the sky.&mdash;See <a href="#Page_2">page 2</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>By the light of a dim lamp and a torch or
+two, he could see that the tent was divided
+into two parts, as are all Bedouin tents, by a
+central curtain. This curtain was occasionally
+twitched aside far enough to reveal
+a pair of black eyes, and, from the softness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+of the voices which sounded from time to
+time behind the folds, he surmised correctly
+that this apartment belonged to the chief's
+women.</p>
+
+<p>Several men entered the tent, all swarthy,
+lithe and sinewy, with the scowling faces
+and even, white teeth characteristic of the
+typical Arab. They gesticulated constantly
+as they talked; but Yusuf, though thoroughly
+familiar with the Arabic language, paid little
+attention to the conversation, giving himself
+up to what seemed to him, after his adventures,
+perfect rest.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the chief's wife entered. She
+was unveiled, and her features were distinctly
+Hebrew; for Lois, wife of the
+Bedouin Musa, had been born a Jewess. She
+was dressed in a flowing robe of black confined
+by a crimson girdle. Strings of coins
+and of blue opaque beads hung upon her
+breast and were wound about her ankles,
+and she wore a black head-dress also profusely
+decorated with beads and bangles of
+silver.</p>
+
+<p>On a platter she carried some cakes, still
+smoking hot. These she placed on a low,
+circular table of copper. A wooden platter
+of boiled mutton was next added, along with
+a caldron filled with wheat boiled in camel's
+milk, and some cups of coffee.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf was placed at the table, and Musa,
+after sipping a little coffee, handed the cup
+to him; the chief then picked out the most
+savory bits of mutton, and, according to
+Arabian etiquette, handed them to his guest.</p>
+
+<p>Several men gathered around to partake of
+the banquet. They crouched or reclined on
+the ground, about the low table; yet, savage-looking
+though they were, not one of the
+Bedouins ventured an inquisitive question or
+bestowed a curious glance on the Persian.</p>
+
+<p>Among them, however, was a little,
+inquisitive-looking man, whose quick, bird-like
+movements attracted Yusuf's attention
+early in the evening. His round black
+eyes darted into every place and upon every
+one with an insatiable curiosity, and he
+talked almost incessantly. He was a Jewish
+peddler who traded small wares with the
+Arabs, and who was constantly somewhere
+on the road between Syria and Yemen, being
+liable to appear suddenly at the most mysterious
+times, and in the most unlikely
+places.</p>
+
+<p>In his way, Abraham of Joppa was a character,
+and one may be pardoned for bestowing
+more than a passing glance upon him.
+Though permitted to eat at the table with
+the rest, it was evident that the Arabs
+looked upon him with some contempt. They
+enjoyed listening to his stories, and to his
+recital of the news which he picked up in
+his travels, but they despised his inquisitiveness,
+and resented the impertinence with
+which he coolly addressed himself even to
+the Sheikh, before whom all were more or
+less reserved.</p>
+
+<p>The Persian was, for the present, the chief
+object of the little Jew's curiosity, and as
+soon as the meal was over he hastened to
+form his acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting down before the priest, and poising
+his head on one side, he observed:</p>
+
+<p>"You are bound for the south, stranger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even so," said Yusuf, gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Whither?"</p>
+
+<p>"I seek for the city of the great temple."</p>
+
+<p>"Phut! The Caaba!" exclaimed the Jew,
+with contempt. "Right well I know it, and
+a fool's game they make of it, with their running,
+and bowing, and kissing a bit of stone
+in the wall as though 'twere the dearest
+friend on earth!"</p>
+
+<p>"But they worship&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A statue of our father Abraham, and one
+of Ishmael, principally. A precious set of
+idolaters they all are, to be sure!"</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf's heart sank. Was it only for this
+that he had come his long and weary way,
+had braved the heat of day and the untold
+dangers of night? In searching for that pure
+essence, the spiritual, that he craved, had he
+left the idolatrous leaven at home only to
+come to another form of it in Mecca?</p>
+
+<p>"But then," he thought, "this foolish Jew
+knows not whereof he speaks: one with the
+empty brain and the loose tongue of this
+wanderer has not probed the depths of divine
+truth."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot be going to Mecca as a pil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>grim?"
+hazarded the little man. "The
+Magians and the Sab&aelig;ans worship the stars,
+do they not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, yes!" said the priest. "They have
+fallen away from the ancient belief. They
+worship even the stars themselves, and have
+set up images to them, no longer perceiving
+the Great Invisible, the Infinite, who can be
+approached only through the mediation of
+the spirits who inhabit the starry orbs."</p>
+
+<p>"Methinks you will find little better in
+Mecca. What are you going there for?"
+asked the Jew abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I seek Truth," replied the priest quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Truth!" repeated the Jew. "Aye, aye,
+the Persian traveler seeks truth; Abraham,
+the Jew, seeks myrrh, aloes, sweet perfumes
+of Yemen, silks of India, and purple of Tyre.
+Aye, so it is, and I think Abraham's commodity
+is the more obtainable and the more
+practical of the two. Yet they do say there
+are Jews who have sought for truth likewise;
+and they tell of apostles who gave up
+their trade and fisheries to go on a like quest
+after a leader whom many Jews will not accept."</p>
+
+<p>"Who were the apostles?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jews, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Where may I find them?"</p>
+
+<p>"All dead, well-nigh six hundred years
+ago," returned the Jew, indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf's hopes sank again. He longed for
+even one kindred spirit to whom he could unfold
+the thoughts that harassed him.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know much about what they
+taught," continued the Jew. "Never read it;
+it does not help in my business. But I got
+a bit of manuscript the other day from
+Sergius, an old Nestorian monk away up in
+the Syrian hills. I am taking it down to
+Mecca. I just peeped into it, but did not
+read it; because it is the people who live now,
+who have gold and silver for Abraham, that
+interest him, not those who died centuries
+ago; and the bit of writing is about such.
+However, you seem to be interested that
+way, so I will give it to you to read."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, the Jew unpacked a heavy bundle,
+and, after searching for some time, upsetting
+tawdry jewelry, kerchiefs, and boxes
+of perfume, he at last succeeded in finding
+the parchment.</p>
+
+<p>He handed it to the Persian. "I hope it
+may be of use to you, stranger. Abraham
+the Jew knows little and cares less for religion,
+but he would be sorry to see you
+bowing with yon heathen Arab herd at
+Mecca."</p>
+
+<p>"Dog! Son of a dog!"</p>
+
+<p>It was Musa. Able to restrain his passion
+no longer, he had sprung to his feet and
+stood, with flashing eyes and drawn
+scimitar, in resentment of the slur on his
+countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>With a howl of fear, the little Jew sprang
+through the door and disappeared in the
+darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Musa laughed contemptuously.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, lack-brained cur!" he said, "I would
+not have hurt him, having broken bread
+with him in mine own tent! Yet, friend Persian,
+one cannot hear one's own people, and
+one's own temple, the temple of his fathers,
+desecrated by the tongue of a lack-brained
+Jew trinket-vender."</p>
+
+<p>"You know, then, of this Caaba&mdash;of the
+God they worship there?" asked the priest.</p>
+
+<p>Musa shook his head, and made a gesture
+of denial.</p>
+
+<p>"Musa knows little of such things," he replied.
+"Yet the Caaba is a name sacred in
+Arabian tradition, and as such, it suits me
+ill to hear it on the tongue of a craven-hearted
+Jew. In sooth, the coward knave
+has left his trumpery bundle all open as it is.
+I warrant me he will come back for it in
+good time."</p>
+
+<p>A dark-haired lad in a striped silk garment
+here passed through the tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Hither, Kedar!" called the Sheikh. "Recite
+for our visitor the story of Moses."</p>
+
+<p>The lad at once began the story, reciting it
+in a sort of chant, and accompanying his
+words with many a gesture. The company
+listened breathlessly, now giving vent to
+deep groans as the persecution of the children
+of Israel was described, now bowing
+their heads in reverence at the revelation of
+the burning bush, now waving their arms in
+excitement and starting forward with flash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>ing
+eyes as the lad pictured the passage of
+the Red Sea.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf had heard some vague account of
+the story before, but, with the passionate nature
+of the Oriental, he was strangely moved
+as he listened to the recital of how that great
+God whom he longed to feel and know had
+led the children of Israel through all their
+wanderings and sufferings to the promised
+land. He felt that he too was indeed a wanderer,
+seeking the promised land. He was
+but an infant in the true things of the Spirit.
+Like many another who longs vainly for a
+revelation of the working of the Holy Spirit,
+his soul seemed to reach out hopelessly.</p>
+
+<p>But who can tell how tenderly the same
+All-wise Creator treasures up every outreaching
+of the struggling soul! Not one
+throb of the loving and longing heart is lost;&mdash;and
+Yusuf was yet, after trial, to rejoice
+in the serene fullness of such light as may
+fall upon this terrestrial side of death's dividing
+line.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Yusuf, with all his Persian learning
+and wisdom, had, through all his life, known
+only a religion tinctured with idolatry. Almost
+alone he had broken from that idolatry,
+and realized the unity of God and his separation
+from all connected with such worship;
+but he was yet to understand the connection
+of God with man, and to taste the fullness of
+God's love through Christ. He had not
+realized that the finger of God is upon the
+life of every man who is willing to yield
+himself to Divine direction, and that there is
+thus an inseparable link between the Creator
+and the creature. He was not able to say,
+as said Carlyle in these later days, "A divine
+decree or eternal regulation of the universe
+there verily is, in regard to every conceivable
+procedure and affair of man; faithfully
+following this, said procedure or affair will
+prosper.... Not following this,... destruction
+and wreck are certain for every affair."
+And what could be better? Divine love, not
+divine wrath, over all! Yusuf had an idea
+of divine wrath, but he failed to see&mdash;because
+the presentation of the never-failing
+Fatherhood of God had not yet come&mdash;the infinite
+love that makes Jesus all in all to us,
+heaven wherever he is, and hell wherever he
+is not.</p>
+
+<p>Since leaving Persia, this was the first
+definite opportunity he had had of listening
+to Bible truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Kedar knows more of this than his
+father," explained Musa. "'Tis his mother
+who teaches him. She was a Jewess, of the
+people of Jesus of Nazareth, but I fear this
+roving life has caused my poor Lois to forget
+much of the teaching of her people."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak of Jesus of Nazareth. I have
+heard something of him. Tell me more."</p>
+
+<p>Musa shook his head slowly. "I know
+nothing," he said. "But I shall call Lois.
+The men have all gone from the tent, and
+mayhap she can tell what you want."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he entered the women's apartment,
+and sent his wife to Yusuf.</p>
+
+<p>"You wish to know of Jesus of Nazareth?"
+she said. "Alas, I am but a poor teacher. I
+am unworthy even to speak his name. I
+married when but a child, and since then I
+have wandered far from him, for there have
+been few to teach me. Yet I know that he
+was in very truth the Son of God. He was
+all-good. He healed the sick on this earth,
+and forgave sin. Then, woe, woe to me!&mdash;he
+was crucified,&mdash;crucified by my people! And
+he went up to heaven; his disciples saw him
+go up in the white clouds of a bright day."</p>
+
+<p>"Where dwells he now? Is he one of the
+spirits of the stars?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know not. He is in heaven."</p>
+
+<p>"And does he stoop to take notice of us,
+the children of earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, I know not! There was once a time
+when Jesus was more than a name to me.
+When I knelt, a child, beside my mother on
+the grassy hills of Hebron, it seemed that
+Jesus was, in some vague way, a reality to
+me; but long years of forgetfulness have
+passed since then. Stranger, I wish you
+well. Your words have brought back to me
+the desire to know more of him. If you
+learn aught of him, and it ever lies in your
+way to do so, come and tell us,&mdash;my Musa
+and me,&mdash;that we too may learn of him."</p>
+
+<p>Rising to her feet, the woman saluted the
+Persian and left him. Musa entered to con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>duct
+him to the rugs set apart for his couch,
+and soon all was silent about the encampment.</p>
+
+<p>But ere he fell asleep, Yusuf went out into
+the moonlight. The night was filled with
+the peculiar lightness of an Oriental night.
+The moon blazed down like a globe of
+molten silver, and a few large stars glowed
+with scarcely secondary brilliance. In the
+silvery brightness he could easily read the
+manuscript given him by the Jew. It was
+the story of the man with the withered hand,
+whose infirmity was healed by Jesus in the
+synagogue. And there, in the starlight, the
+priest bowed his head, and a throng of pent-up
+emotions throbbed in his breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Spirits of the stars, show me God. If
+this Jesus be indeed the Son of God, show
+me him. Give me faith, such faith as had
+he of the withered hand, that I too may
+stretch forth my hand and be made whole;
+that I may look, and in looking, see."</p>
+
+<p>This was his prayer. Ah, yet, the "spirits
+of the stars" were as a bridge to the gulf
+which, he fancied, lay between him and Infinite
+Mercy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>YUSUF MEETS AMZI, THE MECCAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Mecca's pilgrims, confident of Fate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And resolute in heart."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Longfellow.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap009"><span class="dropcap">T</span></span>he next morning,
+Yusuf, against the
+remonstrances of
+Musa and his wife, prepared
+to proceed on his
+way. Like the Ancient
+Mariner, he felt forced
+to go on, "to pass like
+night from land to land,"
+until he obtained that
+which he sought.</p>
+
+<p>When he was almost
+ready to depart, a horseman came galloping
+down the valley, with the news that a caravan,
+en route for Mecca, was almost in
+sight, and would make a brief halt near the
+stream by which Musa's tents were pitched.
+Yusuf at once determined to avail himself
+of the timely protection on his journey.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the caravan appeared, a long,
+irregular line&mdash;camels bearing "shugdufs,"
+or covered litters; swift dromedaries,
+mounted by tawny Arabs whose long Indian
+shawls were twisted about their heads and
+fell in fringed ends upon their backs; fiery
+Arabian horses, ridden by Arabs swaying
+long spears or lances in their hands; heavily-laden
+pack-mules, whose leaders walked beside
+them, urging them on with sticks, and
+giving vent to shrill cries as they went; and
+lastly a line of pilgrims, some trudging along
+wearily, some riding miserable beasts, whose
+ribs shone through their roughened hides,
+while others rode, in the proud security of
+ease and affluence, in comfortable litters, or
+upon animals whose sleek and well-fed appearance
+comported with the self-satisfied
+air of their riders.</p>
+
+<p>A halt was called, and immediately all was
+confusion. Tents were hurriedly thrown up;
+the pack-mules were unburdened for a moment;
+the horses, scenting the water, began
+to neigh and sniff the air; infants, who had
+been crammed into saddle-bags with their
+heads out, were hauled from their close quarters;
+the horsemen of Musa, still balancing
+their tufted spears, dashed in and out; while
+his herdsmen, anxious to keep the flocks
+from mixing with the caravan, shrieked and
+gesticulated, hurrying the flocks of sheep off
+in noisy confusion, and urging the herds of
+dromedaries on with their short, hooked
+sticks. It was indeed a babel, in which
+Yusuf had no part; and he once more seized
+the opportunity of looking at the precious
+parchment To his astonishment, he perceived
+that it was addressed to "Mohammed,
+son of Abdallah, son of Abdal Motalleb,
+Mecca," with the subscription, "From Sergius
+the Monk, Bosra."</p>
+
+<p>Here then, Yusuf had, in perfect innocence,
+been entrapped into reading a communication
+addressed to some one else, and
+he smiled sarcastically as he thought of the
+inquisitiveness of the little Jew who had
+taken the liberty of "just peeping in."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>It remained, now, for Yusuf to find the
+Jew and to put him again in possession of
+his charge. He searched for him through
+the motley crowd, but in vain; then, recollecting
+that the peddler's bundle had been
+left behind, he sought Musa, to see if he had
+heard anything of the little busybody.</p>
+
+<p>Musa laughed heartily. "Remember you
+not that I said his trumpery would be gone
+in the morning? I was no false prophet.
+The man is like a weasel. When all sleep he
+finds his way in and helps himself to what
+he will: when all wake, no Jew is to be
+seen; trumpery and all have gone, no one
+knows whither."</p>
+
+<p>So the priest found himself responsible for
+the delivery of the manuscript to this
+Mohammed, of whom he had never hitherto
+heard; and, knowing the contents, he was
+none the less ready to carry out the trust,
+hoping to find in Mohammed some one
+who could tell him more of the same wondrous
+story. He therefore placed the parchment
+very carefully within the folds of his
+garment, bade farewell to Musa and his
+household, and prepared to leave with the
+caravan, which had halted but a short time
+on account of the remarkable coolness of the
+day.</p>
+
+<p>"Peace be with you!" said the Sheikh;
+"and if you ever need a friend, may it be
+Musa's lot to stand in good stead to you. I
+bid you good speed on your journey. We
+have no fears for your safety now, besides
+the safety of numbers, the holy month of
+Ramadhan<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> begins to-day, and even the
+wildest of the Bedouin robbers usually refrain
+from taking life in the holy months.
+Again, Peace be with you! And remember
+that the Bedouin can be a friend."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf embraced the chieftain with gratitude,
+and took his place in the train, which
+was already moving slowly down the wady.</p>
+
+<p>As it often happens that in the most
+numerous concourse of people one feels most
+lonely, so it was now with Yusuf. There
+seemed none with whom he cared to speak.
+Most of the people were self-satisfied
+traders busied with the care of the merchandise
+which they were taking down to dispose
+of at the great fair carried on during
+the Ramadhan. A few were Arabs of the
+Hejaz, short and well-knit, wearing loose
+garments of blue, drawn back at the arms
+enough to show the muscles standing out like
+whip-cords. Some were smoking short
+chibouques, with stems of wood and bowls
+of soft steatite colored a yellowish red. As
+they rode they used no stirrups, but crossed
+their legs before and beneath the pommel of
+the saddle; while, as the sun shone more
+hotly, they bent their heads and drew their
+kufiyahs far over their brows. Many poor
+and somewhat fanatical pilgrims were interspersed
+among the crowd, and here and
+there a dervish, with his large, bag-sleeved
+robe of brown wool&mdash;the Zaabut, worn alike
+by dervish and peasant&mdash;held his way undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf soon ceased to pay any attention to
+his surroundings, and sat, buried in his own
+thoughts, until a voice, pleasant and like the
+ripple of a brook, aroused him.</p>
+
+<p>"What thoughts better than the thoughts
+of a Persian? None. Friend, think you not
+so?"</p>
+
+<p>The words were spoken in the Persian
+dialect, and the priest looked up in surprise,
+to see a ruddy-faced man smiling down upon
+him from the back of a tall, white Syrian
+camel. He wore the jubbeh, or cloak, the
+badge of the learned in the Orient; his
+beard was turning slightly gray, and his
+eyes were keen and twinkling.</p>
+
+<p>"One question mayhap demands another,"
+returned Yusuf. "How knew you that I am
+a Persian? I no longer wear Persian garb."</p>
+
+<p>"What! Ask an Arab such a question as
+that!" said the other, smiling. "Know you
+not, Persian, that we of the desert lands
+are accustomed to trace by a mark in the
+sand, the breaking of a camel-thorn, things
+as difficult? The stamp of one's country
+cannot be thrown off with one's clothes.
+Nay, more; you have been noted as one
+learned among the Persians."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf bent his head in assent. "Truly,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>stranger, your penetration is incomprehensible,"
+he said, with a touch of sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" returned the other, good-humoredly;
+"but, marking you out for what
+you are, I thought your company might,
+perchance, lessen the dreariness of the way.
+I am Amzi, the Meccan. Some call me Amzi
+the rich Meccan; others, Amzi the learned;
+others, Amzi the benevolent. For myself,
+I pretend nothing, aspire to nothing but to
+know all that may be known, to live a life
+of ease, at peace with all men, and to help
+the needy or unfortunate where I may.
+More than one stranger has not been sorry
+for meeting Amzi the benevolent, in Mecca.
+Have you friends there?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," said Yusuf. "Yet there is a tradition
+among our people that the Guebres at
+one time had temples even in the land of
+Arabia. Have you heard aught of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is said that at one time fire-temples
+were scattered throughout this land, each
+being dedicated to the worship of a planet;
+that at Medina<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> itself was one dedicated to
+the worship of the moon and containing an
+image of it. It is also claimed that the fire-worshipers
+held Mecca, and there worshiped
+Saturn and the moon, from whence comes
+their name of the place&mdash;Mahgah, or moon's
+place. The Guebres also hold here that the
+Black Stone is an emblem of Saturn, left
+in the Caaba by the Persian Mahabad and
+his successors long ago. But, friend, Persian
+influence has long since ceased in El Hejaz.
+Methinks you will find but few traces of
+your country-people's glory there."</p>
+
+<p>"It matters not," returned the priest.
+"The glory of the fire-worshipers has, so far
+as Yusuf is concerned, passed away. Know
+you not that before his eyes the sacred fire,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+kept alive for well-nigh one thousand years,
+went out in the supreme temple ere he left
+it? May the great Omniscient Spirit grant
+that Persia's idolatries will die out in its
+ashes!"</p>
+
+<p>"And think you that there is no idolatry
+in Mecca? Friend, believe me, not a house
+in Arabian Mecca which does not contain its
+idol! Not a man of influence who will start
+on an expedition without beseeching his
+family gods for blessing!"</p>
+
+<p>"And do they not recognize a God over
+all?"</p>
+
+<p>"They acknowledge Allah as the highest,
+the universal power,&mdash;yet he is virtually but
+a nominal deity, for they deem that none
+can enter into special relationship with him
+save through the mediation of the household
+gods. In his name the holiest oaths are
+sworn, nevertheless in true worship he has
+the last place. Indeed, it must be confessed
+that neither fear of Allah nor reverence of
+the gods has much influence over the mass
+of our people."</p>
+
+<p>"What, then, is the meaning of this great
+pilgrimage, whose fame reached me even in
+Persia? Does not religious enthusiasm lead
+those poor wretches, hobbling along behind,
+to take such a journey?"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi nodded his head slowly. "Religious
+incentives may move the few," he said.
+"But, friend, can you not see that barter is
+the leading object of the greater number&mdash;of
+those well-to-do pilgrims who are superintending
+the carriage of their baggage so
+complacently there? The holy months, particularly
+the Ramadhan, afford a period of
+comparative safety, a long truce that affords
+a convenient season for traffic. Alas, poor
+stranger! you will be sad to find that our
+city, in the time of the holy fast, becomes a
+place of buying and selling, of vice and robbery&mdash;a
+place where gain is all and God is
+almost unknown."</p>
+
+<p>"But you, Amzi; what do you believe of
+such things?"</p>
+
+<p>"In truth, I know not what to think.
+Believe in idols I cannot; worship in the
+Caaba I will not; so that my religion is but
+a belief in Allah, whom I fear to approach,
+and whose help and influence I know not
+how to obtain, a confidence in my own morality,
+and a consciousness of doing good
+works."</p>
+
+<p>"Strange, strange!" said the priest, "that
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>we have arrived at somewhat the same
+place by different ways! Amzi, let us be
+brothers in the quest! Let us rest neither
+night nor day until we have found the way
+to the Supreme God! Amzi, I want to feel
+him, to know him, as I am persuaded he
+may be known; yet, like you, I fear to approach
+him. Have you heard of Jesus?"</p>
+
+<p>"A few among a band of coward Jews
+who live in the Jewish quarter of Mecca,
+believe in One whom they call Jesus. The
+majority of them do not accept him as
+divine; and among those who do, he seems
+to be little more than a name of some one
+who lived and died as did Abraham and
+Ishmael. His teaching, if, indeed, he taught
+aught, seems to have little effect upon their
+lives. They live no better than others,
+and, indeed, they are slurred upon by all
+true Meccans as cowardly dogs, perjurers
+and usurers."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf sighed deeply. It seemed as though
+he were following a flitting ignis-fatuus, that
+eluded him just as he came in sight of it.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the day was passed in comparative
+silence. The evening halt was
+called, and it was decided to spend the night
+in a grassy basin, traversed by the rocky
+bed of a mountain stream, a "fiumara,"
+down which a feeble brooklet from recent
+mountain rains trickled. Owing to the
+security of the month Ramadhan, it was
+deemed that a night halt would be safe, and
+the whole caravan encamped on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>As the shades of the rapidly-falling Eastern
+twilight drew on, Yusuf sat idly near
+the door of a tent, looking out listlessly, and
+listening to the chatter of the people about
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Not far off a Jewish boy, a mere child, of
+one of the northern tribes, as shown by his
+fair hair and blue eyes, sang plaintively a
+song of the singing of birds and the humming
+of bees, of the flowers of the North, of
+rippling streams, of the miraged desert, of
+the waving of the tamarisk and the scent of
+roses.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf observed the child-like form and the
+effeminate paleness of the cherub face, and
+a feeling of protective pity throbbed in his
+bosom as he noted the slender smallness of
+the hand that glided over the one-stringed
+guitar, showing by its movements, even in
+the fading evening light, the blue veins that
+coursed beneath the transparent skin. He
+called the lad to his side, and bade him sing
+to him. Not till then did he notice the
+vacancy of the look which bespoke a
+slightly wandering mind. Yusuf's great
+heart filled with sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor lad!" he said, "singing all alone!
+Where are your friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dumah's friends?" said the child, wonderingly.
+"Poor Dumah has no friends
+now! He goes here and there, and people
+are kind to him&mdash;because Dumah sings, you
+know, and only angels sing. He tells them
+of flocks beside the pool, of lilies of Siloam,
+of birds in the air and angels in the heavens&mdash;then
+everyone is kind. Ah! the world is
+fair!" he continued, with a happy smile.
+"The breeze blows hot here, sometimes,
+but so cool over the sea; and the lilies blow
+in the vales of Galilee, and the waves ripple
+bright over the sea where he once walked."</p>
+
+<p>"Who, child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jesus&mdash;don't you know?" with a wondering
+look. "He sat often by the Lake of
+Galilee where I have sat, and the night
+winds lifted his hair as they do mine, and
+he smiled and healed poor suffering and sinful
+people. Ah, he did indeed! Poor Dumah
+is talking sense now, good stranger; sometimes
+he does not&mdash;the thoughts come and go
+before he can catch them, and then people
+say, 'Poor little Dumah is demented.' But
+if Jesus were here now, Dumah would be
+healed. I dreamed one night I saw him, and
+he smiled, and looked upon me so sweetly
+and said, 'Dumah loves me! Dumah loves
+me!' and then I saw him no more. Friend, I
+know you love him, too. What is your
+name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yusuf."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Yusuf, you will be my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will be your friend, poor Dumah!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, Dumah is not poor! He is happy.
+But his thoughts are going now. Ah, they
+throng! The visions come! The birds and
+the mists and the flowers are twining in a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>wreath, a wreath that stretches up to the
+clouds! Do you not see it?" and he started
+off again on his wild, plaintive song.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf's eyes filled with tears, and he drew
+the lad to his bosom,
+and looked out upon
+the grassy plot before
+the door, where a huge
+fire was now shedding
+a flickering and fantastic
+glare upon the
+wrinkled visages of the
+Arabs, and lighting up
+the scene with a weird
+effect only to be seen
+in the Orient.</p>
+
+<p>Caldrons were boiling,
+and a savory odor
+penetrated the air.
+Men were talking in
+groups, and a little dervish
+was spinning
+around nimbly in a sort
+of dance. Yusuf looked
+at him for a moment.
+There seemed to be
+something familiar
+about his figure and
+movements, but in the
+darkness he could not
+be distinctly seen, and
+Yusuf soon forgot to
+pay any attention to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He drew the boy, who
+had now fallen asleep,
+close to him. What
+would he, Yusuf, not
+give to learn fully of
+that source from
+whence the few meagre
+crumbs picked up by
+this poor child were yet
+precious enough to give him, all wandering
+as he was at times, the assurance of a sympathetic
+God, and render him happy in the
+realization of his presence! What must be
+the joy of a full revelation of these blessed
+truths, if, indeed, truths they were!</p>
+
+<p>The longing for such companionship filled
+Yusuf, as he lay there, with an intense desire.
+He could scarcely define, in truth he
+scarcely understood, exactly what he wanted.
+There was a lack in his life which no human
+agency had, as yet, been able to satisfy.
+His heart was "reaching out its arms" to
+know God&mdash;that was all; and he called it
+searching for Truth.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 309px;">
+<a href="images/p013.jpg"><img src="images/p013thum.jpg" width="309" height="400" alt="A head was thrust forward.... It was the little dervish." /></a>
+<span class="caption">A head was thrust forward.... It was the little dervish.&mdash;See <a href="#Page_15">page 15</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Far into the night the Persian pondered,
+his mind beating against the darkness of
+what was to him the great mystery; and he
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>prayed for light. He thought of the Father,
+yet again he prayed to the spirits of the
+planets which were shining so brightly
+above him. But did not an echo of that
+prayer ascend to the throne of grace? Was
+not the eye of Him who notes even the sparrows
+when they fall, upon his poor, struggling
+child?</p>
+
+<p>And the end was not yet.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEREIN YUSUF ENCOUNTERS A SAND-STORM
+IN THE DESERT, AND HAS SOMEWHAT
+OF AN EXPERIENCE WITH THE LITTLE
+DERVISH.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A column high and vast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">A form of fear and dread."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Longfellow.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap014"><span class="dropcap">W</span></span>ith but few
+events worthy of
+notice the journey
+to Mecca was concluded.
+After a
+short halt at
+Medina, the caravan
+set out by
+one of the three
+roads which then
+led from Medina
+to Mecca.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The way led through a country whose
+aspect had every indication of volcanic
+agency in the remote ages of the earth's history.
+Bleak plains&mdash;through whose barren
+soil outcrops of blackened scori&aelig;, or sharp
+edges of black and brittle hornblende, appeared
+at every turn&mdash;were interspersed
+with wadies, bounded by ridges of basalt
+and green-stone, rising from one hundred to
+two hundred feet high, and covered with a
+scanty vegetation of thorny acacias and
+clumps of camel-grass. Here and there a
+rolling hill was cut by a deep gorge, showing
+where, after rain, a mighty torrent must
+foam its way; and, more rarely still, a stagnant
+pool of saltish or brackish water was
+marked out by a cluster of daum palms.</p>
+
+<p>On all sides jackals howled dismally during
+the night; and above, during the day, an
+occasional vulture wheeled, fresh from the
+carcass of some poor mule dead by the wayside.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the appearance of the land
+through which the caravan wound its way,
+beneath a sky peculiar to Arabia&mdash;purple at
+night, white and terrible in its heat at noon,
+yet ever strange, weird and impressive.</p>
+
+<p>But one incident worth recounting occurred
+on the way. Yusuf, Amzi, and the
+boy Dumah had been traveling side by side
+for some time. The way, at that particular
+spot, led over a plain which afforded comparatively
+easy traveling, and thus gave a
+better opportunity for conversation. The
+talk had turned upon the Guebre worship,
+and the priest was amazed at the knowledge
+shown by Amzi of a religion so little known
+in Arabia.</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you more than that," said Amzi
+in a low tone. "I can tell you that you are
+not only Yusuf the Persian gentleman of
+leisure, but Yusuf the Magian priest, accustomed
+to feed the sacred fire in the Temple
+of Jupiter. Is it not so? Did not Yusuf's
+hand even take the blood of Imri the infant
+daughter of Uzza in sacrifice? Can Yusuf
+the Persian traveler deny that?"</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf's head sank; his face crimsoned
+with pain, and the veins swelled like cords
+on his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, Amzi, it is but too true!" he said.
+"Yet, upon the most sacred oath that a Persian
+can swear, I did it thinking that the
+blessing of the gods would thus be invoked.
+The rite is one not unknown among the
+Sab&aelig;ans of to-day, and common even among
+the Magians of the past. Amzi, it was in
+my days of heathendom that I did it, thinking
+it a duty to Heaven. It was Yusuf the
+priest who did it, not Yusuf the man; yet
+Yusuf the man bears the torture of it in his
+bosom, and seeks forgiveness for the blackest
+spot in his life! How knew you this,
+Amzi?&mdash;if the question be an honorable one."</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi knows much," returned the Meccan.
+"He knows, too, that Yusuf can never
+escape the brand of the priesthood. See!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>He leaned forward, and drew back the
+loose garment from the Persian's breast. A
+red burn, or scar, in the form of a torch, appeared
+in the flesh. As Yusuf hastened to
+cover it, a head was thrust forward, and
+two bead-like eyes peered from a shrouded
+face. It was the little dervish.</p>
+
+<p>The priest was annoyed at the intrusion.
+He determined to take note of the meddler,
+but the occurrence of an event common in
+the desert drove all thought of the dervish
+from his mind.</p>
+
+<p>The cry "A simoom! A simoom!" arose
+throughout the caravan.</p>
+
+<p>There, far towards the horizon, was a
+dense mass of dull, copper-colored cloud, rising
+and surging like the waves of a mad
+ocean. It spread rapidly upwards toward
+the zenith, and a dull roar sounded from
+afar off, broken by a peculiar shrieking whistle.
+And now dense columns could be seen,
+bent backward in trailing wreaths of copper
+at the top, changing and swaying before the
+hurricane, yet ever holding the form of vapory,
+yellow pillars,&mdash;huge shafts extending
+from earth to heaven, and rapidly advancing
+with awful menace upon the terrified multitude.</p>
+
+<p>The Arabs screamed, helpless before the
+manifestation of what they believed was a
+supernatural force, for they look upon these
+columns as the evil genii of the plains. Men
+and camels fell to the ground. Horses
+neighed in fear, and galloped madly to and
+fro. But the hot breath of the "poison-wind"
+was upon them in a moment, shrieking
+like a fiend among the crisping acacias.
+The sand-storm then fell in all its fury, half
+smothering the poor wretches, who strove
+to cover their heads with their garments to
+keep out the burning, blistering, pitiless
+dust.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately all was over in a moment, and
+the tempest went swirling on its way northward,
+leaving a clear sky and a dust-buried
+country in its wake.</p>
+
+<p>In the confusion the dervish had escaped
+to the other end of the caravan, and was forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the tenth day after leaving
+Medina the caravan reached the head of the
+long, narrow defile in which lies the city of
+Mecca, the chief town of El Hejaz. It was
+early morning when the procession passed
+through the cleft at the western end; and
+the sun was just rising, a globe of red, above
+the blue mountains towards Tayf, when
+Yusuf stopped his camel on an eminence in
+full view of the city. There it lay in the
+heart of the rough blackish hills, whose long
+shadows still fell upon the low stone houses
+and crooked streets beneath.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>The priest's eager glance sought for the
+Caaba. There it was, a huge, stone cube,
+standing in the midst of a courtyard two
+hundred and fifty paces long by two hundred
+paces wide, and shrouded from top to
+bottom by a heavy curtain of dark, striped
+cloth of Yemen.</p>
+
+<p>There was something awe-inspiring in the
+scene, and the priest felt a thrill of apprehensive
+emotion as he gazed upon what he
+had fondly hoped would prove the end of
+his long journey. Yet his eye clouded; he
+covered his face with his mantle and wept,
+saying to his soul, "Here, too, have they
+turned aside to worship the false, and have
+bowed down to idols! My soul! My soul!
+Where shalt thou find truth and rest?"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi touched him on the arm. "Why do
+you weep, friend? Thou art a false Guebre,
+truly! Know you not that even they hold
+the Caaba in high reverence?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a tone of good-natured raillery
+in the voice, and the speaker continued:
+"Arouse yourself, my friend. See how they
+worship in Mecca. They are at it already!
+See them run! By my faith 'tis a lusty
+morning exercise!"</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf looked up to see a great concourse
+of people gathering in the court-yard. Many
+were rushing about the Caaba, and pausing
+frequently at one corner of the huge structure.</p>
+
+<p>"Each pilgrim," explained Amzi, "holds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+himself bound to go seven times about the
+temple, and the harder he runs the more
+virtue there is in it&mdash;performing the Tawaf,
+they call it. Those who seem to pause are
+kissing the Hajar Aswad&mdash;the Black Stone,
+which, the Arabs say, was once an angel
+cast from heaven in the form of a pure
+white jacinth. It is now blackened by the
+kisses of sinners, but will, at the last day,
+arise in its angel form, to bear testimony
+of the faithful who have kissed it, and have
+done the Tawaf faithfully. And now, friend,
+come to the house of Amzi, and see if he can
+be as hospitable as Musa the Bedouin."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf gratefully accepted the invitation,
+and the camels were urged on again down
+the narrow, crooked street.</p>
+
+<p>"Know you aught of one Mohammed?"
+asked the priest. "A roguish Hebrew left
+me, with scant ceremony, in possession of a
+manuscript which must be given to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, well do I know him," said Amzi.
+"Mohammed, the son of Abdallah the handsome,
+and grandson of Abdal Motalleb, who
+was the son of Haschem of the tribe of the
+Koreish&mdash;a tribe which has long held a
+position among the highest of Mecca, and
+has, for ages past, had the guardianship of
+the Caaba itself. Mohammed himself is a
+man of sagacity and honor in all his dealings.
+He is married to Cadijah, a wealthy
+widow, whose business he has long carried
+on with scrupulous fairness. He, too, is one
+of the few who, in Mecca, have ceased to
+believe in idols, and would fain see the
+Caaba purged of its images."</p>
+
+<p>"There are some, then, who cast aside
+such beliefs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the Hanifs (ascetics), who utterly
+reject polytheism. Waraka, a cousin of the
+wife of Mohammed, is one of the chief of
+these; and Mohammed himself has, for several
+years, been accustomed to retire to the
+cave of Hira for meditation and prayer. It
+is said that he has preached and taught for
+some time in the city, but only to his immediate
+friends and relatives. Well, here we
+are at last,"&mdash;as a pretentious stone building
+was reached. "Amzi the benevolent bids
+Yusuf the Persian priest welcome."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi led the priest into a house furnished
+with no small degree of Oriental splendor.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Right to the carven cedarn doors,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flung inward over spangled floors,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Broad-based flights of marble stairs<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ran up with golden balustrade,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">After the fashion of the time."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A meal of Oriental dishes, dried fruit and
+sweetmeats was prepared; and, when the
+coolness of evening had come, the two
+friends proceeded to the temple.</p>
+
+<p>Entering by a western gate, they found
+the great quadrangle crowded with men,
+women and children, some standing in
+groups, with sanctimonious air, at prayers,
+while others walked or ran about the Caaba,
+which loomed huge and somber beneath the
+solemn light of the stars. A few solitary
+torches&mdash;for at that time the slender pillars
+with their myriads of lamps had not been
+erected&mdash;lit up the scene with a weird, wavering
+glare, and threw deep shadows across
+the white, sanded ground.</p>
+
+<p>A curious crowd it seemed. The wild enthusiasm
+that marked the conduct of the
+followers of Mohammed at a later day was
+absent, yet every motion of the motley
+crowd proclaimed the veneration with which
+the place inspired the impressionable and
+excitable Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>Here stood a wealthy Meccan, with flowing
+robes, arms crossed and eyes turned
+upward; there stalked a tall and gaunt
+figure whose black robes and heavy black
+head-dress proclaimed the wearer a Bedouin
+woman. Here ran a group of beggars; and
+there a number of half-naked pilgrims clung
+to the curtained walls. Once a corpse was
+carried into the enclosure and borne in
+solemn Tawaf round the edifice.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" cried poor Dumah. "The son of
+the widow of Nain! The son of the widow
+of Nain! Oh, why does not he whom Dumah
+sees in his dreams come to raise him! But
+then, there are idols here, and he cannot
+come where there are other gods before
+him."</p>
+
+<p>On surveying the temple, Yusuf discovered
+that the door of the edifice was placed seven
+feet above the ground. Amzi informed him
+that the temple might be entered only at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>certain times, but that it contained an image
+of Abraham holding in its hand some arrows
+without heads; also a similar statue of Ishmael
+likewise with divining arrows, and
+lesser images of prophets and angels
+amounting almost to the number of three
+hundred.</p>
+
+<p>Passing round the temple to the north-eastern
+corner, Yusuf looked curiously at
+the Black Stone, which was set in the wall
+at a few spans from the ground, and which
+seemed to be black with yellowish specks in
+it.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Many people were pressing forward to
+kiss it, while many more were drinking and
+laving themselves with water from a well a
+few paces distant,&mdash;the well Zem-Zem,&mdash;believing
+that in so doing their sins were
+washed off in the water.</p>
+
+<p>"This," said Amzi, pointing to the spring,
+"is said to be the well which gushed up to
+give drink to our forefather Ishmael and
+Hagar his mother, when they had gone into
+the wilderness to die."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf sighed heavily. Such empty ceremony
+had no longer any attraction for him,
+and he turned his eyes towards the mountain
+Abu Kubays, towering dark and gloomy
+above the town, its black crest touched with
+a silvery radiance by the light of the stars
+shining brilliantly above.</p>
+
+<p>Was this, then, the Caaba? Was this
+what he had fondly hoped would fill his
+heart's longing? Was there any food in this
+empty ceremonial for a hungering soul?
+Why, oh why did the truth ever elude him,
+flitting like an ignis-fatuus with phantom
+light through a dark and blackened wilderness!</p>
+
+<p>Amzi was talking to someone in the
+crowd, and Yusuf passed slowly out and11
+bent his way down a silent and deserted
+street. No one was in sight except a very
+young girl, almost a child, who was gliding
+quickly on in the shadows. Once or twice
+she seemed to stagger, then she fell.
+Yusuf hurried to her, and turned her face
+to the starlight. Even in that dim light he
+could see that it was contorted with pain.
+Yusuf heard the murmur of voices in a low
+building close at hand, and, without waiting
+to knock, he lifted the girl in his arms,
+opened the door, and passed in.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>NATHAN THE JEW.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"I shall be content, whatever
+happens, for what
+God chooses must be better
+than what I can
+choose."&mdash;<i>Epictetus.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap017"><span class="dropcap">T</span></span>he same evening on
+which Yusuf visited
+the temple, a woman
+and her two children
+sat in a dingy little
+room with an earthen
+floor, in one of the
+most dilapidated
+streets of Mecca.
+The woman's face
+bore traces of want
+and suffering, yet there was a calm dignity
+and hopefulness in her countenance,
+and her voice was not despairing. She sat
+upon a bundle of rushes placed on the floor.
+No lamp lighted the apartment, but through
+an opening in the wall the soft starlight
+shone upon the bands of hair that fell in
+little braids over her forehead. Her two
+beautiful children were beside her, the girl
+with her arm about her mother, and the
+boy's head on her lap.</p>
+
+<p>"Will we have only hard cake for breakfast,
+mother, and to-morrow my birthday,
+too?" he was saying.</p>
+
+<p>"That is all, my little Manasseh, unless
+the good Father sees fit to send us some
+way of earning more. You know even the
+hairs of our heads are numbered, so he takes
+notice of the poorest and weakest of his
+children, and has promised us that there will
+be no lack to them that fear him."</p>
+
+<p>"But, mother, we have had lack many,
+many times," said the boy thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>The mother smiled. "But things have
+usually come right in the end," she said,
+"and you know 'Our light affliction, which
+is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
+more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.'
+We cannot understand all these things now,
+but it will be plain some day. 'We will
+trust, and not be afraid,' because our trust
+is in the Lord; and we know that 'he will
+perfect that which concerneth us,' if we
+trust him."</p>
+
+<p>"And will he send father home soon?"
+asked the boy. "We have been praying for
+him to come, so, so long! Do you think God
+hears us, mother? Why doesn't he send
+father home?"</p>
+
+<p>The woman's head drooped, and a tear
+rolled down her cheek, but her voice was
+calm and firm.</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh, child," she said, "your father
+may never return; but, though a Jew, he
+was a Christian; and, living or dead, I know
+he is safe in the keeping of our blessed
+Lord. Yes, Manasseh, God hears the
+slightest whisper breathed from the heart of
+those who call upon him in truth. He says,
+Jesus says, 'I know my sheep, and am
+known of mine.' Little son, I like to think
+that our blessed Savior, who 'laid down his
+life for the sheep,' is here&mdash;in this very
+room, close to us. Sometimes I close my
+eyes and think I see him, looking upon us in
+mercy and love from his tender eyes, and he
+almost seems so near that I may touch him.
+No, he will never forsake us. Little ones,
+my constant prayer for you is that you may
+learn to realize the depths of his love, and to
+render him your hearts in return; that you
+may feel ever closer to him than to any
+earthly parent, and prove yourselves loving,
+faithful children of whom he may not be
+ashamed."</p>
+
+<p>The woman's voice trembled with emotion
+as she concluded, and a glow of happiness
+illuminated her thin features.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mother, I was ashamed to-day,"
+said little Manasseh. "I got angry and
+struck a boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh! My child!"</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot understand, mother; you are
+so good that you never get angry or
+wicked. But the anger keeps rising up in
+me till it seems as if my heart would burst;
+the blood rushes to my face, my eyes flash&mdash;then&mdash;I
+strike, and think of nothing."</p>
+
+<p>She stroked his hair gently. "Manasseh,
+my boy's temper is one enemy which he has
+to conquer. But he must not try to conquer
+it in his own strength. We have an Almighty
+Helper who has given us to know
+that he will not suffer us to be tempted beyond
+that we are able, and has bidden us
+cast all our care upon him. He will be only
+too willing to guide us and uphold us by his
+power, if we will but let him keep us and
+lead us far from all temptation."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what would you do, mother, if you
+were in my place when the anger comes
+up?"</p>
+
+<p>She stooped and kissed him. "I would
+say, 'Jesus, help me,' and leave it all to
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Just then a step sounded at the door.
+Some one entered, and a cry of "Father!
+Oh, father!" burst from the children. The
+mother sprang, trembling, to her feet. It
+was the long-lost husband and father!</p>
+
+<p>Then the lamp was lighted, and the traveler
+told his loved ones the story of his long
+absence; how he had embarked at Jeddah
+on a foist bound for the head of the Red
+Sea; how he had been shipwrecked; had become
+ill of a fever as the result of exposure;
+and how he had at last made his painful
+way home by traveling overland.</p>
+
+<p>As they thus sat, talking in ecstasy of joy
+at their reunion, the door opened and Yusuf
+entered with the girl in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>Water was sprinkled upon her face and she
+soon recovered. She placed her hand on her
+brow in a dazed way, then sprang up, and,
+just pausing for an instant in which her
+wondrous beauty might be noted, dashed off
+into the night.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Zeinab, the beautiful child of Hassan,"
+said the Jewess. "She will be well
+again now. The paroxysms have come
+before."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit you down, friend," said her husband
+to Yusuf. "We were just about to break
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>bread. 'Tis a scanty meal," he added, with
+a smile. "But we have been enjoined to 'be
+not forgetful to entertain strangers,' because
+many have thus entertained angels
+unawares. We shall be glad of the company."</p>
+
+<p>There was a manly uprightness in the look
+and tone of Nathan the Jew which caught
+Yusuf's fancy at once, and he sat down
+without hesitation at the humble board.</p>
+
+<p>And there, in that little, dingy room, he
+saw the first gleam of that radiant light
+which was to transform the whole of his
+after life. He heard of the trials and disappointments,
+of the heroic fortitude born of
+that trust in and union with God which he
+had so craved. He received his first glimpse
+of a God, human as we are human, who understands
+every longing, every doubt, every
+agony that can bleed the heart of a poor
+child of earth.</p>
+
+<p>He scarcely dared yet to believe that this
+God was one really with him at all times
+and in all places, seeing, hearing, knowing,
+sympathizing. He scarcely dared to realize
+the possibility of a companionship with him,
+or the fact that the mediation of the planet-spirits
+was but a myth. Yet he did feel, in
+a vague way, that the light was breaking,
+and a tumultuous, undefined, hopeful ecstasy
+took possession of his being. Yusuf's heart
+was ready for the reception of the truth.
+He was unprejudiced. He had cast aside all
+dependence upon the tenets of his former belief.
+He had become as a little child anxious
+for rest upon its father's bosom. He
+sought only God, and to him the light came
+quickly.</p>
+
+<p>There was an infinity of blessed truth to
+learn yet, but, as he went out into the night,
+he knew that a something had come into his
+life, transforming and ennobling it. The
+divinity within him throbbed heart to heart
+with the Divinity that is above all, in all,
+throughout all good. Though vaguely, he
+felt God; he knew that now, at last, he had
+entered upon the right road.</p>
+
+<p>Then he thought of Amzi. He must try
+to tell him all this. Surely Amzi the learned,
+the benevolent, would rejoice too in hearing
+the story of Jesus' life on earth, of his coming
+as an expression of the love of God to
+man, that man might know God.</p>
+
+<p>Through the dark streets he hastened,
+thinking, wondering, rejoicing. He sought
+the bedside of Amzi on the flat roof.</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi, awake!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"What now, night-hawk?" said the Meccan,
+in his good-natured, half-railing tone.
+"Why pounce upon a man thus in the midst
+of his slumbers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi, I have heard glorious news of
+him&mdash;that Jesus of whom we have talked!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"He seems indeed to be the God for whom
+I have longed. They have been telling me of
+his life, yet I realize little save that he came
+to earth that men might know him; that he
+died to show men the depth of his love; and
+that he is with us at every time, in every
+place&mdash;even here, now, on this roof! Only
+think of it, Amzi! He is close beside us, seeing
+us, hearing us, knowing our very hearts!
+There is no need more of appealing to the
+spirits of the stars. Ah, they were ever far,
+far off!"</p>
+
+<p>"And where learned you all this, friend
+priest?" There was an indifferent raillery in
+the tone which chilled Yusuf to the heart.</p>
+
+<p>"From Nathan, a Christian Jew, and his
+wife&mdash;people who live close to God if any
+one does."</p>
+
+<p>"In the Jewish quarter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even so."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi laughed. "Truly, friend, you have
+chosen a fair spot for your revelation&mdash;a
+quarter of filth and vice. A case of good coming
+out of evil, truly!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you not grant that there are some
+good even in the Jewish quarter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some, perhaps; yet there are some good
+among all peoples."</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi, can you not believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, friend Yusuf; I am glad for your
+happiness&mdash;believe what you will. But it is
+foreign to Amzi's nature to accept on hearsay
+that which he has not inquired into&mdash;probed
+to the bottom even. He cannot accept
+the testimony of any passing stranger,
+however plausible it may seem. Rejoice if
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>you will, Yusuf, in the spring of a night-tune,
+but leave Amzi to seek for the deep
+waters still."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi was now talking quickly and impressively.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf was amazed. The light was beginning
+to shine so brightly in his own soul that
+he could not comprehend why others could
+not see and believe likewise. He talked with
+his friend until the dawn began to tint the
+top of Abu Kubays, but without effect. At
+every turn he was met by the bitter prejudice
+held by the Meccans against the whole
+Jewish race, a prejudice which kept even
+Amzi the benevolent from believing in anything
+advocated by them.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do they not show Christ in their
+lives, then?" he would say.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot judge the whole Christian
+band by the misdeeds of a few, who are,
+indeed, no Christians," Yusuf pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>"True; yet a religion such as you describe
+should appeal to more of them, and would,
+if it were all you imagine it to be. A perfect
+religion should be exemplified in the
+lives of those who profess it."</p>
+
+<p>"I grant you that that is true," was Yusuf's
+reply. "And as an example let me
+bring you to Nathan and his family. Nobody
+could talk for one hour to them without
+feeling that they have found, at least, something
+which we do not possess. This something,
+they say, is their God."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well. I shall do so to please you,"
+said Amzi indifferently, "but I hope that a
+longer acquaintance may not spoil your trust
+in these people."</p>
+
+<p>Further expostulation was vain. Yusuf retired
+to his own apartment, and prayed long
+and fervently, in his own simple way, offering
+thanks for the light which was breaking
+so radiantly on his own soul, and beseeching
+the loving Jesus to touch the heart of Amzi,
+who, he knew, though less enthusiastic than
+he, also desired to know truth.</p>
+
+<p>And before he lay down for a short rest,
+he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Grant, O Jesus, thou who art ever present,
+that I may know thee better, and that
+Amzi, too, may learn to know thee. Reveal
+thyself to him as thou art revealing thyself
+to me, that we may know thee as we
+should<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original has '&quot;">."</ins></p>
+
+<p>The priest's face grew radiant with happiness
+as he concluded.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, in that same city, vice held sway;
+for, even as the priest prayed, a dark figure
+emerged from an unused upper attic in the
+house of Nathan the Jew, and, escaping by a
+window, descended a garden stair and
+disappeared in the darkness. Even in that
+dim light, had one looked he might have
+noted that the mysterious prowler wore the
+dress of a dervish.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>YUSUF'S FIRST MEETING WITH MOHAMMED.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"A person with abnormal auditory sensations often
+comes to interpret them as voices of demons, or as the
+voice of one commanding him to do some deed. This
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'hullucination'">hallucination</ins>, in turn, becomes an apperceiving organ,
+<i>i.e.</i>, other perceptions and ideas are assimilated to it:
+it becomes a center about which many ideas gather
+and are correspondingly distorted."&mdash;<i>McLellan, <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: missing period in original">Psychology.</ins></i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap020"><span class="dropcap">U</span></span>pon the evening of
+the following day,
+Amzi and Yusuf set
+out in quest of Mohammed,
+to whom
+the manuscript had
+not yet been given.
+Stopping at the
+house of Cadijah, a
+stone building having
+some pretensions to
+grandeur, they learned
+that Mohammed had left
+the city. Accordingly, thinking he would
+probably be found in the Cave of Hira, they
+took a by-path towards the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was hot, but a pleasant breeze
+blew from the plains towards the Nejd, and,
+from the elevation which they now ascended,
+Yusuf noted with interest a scene every
+point of which was entirely different from
+that of his Persian home&mdash;different perhaps
+from that of any other spot on the face of
+the earth; a scene desolate, wild, and barren,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>yet destined to be the cradle of a mighty
+movement that was ere long to agitate the
+entire peninsula of Arabia, and eventually
+to exercise its baneful influence over a great
+part of the Eastern Hemisphere.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Below him lay the long,
+narrow, sandy valley. No
+friendly group of palms
+arose to break its dreary
+monotony; no green thing,
+save a few parched aloes,
+was there to form a pleasant
+resting-place for the
+eye. The passes below,
+those ever-populous roads
+leading to the Nejd, Syria,
+Jeddah, and Arabia-Felix,
+were crowded with people;
+yet, even their presence
+did not suffice to remove
+the air of deadness from
+the scene. Of one thing
+only could the beholder be
+really conscious&mdash;desolation,
+desolation; a desolate
+city surrounded by huge,
+bare, skeleton-like mountains,
+grim old Abu Kubays
+with the city stretching
+half way up its
+gloomy side, on the east;
+the Red mountain on the
+west; Jebel Kara toward
+Tayf, and Jebel Thaur
+with Jebel Jiyad the
+Greater, on the south.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 305px;">
+<a href="images/p021.jpg"><img src="images/p021thum.jpg" width="305" height="400" alt="&quot;Read, O Mohammed, and see him who was able to restore the withered hand.&quot;" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;Read, O Mohammed, and see him who was able to restore the withered
+hand.&quot;&mdash;See <a href="#Page_23">page 23</a><ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: missing period in original">.</ins></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Yusuf watched the people,
+many of whom were
+pilgrims, swarming like so
+many ants below him
+towards the Caaba, which
+was in full view, standing
+like a huge sarcophagus in the center of the
+great courtyard. In the transparent air of
+the Orient, even the pillars supporting the
+covered portico about the courtyard were
+quite visible. Yusuf had observed the great
+system of barter, the buying and selling that
+went on beneath the roof of that long portico,
+within the very precincts of the temple
+set apart for the worship of the Deity, and,
+as he watched the pigmy creatures, now
+swarming towards the trading stalls, now
+hastening to perform Tawaf about the temple,
+he almost wept that such sacrilege
+should exist, and a great throb of pity for
+these erring people whose spiritual nature
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>was barren as the vast, treeless, verdureless
+waste about them, filled his breast.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi directed his attention towards the
+east, where the blue mountains of Tayf stood
+like outposts in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>"There," said he, "at but a three days'
+journey is the district of plenty, the Canaan
+of Mecca, whence come the grapes, melons,
+cucumbers, and pomegranates that are to be
+seen in our markets. There are pleasant
+dales and gardens where the camel-thorn
+gives way to a carpet of verdure; where the
+mimosa and acacia give place to the glossy-leaved
+fig-tree, to stately palms, and pomegranates
+of the scarlet fruit; where rippling
+streams are heard, and the songs of birds fill
+the air. There is a tradition that Adam,
+when driven out of the Garden of Eden, settled
+at Mecca; and there, on the site of the
+temple yonder, and immediately beneath a
+glittering temple of pearly cloud, shimmering
+dews, and rainbow lights said to be in
+Paradise above,&mdash;the Ba&icirc;t-el Maamur of
+Heaven,&mdash;was built, by the help of angels,
+the first Caaba, a resplendent temple with
+pillars of jasper and roof of ruby. Adam
+then compassed the temple seven times, as
+the angels did the Ba&icirc;t above in perpetual
+Tawaf. He then prayed for a bit of fertile
+land, and immediately a mountain from
+Syria appeared, performed Tawaf round the
+Caaba, and then settled down yonder at
+Tayf. Hence, Tayf is even yet called 'Kita
+min el Sham'&mdash;a piece of Syria, the father-land."</p>
+
+<p>"So then, this Caaba, according to tradition,
+is of early origin?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Arabs believe that when the earthly
+Ba&icirc;t-el Maamur was taken to heaven at
+Adam's death, a third one was built of stone
+and mud by Seth. This was swept away by
+the Deluge, but the Black Stone was kept
+safe in Abu Kubays, which is, therefore,
+called 'El <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original has &quot;">Amin'</ins>&mdash;the Honest. After the
+flood, a fourth House was built by our
+father Abraham, to whom the angel
+Gabriel restored the stone. Abraham's building
+was repaired and in part restored by the
+Amalikah tribe. A sixth Caaba was built
+by the children of Kahtan, into whose tribe,
+say the Arabs, Ismail was married. The
+seventh house was built by Kusay bin Kilab,
+a forefather of Mohammed, and I have
+reason to believe that he was the first who
+filled it with the idols which now disgrace
+its walls. Kusay's house was burnt, its cloth
+covering (or kiswah) catching fire from a
+torch. It was rebuilt by the Koreish
+(Qur&acirc;is) a few years ago. It was then that
+the door was placed high above the ground,
+as you see it, and then that the movable stair
+was constructed. Then, too, the six columns
+which support the roof were added, and
+Mohammed, El Amin, was chosen to determine
+the position of the Black Stone in the
+wall. So, friend, I have now given you in
+part, the history of the Caaba."</p>
+
+<p>Bestowing a last look upon the temple, the
+friends walked for some distance northward
+across the slopes of Mount Hira, until a low,
+dark opening appeared in the face of a rock.</p>
+
+<p>Drawing back a thorny bush from its door,
+they entered the cave. A low moaning noise
+sounded within. For a moment, the transition
+from the white glare without to the
+twilight of the cave blinded them, then
+they saw that the moans proceeded from
+Mohammed, who was lying on his back on
+the stone floor. His head-dress was awry,
+his face was purple, and froth issued from
+his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi seized an earthen vessel of water,
+and bathed his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellow!" he said, "how often he
+may have suffered here alone! It has been
+his custom for years to spend the holy month
+of Ramadhan here in prayer and meditation.
+He has often taken these fits before; but, if
+what is said be true, he knows not that he is
+suffering, for angels appear to him during
+the paroxysms."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me much more like a fit of
+epilepsy," said Yusuf, rather sarcastically.
+"See, he begins to come to himself again."</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed had stopped moaning, and his
+face began to regain its natural color.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he opened his eyes in a dazed
+way, and sat up. He was a man of middle
+height, with a ruddy, rather florid complexion,
+a high forehead, and very even,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>white teeth. There was something commanding
+and dignified in his appearance. He
+wore a bushy beard, and was habited in a
+striped cotton gown of cloth of Yemen; and,
+from his person emanated the sweet odor of
+choicest perfumes of the Nejd and Arabia-Felix.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, it is Amzi!" he said. "Pardon me,
+friend, but the angel has just left me, and I
+failed to recognize you at once, my mind was
+so occupied with the wonder of his communications;
+for, friend, the time is nigh, even at
+hand, when the prophet of Allah, the One,
+the only Person of the Godhead, is to be proclaimed!"</p>
+
+<p>His voice was low and musical, and he
+spoke as one under the influence of an inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Has the angel appeared to you in visible
+form?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes he appears in human form,
+but in a blinding light; at other times I hear
+a sound as of a silver bell tinkling afar.
+Then I hear no words, but the truth sinks
+upon my soul, and burns itself into my
+brain, and I feel that the angel speaks."</p>
+
+<p>"Of what, then, has he spoken?" asked
+Amzi.</p>
+
+<p>"The time in which the full revelation
+shall be thrown open to man is not yet. But
+it will come ere long. None, heretofore, save
+my own kin and friends, have been given
+aught of the great message; yet to you,
+Amzi, may I say that Abraham, Moses,
+Christ, have all been servants of the true
+God, yet for Mohammed has been reserved
+the honor of casting out the idolatry with
+which the worship of our people reeks. For
+him is destined the glory of purging our
+Caaba of its images, and of reinstating the
+true religion of our fathers in this fair land.
+Then shall men know that Allah is the one
+God, and Mohammed is his prophet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Think you to place yourself on an
+equality with the Son of God?" cried Yusuf,
+sternly.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed turned quickly upon him, and
+his face worked in a frenzy of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you there is but one God,&mdash;one invisible,
+eternal God, Allah above all in earth
+and heaven,&mdash;and Mohammed is the prophet
+of God!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf perceived that he had to deal with
+a fanatic, a religious enthusiast, who would
+not be reasoned with.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he continued, "may it be Mohammed's
+privilege to lead men back to truth,
+and to turn them from heathendom; to teach
+them to be wise as serpents, harmless as
+doves, and to show them how to walk with
+clean hands and hearts through the earth,
+living uprightly in the sight of all men!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yet," ventured Yusuf, "did not Jesus
+teach something of this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jesus was great and good," said Mohammed;
+"he was needed in his day upon the
+earth, but men have fallen away again, and
+Mohammed is the greatest and last, the
+prophet of Allah!"</p>
+
+<p>The speaker's eyes were flashing; he was
+yet under the influence of an overpowering
+excitement. The color began to rush to his
+face, and Yusuf, fearing a return of the
+swoon, deemed it wise not to prolong the argument,
+but delivered the manuscript left by
+the peddler, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Read, O Mohammed, and see him who
+was able to restore the withered hand
+stretched forth in faith. Perceive him, and
+commit not this sacrilege."</p>
+
+<p>Trusting himself to say no more, Yusuf
+hastily left the cavern, followed by Amzi,
+who remarked, thoughtfully:</p>
+
+<p>"Yet, there is much good, too, in that
+which Mohammed would advocate."</p>
+
+<p>"There is," assented Yusuf. "Yet, though
+I know not why, I cannot trust this man.
+'Tis an instinct, if you will. What, think
+you, does he mean to win by this procedure,&mdash;power,
+or esteem, or fame?"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi shook his head quickly in denial.
+"Mohammed is one of the most upright of
+men, one of the last to seek personal favor or
+distinction by dishonest means, one of the
+last to be a maker of lies. Verily, Yusuf, I
+know not what to think of his revelations. If
+he does not in truth see these visions, he at
+least imagines he does. He is honest in
+what he says."</p>
+
+<p>"'If he does not in truth'!" repeated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+Yusuf. "Surely you, Amzi, have no confidence
+in his visions?"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi smiled. "And yet Yusuf, no longer
+ago than last night, was ready to believe the
+testimony of a pauper Jew in regard to similar
+assertions," he said. "But keep your
+mind easy, friend; I have not accepted Mohammed's
+claims. I am open to conviction
+yet, and I am not hasty to believe. In fact, I
+must confess, Yusuf, an entire lack of that
+fervor, of that capacity for religious feeling,
+which is so marked a trait in my Persian
+priest."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you, too, professed to be a seeker
+for truth," said Yusuf, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"My desire for truth is simply to know it
+for the mere sake of knowing it," said Amzi.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf sighed. He did not realize that he
+had to deal with a peculiar nature, one of
+the hardest to impress in spiritual things&mdash;the
+indifferent, calculating mind, which is
+more than half satisfied with moral virtue,
+not realizing the infinitely higher, nobler,
+happier life that comes from the inspiration
+of a constant companionship with God.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, I am but a poor teacher, Amzi," he
+said. "You know, perhaps, more of the doctrines
+of these Christians than I; yet I am
+convinced that to me has come a blessing
+which you lack, and I would fain you had it
+too. And I know so little that it seems I cannot
+help you. You will, at least, come and
+talk with Nathan?"</p>
+
+<p>"As you will," said Amzi, in a half-bantering
+tone. "Prove to me that these Hebrews
+are infallible, and I shall half accept their
+Jewish philosophy."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot expect to find them or any
+one on this earth infallible," returned Yusuf,
+quietly. "I can only promise that you will
+find in them quiet, sincere, upright Christians."</p>
+
+<p>They had reached a sudden turn on the
+path, and before them, on the top of a steep
+cliff, stood Dumah, with his fair hair streaming
+in the sunshine. He was singing, and
+they paused to listen.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"He is gone, the noble, the handsome,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the tears of the mother are falling<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like dews from the cup of the lily<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When it bends its head in the darkness."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Poor Dumah!" said Amzi, "singing his
+thoughts as usual. What now, Dumah?
+Who is weeping?"</p>
+
+<p>"A poor Jewess," said the boy, "and her
+two children cling to her gown and weep too.
+Ah, if Dumah had power he would soon set
+him free."</p>
+
+<p>"Set whom free?" asked Yusuf.</p>
+
+<p>"The father; they say he took the cup to
+buy bread; but for the sake of the children,
+Dumah would set him free."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is only a case of stealing down in
+the Jewish quarter," said Amzi, carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet," returned the other, "a weeping
+mother and helpless children should appeal
+to the heart of Amzi the benevolent. Let us
+turn aside and see what it is about. Dumah,
+lead us."</p>
+
+<p>They followed the boy to the hall or court-room
+of the city. A judge sat on a raised
+dais; witnesses were below, and the owner
+of the gold cup was talking excitedly and
+calling loudly for justice.</p>
+
+<p>"There is the culprit," whispered Amzi.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf was struck dumb. It was Nathan,
+the Christian Jew! Agony was written in
+his face, yet there was patience in it too.
+His arms were bound, and his head was bent
+in what might have been interpreted as humiliation.</p>
+
+<p>"Once more," cried the judge, "have you
+aught to say for yourself, Jew?"</p>
+
+<p>Nathan raised his head proudly, and looked
+the Judge straight in the eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I am guiltless," he said, in low, firm
+tones.</p>
+
+<p>A murmur burst from the crowd, and exclamations
+could be heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Not guilty! And the cup found in his
+house!"</p>
+
+<p>"Coward dog! Will he not yet confess?"</p>
+
+<p>"The scourge is too good for him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you no explanation to offer?" asked
+the judge.</p>
+
+<p>"None."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, guards, place him in irons to await
+our further pleasure. In the meantime forty
+lashes of the scourge. Next!"</p>
+
+<p>Nathan walked out with firm step and
+head erect. A low sob burst from some one
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>in the crowd. It was the wife of Nathan,
+weeping, while little Manasseh and Mary
+clung to her weeping too.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf touched her on the arm. "Hush!
+Be calm!" he said. "All will yet be well. I,
+for one, know that he is innocent, and I will
+not rest until he is free."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God! He has not forsaken us!"
+exclaimed the woman.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf put a piece of money into
+Manasseh's hand. "Here, take your mother
+home, and buy some bread," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"And here, pretty lad, know you the touch
+of gold?" said Amzi, as he slipped another
+coin into the child's hand. "Now, Yusuf,"
+he went on, "come, let us see your Jewish
+friends of yester-even."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, Amzi, these are they," returned the
+priest, sadly, "and I fear yon poor woman
+feels little like talking to us in the freshness
+of her grief."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi laughed, mysteriously. "So your
+teacher has proved but a common Jew
+thief," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf turned almost fiercely. "Do you believe
+this vile story?" he exclaimed. "Did
+you not see truth stamped upon Nathan's
+face?"</p>
+
+<p>"You must admit that circumstances are
+against him. The proof seems conclusive."</p>
+
+<p>"I will never believe it, were the proof
+produced by their machinations ten times as
+conclusive! There is some mystery here
+which I will unravel!"</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Yusuf, you are too credulous in
+respect to these people. So be it. You believe
+in your Jews, I shall believe in my
+Mohammed, until the tale told is a different
+one," laughed Amzi; and for the moment
+Yusuf felt helpless.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>YUSUF STUDIES THE SCRIPTURES.&mdash;CONNECTING
+EVENTS.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"Surely an humble husbandman that serveth God
+is better than a proud philosopher who, neglecting
+himself, is occupied in studying the course of the
+heavens."&mdash;<i>Thomas &aacute; Kempis.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap025"><span class="dropcap">F</span></span>or many weeks,
+even months, after
+this, Yusuf's life, to
+one who knew not the
+workings of his mind,
+seemed colorless, and
+filled with a monotonous
+round of never-varying
+occupation. Yet
+in those few weeks he
+lived more than in all
+his life before. Life is
+not made up of either years or actions&mdash;the
+development of thought and character is the
+important thing; and in this period of apparent
+waiting, Yusuf grew and developed
+in the light of his new understanding.</p>
+
+<p>He read and thought and studied, and yet
+found time for paying some attention to
+outer affairs. In Persia he had amassed a
+considerable fortune, which he had conveyed
+to Mecca in the form of jewels sewn into his
+belt and into the seams of his garments,
+hence he was abundantly able to pay his
+way, and to expend something in charity;
+and between his and Amzi's generosity the
+family of Nathan lacked nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf obtained possession of parts of the
+Scriptures, written on parchment, and spent
+every morning in their perusal, ever finding
+this period a precious feast full of comforting
+assurances, and hope-inspiring promises.
+He never forgot to pray for Amzi, to whom
+he often read and expounded passages of
+Scripture, without being able to notice any
+apparent effect of his teaching.</p>
+
+<p>It troubled him much that Amzi lent such
+a willing ear to Mohammed, and to the few
+fanatics among the Hanifs who had now
+professed their belief in this self-proclaimed
+prophet of Allah. It seemed marvelous that
+a man of Amzi's wisdom and learning should
+be so carried away by such a flimsy doctrine
+as that which Mohammed now began to proclaim.
+Amzi appeared to have fallen under
+the spell which Mohammed seemed to cast
+over many of those with whom he came in
+contact; and, though he acknowledged no
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>belief in the so-called prophet, neither did he
+profess disbelief in him.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf's happiest hours were those spent in
+the little Jewish Christian church, a poor,
+uncomfortable building, where an earnest
+handful of Jews, who were nevertheless firm
+believers in the divinity of Christ, met, often
+in secret, always in fear of the derisive
+Arabs, for prayer and study of the Gospel.
+Among these, the wife of Nathan was never
+absent.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf sought untiringly to solve the mystery
+of the gold cup. Circumstantial evidence
+was certainly against Nathan. Awad,
+a rich merchant of Mecca, had placed the
+cup near a window in his house, and had forgotten
+to remove it ere retiring for the night.
+A short time before dawn he had heard a
+noise and risen to see what it was. He had
+gone outside just in time to see a figure passing
+hurriedly across a small field near his
+house. Even then he had not thought of the
+cup. But in the morning it was missed, and
+tracks were followed from the window as
+far as the ruined house to which Nathan's
+family had gone in their poverty. The house
+was searched, and the cup was found hidden
+in a heap of rubbish in an unused apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Nathan had just returned with little save
+the clothes he wore; it was well known that
+his wife and children had been verging on
+starvation, and the public, ever ready to
+judge, formed its own conclusion, and turned
+with Nemesis eye upon the poor Jew.</p>
+
+<p>No clue whatever remained, except a small
+carnelian, which Yusuf found afterwards
+upon the floor, and which he took possession
+of at once. For hours he would wander
+about, hoping to find some trace of the robber,
+who, he firmly believed, had fancied
+himself followed by Awad, and had hurriedly
+secreted the cup, trusting to return for it
+later, and to make his escape in the meantime.</p>
+
+<p>All this, however, did not help poor
+Nathan, who, chained and fettered, languished
+in a close, poorly-ventilated cell,
+with little hope of deliverance. Yusuf knew
+the rancor of the Meccans against the Jews,
+and somewhat feared the result, yet he did
+not give up hope.</p>
+
+<p>"We are praying for him," Nathan's wife
+would say. "Nathan and Yusuf are praying
+too, and we know that whatever happens
+must be best, since God has willed it so for
+us."</p>
+
+<p>Little Manasseh chafed more than anyone
+at the long suspense. One day he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, my name means blackness, sorrow,
+or something like that, does it not?
+Why did you call me Manasseh? Was it to
+be an omen of my life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Forbid that it should!" the mother exclaimed,
+passing her hand lovingly through
+his waving hair. "It must have been because
+of your curls, black as a raven's wing.
+Sorrow will not be always. Joy may come
+soon; but if not, 'at eventide it shall be
+light.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Does that mean in heaven?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"He has prepared for us a mansion in the
+heavens, an house not made with hands.
+'There shall be no night there,' and 'sorrow
+and sighing shall flee away,'" said the
+mother with a far-away look in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"But it seems so long to wait, mother,"
+said the boy impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet heaven is not far away, Manasseh,"
+she returned, quickly. "Heaven is wherever
+God is. And have we not him with us always?
+'In all thy ways acknowledge him,
+and he shall direct thy paths.' Never forget
+that, Manasseh."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I wish we were a little happier
+now," he would say; and then, to divert the
+boy's attention from his present troubles, his
+mother would tell him about her happy home
+in Palestine, where she and her little sister,
+Lois, had watched their sheep on the green
+hillsides, and woven chains of flowers to put
+about the neck of their pet lamb; of how
+they grew up, and Lois married the Bedouin
+Musa, and had gone far away.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far, Yusuf knew nothing of this connection
+of Nathan's family with his Bedouin
+friends. It was yet to prove another link in
+the chain which was binding him so closely
+to this godly family. His many occupations,
+and the feeling which impelled him at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>every spare moment to seek for some clue
+which would lead to Nathan's liberation, left
+him little time for conversation with them
+for the present, except to see that their
+wants were supplied.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, he was troubled about Amzi,
+and somewhat anxious about the result of
+Mohammed's proclamations, which were
+now beginning to be noised abroad. From
+holding meetings in caves and private
+houses, the "prophet" had begun to preach
+on the streets, and from the top of the
+little eminence Safa, near the foot of Abu
+Kubays.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the people of Mecca held him up
+to ridicule, and treated his declarations with
+derisive contempt. Among his strongest opponents
+were his own kindred, the Koreish,
+of the line of Haschem and of the rival
+line of Abd Schems. The head of the latter
+tribe, Abu Sofian, Mohammed's uncle, was
+especially bitter. He was a formidable foe,
+as he lived in the highlands, his castles being
+built on precipitous rocks, and manned by a
+set of wild and savage Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Mohammed went on, neither daunted
+by fear nor discouraged by sarcasm. The
+number of his followers steadily increased;
+his first converts, Ali, his cousin, and Zeid,
+his faithful servant, being quickly joined by
+many others.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed now boldly proclaimed the
+message delivered to him in the cave of
+Hira the Koran. He declared that the law
+of Moses had given way to the Gospel, and
+that the Gospel was now to give way to the
+Koran; that the Savior was a great prophet,
+but was not divine; and that he, Mohammed,
+was to be the last and greatest of all the
+prophets.</p>
+
+<p>Such assertions were usually received with
+shouts of derision; and yet, when Mohammed
+eloquently upheld fairness and sincerity
+in all public and private dealings, and
+urged the giving of alms, and the living of a
+pure and humble life, there were those who,
+like Amzi, felt that there was something
+worthy of admiration in the new prophet's
+religion; and his very firmness and sincerity,
+even when spat upon, and covered with mud
+thrown upon him as he prayed in the
+Caaba, won for him friends.</p>
+
+<p>The opposition of his uncles, Abu Lahab
+and Abu Sofian, was, however, carried on
+with the greatest rancor; and at last a decree
+was issued by Abu Sofian forbidding the
+tribe of the Koreish from having any intercourse
+whatever with Mohammed. This decree
+was written on parchment, and hung up
+in the Caaba, and Mohammed was ultimately
+forced to flee from the city. He and
+his disciples went for refuge to the ravine of
+Abu Taleb, at some distance from Mecca.
+Here they would have suffered great want,
+had it not been for the kindness of Amzi,
+who managed to send them food in secret.</p>
+
+<p>But the prophet's zeal never flagged. When
+the Ramadhan again came round, and it was
+safe to venture from his temporary retreat,
+he came boldly into the city, preached again
+from the hill Safa, and proclaimed his new
+revelations, praying for the people, and ending
+every prayer with the declaration now
+universal throughout the Moslem world,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"God! There is no God but he, the ever-living!
+He sleepeth not, neither doth he
+slumber! To him belong the heavens and
+the earth, and all that they contain. Who
+shall intercede with him unless by his permission?
+His sway extendeth over the
+heavens and the earth, and to sustain them
+both is no burthen to him. He is the High,
+the Mighty!"</p>
+
+<p>The sublimity of this eulogy of the Most
+High may be readily traced to the psalms,
+particularly to that grandest of all songs, the
+one hundred and fourth psalm, which has
+been said to be remarkable in that it embraces
+the whole cosmos. And, in fact, the
+whole trend of the Koran may be traced
+to a study of the Bible, particularly to the
+New Testament, with occasional digressions
+into the Mishnu, and the Talmud of
+the Hebrews.</p>
+
+<p>"Feed the hungry! Visit the sick! Bow
+not to idols! Pray constantly, and direct thy
+prayers immediately to the Deity!" These
+were the constant exhortations of the
+prophet during these first days of his ministry&mdash;exhortations
+which demand the ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>miration
+of all who consider the grossness
+and idolatry of the age in which he lived.
+Had he never gone further, succeeding ages
+might have been tempted to pardon his
+hallucinations. At the time, doctrines which
+savored of so much magnanimity, and which
+were immeasurably in advance of the mockery
+of religion that had so long held sway
+among the majority of the Arabs, at once
+commended themselves to many. The effect
+of the new teaching was enhanced by the
+burning enthusiasm and powerful oratory of
+Mohammed, who was not ignorant of the
+effect of eloquent delivery and glowing
+language on a people ever passionate and
+keenly susceptible to the influence of a
+strong and vivid presentation.</p>
+
+<p>Ridicule and persecution ceased for a time,
+and at last, when the decree was removed,
+Mohammed and his followers returned in
+triumph to Mecca.</p>
+
+<p>Once again he was obliged to fly for his
+life. Accompanied by Zeid, he went to Tayf,
+and there spent a month in its perfumed
+vales, wandering by cooling streams, meditating
+beneath the waving fronds of the
+palm-trees, or resting in cool gardens, lulled
+by the rustling leaves of the nebeck (the
+lotus-tree), and inhaling the fresh perfume
+of peach and apple blooms.</p>
+
+<p>But the inhabitants of Tayf grew hostile,
+and the prophet again set out on foot for
+Mecca. He sat down to rest in an orchard.
+There he dreamed that a host of genii waited
+before him, begging him to teach them El
+Islam.</p>
+
+<p>In the night<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> he arose and proceeded, with
+renewed courage, on his journey. On the
+way he fell in with some pilgrims from
+Yathrib, or Medina, and to them he unfolded
+his revelations. They listened spell-bound
+as he preached from Al Akaba, and besought
+him that he would come or would send disciples
+with them to their northern town. Accordingly,
+Mohammed chose several converts
+to accompany them upon this first mission,
+and a time was set for their going.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening preceding this appointed
+time, Yusuf sat in a hanging balcony of
+Amzi's house. The pink flush of the setting
+sun was over the sky; the murmur of the
+city arose with a subdued hum&mdash;"the city's
+stilly sound"; a parchment containing a part
+of the Scriptures was on the priest's knee,
+but he stopped reading and gave himself up
+to meditation, wondering deeply at the
+strange course that events were taking, and
+surmising vaguely the probable result of the
+revolution that seemed impending.</p>
+
+<p>His thoughts turned to Amzi, who, as yet,
+closed his ears to the Gospel tidings which
+were proving such a comfort and joy to the
+priest.</p>
+
+<p>A step sounded behind him. It was Amzi
+himself, attired in traveling garb, and with
+his camel-stick already in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What now, friend Yusuf? Dreaming
+still?" he said. "Will you not say farewell
+to your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"What! Are you going on a journey?
+Pray, where goes Amzi on such short notice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," smiled Amzi, "I almost fear to tell
+my Persian proselyte, lest the vials of his
+wrath be poured on my <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'defenseless'">defenceless</ins> and submissive
+head. To make a long story short, I
+go with the disciples of Mohammed to
+Medina."</p>
+
+<p>"As Mohammed's disciple? Amzi, has it
+come to this!" exclaimed the priest.</p>
+
+<p>"Chain your choler, my friend," laughed
+the other. "I merely go to observe the outcome
+of this movement in the town of the
+North. Besides, the heat of Mecca in this
+season oppresses me, and I long for the cool
+breezes of Medina. Yusuf, I shall have rare
+letters to write you, for I feel that there will
+be a mighty movement in favor of Mohammed
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"You begin to believe in him, Amzi!" said
+Yusuf in tones of deepest concern.</p>
+
+<p>"His doctrines suit me, as containing
+many noble precepts. His proclamations are
+moving the town in such a way as was never
+known heretofore."</p>
+
+<p>"Consider the movement caused by the
+teaching of Christ when he was on earth!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+cried Yusuf. "Dare you compare this petty
+tempest with that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yet Christ's very words have been here
+where all might read them, for long enough.
+Why have they not drawn the attention of,
+and, if divine, why have they not shown
+their power among, our citizens?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because ye have eyes that see not, and
+ears that hear not!" cried the priest impetuously.
+"Can you not see that the doctrines
+of the Scriptures are just those which Mohammed
+proclaims? He seizes upon them,
+he gives them as his own, because he knows
+they are good, yet he commits the sacrilege
+of posing as a divine agent! Good cannot
+come out of this except in so far as a few
+precepts of the Gospel, all plagiarized as they
+are, exert their influence upon the lives of
+people."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi looked inconvincible. "I grant the
+excellence of Gospel teaching," he said,
+"but your conception of God's love I cannot
+seem to feel, often as you have explained it
+to me. Mohammed's revelations appear
+plausible. Yet, look not so doleful, brother.
+Amzi has not become a Mohammedan. He
+is still ready to believe as soon as he can
+see."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; like Thomas, you must see and
+feel ere you will believe. God grant that the
+seeing and feeling may not come too late!"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi smiled, and passed his arm affectionately
+about the priest's shoulder. "What
+a thorn in the flesh to you is Amzi the
+benevolent," he said, kindly. "Notwithstanding,
+give me your blessing, priest. Give
+me credit for being, at least, honest, and bid
+me good speed before I go."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven forbid that aught but blessing
+from Yusuf should ever follow Amzi!" returned
+the other, warmly. "May heaven
+keep and direct you, my friend, my brother!"</p>
+
+<p>The friends embraced, according to the custom
+of the land, and separated; Amzi to join
+the half-naked pilgrims, who had not yet
+donned their traveling-robes, Yusuf to lift
+his heart to Heaven, as he now did in every
+circumstance. In this silent talk to God he
+received comfort, and his heart was filled
+with hope for Amzi.</p>
+
+<p>Even this journey, which seemed so inauspicious,
+might, he thought, be but the beginning
+of a happy end. He had learned
+that there are no trifles in life; that no event
+is so insignificant that God may not make
+use of it. He felt that Amzi was not utterly
+indifferent to the influence of divine power,
+so he waited in patience.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEREIN IS TOLD THE STORY OF
+NATHAN'S LIBERATION.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The winds, as at their hour of birth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Leaning upon the ridged sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Breathed low around the rolling earth<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With mellow preludes, 'We are free.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Tennyson.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap029"><span class="dropcap">D</span></span>uring all this time,
+there was no news of release
+for poor Nathan.
+In his close cell, ventilated
+by one little window,
+and, in the fetid
+odor of its air, he pined
+away. A low fever had
+rendered him exceedingly
+weak; he could
+not eat the wretched
+food of the prison; his face grew haggard,
+and his bones shone through the flesh with
+almost skeleton-like distinctness. Yet no
+murmur passed his lips.</p>
+
+<p>From his window, set high in the wall, he
+could see the sun as it rose over Abu
+Kubays; he could catch the occasional glint
+of a bright wing as a dove or a swallow
+flitted past beneath the white sky; and he
+said, "God is still good, blessed be his
+name!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet the grief of being separated from his
+loved ones, and the uncertainty of their welfare,
+preyed upon his mind, almost shaking
+the trust which had upheld him so long. It
+was a time of trial for poor Nathan, yet his
+faith came forth from the trial untarnished.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf sought in vain to gain admission to
+the poor prisoner: the utmost that he could
+accomplish was to pay the attendant for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>carrying one brief message to him, assuring
+him that his wife and children were well,
+and cared for.</p>
+
+<p>The mystery of the gold cup was still unsolved.
+One day, however, when going down
+one of the busiest streets, Yusuf saw, at
+some distance, a little man walking along
+with a pack on his back. The peculiar hopping
+motion of his gait proclaimed him at
+once to be Abraham, the little Jew.</p>
+
+<p>"The very man!" thought Yusuf. "If any
+one between Syria and Yemen can ferret out
+a mystery, it is Abraham the peddler. If I
+can once set him in earnest upon the track,
+deliverance may be speedy for poor
+Nathan."</p>
+
+<p>The peddler was walking very rapidly, but
+Yusuf strode after him, now losing sight of
+him in the crowd, now catching a glimpse of
+his little bobbing figure, until, out of breath,
+he finally reached him and caught his arm.</p>
+
+<p>The Jew started in surprise. "Defend us,
+friend!" he exclaimed. "You come on a
+man like the poison-wind, as quickly if not
+as deadly. So you are still in Mecca! What
+are you doing now?"</p>
+
+<p>He was as inquisitive as ever, but Yusuf
+did not resent the trait in him now.</p>
+
+<p>"I am on important business just at present,
+my friend," he said, in his kindliest tone,
+"on business in which I am sure Abraham
+the Jew can help me, better than any other
+man in Mecca."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" exclaimed the peddler, "and what
+may that be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you keep a still tongue when it is
+necessary, Jew?"</p>
+
+<p>The peddler placed his fingers on his lips,
+rolled up his eyes, and nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p>"Then come with me to the house of Amzi
+the benevolent,&mdash;my Meccan home,&mdash;and I
+shall explain."</p>
+
+<p>When seated comfortably on divans in the
+coolest part of the house, Yusuf told the
+story of the gold cup, and intimated that
+Abraham's wandering life and the numberless
+throngs of people with whom his trade
+threw him in contact, gave him facilities,
+impossible to others, of doing a little detective
+work in a quiet way.</p>
+
+<p>The Jew listened, silent and motionless,
+with his eyes fixed on a lotus-bud carved on
+the cornice. Only once did he turn and fix
+his little round eyes sharply on the priest's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"There is just one more thing&mdash;" continued
+Yusuf, then he stopped. He was about to
+tell of the little carnelian stone, when his eye
+fell upon one of the numerous rings upon the
+Jew's fat fingers. There, in the center of it,
+was a small cavity from which, apparently,
+a jewel of some sort had fallen from its setting.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf almost sprang to his feet in the excitement
+of the discovery.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" asked the Jew, noting the pause.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you later," said Yusuf. "For
+the present&mdash;have some dates, will you not?"</p>
+
+<p>A servant entered with a tray on which
+were fruits and small cakes.</p>
+
+<p>The peddler besought Yusuf, for friendship's
+sake, to eat with him; but the Persian
+made a gesture of disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"I have already eaten," he said. "Overeating
+in Mecca in the hot season is not wise.
+Abraham, do you always wear so many
+rings on your fingers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," returned the Jew, "sometimes I
+wear them; sometimes I carry them for
+months in my belt. This"&mdash;pointing to a
+huge band of ancient workmanship&mdash;"is the
+most curious one of the lot. I got it for
+carrying a bundle of manuscript from a man
+at Oman to your friend Amzi, here. It seems
+that Amzi had once lived with him at Oman,
+but the man&mdash;I forget his name&mdash;went inland
+to Teheran, or some other place in Persia,
+and Amzi, after traveling about for two or
+three years, settled in Mecca. This one"&mdash;and
+he pointed out the ring on which Yusuf's
+eyes were fixed&mdash;"is the most expensive of
+the lot, but a stone fell out of it once when I
+was carrying it in my belt."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not look in your belt for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No use; it had worked out between the
+stitches. I had no idea where I lost it."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you had that ring long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Long! Why, that ring has not been off
+my person for fifteen years."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you would not sell it?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>The peddler shrugged his shoulders, and
+looked up with a shrewd glance.</p>
+
+<p>"That depends on how much money it
+would bring."</p>
+
+<p>"I have little idea of the value of such
+rings," said the Persian, "but I have a
+friend who, I am convinced, would appreciate
+that one. I should like to present it to
+him. Will you take this for it?"</p>
+
+<p>He drew forth a coin worth three times the
+value of the ring. The peddler immediately
+closed the bargain and handed the ring over,
+then devoted his attention again to the table.</p>
+
+<p>The priest went to the window. He drew
+the little stone from his bosom and slipped
+it into the cavity. It fitted exactly. He then
+walked back to the table, and held it before
+the astonished Jew.</p>
+
+<p>"How now, Jew?" he said with a smile.
+"Saw you such a gem before?"</p>
+
+<p>"My very own carnelian!" exclaimed the
+peddler. "Where did you find it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure it is yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure! On my oath, it is mine. There is
+not another such stone in Arabia, with that
+streak across the top."</p>
+
+<p>The priest laid his hand on the Jew's
+shoulder and bent close to him. "That
+stone," he said, "was found in the house of
+Nathan the Jew, beside the stolen cup. How
+came it there?"</p>
+
+<p>The little Jew turned pale. His guilt
+showed in his face. He knew that he was
+undone.</p>
+
+<p>With a quick, serpent-like movement, he
+attempted to escape, but the priest's grasp
+was firm as a vise.</p>
+
+<p>"No, peddler!" he said, "you may go, but
+it must be with me. To the magistrate you
+must go, and that right speedily. The innocent
+must no longer suffer in your rightful
+place. Come, Aza,"&mdash;to an attendant who
+had been in the room&mdash;"your tongue may
+be needed to supplement mine."</p>
+
+<p>The Jew's little eyes rolled around restlessly.
+He was a thorough coward, and his
+teeth chattered with fear as he was half-dragged
+into the blinding glare of the street,
+and down the long, crooked way, with a
+crowd of beggars and saucy boys following
+in the wake of the trio. Once or twice again
+he made a quick and sudden movement to
+elude the grasp of his captors, but the
+priest's grip was firm and his muscle like
+steel. Justice was in Yusuf's heart, and his
+anxiety to procure Nathan's release was so
+great that he strode on, almost forgetting the
+poor little Jew, who was obliged to keep up
+a constant hobbling run to save himself
+from being dragged to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>In the hall of justice the usual amount of
+questioning went on, but the evidence
+afforded by the ring was so conclusive that
+the order for Nathan's release and the peddler's
+imprisonment was soon given.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf accompanied the guards to Nathan's
+cell. The poor prisoner was sitting
+on the bare clay with his head buried on his
+knee. An unusual clamor sounded outside
+of the door. The heavy bolt was withdrawn,
+and the next moment Yusuf rushed
+in, crying, "Free, Nathan, free!"</p>
+
+<p>Nathan fell on the other's bosom. The
+sudden joy was too much for him, and he
+could only lie, like a little child, sobbing on
+the breast of the stalwart priest.</p>
+
+<p>The warden rattled the bolts impatiently.
+"Come, there's room outside!" he said. "I
+have not time to stand here all day!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon us," said the priest, gently. "We
+go; yet, warden, ere we depart, may I ask
+you to deal leniently with that poor
+wretch?" and he pointed to the Jew, who
+was now crouched shivering in his chains.</p>
+
+<p>"We but do as we are ordered," returned
+the warden unfeelingly. "The officers will
+be here presently with the scourge; we can
+not prevent that."</p>
+
+<p>The peddler winced, and Nathan raised a
+face full of pity. "Warden," he said, "if
+you have a drop of mercy in your heart, if
+you hope for mercy for yourself, treat him
+as a man. Let him not die for want of a
+pittance of water."</p>
+
+<p>He turned the sleeve of his loose garment
+back to expose the emaciated arm with the
+bones showing through the loose skin.
+"There," he said, "let that touch your
+heart, if heart you have, and spare him.
+Poor Abraham!"&mdash;turning to the peddler&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>"did
+I not see you here, the joy of my
+release would be unspeakable."</p>
+
+<p>But Abraham only turned to bestow a
+look of hate and malice upon the priest.</p>
+
+<p>Then Yusuf and Nathan passed out into
+the pure, fresh air, now growing cool with
+the approach of evening. Never did air
+seem so pure and sweet; never did swallows
+twitter so gladly; never did the peak of Abu
+Kubays shine so gloriously in the sun;
+never did the voices of people sound so joyous
+or their faces beam so brightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Nathan, "to my wife and
+children, that we may all return thanks together.
+Verily 'Many are the afflictions of
+the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him
+out of them all.' 'Blessed be God, which
+hath not turned away my prayer, nor his
+mercy from me.' 'I had fainted unless I
+had believed to see the goodness of the Lord
+in the land of the living.' 'My flesh faileth,
+but God is the strength of my heart, and my
+portion forever.'"</p>
+
+<p>So, uttering exclamations from the pages
+of Scripture, did the devout Jew pass onward
+to his home, which was once more
+filled with "joy and gladness, thanksgiving
+and the voice of melody." Before leaving,
+Yusuf presented him with the ring containing
+the little stone, as a memento of his
+deliverance.</p>
+
+<p>And Abraham? He received the full
+weight of the scourge; and may we be pardoned
+in anticipating, and say that for two
+days he lay nursing his wrath and his
+wounds; but, on the third day after his imprisonment,
+his agility suddenly returned.
+He managed in some inexplicable way
+known only to himself to work free of his
+fetters, and when the keeper came with
+food in the evening, blinded by the dim light
+of the cell, he did not perceive the little peddler
+crouched in a heap in the middle of the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely was the door opened when the
+Jew bounced like a ball past the keeper's
+feet, almost upsetting him; then, darting like
+an arrow between the astonished guards
+without, he was off. A hue and cry was
+raised, but the little peddler had disappeared
+as completely as if the earth had
+opened up and swallowed him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>AMZI AT MEDINA.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"With half-shut eyes ever to seem<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Falling asleep in a half dream!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To dream and dream like yonder amber light<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Tennyson.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap032"><span class="dropcap">W</span></span>ithout entering
+into detail it may be
+briefly stated that
+the success of Mohammed's
+disciples
+in Medina was
+simply marvelous.
+Converts joined
+them every day,
+while those who
+were not prepared to
+believe in the Meccan's divine mission were
+at least anxious to see and hear the prophet.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi did no work in behalf of the new
+religion. He was simply an onlooker,
+though not an unsympathetic one; and, it
+must be confessed, he spent most of his time
+in that voluptuous do-nothingness in which
+the wealthy Oriental dreams away so much
+of his time,&mdash;sitting or reclining on perfumed
+cushions, a fan in his hand and a
+long pipe at his mouth, too languid, too listless,
+even to talk; listening to the soft murmur
+of Nature's music, the night-wind sighing
+through the trees beneath a star-gemmed
+sky, the song of a solitary bulbul warbling
+plaintively among the myrtle and oleander
+blooms, the plash of a fountain rippling
+near with "a sound as of a hidden brook in
+the leafy month of June"; this, the exquisite
+languor of the East, "for which the
+speech of England has no name," the "Kaif"
+of the Arab, the drowsy falseness of the
+Lotos-eaters' ideal:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: missing quote mark in original">"Death</ins> is the end of life; ah, why<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should life all labor be?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let us alone."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>And so the months went by, until at last
+a band of emissaries, to the number of seventy,
+was appointed to take a journey to
+Mecca for the purpose of meeting with Mohammed
+and discussing
+with him the advisability
+of his taking
+up his residence
+at Medina.</p>
+
+<p>A herald brought
+news of this embassy
+to the prophet. He
+went forth to meet
+them, and Yusuf,
+hearing by chance of
+the appointed conference,
+set out posthaste
+after Mohammed's
+party, eager to
+get even a pressure
+of the hand from
+Amzi, his heart's
+brother, who he felt
+sure would accompany
+the emissaries.
+In order to overtake
+them more quickly,
+he proceeded with a
+trusty guide by a
+shorter route across
+the hills.</p>
+
+<p>The night was exceptionally
+dark, and
+even the guide became
+confused. The
+way led on and on between
+the interminable
+hills, until the
+two in complete uncertainty
+reined their
+steeds on the verge of
+a cliff that seemed to
+overhang a deep and
+narrow basin,
+bounded by flinty rock which even in the
+darkness loomed doubly black, and which
+rang beneath the horses' feet with that peculiar,
+metallic sound that proclaimed it
+black basalt, the "hell-stone" of the Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed an eerie spot. A thick
+fringe of thorny shrubs grew along the edge
+of the cliff; at intervals yawned deep fissures,
+across which the wise little Arabian
+ponies stepped gingerly; and above, outlined
+in intense black against the dark sky, were
+numerous peaks and pinnacles and castellated
+summits, such as the Arabs love to
+people with all manner of genii and evil
+spirits of the waste and silent wilderness.
+It was a spot likely to be infested with rob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>bers,
+and Yusuf and his guide waited in
+some trepidation while considering what
+to do.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 302px;">
+<a href="images/p033.jpg"><img src="images/p033thum.jpg" width="302" height="400" alt="&quot;Hold!&quot; cried a voice from the air above." /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;Hold!&quot; cried a voice from the air above.&mdash;See <a href="#Page_34">page 34</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Presently a dull trampling sounded in the
+distance. It came nearer and nearer, and
+the two lone wanderers on the cliff scarcely
+dared to breathe.</p>
+
+<p>The tread of camels was soon discernible,
+the <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original reads &quot;Ikh! &quot;Ikh!&quot;">"Ikh! Ikh!"</ins> (the sound used to make
+camels kneel) of the camel-drivers rising
+from the dark pass below to the ears of the
+men above. Apparently the party was about
+to make a halt in the dark basin; and should
+it prove to be a band of hill-robbers, Yusuf
+and his companion were in a precarious position,
+for the slightest sound made by them
+or their ponies would probably prove the
+signal for an onslaught; but by patting and
+quieting the animals, they managed to keep
+their restlessness in check and so waited,
+scarcely knowing what to do next.</p>
+
+<p>Ere ten minutes had elapsed, however, the
+tread of camels was again heard, and another
+party came in from the opposite direction,
+halting at the other end of the ravine.
+A call was sounded and at once answered
+by the body immediately below. The new-comers
+advanced, and mutual recognitions
+seemed to take place, although Yusuf could
+distinguish neither the voices nor the words.</p>
+
+<p>The parties were, in reality, those of Mohammed
+and the emissaries of Medina, who
+at once opened negotiations. After the salutations
+were over, they extended to Mohammed
+a formal invitation to Medina.</p>
+
+<p>"We will receive you as a confederate,
+obey you as a leader, and defend you to the
+last extremity, even as we defend our wives
+and children," said the spokesman.</p>
+
+<p>"For your gracious invitation accept my
+most hearty thanks," said Mohammed. "My
+work is not yet ended in Mecca, yet ere long
+I hope to pay at least a visit to you, O believers
+of Medina."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said the leader, "if you are recalled
+to your own district you will not forsake
+us?"</p>
+
+<p>"All things," replied Mohammed, "are
+now common between us. Your blood is my
+blood. Your ruin is my ruin. We are
+bound to each other by the ties of honor and
+interest. I am your friend and the enemy
+of your foes."</p>
+
+<p>He then chose twelve of the men to be the
+especial heralds of his faith, and all, placing
+their hands in his, swore fealty to him
+in life and in death.</p>
+
+<p>"If we are killed in your service, what
+shall be our reward?" asked one of the number.</p>
+
+<p>"Paradise!" cried the prophet. "Vales of
+eternal rest and felicity, odors of sweet
+spices on the air, blessed spirits to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold!" cried a voice from the air above.
+"Who are you, Mohammed, who can dare
+to promise that which belongs to the Creator
+alone? Impostor, take heed!"</p>
+
+<p>It was only Yusuf, who, in his anxiety to
+discover if the gloomy vale were indeed the
+nest of some daring mountain chief, had
+noiselessly descended to an overhanging
+ledge, and had heard the last confident assertion
+of the prophet.</p>
+
+<p>But the utmost consternation fell upon the
+Arabs below. Some, believing the voice to
+be that of a demon of the rock, were seized
+with sudden panic; others shouted excitedly,
+"Spies! spies!" and the assembly broke up
+in confusion, all scurrying off, leaving Yusuf
+and his guide again alone on the rock.</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi! Amzi!" shouted the priest, with a
+forlorn hope that his friend might have lingered
+behind the fleeing party; but the only
+response was the beat of hoofs flying in
+every direction, and the dull thud of the
+camels' padded feet. There was nothing
+better to be done than wait until morning,
+so Yusuf and the guide lay down on the
+hard rock for the rest of the night.</p>
+
+<p>For some time after this affairs seemed to
+be at a standstill. Mohammed still continued
+to preach, now from the hill Safa,
+now from the knoll El Akaba at the north of
+the town.</p>
+
+<p>His wife, Cadijah, had died some time before,
+and he had since married a widow,
+Sawda, and become betrothed to a child,
+Ayesha, the daughter of his friend and disciple,
+Abu Beker.</p>
+
+<p>But events in Mecca were fast hastening
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>to a crisis. Abu Sofian, still the most mortal
+enemy to Mohammed and his religion, had
+succeeded Abu Taleb in the government of
+Mecca, and no sooner had he become head
+of the state than he determined to crush
+Mohammed, and exterminate his religion at
+any cost. A plot for the assassination of the
+prophet was formed. Several of the tribe
+of the Koreish and their allies were appointed
+to kill Mohammed, in order to avert
+the blood-revenge of Mohammed's immediate
+kin, the Haschemites, who, it was
+thought, would not dare to avenge themselves
+upon such numerous and such scattered
+foes.</p>
+
+<p>The attack was planned with the utmost
+secrecy in the cellar of a house, and at a
+time but the space of three hours before daybreak,
+when all Mecca lay chained in slumber.</p>
+
+<p>Yet not all. Abraham, the Jew, was, as
+usual, on the alert. Since his escape he had
+been prowling about the hills, penniless, and
+hence unable to leave the district. He had
+now come down to steal food, for necessity,
+in his eyes, rendered any such proceeding
+pardonable; and, perceiving a mysterious
+light issuing from a chink in the wall, his
+natural curiosity asserted itself. He lay
+down flat on the ground, put his ear to the
+chink, and succeeded in hearing every word
+of the plot.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, was a chance to gain favor
+and protection from at least a few in Mecca.
+He would disclose the plot to Mohammed
+and his vizier, and beseech their protection
+as the price of his services as a savior of
+the prophet's life. Accordingly, a couple of
+hours before the time appointed for the
+assassination, and as soon as the cover of
+darkness rendered his own appearance in
+the city safe, he hastened to the prophet.</p>
+
+<p>No time was to be lost. Mohammed, accompanied
+by Abu Beker and the Jew, at
+once fled; while Ali, to deceive the spies,
+and keep them as long as possible in check,
+wrapped himself in the prophet's green
+cloak, moved round with it on for some
+time, and at last lay down on Mohammed's
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>When the assassins entered, intending to
+rush upon the sleeping form and destroy it,
+Ali threw the cloak off and sat up. In the
+meantime the fugitives had reached the cave
+of Thor, three miles distant, from whence,
+after three days, they escaped to Medina.</p>
+
+<p>This was the famous flight of the prophet,
+the Hegira, or Hejra, in the year 622 A.D.
+and about the fifty-third year of Mohammed's
+age.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>MOHAMMED'S ENTRANCE INTO MEDINA.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">"Oh, it is excellent<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To have a giant's strength: but it is tyrannous<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To use it like a giant."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap035"><span class="dropcap">O</span></span>nce more after the
+lapse of years let us
+look at Amzi as he
+sat one morning in
+his house at Medina.</p>
+
+<p>The cool and pleasant
+atmosphere of the
+town in contrast with the
+burning, breathless heat of
+Mecca had charmed him.
+He had immediately purchased a house and
+furnished it with the luxurious splendor
+which suited his rather voluptuous taste.</p>
+
+<p>The apartment in which he sat was in the
+middle story, the one sacred to the men in
+a house of Medina. Rich Persian carpets
+were on the floor, rugs of Inde were scattered
+about and piled with cushions filled
+with softest down. Low divans invited repose,
+and heavy curtains of yellow silk shut
+out the too bright glare of day. The ceiling,
+after the Persian fashion, was inlaid with
+mirrors, fitted in in different patterns, and
+divided by carved sticks of palm, stained
+red; and the sweet odor of richest perfumes
+of Arabia-Felix spread through the room as
+if emanating from the silken hangings of
+the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The window was open, and the breeze
+from the east, bearing, as it were, tales of
+the Nejd, the land of brave men and beauti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>ful
+women, swayed the curtains softly.
+Outside, in the sloping garden, waved the
+graceful branches of the tamarisk, glittering
+with dew in the early morning sun; and
+near the window a jujube tree stretched its
+dark, shining leaves and yellow fruit temptingly
+near. Acacias with sweet-scented yellow
+blossoms, oleanders glowing with rosy
+bloom, and a thicket of silver-leaved castors
+separated the little plot from the gardens
+below, where grew gourds and cucumbers,
+lime and fig trees, grape-vines, water-melons
+and pomegranates; and beyond that lay a
+bright patch of Bursim, or Egyptian clover,
+like a yellow-green island on a darker sea.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi, comfortably habited in a jubbeh of
+pink silk, worn over a caftan of fine white
+silk flowered with green and confined by a
+fringed, yellow sash at the waist, reclined
+in a position of luxurious ease at the window.
+Between his plump fingers he held the
+amber stem of a handsomely carved pipe.
+He looked scarcely older than when on that
+memorable journey in which he first met
+Yusuf. His eye was still as bright, his hair
+scarcely more gray, and his cheek as ruddy
+as then; yet there was a somewhat discontented
+look on his face.</p>
+
+<p>His eye wandered over the rich garden
+before him, and he thought of barren, ashen
+Mecca. Then he looked restlessly back over
+the landscape below. Surely it was fair
+enough to calm a restless spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately before, and to the eastward,
+the sun had risen out of a mass of lilac and
+rose-colored cloud. The tufted trees on the
+distant hills stood black and distinct against
+the splendor of the sky. To the right the
+date-groves of Kuba, famed throughout
+Arabia, struggled through a sea of mist
+that piled and surged in waves of amber
+and purple, leaving the tree tops like islands
+on a vapory sea. To the left the seared and
+scori&aelig;-covered crest of Mount Ohod rose,
+dark and scowling, like a grim sentinel on
+the borders of an Elysian valley. In the
+rear lay the plain of El Munakhah, and the
+rush of the torrent El Sayh was borne on the
+breeze, bearing the willing mind beyond to
+the cool groves of Kuba, whence this raging
+flood dispersed itself in gentle rills, or was
+carried in silent channels to turn the water-wheels,
+or to fall, with musical plash, into
+wooden troughs that lay deep in the shade.</p>
+
+<p>The ripple of water,&mdash;ah, what it means to
+Arabian ears! Little wonder that the inhabitant
+of the desert land never omits it from
+his idea of paradise, save in his conception
+of the highest heaven,&mdash;a conception not
+lacking in sublimity&mdash;that of a silent looking
+upon the face of God.</p>
+
+<p>In the immediate foreground lay El
+Medina itself, with its narrow streets, its
+busy bazars, its fair-skinned people, and its
+low, yellow, flat-roofed houses, each with its
+well and court-yard, nestling cozily among
+the feathery-fronded date-trees.</p>
+
+<p>From the Eastern Road, a caravan from
+the Nejd was descending slowly into the
+town, and so clear was the atmosphere that
+Amzi could distinguish the huge, white
+dromedaries, and catch an occasional glint
+of a green shugduf, or the gorgeous litter of
+a grandee, trapped in scarlet and gold.</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed a fair scene, and Amzi enjoyed
+it to the full with the keen enjoyment
+of one who possesses an esthetic temperament,
+an intense love of the beautiful. Yet
+he began to feel lonely in this town of his
+adoption. It was long since he had seen
+Yusuf, and he commenced to think seriously
+of returning for a time to Mecca.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, he was tired of waiting for Mohammed's
+long-deferred visit, and he was
+anxious again to see the man whose strange
+fascination over him he scarcely dared to
+acknowledge even to himself. The emptiness
+and idleness of his own life was beginning
+to pall upon him, and he compared unfavorably
+his sluggish existence with the
+busy, quietly energetic way in which Yusuf
+was spending his days.</p>
+
+<p>One source of unfailing pleasure to him
+had been the companionship of Dumah, who
+had followed him to Medina, but was wandering
+about as usual, returning to Amzi
+when tired or hungry, as a birdling returns
+to its mother's wing.</p>
+
+<p>And Amzi had almost a mother's love for
+the boy, for poor Dumah seemed a child
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>still; he had grown but little, his face was
+paler than of old, his eyes were as large and
+blue, and his bright hair fell in the same
+soft curls above his regular and clear-cut
+features. Like Yusuf, Amzi felt that the
+orphan's very helplessness was an appeal to
+his heart, and he did not lock its doors.</p>
+
+<p>Dumah now came in wearily. He lay down
+at Amzi's feet and put his head on his knee.
+The Meccan stroked his soft hair gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Where has my Dumah been?" he asked
+tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Watching the people going out foolishly.
+Dumah would not go with them."</p>
+
+<p>"Going where, lad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Out to the gardens where the lotus blows,
+and the date-palms wave, and the citron
+and orange grow."</p>
+
+<p>"And why go they, then, foolishly?"
+smiled Amzi.</p>
+
+<p>"Because they go to meet him, and they
+are carrying white robes, and they will bring
+him in as a prince,&mdash;the wicked one, who
+would place himself above our blessed Master!"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi started up quickly, and threw his
+pipe down.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mohammed here?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"He is here. But you will not go too,
+Amzi? Alas that I told you! The angels I
+see in my dreams do not smile, they look
+away and vanish when I think of Mohammed.
+Yusuf does not love him! Let not
+Amzi!" pleaded the orphan.</p>
+
+<p>But the Meccan was gone. Hastening on
+towards the outskirts of the city, he met a
+great crowd of people, pressing about Mohammed
+and Abu Beker, each of whom was
+dressed in a white garment, and riding triumphantly
+upon a white camel, the prophet
+being mounted on his own beast El Kaswa.</p>
+
+<p>The little peddler, assigning himself a
+lower place, rode behind on a pack-mule.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed had come, and was, from the
+very beginning, a monarch, surrounded by
+an army of blind devotees, believers in his
+holy mission, and slavishly obedient to his
+will.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi took the prophet to his house, and
+there entertained him as a respected Meccan
+friend, until Mohammed's home was erected.
+It was at Amzi's house, too, that the nuptials
+of Mohammed and the beautiful
+Ayesha, also those of Ali and the prophet's
+daughter Fatimah, took place.</p>
+
+<p>One of Mohammed's first acts was to have
+a mosque built, and, from it, morning and
+night the call to prayers was given:</p>
+
+<p>"God is great! There is no God but God!
+Mohammed is the prophet of God! Come to
+prayers. Come to prayers! God is great!"</p>
+
+<p>And from this mosque Mohammed exhorted
+with wondrous eloquence, the music
+of his voice falling like a spell on the multitudes,
+as they listened to teachings new and
+more living than the old, dead, superstitious
+idolatry to which they were in bondage; yet,
+had they known it, teachings whose choicest
+gems were but crumbs borrowed from the
+words of One who had preached in all
+meekness and love on the shores of Galilee
+and the hills of Palestine more than six hundred
+years before.</p>
+
+<p>They listened in wonder to condemnation
+of their belief in polytheism.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of the most merciful God,"
+Mohammed would say, "say God is one
+God, the Eternal God; he begetteth not,
+neither is he begotten, and there is not
+anyone like unto him!" Thus did he aim
+at the foundation of Christianity, seeking
+to overthrow belief in the "only begotten
+Son of God" as a divine factor of the
+Trinity. Jesus he recognized as a prophet,
+not as God's own Son; and, while he borrowed
+incessantly from the Scriptures, he
+refused to accept them, declaring that they
+had become perverted, and that the original
+Koran was a volume of Paradise, from
+which Gabriel rendered him transcripts, and
+was, therefore, the true word of God which
+had been laid from time everlasting on what
+he called the "preserved table," close to the
+throne of God in the highest heaven.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, during the greater part of his
+career, the utterances of this strange, incomprehensible
+man were characterized by a
+seemingly real glow of philanthropy and an
+earnest solicitude for the salvation of his
+countrymen from the depths of moral and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>spiritual degradation into which they had
+fallen. A missionary spirit seemed to be in
+him, in strange contrast and incompatibility
+with the sacrilegious words that often fell
+from his lips.</p>
+
+<p>In all the records of history there is nothing
+more wonderful than the marvelous success
+which attended Mohammed at Medina.
+Staid and sober merchantmen, men with
+gray heads, fiery youths, proselytes from the
+tribes of the desert, even women, flocked to
+him every day; and he soon realized that he
+had a vast army of converts ready to live or
+die for him, ready to fight for him until the
+last.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi, alone, of all his followers, seemed to
+stand aloof, half-believing, yet unwilling to
+proclaim his belief openly; simply waiting,
+as he had waited all his life, to see the truth,
+yet too indolent to set out bravely in the
+quest. He preferred to look on from aside;
+to weigh and calculate motives, actions and
+results; to judge men by their fruits, though
+the doing so called for long waiting.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Amzi grew more and more dissatisfied.
+He felt, though he knew not its cause, the
+want of a rich spiritual life, that empty hollowness
+which pleasures of the world and
+the mere consciousness of a moral life cannot
+satisfy.</p>
+
+<p>More than once he was tempted to declare
+himself a follower of the prophet, but he put
+it off until a riper season.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Dumah noted Amzi's frequent visits
+to the mosque with a vague dread. He had
+an instinctive dislike of Mohammed, whose
+assumptions of superiority to Jesus he understood
+in a hazy way, and resented with
+all his might.</p>
+
+<p>One day he entered with a tablet of soft
+stone to which a cord was attached. Putting
+the cord about Amzi's neck, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi, promise your Dumah that you will
+wear this always, will you not? Because
+Dumah might die, and could not say the
+words any more. Promise me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I promise you," smiled Amzi, and Dumah
+left the room contented.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi turned the tablet over, and read the
+familiar words traced upon the soft stone,&mdash;the
+words recognized as the corner-stone of
+Christianity:</p>
+
+<p>"God so loved the world, that he gave his
+only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
+in him should not perish, but have everlasting
+life."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi smiled, and put the tablet in his
+bosom.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>MOHAMMED BECOMES INTOLERANT.&mdash;WAR.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"Our virtues disappear when put in competition
+with our interests, as rivers lose
+themselves in the ocean."&mdash;<i>La Rochefoucauld.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap038"><span class="dropcap">T</span></span>hirteen years had now
+passed since Mohammed
+first began to meditate in the
+Cave of Hira. During all that
+time he had preached peace,
+love and gentleness. With
+power, however, came a
+change in his opinions. He
+became not only pastor of his
+flock, and judge of the people, but also commander
+of an army. Worldly ambition took
+possession of his breast, and the voice of him
+who had cried, "Follow the religion of
+Abraham, who was orthodox and was no
+idolater. Invite men unto the way of the
+Lord by wisdom and mild exhortation....
+Bear opposition with patience, but thy patience
+shall not be practicable unless with
+God's assistance. And be not thou grieved
+on account of the unbelievers. Let there be
+no violence in religion,"&mdash;now began to call,
+"War is enjoined you against the infidels.
+Fight therefore against the friends of Satan,
+for the stratagem of Satan is weak. And
+when the months wherein ye shall not be
+allowed to attack them be past, kill the
+idolaters wherever ye shall find them, and
+besiege them, and lay wait for them in every
+convenient place. Verily God hath purchased
+of the true believers their souls and
+their substance, promising them the enjoyment
+of Paradise on condition that they
+fight for the cause of God. Whether they
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>slay or be slain, the promise for the same is
+assuredly due by the law, and the Gospel,
+and the Koran."</p>
+
+<p>Clemency, he claimed, had been the instrument
+of Moses; wisdom, that of
+Solomon; righteousness, that of Christ; and
+now the sword was to be the instrument of
+Mohammed.</p>
+
+<p>"The sword," he exclaimed, with flashing
+eye, "is the key of heaven and hell. All who
+draw it in the cause of the faith will be rewarded
+with temporal advantages; every
+drop shed of their blood, every peril endured
+by them, will be registered on high as more
+meritorious than fasting or prayer. If they
+fall in battle, their sins will at once be
+blotted out, and they will be transported to
+paradise!"</p>
+
+<p>This fierce, intolerant spirit took possession
+of Mohammed almost from his entrance
+into Medina. Chapter after chapter of the
+Koran was produced, breathing the same
+blood-thirsty, implacable hatred of opposition.
+Mohammed, in fact, seemed like one
+possessed in his enthusiasm, but his doctrines
+caught the fancy of the wild, impressionable
+Arabs, who flocked to him in
+crowds as his fame spread throughout the
+length and breadth of El Hejaz, throughout
+the Nejd, and even to the extremities of Arabia-Felix.</p>
+
+<p>And now the bloody cloud of war hovered
+over the peninsula, and the people trembled.</p>
+
+<p>The following letter from Amzi will describe
+the outbreak.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;">
+<img src="images/p039.png" width="23" height="24" alt="A" />
+<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">From Amzi the Meccan, at Medina,<br />
+To Yusuf the priest, Mecca.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My Dear Yusuf:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I can scarcely describe the emotions with
+which I write you again after a six months' interval.
+Affairs here in Medina have taken such
+an unlooked-for turn that I scarcely know
+what to think or what to do.</p>
+
+<p>Of Mohammed's wonderful progress, you
+have, of course, heard. You should see him
+now, my dear Yusuf,&mdash;Mohammed, the peaceful
+trader, the devout hermit, now little less than
+monarch, with all the sway assumed by the
+most powerful despot; and yet those over whom
+he wields his despotism are but too willing
+servants, ready to say as he says, and to give
+their dearest heart's blood in his cause.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed I know not what the outcome of it all
+will be. What astonishes me most is that Mohammed
+has suddenly assumed an aggressive
+attitude. Fire and the sword seem to be the
+watchword of him whom we knew as the gentle
+husband of Cadijah, the mild preacher who
+bowed his head and reviled not even when assailed
+with mud and filth in the Caaba.</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say, Yusuf, I am disappointed in
+him. You will be only too glad to hear that. I
+hear that you have been exhorting the people
+in Mecca to pay no heed to him; that you have
+been seeking to promulgate your Hebrew faith,
+or rather the faith of your Hebrew friend, of
+whose innocence and release I was glad to hear.</p>
+
+<p>My brother, I pride in your courage, and in
+the strength of your principles; yet, Yusuf, I
+beseech of you, be careful what you do or say,
+lest you draw down upon your head a storm of
+fury which you little expect. You have no idea
+of the revolution of feeling here in Mohammed's
+favor, and of the fanatic zeal of many
+of his followers. Be not too bold. You cannot
+cope single-handed with such an overwhelming
+tide.</p>
+
+<p>The past month, as you know, was the holy
+month Radjab, in which, as in the month of
+Ramadhan, throughout all El Hejaz, life
+should be held sacred, and no act of violence
+committed. Can you believe it when I tell you
+that the prophet's men have attacked more
+than one caravan of quiet traders and pilgrims
+upon their way to or from Mecca? Such a
+sacrilege seems unpardonable in Arab eyes, but,
+forsooth, the prophet has been favored with another
+revelation justifying him in what he has
+done.</p>
+
+<p>This, more than aught else, makes me wonder.
+You, Yusuf, know what a lover of peace
+I have been; how it has ever grieved me to see
+even a butterfly fluttering along the ground
+with a crushed wing. Judge, then, of my horror,
+when I went out to the scene of the pillage
+and saw men lying, some dead, with ghastly
+faces glaring up at the hot sun, others with
+gaping wounds, and others moaning pitifully
+on the road-way, with sand on their faces and
+in their hair. Yusuf, it made me sick to see it.
+Had they been slain in fair battle I could have
+borne it better. Yet I was enabled to give the
+poor wounded creatures some water, all warm
+as it was from being carried so long a distance;
+and some of them I had conveyed to my house,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>so that every bed-chamber has been turned into
+a sick-room, and your friend Amzi has been
+suddenly metamorphosed into a sick-nurse.
+Does that astonish you?</p>
+
+<p>Yet, Yusuf, though I get little sleep any
+night, and have to be on my feet much during
+the day, I can assure you that I was never so
+happy in my life before. The constant occupation,
+and the sense of being able to render the
+poor creatures a little ease, is just what I need
+at present to keep me from growing moody.</p>
+
+<p>The other day I saw some one who knows of
+you&mdash;Uzza, the Oman Arab. How or why he
+has come here I know not; but he is one of
+Mohammed's most devoted followers. For your
+sake, I hope you may not meet him in Medina.</p>
+
+<p>I knew him, years ago, at Oman, and had letters
+from him for a time after he went to Persia.
+Perhaps that will read you the riddle as
+to how I knew so much of your past history,
+my priest. Recognizing your name, and noting
+your priestly bearing, it was an easy matter
+to connect you with the Guebre Yusuf, of
+whom I had heard.</p>
+
+<p>I am convinced that you are looking after my
+Meccan affairs as closely as possible, yet remember
+that Amzi has a house in Medina, too,
+which has ever a door open for you.</p>
+
+<p>Dumah sends his love. The poor lad is
+greatly excited over the stirring events which
+are the talk of the town here.</p>
+
+<p>Commend me to your friend Nathan and his
+family. Trusting to see or to hear from you
+soon,</p></div>
+
+<p class="sign">And the peace,<br />
+Amzi.</p>
+
+<p>To this letter Yusuf returned the following
+answer:</p>
+
+<p class="letter">Yusuf, at Mecca,<br />
+To Amzi the Benevolent, Medina.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My Heart's Brother:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Your most welcome letter lies before me, and
+it is quite unnecessary to say with what
+mingled feelings of pleasure and pain I read it,&mdash;pleasure,
+because, whether you will it or not,
+your confidence in this false prophet is tottering;
+pain, because of the marvelous power
+which this Mohammed seems to be wielding
+over your excitable Arab populace. Strange,
+indeed, is his new attitude; we had not deemed
+him possessed of a martial spirit; yet may we
+hope that this procedure will be but as the
+stone which shall crush his ends, falling upon
+his own head.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible that I may be in Medina ere
+long. I am impatient to see you and our poor
+Dumah again.</p>
+
+<p>And so Uzza is there, too, to bring up afresh
+the darkest page of my history; for Amzi, it
+was I, in my fanatic zeal, who induced the
+Persian grandmother to give up his child for
+sacrifice. Scarcely was it over when, even in
+my heathen darkness, my whole soul revolted
+against what I had done, and against the faith
+which had sanctioned such deeds of blood.
+It was then that I began to think and strive
+against the mists of darkness, until at last I
+fought away from the creed of my country.</p>
+
+<p>I fear not to meet Uzza, although I know
+that he bears me no good-will, and would not
+refrain from the assassin's knife did it satisfy
+his wish for blood-revenge.</p>
+
+<p>Our friend, Nathan, and his family are well.
+Did I tell you that they have gone to live near
+Tayf?</p>
+
+<p>I spent a pleasant day with them not long
+ago. They have a little cabin in the mountains,
+and Nathan has a few flocks which he
+herds out on the green hill-sides. They are all
+so happy, and so contented with their pastoral
+mode of living that they think of moving back
+into Palestina, as the pasturage is better there.
+It will be a long journey, but, with the consciousness
+of the Father's care over them, and
+the bond of love to shorten the way, they will
+not mind it. Nathan's wife, in particular, is
+anxious to return to her childhood's home, and
+never wearies of telling her children stories of
+her girlhood days, when she and her sister,
+whom she still loves passionately, watched their
+sheep on the hills of Hebron.</p>
+
+<p>Mary and Manasseh have grown quite tall.
+Manasseh is almost a man, fiery and impetuous
+as ever, yet wise beyond his years, and a devout
+Christian.</p>
+
+<p>Nathan is very happy. After all his trials he
+has perfect rest. His face almost beamed
+when he said to me in the words of the Psalmist,
+"Unless the Lord had been my help, my
+soul had almost dwelt in silence. When I said,
+My foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me
+up. For the Lord is my defence, and my God
+is the rock of my refuge."</p>
+
+<p>He is very anxious about the hostile attitude
+which Mohammed has taken. "God grant,"
+he said, "that there may not be another season
+of persecution. If there be, and the Lord will,
+I shall stay at Medina to comfort, if I may, my
+poor brethren there. 'Blessed are they which
+are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
+theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' God grant
+that we may all be imbued with the spirit of
+him who said, 'Love your enemies, bless them
+that curse you, do good to them that hate you,
+and pray for them that despitefully use you.'
+Yet, Yusuf, it may be that we shall be forced
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>to defend our lives, and those of our wives and
+children,&mdash;God knoweth. He will direct us, if
+we permit him, so that, living or dying, it shall
+be well with us."</p>
+
+<p>Is not such love, such comfort in the help and
+presence and sympathy of God, worth more, infinitely
+more, than power or wealth or worldly
+pleasure? Nothing that happens can overwhelm
+this happy family, for they have the
+consciousness of God's love and care in all.
+They have Jesus for a personal friend. Amzi,
+what would I not give to know that you felt
+as they do, and as I learn to feel, more and
+more, every day.</p>
+
+<p>My friend, I could keep on in this strain for
+the whole night; but I am weary, for to-day I
+talked for many hours with some of those who
+are half-apostatizing to Mohammed.</p>
+
+<p>So, Mizpah; and may the blessing of God be
+upon you.</p></div>
+
+<p class="sign">Yusuf.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEREIN THE BEDOUIN YOUTH KEDAR
+BECOMES A MOSLEM.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Mine honor is my life: both grow in one;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Take honor from me, and my life is done."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap041"><span class="dropcap">T</span></span>he scene again opens
+far to the north of
+the Nejd, El Shark,
+or the East. Into
+one of its most favored
+spots, a green
+and secluded valley,
+surrounded by
+grassy slopes, the
+sun shone with the
+fresh brightness of early morning, sending
+floods of green-gold light through the leaves
+Of the acacias, now covered with yellowish
+blossoms heavy with perfume.</p>
+
+<p>By the side of a little torrent, rose the
+black tents of a Bedouin encampment.
+Flocks were on the hill-side, and the tinkling
+of the camel-bells and soft bleat of the
+lambs sounded faintly from the distance.</p>
+
+<p>At the head of the valley, upon a rounded
+boulder of granite sat a woman; and before
+her stood a young man to whom she was
+earnestly talking, at times stretching out her
+hands as though she were beseeching him
+for some favor.</p>
+
+<p>The woman was tall and well-built, her
+eyes were large and dark, and their brilliancy
+increased, according to Bedouin custom,
+by the application of kohl to the lids.
+Her face was keen and intelligent, and her
+hair, braided in innumerable small plaits,
+and surmounted by a much bespangled
+head-dress, was slightly streaked with gray.</p>
+
+<p>The youth was slight and agile, his every
+movement full of grace. His face was oval,
+regular in its contour, and full of expression,
+although the Jewish cast of his features had
+traces of Arab blood. He seemed to be in
+some excitement, for, with a trait peculiar
+to Bedouins, his restless and deep-set eyes
+were now half-closed until but a narrow,
+glittering line appeared, and now suddenly
+opened to their fullest extent and turned
+directly upon the woman to whom he talked.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you have me branded among the
+whole tribe as a coward, mother?" he was
+saying. "Are not the Bedouin lads from all
+over the Nejd flocking to the field, even as
+the sparrows flock before the storm clouds
+of the north? And will the son of Musa be
+the craven, crouching at home in his
+mother's nest?"</p>
+
+<p>"A flock of vultures are they, rather!" she
+cried passionately&mdash;"Vultures flocking to a
+feast of blood, to gloat over the carrion of
+brothers, sons, and husbands, left dead on
+the reeking plain, while in their solitary
+homes the women moan, even as moans the
+bird of the tamarisk, robbed of its young."</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis your Jewish heart speaks now,
+mother. Ah, but your Jewish women are
+too soft-hearted! Know you not that Bedouin
+mothers have not only sent their sons
+to battle, but have gone themselves and
+fought in the thickest of the fray?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you are a true Bedouin, and ashamed
+of your mother!" returned Lois, with a sigh.
+"Truly, a Jewess has no place among the
+tribes of the wilderness."</p>
+
+<p>The youth's face softened. "I am not
+ashamed of my mother!" he said, quickly.
+"But my blood leaps for the glory of battle,
+for the clash of cymbals, the speed of the
+charge, the tumult, and the victory!"</p>
+
+<p>"But a hollow glory you will find it," she
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>said scornfully. "Murder and pillage,&mdash;and
+all sanctioned in the name of religion!"</p>
+
+<p>"Even so, is not the name of harami (brigand)
+accounted honorable among the desert
+tribes?" asked the youth, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, yes. Ye reck not that it has been
+said, 'Thou shalt not steal.' But you,
+Kedar, care not for the Jewish Scripture.
+Why need I quote it to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Arabian religion, Arabian honor, for the
+Arab, say I!" returned the youth haughtily.
+"Let me roam over the wild on my steed,
+racing with the breeze, lance in hand, bound
+for the hunt or fray; let me swoop upon the
+cowardly caravans whose hundreds shriek
+and scream and fall back before a handful
+of Bedouin lads, if I will. More honorable
+it is to me than to plod along in a shugduf
+on a long-legged camel with a bag of corn
+or a trifle of cloth to look after. Be the Jew
+if you will, but give me the leaping blood,
+the soaring spirit of the Bedouin!"</p>
+
+<p>The woman sighed again. "You will be
+killed, Kedar," she said. "Then what will
+all this profit you?"</p>
+
+<p>"To die on the field is more glorious than
+to breathe one's life out tamely in bed," replied
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>There was no use of reasoning with this
+rash youth.</p>
+
+<p>"And think you this Mohammed is worthy
+of your sacrifice?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"If he be really inspired, as hundreds now
+believe, is he not worthy of every sacrifice?
+Does he not promise his followers an eternal
+felicity?"</p>
+
+<p>"A vile impostor!" exclaimed the woman
+harshly. "Yet you will not believe what I
+say, until your own eyes see and your own
+ears hear! Go! Go! I shall talk no more to
+you! If you fall it shall be no fault of Lois'!"</p>
+
+<p>She arose and waved him off with an impatient
+gesture. Yet he lingered.</p>
+
+<p>"You will forgive me, mother?" he asked,
+gently.</p>
+
+<p>The woman's mother-heart welled to the
+brim. She answered brokenly:</p>
+
+<p>"My son, my son! Could I do aught else?
+Take my blessing with you! And now, here
+comes your father."</p>
+
+<p>Musa was feebler than upon that first
+night when he met Yusuf in his tent, and his
+hair had become almost white, yet there
+was the same dignity in his appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"Go, Kedar," he said, "and prove that
+you are indeed the son of Musa. Go, and
+see that you bring back good news of
+battle!"</p>
+
+<p>Kedar bent his head in token of assent.</p>
+
+<p>Before an hour had passed he was
+mounted on the swiftest of his father's
+horses&mdash;a short, fleshless animal, with legs
+thin and of steel-like muscle. But its slender
+neck, its small, snake-like head, its
+dilating nostrils, through which the light
+shone crimson, and its fiery, intelligent eye,
+showed its blood as it pawed the ground and
+neighed impatiently. A noble animal and a
+noble rider they looked as they were off like
+an arrow, Kedar's fine figure swaying with
+the movement of the steed as though rider
+and horse were one.</p>
+
+<p>All alone went the youth across hill and
+valley, over rock and torrent, fearless and
+swift as an eagle; for Kedar scorned to seek
+the protection of numbers, although quite
+aware of the fact that a large caravan,
+under Abu Sofian, was even then on its way
+from Syria to Mecca, and was within three
+hours' journey from him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>ABU SOFIAN'S CARAVAN.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap042"><span class="dropcap">W</span></span>hile Kedar was
+thus speeding
+towards Medina,
+the caravan was
+also proceeding
+more slowly
+towards the
+south. It consisted
+of thirty
+horsemen and
+one thousand camels richly
+laden with grain, with spices,
+with purple of Syria, richest cloths of Da<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>mascus,
+and choicest perfumes of the northern
+regions.</p>
+
+<p>It was the month Ramadhan, and the
+peaceful traders went confidently and securely
+on their way, well pleased with the
+success of their journey and hopeful in anticipation
+of the large gain they were to
+make during the great bazar of the pilgrimage.</p>
+
+<p>While thus proceeding leisurely on, the
+leaders were somewhat surprised to see a
+solitary rider coming towards them in the
+greatest haste. He was mounted on a swift
+dromedary, and with head bent down
+so that his turban concealed his face, he
+kept striking the animal with his short
+camel-stick and urging it on with his shrill
+"Y&aacute;kh! Y&aacute;kh!"</p>
+
+<p>All breathless he at last reached the caravan.
+"Is Abu Sofian here?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Abu Sofian," said the sturdy old
+chief. "What do you desire of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been sent by Amzi the benevolent,"
+returned the other. "He bids me say
+to Abu Sofian that it will be well for the
+caravan to advance with the greatest caution,
+as Mohammed and his forces are in
+ambush on the way."</p>
+
+<p>"What guarantee have I," said Abu
+Sofian, "that you are truly from Amzi the
+Meccan, and not an emissary of Mohammed
+sent to entrap us into some narrow glen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here is your guarantee," replied the
+stranger, stretching forth his hand. "Recognize
+you not this ring?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is well," answered Abu Sofian, satisfied.
+"We are much beholden to you and to
+our friend Amzi, who we had feared was
+but too good a friend to this same Mohammed."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you trust Amzi?" asked one near,
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"As my own soul," returned the leader.
+"Amzi's heart is gold; Amzi's words are
+jewels of purest luster. He speaks truth."
+Then to the messenger, "Know you what
+route Mohammed will take?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know not. He has, doubtless, spies,
+who will inform him of your movements,
+and thus enable him to act accordingly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it remains for us to meet him by
+his own tactics," said Abu Sofian, "and no
+time is to be lost. You, Omair my faithful,
+speed to Mecca with what dispatch you
+may. Go by the by-paths which you know
+so well. Tell Abu Jahl, whom I have left
+in charge, to send us help quickly."</p>
+
+<p>Omair made obeisance and left at once.</p>
+
+<p>"You, Akab and Zimmah," continued the
+leader, "go by the hills ahead and find out
+what you can. As for us, we will keep our
+lips closed and our eyes and ears open. Abu
+Sofian is not yet so old that he has forgotten
+the signs of the wilderness."</p>
+
+<p>The vast procession moved on again
+slowly and in a dead silence, broken only by
+the trampling of the beasts and the moans
+of the camels.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, on coming near a spot which
+might be deemed hazardous ground, Abu
+Sofian ordered a halt and went forward himself,
+alone and on foot. With eye on the
+alert, ear on a tension to catch the slightest
+sound, and body bent downward to facilitate
+the closest scrutiny of the ground, the
+keen old man proceeded slowly, stepping
+with cat-like precision and quietness.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he uttered an exclamation. A
+small object lay dark on the yellow sand.
+He picked it up. It was a date-stone. He
+examined it closely. It was slightly smaller
+than the stones of the ordinary fruit.</p>
+
+<p>"A Medina date!" he exclaimed; "whoever
+has thrown it there!"</p>
+
+<p>Going a few paces further, he found several
+similar ones thrown by the wayside.
+The trampling of the sand, too, showed
+that a considerable force had been on the
+road at no distant time.</p>
+
+<p>He bent down again and directed his keen
+scrutiny on the road, then retraced his steps
+for a short distance. There were tracks
+pointing in both directions, but at one point
+the company seemed to have turned.</p>
+
+<p>It was clear, then, that for some reason
+the force had been ordered to turn and go
+back for a distance, probably to await the
+caravan in some ravine, and that they were
+now not very far away. It was necessary,
+then, to be as expeditious as possible.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>He hastily returned and gave the order
+that the route of the caravan be changed,
+and that the party should cross over the
+hills and proceed by a route close to the Red
+Sea until the place of danger was left behind.</p>
+
+<p>This was accordingly done, and the long
+lines passed anxiously yet laboriously onward
+over flinty summits, down steep and
+rugged hill-sides, past rocky clefts and over
+barren desert spots peopled only by the
+echoes that rang from the mountain sides,
+until at last the sparkling waters of the Red
+Sea lay below, and the anxious travelers felt
+that, for the present at least, they were safe.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BATTLE OF BEDR.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A Prodigy of Fear, and a portent<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of broached mischief to the unborn times."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap044"><span class="dropcap">T</span></span>he afternoon was intensely
+warm. Although
+the heat of the
+day was past, the houses
+of Mecca seemed to bake
+in the sun, the sand burned
+like a furnace, and a visible,
+shimmering heat
+seemed to fill the air. Nevertheless
+the ceremonies of
+Tawaf and the ablutions of Zem-Zem went
+on unceasingly, for it was the month of Ramadhan,
+and the half-naked pilgrims, with
+their scanty white garments, shaven heads,
+and bare feet, kept up the perpetual promenade
+about the temple, even when so hot as
+to be ready to drop of exhaustion. The
+courtyard was crowded with people, the carriers
+of Zem-Zem water were in constant demand,
+and, in the cooler recesses of the covered
+portico around the great yard, a humming
+trade went on, the venders' cries rising
+above the prayers of the pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the scene upon which Omair suddenly
+staggered, all breathless, with haggard
+face, turban awry, and thin wisps of hair
+streaming in wet hanks over his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Abu Jahl?" he cried, gasping.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what is wrong? Tell us!" cried the
+curious crowd in some consternation.
+"Where is Abu Sofian? Where is the caravan?
+Why have you come alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Send me Abu Jahl!" was his only reply.</p>
+
+<p>The old man happened to be at the Caaba,
+and came anxiously at the unexpected summons.</p>
+
+<p>"Omair!" he exclaimed. "Allah! What
+has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Send them help!" gasped Omair. "Send
+them help at once, or not one in our fair
+caravan may escape! Mohammed is lying in
+wait for them in the mountain passes."</p>
+
+<p>"May Allah have mercy!" ejaculated the
+old man; and the crowd about shrieked and
+groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring me the stair!" called Abu Jahl.
+"Place it close to the Caaba!"</p>
+
+<p>This done, he ascended to the roof where
+all might see him. His snowy beard descended
+to his waist over his flowing garments,
+and his white locks fell thinly from
+beneath his kufiyah.</p>
+
+<p>Silence fell upon the assembly below, and
+from every street men came hurrying in to
+hear the strange tidings.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of Allah, hear!" called Abu
+Jahl in loud tones. "Ye of the tribe of Koreish,
+hear! Ye who love Abu Sofian, hear!
+Ye who have friends or goods in the great
+caravan from Syria, hear! Ye above whom
+the arch-impostor, Mohammed, aspires, and
+whom he would fain crush beneath his feet
+as the vile serpent in the dust, hear! He
+hath beset our friends in the fastnesses of
+the mountains. He swoopeth upon them as
+the eagle upon the defenceless lamb out of
+the fold! Who, then, among you, will follow
+Abu Jahl to deliver them?"</p>
+
+<p>An approving murmur rose, long and loud;
+then a hush fell as the aged man continued,
+appealing to the courage of his hearers:</p>
+
+<p>"Ye who fear not the foul rebel's sword,
+ye who would uphold the honor of your
+wives and little ones, nor send your children
+out upon the world as the offspring of cowards,
+beseech your gods for blessing, then
+mount, and meet me as soon as may be out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>side
+the temple gates. In the name of Allah,
+good-speed!"</p>
+
+<p>A shout of assent arose. The thoroughly
+excited multitude swayed and surged like
+the waves of the sea. Hundreds hurried
+off to do the behest
+of their leader,
+and, returning, hastened
+to perform
+Tawaf about the
+Caaba before setting
+out on their perilous
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf, as a Christian,
+dared not enter
+the temple; but he
+heard the news
+from without. His
+heart was moved
+with compassion for
+the poor, defenceless
+traders, caught like
+mice in a trap, and
+he decided to fall
+into the ranks of the
+rescue party, intending,
+if his life were
+spared, to pay a
+visit to Amzi, at
+Medina.</p>
+
+<p>While the recruits
+were gathering,
+Henda, the wife of
+Abu Sofian, rushed
+up, her face wild
+and haggard with
+terror, her long
+black hair streaming
+on the wind, her
+eyes flashing with
+excitement, and her
+lips drawn back, exposing
+her yellow,
+fang-like teeth. A
+tigress she looked in her fury, and it was
+with difficulty that Abu Jahl prevented her
+from going with the expedition, which, in
+the cooler shades of evening, started off at a
+rapid pace, leaving her to nurse her vengeance
+until a later day.</p>
+
+<p>Hurried, yet long and tedious, was the
+journey, and the anxiety and impatience of
+the volunteers made it seem almost interminable.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 309px;">
+<a href="images/p045.jpg">
+<img src="images/p045thum.jpg" width="309" height="400" alt="The youth made a quick lunge, piercing the priest&#39;s shoulder." /></a>
+<span class="caption">The youth made a quick lunge, piercing the priest&#39;s shoulder.&mdash;See <a href="#Page_46">page 46</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At length news was brought of the safety
+of the caravan, and of its deviation towards
+the sea. But the blood of the Meccans was
+up, and the fiery old leader was determined
+to punish Mohammed for his misconduct,
+and thus, perhaps, prevent him from committing
+similar atrocities in the future. Ac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>cordingly
+he sent part of his troops for protection
+to the caravan, and commanded the
+rest, about nine hundred in number, to push
+on; and among those ordered forward to the
+field was Yusuf.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed, with three hundred and thirteen
+soldiers, mounted chiefly on camels, received
+word of this advance. His men were
+lying between Medina and the sea, and, as
+he thought, directly between the caravan
+and Abu Jahl's army. He told his men to be
+of good cheer, as Allah had promised them
+an easy victory; yet he was careful to omit
+no human means of securing an advantage.
+He posted his troops beside the brook Bedr,
+and had them hastily throw up an entrenchment
+to cover the flank of his troops. Then,
+sure of a constant supply of water, and safe
+from fear of surprise, he awaited the Meccan
+army.</p>
+
+<p>He himself ascended a little eminence,
+accompanied only by Abu Beker, and, in a
+small hut made of branches, he prayed for
+the assistance of three thousand angels. In
+his excitement, one of his old paroxysms
+came on, but this was regarded as auspicious
+by his men, to whom, superstitious as they
+were, every occurrence of this kind was an
+additional presage of victory and an additional
+spur to bravery in battle.</p>
+
+<p>And now the opposing force appeared,
+coming down the opposite hill, the men hot,
+weary, and covered with dust.</p>
+
+<p>After a preliminary skirmish between individual
+combatants, the battle began,&mdash;not
+a systematic charge in close ranks, not the
+disciplined attack of trained warriors, but a
+wild m&ecirc;l&eacute;e of camels, horses, flashing
+scimitars, gleaming daggers and plunging
+spears, in the midst of clouds of dust and
+streaming scarfs.</p>
+
+<p>The combat was long, and at one time the
+party of Mohammed seemed to waver. The
+prophet rushed out, threw a handful of
+dust into the air and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"May confusion light upon their faces!
+Charge, ye faithful! charge for Allah and his
+prophet!"</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could withstand the wild dash
+made by his men. Filled with the passion
+of enthusiasm, the zeal of fanatics, and the
+confidence of success, they bore down like
+madmen. The Koreish, many of whom were
+fearful of enchantment by the prophet, were
+seized with sudden panic. In vain Abu Jahl
+tried to rally them. He was torn from his
+horse by a savage Moslem, and his head
+severed from his body. His troops fled in
+terror, leaving seventy men dead on the field
+and seventy prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The bodies and prisoners were robbed, and
+the spoil divided. Mohammed, in order to
+avert dispute over the booty, very conveniently
+had a revelation at the time.&mdash;"Know
+that whenever ye gain any spoil,
+a fifth part thereof belongeth unto God,
+and to the apostle, and to his kindred,
+and the orphans, and the poor, and the
+traveler."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this occasion he claimed a considerable
+amount of silver, and a sword, Dhu'l
+Fakar (or the Piercer), which he carried in
+every subsequent battle.</p>
+
+<p>During the battle, Yusuf, the priest, had
+fought bravely. Mounted on a magnificent
+horse, his commanding figure had marked
+him out as an object worthy of attack. Accordingly
+he was ever in the thickest of the
+fight. With cool and calm determination
+his blows fell, until suddenly an event occurred
+which completely unmanned him, and
+gave his enemies the advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Among the opponents who singled him
+out for attack was a youth mounted on a
+horse of equal power and agility. The youth
+was rather slight, but his skill in thrusting
+and in averting strokes, and his evidence of
+practice in every exercise of the lance, rendered
+him a fitting adversary for the priest
+with his superior strength.</p>
+
+<p>For some time their combat had gone on
+single-handed, when the youth's head-dress
+falling off revealed a face strikingly familiar
+to Yusuf. It was Manasseh's own face, pale,
+and with clots of blood upon it!</p>
+
+<p>The priest was horror-stricken. He <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'forebore'">forbore</ins>
+to thrust, and the youth, seizing the opportunity,
+made a quick lunge, piercing the
+priest's shoulder, and felling him to the
+ground. A new opponent came and engaged
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>the youth's attention; the panic fell, and the
+priest, seeing that it was useless to remain,
+managed to mount and ride off after the retreating
+troops.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely injured, yet covered with blood,
+he dismounted at Amzi's door in Medina.</p>
+
+<p>"Yusuf! My brother!" cried the Meccan
+in astonishment, "what means this?"</p>
+
+<p>In a few words Yusuf told the tale of the
+battle, and Amzi placed him comfortably
+upon a soft couch, insisting upon ministering
+to him as though he had been severely
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"So, Yusuf the gentle too has become a
+seeker of man's blood!" he said. "Verily,
+what an effect hath this degenerate age!"</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me, friend," returned the other,
+earnestly, "you too would have gone had
+you been in Mecca and had heard of our poor
+friends, all unarmed, and apparently in the
+power of the enemy. When the advance to
+Bedr was ordered, I was one under authority,
+and had no choice but to submit, though I
+had little enough love for the stench of
+blood."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet," returned Amzi, "Yusuf's life is too
+precious to be risked in such madness. It is
+not necessary for him to court death; for the
+time may soon come when he shall be forced
+to fight in self-defence. Till then, let foolish
+youths dash to the lance's point if they will."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf bowed his head, and in a low tone
+replied: "'O God, the Lord, the strength of
+my salvation, thou hast covered my head in
+the day of battle. He hath delivered my soul
+in peace from the battle that was against
+me. Yea, though I walk through the valley
+of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
+for thou art with me. He that dwelleth in
+the secret place of the Most High shall abide
+under the shadow of the Almighty. I will
+say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my
+fortress: my God; in him will I trust.' Amzi,
+whether in life or in death, it shall be as he
+wills."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi looked at him curiously. "Yusuf,"
+he said, "is there no extremity of your life
+in which your religion fails to give you comfort?
+It seems to furnish you with words
+befitting every occasion."</p>
+
+<p>"Comfort in every hour of need," returned
+Yusuf, "deliverance in every hour of temptation,
+is our God able to bestow if we seek
+him in spirit and in truth. Things temporal,
+as well as things spiritual, call for his almighty
+love and attention; and our love for
+him brightens every pathway in life. It is
+the knowledge of this which has upheld his
+children in all the ages;&mdash;not one of them
+who has not gloried in feeling that 'God is
+our refuge and strength, a very present help
+in time of trouble. Therefore will we not
+fear, though the earth be removed, and
+though the mountains be carried into the
+midst of the sea.' Not one of them but has
+at some time found comfort in the promises,
+'When the poor and the needy seek water,
+and there is none, and their tongue faileth
+for thirst, I the Lord will hear them; I, the
+God of Israel, will not forsake them. He
+that keepeth Israel slumbers not, nor sleeps.
+Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not
+dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen
+thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold
+thee with the right hand of my righteousness.'
+Think of this help, Amzi, in every
+struggle: in the struggle, worse than any
+time of battle, with one's own sinful heart.
+And there is not one of God's children but
+has realized the blessedness of following the
+commands of Jesus, 'Have faith in God.
+Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye
+shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
+you.' Amzi, you who love gentleness and
+peace, truth and humility, cannot you find in
+Christ and his loving precepts all you would
+ask? Can anything appeal to your warm
+heart more than such injunctions as
+these?&mdash;'Love your enemies, bless them that
+curse you, do good to them that hate you,
+and pray for them that despitefully use you
+and persecute you. When thou doest alms,
+let not thy left hand know what thy right
+hand doeth. Let your light so shine before
+men, that they may see your good works,
+and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
+Judge not, that ye be not judged. Watch ye,
+therefore, and pray always. Pray that ye
+enter not into temptation.'"</p>
+
+<p>He paused, out of breath; for such had
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>been his study of the Scriptures that the
+words came in a flood to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi sighed. "Yes, Yusuf," he said,
+"such words seem to me full of goodness
+and sweetness; yet, try as I may, I cannot
+realize their true import. I cannot rejoice,
+as you and your friends do, in your religion
+and its promises."</p>
+
+<p>"My Amzi," returned the priest, "how
+can you be warmed except you come to the
+fire? Remember the man with the withered
+hand. Did he not stretch it out in faith?
+My friend, like him, act! Reach out your
+heart to God. He will not fail you. Look
+not upon yourself. Look upon God, who is,
+indeed, closer to you than you can imagine.
+Put your hand in his, behold his love manifested
+to us in the coming of his dear Son,
+and feel that that love is to-day the same,
+proceeding from the Father in whom is 'no
+variableness, neither shadow of turning.'"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi sighed. "Yusuf," he said, "it appears
+all dark, impenetrable, to me. A wall
+of adamant seems to stand between me and
+God. Pray for me, friend. In this matter
+I fear I am heartless."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this assertion, there was genuine
+concern in the tone, and the priest's face
+flushed in the glad light of hope.</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi," he exclaimed, "my hope for you
+increases. Even now, you begin to realize
+your own self: it remains for you to realize
+God's self. Know God&mdash;would I could burn
+that upon your heart! All else would be
+made plain."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi sighed again. For a time he sat in
+silence, then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have been reading of the tabernacle,
+and of the sacrifices therein."</p>
+
+<p>"Typical of the death of Christ," returned
+Yusuf. "A constant emblem of that mind
+which was, and is to-day, ready to suffer,
+that we may understand its infinite love."</p>
+
+<p>"Strange, strange!" said Amzi, musingly.
+Then after a long silence: "Yusuf, have
+you ever noted the resemblance of the
+Caaba to the reputed appearance of the tabernacle?"</p>
+
+<p>"The resemblance struck me from the first
+glance&mdash;the courtyard, the temple itself,
+and the curtain (or 'Kiswah') corresponding
+to the veil of the tabernacle. This same
+Caaba may trace its origin in some dim way
+to the ancient tabernacle, of which, in this
+land, the significance must have become lost
+in the centuries during which the Ishmaelitish
+race forgot the true worship of God."</p>
+
+<p>"And what think you of the course which
+affairs are now taking in Arabia?" asked
+Amzi. "You believe in the supervision of
+God; why, then, does he permit such outbreaks
+as the present one is proving to be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly believe that the Creator sees
+and knows all things. I believe, too, that
+even to Mohammed, at one time in his life,
+the Holy Spirit appealed, as he did to me,
+and, I hope, does now to you, Amzi,&mdash;for his
+pleadings come sometime to all men; but, I
+think that if in earnest at first, Mohammed&mdash;if,
+indeed, he be not a monomaniac on the
+subject of his divine calling&mdash;has given himself
+up to the wild indulgence of his ambition,
+forgetting Him whose power is able
+to direct us all aright. Hence, he guides
+himself, rather than seeks to be guided, and,
+in such a case, he may sometimes be allowed
+to go on in his own way, bearing with him
+those who are so foolish as to accept his
+teaching. Something of this kind may, indeed,
+be one of the secrets of the crimes and
+calamities which enter into many human
+lives. God leaves us free to choose. When
+we come to know him we choose to be his
+followers. If we are indifferent to him, he
+may, at times, look on without interfering
+in our lives except to send us occasionally
+great trouble, or great joy, as an appeal to
+us. His mercy is great. He pities and
+pleads with us, yet he leaves us free."</p>
+
+<p>"And what, think you, will be the effect
+upon Arabia of this rising?"</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf shook his head. "I know not," he
+said. "We cannot see now, nor mayhap
+until ages have rolled by; but 'at eventide it
+shall be light.'"</p>
+
+<p>So talked Amzi and the priest until the
+gray dawn shone in, and the voice of Bilal,
+the muezzin, was heard calling from the
+mosque:</p>
+
+<p>"God is great! There is no God but God!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+Mohammed is the prophet of God! Come to
+prayers! God is great!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PERSECUTION BEGINS.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"In doing good we are generally cold and
+languid and sluggish.... But the works of
+Malice and Injustice are quite in another
+style."&mdash;<i>Burke.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap049"><span class="dropcap">A</span></span>mong those left
+dead on the field
+of Bedr were the
+father, uncle and
+brother of Henda,
+the wife of Abu
+Sofian. Fierce
+and savage as
+was her nature, she was yet
+capable of deep feeling, and
+her love for her kindred
+was one of the ruling passions of her life.</p>
+
+<p>When the caravan at last reached Mecca
+in safety, she rushed to meet Abu Sofian,
+weeping wildly, wringing her hands in grief,
+and throwing dust on her long hair. She
+besought him frantically to avenge their
+death, and he, knowing that the debt of
+"blood revenge" was now upon him, and
+that blood alone would wipe the stain from
+his honor, gathered two hundred swift
+horsemen and set out almost immediately
+for Medina.</p>
+
+<p>On the way he ravaged the whole country,
+burning the villages and date-groves of
+Mohammed's followers.</p>
+
+<p>When within three miles of Medina the
+prophet sallied out to meet him. A brief
+contest took place, and Abu Sofian was once
+more defeated in what was jestingly called
+the Battle of the Meal Sacks.</p>
+
+<p>The Moslems were exultant over their success,
+but Abu Sofian returned to Mecca, the
+blood-dues still unpaid, and with bitter
+enmity gnawing at his heart.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Mohammed began to assume
+all the airs of an independent sovereign.
+He married a beautiful maiden,
+Hafza, to whom he entrusted the care of the
+Koran, according as it was revealed; and
+shortly afterwards he issued a decree by
+which all true believers were ordered to face
+Mecca when praying. Thus early in his
+career of conquest he had fixed upon Mecca
+as the future holy city of the Moslems. As
+usual, the Koran was called in to authorize
+him in thus fixing the Kebla, or point of
+prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"Unto God belongeth the East and the
+West. He directeth whom he pleaseth in
+the right way. Turn, therefore, thy face
+towards the holy temple of Mecca; and
+wherever ye be, turn your faces towards
+that place."</p>
+
+<p>At this time also he sanctioned the retaining
+of the holy fast of Ramadhan and the
+pilgrimages connected therewith. As he
+was well aware that the doing away with
+the great bazar upon which the prosperity
+of Mecca so largely depended would loose a
+host of enemies upon him, he declared:</p>
+
+<p>"O true believers, a fast is ordained you,
+as it was ordained unto them before you,
+that ye may fear God. The month of
+Ramadhan shall ye fast, in which the Koran
+was sent down from heaven, a direction
+unto men."</p>
+
+<p>Henceforth, during the fast, all true believers
+were to abstain from eating or drinking,
+and from all earthly pleasures, while
+the sun shone above the horizon and until
+the lamps at the mosques were lighted by
+the Imaums. It is needless to say that the
+Moslems obviated this self-sacrifice by
+sleeping during the day as much as possible,
+giving the night up to all the proscribed indulgences
+of the interdicted season.</p>
+
+<p>And now Mohammed's hatred to the Jews
+began to show itself, and the awful persecution
+of the little Jewish band in Medina
+commenced.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Dumah was one of the first to bring
+the rod of wrath upon himself. When wandering
+down the street one day, not very
+long after the Battle of Bedr, he paused by
+a well, just as Mohammed, accompanied by
+his faithful Zeid, appeared in the way.
+Dumah saw them and at once began to sing
+his thoughts in a wild, irregular lament. His
+voice was peculiarly sweet and clear, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>every word reached the ear of the enraged
+prophet. The song was a weird lament
+over those slain at Bedr:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"They are fallen, the good are fallen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Low in the dust they are fallen;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And their hair is steeped in blood;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But the poison-wind shrieks above them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sighing anon like the cushat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And breathing its curses upon him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon him, the chief of impostors.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As he passes the leaflets tremble,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the flowers shrink from his pathway;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the angels smile not upon him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For he maketh the widow and orphan;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the voice of Rachel riseth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In mourning loud for her children.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And no comfort doth fall upon her.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soft like the balm of Gilead."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Turning to one of his followers, Mohammed
+commanded angrily:</p>
+
+<p>"Seize that singer!"</p>
+
+<p>Dumah heard the exclamation, and was
+off like the wind, followed by two or three
+Moslems, each anxious to secure the victim
+first, and thus win the approval of the
+august Mohammed.</p>
+
+<p>On, on, straight to the house of Amzi fled
+Dumah. Bursting open the door, he rushed
+in, his long hair disordered, his face purple
+with running and his eyes wide with terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Save me, Yusuf! Save me, Amzi!" he
+cried. "Mohammed will kill me! Mohammed
+will kill me!"</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf sprang to the door, and the poor
+fugitive threw himself at Amzi's feet,
+clinging to his garments with his thin,
+white hands.</p>
+
+<p>But the pursuers were already upon him.
+Yusuf strove in vain to detain them, to reason
+with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not see he is a poor artless lad?
+Can you not have mercy?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the order of the prophet of Allah!"
+was the response.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf resisted their entrance with all his
+might, but, unarmed as he was, he was
+quickly thrown down, and the terrified
+Dumah was dragged over his body and hurried
+off to be put in chains in a Moslem cell.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi was distracted. There seemed little
+hope for Dumah. The small Jewish band
+then in Medina could not dare to cope with
+the overwhelming numbers of Moslems that
+swarmed in the streets. If Dumah were
+delivered it must be by stratagem; and yet
+what stratagem could be employed?</p>
+
+<p>Early in the evening Amzi and the priest
+withdrew to the roof for consultation.</p>
+
+<p>"You believe that your God is all-powerful&mdash;why
+do you not beseech him for our
+poor lad's safety?" cried Amzi passionately.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not ceased to do so since his capture,"
+returned Yusuf. "But it must be as
+the Lord willeth. He sees what is best.
+Even our blessed Jesus said to the Father,
+'Not my will, but thine be done.'"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi was not satisfied. "Can he then be
+the God of Love that you say, if he could
+look upon the death of that poor innocent
+nor exercise his power to save him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi, I do not wonder at you for speaking
+thus. Yet consider. We will hope the
+best for our poor singer. May God preserve
+him and enable us, as instruments in his
+hands, to deliver him. But God may see
+differently from us in this matter. Who can
+say that to die would not be gain to poor
+Dumah? All witless as he is, he shall have
+a perfect mind and a perfect body in the
+bright hereafter. We know not what is well.
+We can only pray and do all in our power
+to effect his deliverance; we must leave the
+issue to God."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi bowed his head on his hands and
+groaned. Yusuf raised his eyes towards
+heaven; the tears rolled down his cheeks,
+and his lips moved. Even he could not understand
+the mysteries of this strange time.
+Yet he was constantly comforted in knowing
+that "all things work together for good to
+them that love God."</p>
+
+<p>Saddest of all was the vision of the handsome,
+dark face that, contorted in the fury
+of combat, had glared upon him from the
+Moslem ranks in the Battle of Bedr, while
+Manasseh's hand showered blows upon the
+head of his best friend&mdash;for the sake of the
+prophet of Islam.</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh! Manasseh!" he exclaimed in
+bitter sadness. "Why hast thou forsaken
+thy father's God? O heavenly Father, do
+thou guide him and lead him again into thy
+paths!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>AMZI FINALLY REJECTS MOHAMMED.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"'Do the duty which lies nearest thee' which thou
+knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already
+have become clearer."&mdash;<i>Carlyle, "Sartor Resartus."</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap051"><span class="dropcap">U</span></span>pon the following
+morning Yusuf
+hastened to obtain
+an interview with
+Mohammed. The
+prophet lived in an
+ostentatiously humble
+abode&mdash;a low,
+broad building,
+roofed with date-sticks,
+and thatched with the broad leaves of
+the palm tree.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed absolutely refused to see him.
+Ayesha, the youngest and fairest of the
+prophet's wives, sent to inform him that Mohammed
+had nothing to say to the Christian
+Yusuf. So with heavy heart he turned away
+and sought the house of Zeid, deeming that
+he, as the prophet's adopted son and most
+devoted follower, might have some influence
+in obtaining Dumah's release.</p>
+
+<p>Zeid sat in a low, airy apartment, through
+whose many open windows a cool breeze
+entered. By him sat his newly-wedded wife,
+unveiled, for at that time the rules in regard
+to veiling were not so strictly insisted upon
+as at a later day, when the prophet's decree
+against the unveiling of women was more
+rigorously enforced.</p>
+
+<p>Even Yusuf noted her marvelous beauty.
+There was a peculiarity of action, a something
+familiar about her, too, which gave
+him a hazy recollection of having seen her
+before; but not for several moments did the
+association come up in his memory, and he
+saw again the little Jewish home of Nathan
+in Mecca, the dim light, and the beautiful
+child whose temples Nathan's wife was so
+tenderly bathing. Yes, after the lapse of
+years, in a flash he knew her for Zeinab!</p>
+
+<p>She listened with interest to the tale of
+the Jewish singer; but there was a heartlessness
+in her air, and a certain contempt
+in the look which she bent upon the Christian
+who was thus making intercession for
+an unworthy Jew.</p>
+
+<p>"I have neither eyes to see, tongue to
+speak, nor hands to act, save as the prophet
+is pleased to direct me," was Zeid's reply, in
+the most determined tone.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf, seeing no hope, left the house, and
+shortly afterwards Zeid, too, went down
+into the town. Scarcely had he left when
+Mohammed entered.</p>
+
+<p>Zeinab was still at the window, which
+opened directly on the courtyard. A myrtle
+bush grew near, and she listlessly plucked
+some of the white blossoms and twined
+them in the braids of her glossy black hair.
+She wore a loose gown of sky-blue silk with
+a drape of crimson, and deep pointed sleeves
+of filmy, white lace. Her veil was cast
+aside, and when the prophet entered she
+turned her magnificent dark eyes, with their
+shading of kohl, full upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Ever susceptible to the influence of beauty,
+he exclaimed, "Praise be God, who turneth
+the hearts of men as he pleaseth!" And he
+at once coveted her for his wife; although
+according to law she bore the relation of
+daughter to him.</p>
+
+<p>He intimated his desire to Ali, who, in
+turn, broke the news to Zeid. Zeid returned
+pale and trembling to his home. He loved his
+wife deeply; yet his devotion to the prophet
+and the sense of obligation which he owed
+him as foster-father, for having freed him
+from servitude, appealed to him strongly.
+Bowing his head upon his wife's knee, he
+wept.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you weep, Zeid?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas!" he cried, "could one who has
+known thee as wife forbear to weep at having
+thee leave him?"</p>
+
+<p>"But I will never leave my Zeid."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even to become the wife of the
+prophet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mohammed does not want me for his
+wife," she said quickly.</p>
+
+<p>Zeid sighed. "Could you be happy were
+you his wife?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty's ambitious spirit rose, but she
+only said: "Were I made his wife, it would
+be the will of Allah."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>Zeid pushed her gently from him, and went
+out. "Mohammed," he said, seating himself
+at the prophet's feet, "you care for Zeinab.
+I come to offer her to you. Obtain for your
+poor Zeid a writ of divorce."</p>
+
+<p>The prophet's face showed his satisfaction.
+"I could never accept such a sacrifice,"
+he said, hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"My life, my all, even to my beloved wife,
+belongs to my master," returned Zeid. "His
+pleasure stands to me before aught else."</p>
+
+<p>"So be it, then, most faithful," said the
+prophet. "O Zeid, my more than son, a
+glorious reward is withheld for you."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as ever, a revelation of the Koran
+came seasonably ere another day, to remove
+every impediment to the union of Mohammed
+and Zeinab.</p>
+
+<p>"But when Zeid had determined the matter
+concerning her, and had resolved to
+divorce her, we joined her in marriage unto
+thee, lest a crime should be charged on the
+true believers in marrying the wives of their
+adopted sons: and the command of God is to
+be performed. No crime is to be charged on
+the prophet as to what God hath allowed
+him."</p>
+
+<p>There were those in Medina who resented
+Mohammed's selfishness in thus appropriating
+Zeinab to himself, and there were those
+who questioned the honor of such a proceeding;
+but this questioning went on mostly
+among the few Bedouin adherents who had
+flocked into the town in his service, for the
+most sacred oath of the highest class of
+Bedouins has long been, "By the honor of
+my women!"</p>
+
+<p>In none did the prophet's action inspire
+more disgust than in our two friends, Yusuf
+and Amzi. Amzi had long since lost all faith
+in the prophet as a divine representative;
+and this marriage with Zeinab only confirmed
+his distrust.</p>
+
+<p>"Pah!" he said to Yusuf, "he not only lets
+his own impulses sway him, but he uses the
+sanction of heaven to authorize the satisfaction
+of every desire, no matter who is
+trampled upon in the proceeding. Was there
+ever such sacrilege?"</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf returned: "For this I am <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original has period instead of comma">thankful,</ins>
+brother: that you at last apply the term
+'sacrilege' to the claims of this impostor."</p>
+
+<p>"Think you he is no longer in earnest at
+all for the raising of his countrymen from
+idolatry?"</p>
+
+<p>"He seeks to throw down idols, but to
+raise himself in their stead. Cupidity and
+ambition, Amzi, have well-nigh smothered
+every struggling seed of good in Mohammed's
+haughty bosom."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not think that, at the beginning,
+he imagined himself inspired?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mohammed is strangely visionary. At
+the beginning he, doubtless, thought he saw
+visions, but, if the man thinks himself inspired
+now, he is mad."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet what a personality he has!" said
+Amzi, musingly. "What a charm he bears!
+How his least word is sufficient to move this
+crowd of howling fanatics!"</p>
+
+<p>"A man who might be an angel of light,
+were he truly under divine guidance," returned
+Yusuf. "And, mark me, Amzi, his
+influence will not stop with this generation.
+The influence of every man on God's earth
+goes on ever-rolling, ever-unceasing, down
+the long tide of eternity; but, in every age,
+there are those who, like Mohammed, possess
+such an individuality, such a personality,
+that their power goes on increasing,
+crashing like the avalanche down my native
+mountains."</p>
+
+<p>"How eloquently such a thought appeals
+to right impulse, right action!" said Amzi,
+thoughtfully. "Did a man realize its import
+fully, he would surely be spurred on to act,
+not to sit idly letting the world drift by."</p>
+
+<p>"'No man liveth unto himself,'" said
+Yusuf slowly. "Whether we will it or not,
+we are each of us ever exerting some influence
+for good or for ill upon those with whom
+we come in contact. No one can be neutral.
+Acts often speak in thunder-tones, when
+mere words are heard but in whispers."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear me, Yusuf," said the Meccan, with
+a half-smile, "that Amzi has neither thundered
+in action, nor even whispered in
+words. So little good has he done, that he almost
+hates to think of your great influence
+theory."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>Yusuf smiled and slipped his arm about
+the Meccan's shoulder. "Amzi, the name of
+'benevolent' belies your words," he said.
+"Think you that your home duties faithfully
+performed, your pure and upright life, pass
+for naught?"</p>
+
+<p>"You would stand aghast, Yusuf," returned
+Amzi, "if I told you the amount of
+time that I have squandered, simply in
+dreaming, smoking, and taking my ease."</p>
+
+<p>"Time is a precious gift," replied Yusuf,
+"it flows on and on as a great river towards
+the sea, and never returns. It appears to
+me, every day, more clearly as the talent
+given to all men to be used rightly. I, as well
+as you, have let precious hours pass, and, in
+doing so, we have both done wrong. Yet I
+pray that we may every day see, more and
+more, the necessity of well occupying the
+hours,&mdash;'redeeming the time, because the
+days are evil.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Would that I had your decision of purpose,
+your firmness of will!" said Amzi, wistfully.
+"Yusuf, it would be impossible for
+me to spend all my time as you do,&mdash;visiting,
+relieving, studying, speaking ever the
+word in season, and ever working for others.
+I should miss my <i>kaif</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Even if you know it was in the cause of
+the Lord?" asked Yusuf, with gentle reproof.
+"Yet, Amzi, you have done as much as I,
+considering your opportunities. The great
+thing is to do faithfully whatever comes to
+one's hand, whether that be great or small.
+Know you not that it was said to him who
+had received only two talents, 'Well done,
+good and faithful servant; thou hast been
+faithful over a few things, I will make thee
+ruler over many things.' As bright crowns
+await the humble home-workers as the great
+movers of earth, provided all be done 'as
+unto the Lord.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But," returned Amzi, impatiently, "my
+'good works,' as you call them, have not
+been done 'as unto the Lord.' My charities
+have been done simply because the sight of
+misery caused me to feel unhappy. I felt
+pity for the wretched, and in relieving them
+set my own mind at ease, and gave satisfaction
+to myself. I feel that it is right to do
+certain things, and so I do them under a
+sense of moral obligation."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Yusuf, "has this acting
+under a sense of moral obligation brought
+you perfect satisfaction, perfect rest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Frankly, it has not."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf rose, and, placing both hands on
+Amzi's shoulders, said earnestly: "My
+friend, who can say that every good impulse
+of man may not be an outcome of the divine
+nature implanted in him by the Creator, and
+which, if watered and developed, will surely
+burst into the flower of goodness when
+once the influence of God's Spirit is fully
+recognized and ever invoked? Amzi, you
+have many such seeds of innate good. Your
+very longings for good, your tone of late,
+show me that you are near this blessed
+recognition. Why will you not believe? Why
+will you not embrace the Lord Jesus Christ?
+We are all weak of ourselves, but we have
+strength in him. Amzi, my friend, pray for
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>He turned abruptly and left Amzi alone, to
+ponder long and earnestly over the conversation
+of the past hour.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FATE OF DUMAH.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot
+release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot
+cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot
+console."&mdash;<i>Colton.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap053"><span class="dropcap">A</span></span>nd now began a veritable
+reign of terror for the
+Jews of Medina. The
+first evidence of the
+closing of Mohammed's
+iron hand was
+shown in his forcing
+them to make Mecca,
+rather than Jerusalem,
+their kebla, or
+point of prayer. Many refused to obey this
+command, and were consequently dragged
+off to await the pleasure of the prophet.</p>
+
+<p>At first the keenest edge of Moslem vindictiveness
+seemed to be directed against the
+bards or poets, for the power of stirring and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>pathetic poetry in arousing the passionate
+Oriental blood to revenge was recognized as
+an instrument too potent to be overlooked.</p>
+
+<p>Ere long even the form of imprisonment
+was, to a great extent, set aside, and the
+knife of the assassin was set at work.
+Among those who thus fell were Kaab, a
+Jewish poet who strove to incite the Koreish
+to aggressive measures against the Moslems;
+and Assina, a young woman who had been
+guilty of writing satires directed against the
+prophet himself.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf and Amzi became greatly alarmed
+for the safety of Dumah. Every possible
+means of rendering assistance to the poor
+singer seemed to be cut off. They could not
+even find any clue to his whereabouts, and
+feared that he, too, had fallen beneath some
+treacherous blade.</p>
+
+<p>As yet, Amzi and Yusuf had been permitted
+to wander at will. For hours and
+hours did they roam about the streets seeking
+for some clue to Dumah's place of imprisonment,
+but all efforts were futile, until
+one day Amzi heard a faint voice singing in
+the cellar of one of the Moslem buildings.
+He lay down by the wall, closed his eyes,
+and strained his ears to catch the sound.
+It was assuredly Dumah, singing weakly:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Oh, why will they not come,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The friends of Dumah!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For living death is upon him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the walls of his tomb close over,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet will not in mercy fall on him.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Does the sun shine still on the mountain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the trees wave?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Do the birds still sing in the palm-trees,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the flowers still bloom in Kuba?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet doth Dumah languish<br /></span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"But Dumah's friends have forgotten him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor seek him more,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And even the angels vanish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the tomb is all about him:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O Death, come, haste to Dumah!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The voice sank away in a low wail, and
+Amzi sprang up. His first impulse was to
+rush in and batter at the door of Dumah's
+cell; his second, to call words of comfort
+through the wall. Yet either would be imprudent
+and might ruin all, so he hastened
+home to Yusuf.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go to him immediately," said the
+priest.</p>
+
+<p>"But how?"</p>
+
+<p>"In disguise if need be," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"In disguise!" exclaimed Amzi. "Friend,
+with your physique, think you you can disguise
+yourself? Not a Moslem in Mecca who
+does not know the figure of Yusuf the
+Christian. Nay, Yusuf, your friend Amzi
+can effect a disguise much more easily.
+Here,"&mdash;running his fingers through his gray
+beard,&mdash;"a few grains of black dye can soon
+transform this; some stain will change the
+Meccan's ruddy cheeks into the brown of a
+desert Arab. The thing is easy."</p>
+
+<p>"As you will, then," said the priest; and
+the two were soon busy at work at the transforming
+process.</p>
+
+<p>With the garb of a Moslem soldier, Amzi
+was soon, to all appearance, a passable Mussulman,
+with divided beard, and chocolate-brown
+skin.</p>
+
+<p>He set out, and, having arrived at the door
+of the sort of barracks in which Dumah was
+imprisoned, mingled with the soldiers, quite
+unnoticed among the new arrivals who constantly
+swelled the prophet's army.</p>
+
+<p>With the greatest difficulty, yet without
+exciting apparent suspicion, he found out the
+exact spot in which Dumah was confined.
+Upon the first opportunity he slipped noiselessly
+after the attendant who was carrying
+the prisoner's pittance of food. Under his
+robe he had tools for excavating a hole beneath
+the wall, and his plan was to step
+silently into the room, secrete himself behind
+the door, and permit himself to be locked in,
+trusting to subsequent efforts for effecting
+the freedom of himself and Dumah.</p>
+
+<p>Silently he glided into the darkened room
+behind the keeper. All within seemed dark
+as night after the brighter light without;
+but Dumah's eyes, accustomed to the darkness,
+could see more clearly. He penetrated
+the disguise at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi! Amzi!" he cried out delightedly,
+"you have come! You have come!"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi knew that all was undone.</p>
+
+<p>"Treachery!" called the keeper.</p>
+
+<p>The Moslems came pouring into the room.
+Amzi was overpowered, and pinioned on the
+spot.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>"What means this?" cried Asru, the captain
+of the guard.</p>
+
+<p>"Treachery, if it please you," returned the
+keeper. "An asp which has been in our
+camp with its poison-fangs hid! No Moslem,
+but an enemy&mdash;a friend of this dotard poet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Search him!" was the order.</p>
+
+<p>The tools were found.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" said the captain. "Most conclusive
+proof, wretch! We will teach you,
+knave, that foxes are sometimes trapped in
+their own wiles. Off with him! Chain him!"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi was hurried off, and Asru strode
+away to execute some other act of so-called
+justice. He was a man of immense stature,
+heavy-featured, and covered with pock-marks,
+yet his face was full of strength of
+character, and bore traces of candor and
+honesty, though the lines about the mouth
+told of unrestrained cruelty and passion.</p>
+
+<p>At home Yusuf waited in an agony of suspense.
+The day passed into night, the night
+into day, the day into night again, yet Amzi
+did not come. Yusuf could bear it no longer.
+Anything was better than this awful waiting.
+Only once he almost gave up hope and
+cried in the words of the Psalmist, "O Lord,
+why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest
+thou thy face from me?" Then like balm of
+healing came the words, "Cast thy burden
+upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee; he
+shall never suffer the righteous to be
+moved."</p>
+
+<p>Dressed in his quiet, scholarly raiment,
+and quite unarmed, he set out in search of
+Amzi. Arriving at the place, he saw none
+whom he knew. He was stopped at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to see the captain who has command
+here," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a peaceable-looking citizen
+enough," said a guard, "yet we have orders
+to search all new-comers, and you will have
+to submit, stranger."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf was searched, but as neither arms
+nor tools were found upon him, he was allowed
+to have audience with the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Asru, recognizing him at once.
+"What seeks Yusuf, a Christian, of a follower
+of Mohammed the prophet?"</p>
+
+<p>"I seek but the deliverance of two harmless,
+inoffensive friends," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"A bold request, truly," said the other.
+"Yet have I not forgotten my debt of gratitude
+to you. I have not forgotten that it
+was Yusuf who nursed me through the foul
+disease whose marks I yet bear, when all
+others fled;" and he passed his hand over his
+pock-marked face.</p>
+
+<p>"Of that speak not," returned Yusuf, with
+a gesture of impatience. "'Twas but the service
+which any man with a heart may render
+to a needy brother. However, if you are
+grateful, as you say, you can more than repay
+the debt, you can make me indebted to
+you, by telling me aught of Amzi, the
+benevolent Meccan, whose hand would not
+take the life of a worm were he not forced
+into it."</p>
+
+<p>"He is here in chains," said Asru haughtily,
+"as every spy who enters a Moslem
+camp should be."</p>
+
+<p>"Amzi is no spy!" declared Yusuf emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>"His sole object, then, was to free that
+half-witted poet?" asked Asru, incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"It was none other. He loves him as his
+own son, as do I. Amzi would suffer death
+willingly, Yusuf would suffer death willingly,
+would it spare that poor, confiding
+innocent!"</p>
+
+<p>The priest's eyes were flashing, and his
+tones bore witness to his earnestness. He
+did not notice, nor did Asru, a pair of
+bright eyes that peered at him from the
+chink of the doorway; he did not know that
+a face full of petty, vindictive spite was
+partially hidden by the darkness without, or
+that two keen ears were listening to every
+word he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yusuf," returned the captain in a low
+tone, "you are the only man who has ever
+seemed to me good. Your words, at least,
+are ever truth. You wonder, then, that I
+follow the prophet? Simply because the excitement
+of war suits me, and"&mdash;he shrugged
+his shoulders with a laugh&mdash;"it is the best
+policy to be on the winning side. Most of
+these crazed idiots believe in him, and fear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+that he will work enchantments upon them
+if they do not; but the doctrine of the sword
+and of plunder goes farther with a few, of
+whom Asru is one. Because I believe in
+you, Yusuf, I shall try to carry out your
+request. But it would cost me my life were
+it found out, so it must be seemingly by
+chance. Rest assured that, bad as I am,
+cruel as I am, I shall see that Yusuf's
+friends have some 'accidental' way of escape."</p>
+
+<p>So spoke Asru, nor knew that a pair of
+feet were hurrying and shuffling towards
+the prophet, while a soldier kept guard at
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>"May heaven bless you for this!" cried
+the priest. "So long as Amzi and Yusuf
+breathe you shall not lack an earthly
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Tush!" exclaimed the captain. "'Tis but
+the wish to make old scores even. You
+serve me; I serve you. We are even."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall leave you," said Yusuf, rising
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>Asru opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold!" cried a guard. "By order of the
+prophet, Asru is my prisoner!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wherefore?" cried Asru, attempting to
+seize his dagger.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, though it is politic to be on the
+winning side, it is not always safe to be a
+traitor and to countermand Mohammed's
+orders," replied the prophet's musical voice,
+as the soldiers gave way to permit his advance.</p>
+
+<p>Asru freed himself and dashed forward,
+wielding his dagger right and left, but it
+was a rash effort. He was instantly overpowered
+and bound hand and foot. The
+priest shared the same fate.</p>
+
+<p>The prophet looked down upon the captain.
+"Asru," he said, "you whom I deemed a
+most faithful one, you who have proved
+false, know that death is the meed of a
+traitor. Yet that you may know Mohammed
+can show mercy, I give you your life.
+For the sake of your past services I grant
+it you, and trust that, having learned obedience
+and humility, you may once again
+grace our battle-fields nobly. Guards, chain
+him, yet see that he is kept in easy confinement
+and lacks nothing. Send me Uzza."</p>
+
+<p>The Oman Arab came forward. He was
+a dark-browed man, under-sized, and with
+one shoulder higher than the other. His
+eyes were long and narrow, with a look of
+extreme cunning about them, and his mouth
+was cruel, his lips being pressed together so
+tightly that they looked like a long white
+line.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon you, Uzza, O faithful, as next in
+command, I confer the honor of the position
+left vacant by Asru. Do thou carry out its
+obligations with honor to thyself and to the
+prophet of Allah."</p>
+
+<p>Uzza prostrated himself to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed turned to Yusuf. "Whom
+have we here? What said you in your accusation,
+Abraham? An accomplice of Asru,
+was it?"</p>
+
+<p>The little peddler, the silent watcher at
+the door, came forward, hopping along as
+usual, but with malignant triumph in his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"This, O prophet," he said, making obeisance,
+"is not only an accomplice of Asru,
+but a sworn enemy of the prophet of Allah
+and of all who believe in him."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, methinks I have seen him before,"
+said Mohammed, passing his hand over his
+brow. "Is not this the gentle friend of
+Amzi?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is the friend of Amzi," returned the
+Jew, "but even Amzi lies in chains as a spy
+among the Moslems."</p>
+
+<p>"I had forgotten," said the prophet. "Yet
+what harm hath this gentle Meccan done?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is Yusuf, the Magian priest," said
+the Jew. "And believe, O prophet of Allah,
+the Magians are your most bitter enemies."</p>
+
+<p>Uzza started and leaned forward with intense
+interest. Yusuf felt his burning gaze
+fixed on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"What proof have you that this is a
+Magian priest?" asked the prophet, wearily.</p>
+
+<p>"See!" exclaimed the Jew.</p>
+
+<p>He tore back the priest's garment, and
+there was the red mark of the torch outlined
+distinctly against the white skin.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" cried Uzza, starting forward, the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>veins of his forehead swelling with excitement.
+"The very mark! The secret mark
+of the priests among those who worship fire
+and the sun! This, O Mohammed, is not
+only a priest, but a
+priest who has fed the
+temple fires, and as
+such has been pledged
+to uphold the Guebre
+religion at whatever
+cost."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not speak,
+Yusuf?" asked Mohammed.
+"Have you
+no word to say to all
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is all true, O
+Mohammed," replied
+Yusuf, quietly. "It is
+true that in my youthful
+days I was a
+priest at Guebre
+altars. Now, I am
+not Yusuf the Magian
+priest, but Yusuf the
+Christian, and a humble
+follower of our
+Most High God and
+his Son Jesus."</p>
+
+<p>"Dare you thus
+proclaim yourself a
+Christian to my very
+face?" exclaimed Mohammed.
+"Magian
+or Christian, ye are
+all alike enemies. Off
+with him! Do with
+him as you will, Uzza,&mdash;yet,"
+relenting, "I
+commend him to your
+mercy." He turned
+abruptly and left the
+apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf was immediately taken and thrown
+into a close, dark room. He was still bound
+hand and foot.</p>
+
+<p>The little Jew entered, and sat down with
+his head on one side.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 306px;">
+<a href="images/p057.jpg">
+<img src="images/p057thum.jpg" width="306" height="400" alt="&quot;He knows that Yusuf&#39;s hands reek with blood,&quot; said Uzza." />
+</a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;He knows that Yusuf&#39;s hands reek with blood,&quot; said Uzza.&mdash;See <a href="#Page_58">page 58</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Now, proud Yusuf," he said, "has come
+Abraham's day. Once it was Yusuf's day;
+then the poor peddler, the little dervish, was
+scourged and chained, and well-nigh smothered
+in that vile Meccan chamber. Now it
+has come Abraham's day, and Yusuf and
+Abraham will be even. How does this suit
+your angelic constitution? Angelic as you
+are, you cannot slip through chains and
+bolted doors so easily as the little Jew. Oh,
+Yusuf, are you not happy? Uzza hates you;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+I saw it in his face. Did you ever know him
+before?" The Jew's propensity for news
+was to the fore as usual.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf answered nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," said the Jew, giving him a
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original has period instead of comma">shake,</ins> "what does Uzza know of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He knows," said a thin, grating voice
+from behind, "that Yusuf's hands reek with
+the blood of Uzza's only child, the fair little
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Imra'">Imri</ins>, murdered in the cause of religion; and
+ere I could reach him&mdash;yes, priest, with
+vengeance in my heart, for had I found you
+then your blood would have blotted out the
+stain of my child's on your altar!&mdash;the false
+priest had fled, forsaken the reeking altar,
+left it black in ashes, black as his own false
+heart. And then, that vengeance might be
+satisfied, was Uzza's blade turned against
+the aged grandmother who had delivered
+the little one up to Persian gods. O priest,
+your work is past, but not forgotten!"</p>
+
+<p>"Uzza," cried the priest, "I neither ask
+nor hope for mercy. Yet would God I could
+restore you your child! Its smile and its
+death gurgle have haunted my dreams
+through these long years! 'Twas in my
+heathendom I did it!"</p>
+
+<p>"That excuse will not give her back to
+me," said Uzza, stepping out of the room
+with the Jew, as the warden came with the
+keys.</p>
+
+<p>It was not Uzza's purpose to bring about
+Yusuf's speedy death. As the cat torments
+the mouse which has fallen into its power,
+so he resolved to keep the priest on the rack
+for a considerable length of time.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing of the conversation between him
+and Asru, he knew that exquisite torture
+could be inflicted on the priest through
+Dumah, and determined to strike at him
+first through the poor singer. Dumah's execution
+was, accordingly, ordered.</p>
+
+<p>Early one morning, Amzi, looking out of a
+little chink in his window through which the
+bare court-yard below was visible, was horrified
+to see a scene revolting in its every
+detail, and over which we shall hasten as
+speedily as may be.</p>
+
+<p>There in the gray morning light stood Yusuf,
+bound and forced to look on at the
+death of the bright-haired singer, whose
+sunny smile had been as a ray of sunshine
+to the two men.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi looked on as if turned to stone&mdash;heard
+Dumah's last cheerful words, "Do not
+weep, Yusuf; it will be all flowers, all angels,
+soon. Dumah is going home happy,"&mdash;then,
+he fell on his face, and so lay for hours unconscious
+of all. Reason came slowly back,
+and he realized that another of the tragedies
+only too common in those perilous days
+had taken place.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going home happy," rang in his
+ears. The cold moonlight crept in, shining
+in a dead silver bar on the ceiling. Amzi
+lay looking at it, until it seemed a path of
+glory leading, for Dumah's feet, through the
+window and up to heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going home happy." Was that home
+Amzi's home too? Ah, he had never thought
+of it as his home, though he remembered the
+words&mdash;"In my Father's house are many
+mansions." He imagined he saw Dumah in
+one of those bright mansions, happy in
+eternal love and sunshine, while he, Amzi,
+was without.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in his life Amzi was concerned
+deeply about his soul; and now there
+was no Yusuf to answer his questions. Ere
+another day had passed he, too, might be
+called upon to undergo Dumah's fate. He
+could not say "I am going home happy."
+How, then, might this blessed assurance be
+his? He strove to remember Yusuf's words,
+but they seemed to flit away from his memory.
+His whole life appeared so listless, so
+selfish, so taken up with gratification of
+self! At last he seemed a sinner. How
+could he obtain forgiveness?</p>
+
+<p>He turned over in agony, and the little
+stone tablet fell against his bosom. With difficulty,
+on account of the manacles on his
+hands, he drew it forth and traced the words
+with his finger.</p>
+
+<p>"For God so loved the world, that he gave
+his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
+in him should not perish, but have
+everlasting life."</p>
+
+<p>As when a black cloud passes away from
+the moon and a flood of brightness fills the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+whole air below, so the light burst upon
+Amzi. He saw it all now! His talk with
+Yusuf on the love of God came back to him,
+and he shouted aloud with joy:</p>
+
+<p>"Praise the Lord, he hath set me free!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then for the sake of mercy, help me to
+get out of this too," said a voice from the
+other side of the partition. It was Asru.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, my friend," returned Amzi, "chains
+are still on my body. It is my soul that
+soareth upward as an eagle."</p>
+
+<p>"Wherefore?"</p>
+
+<p>Amzi read the verse of Scripture aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard somewhat of that before,"
+said Asru. "Read it again."</p>
+
+<p>Amzi did so, and explained it as well as he
+could. Asru listened eagerly. This new
+creed interested him by its novelty, especially
+since he was in forced inaction and
+had nothing else to think of. But it also appealed
+to a heart which had some noble
+traits among many evil ones; and as Amzi
+talked, sorrow for his sins came upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"But the promise cannot be given to such
+as I," he said, wistfully. "A long life of
+wickedness surely cannot win forgiveness."</p>
+
+<p>"O friend," returned Amzi, eagerly, "'believe
+on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
+shalt be saved.' How often did they tell me
+those words and I would not believe, could
+not understand!"</p>
+
+<p>And then Amzi told the story of the thief
+on the cross, as he had read it and talked it
+over with Yusuf. His voice thrilled with
+eagerness, and, on the other side of the wall,
+Asru wept tears of repentance. To him too,
+the door was opening, and a great longing
+for the love of Christ and for a better life
+filled his bosom. So they talked until the
+noise of the awakening Moslems in the passage
+without rendered it impossible for them
+to hear each other. But joy had come to
+both Amzi and Asru within the prison-walls.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A SCENE IN PALESTINE.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"I had rather choose to be a pilgrim on earth with
+Thee than without Thee to possess heaven. Where
+Thou art, there is heaven: and where thou art not,
+there is death and hell."&mdash;<i>Thomas &aacute; Kempis.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap059"><span class="dropcap">I</span></span>t was a scene perfect in its
+calm beauty. A small, low,
+white house, flat-roofed,
+and dazzlingly clean, nestled
+at the foot of one of
+the fairest hills in Palestine;
+and before the door
+swept the river Jordan,
+plashing with that low, soft
+ripple which is music everywhere,
+but nowhere more so than in the
+hot countries of the East.</p>
+
+<p>A grove of banana and orange-trees sheltered
+the house, and the delicate fragrance
+of the ripening fruit mingled with the perfume
+of late roses. On the green hills near,
+sheep rambled at will, and an occasional low
+bleat arose above the busy hum of bees, giving
+an air of life to the quiet scene.</p>
+
+<p>In the shade of the trees sat Nathan, his
+wife and Mary. They had been talking of
+Manasseh,&mdash;poor Manasseh, left behind in
+barren Arabia! Nathan too had wanted to
+stay with his distressed countrymen, but
+failing health had forced him to seek the
+more genial atmosphere of the North; and,
+after a long, tedious journey, he at last
+found himself safe once more in his beloved
+Palestine, poor in worldly goods, yet serene
+and hopeful as ever.</p>
+
+<p>And fortune was at last smiling on the
+Jewish family. Nathan's health had come
+back to him in the clearer, more bracing air
+of the Northern land, his flocks were increasing,
+and the only gloom upon their perfect
+happiness was the absence of Manasseh,
+from whom they were not likely to hear
+soon. And yet they gloried in knowing that
+Manasseh had chosen to meet tribulation for
+the sake of his faith, and that, wherever he
+was, he was helping others and fighting on
+the side of right.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," said Mary, "how grand it is to
+be able to do something great and noble in
+the cause! Were I a man, I would go with
+Manasseh to fight for the Cross."</p>
+
+<p>Nathan stroked her hair softly. "The life
+of everyone who is consecrated to God is
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>directed by him," he said. "To Manasseh is
+given the privilege of defending the faith
+and helping the weak by his strong, young
+arm; to Mary is given the humble, loving life
+in which she may serve God just as truly
+and do just as great a work in faithfully
+performing her own little part. Think you
+not so, mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes," returned the mother, with her
+gentle smile. "Life is like the cloth woven
+little by little, until the whole pattern shows
+in the finished work; and it matters not
+whether the pattern be large or small. So
+the little things of life, done well for Christ's
+sake, will at last make a noble whole of
+which none need be ashamed."</p>
+
+<p>"But mother, watching the sheep, grinding
+the meal, washing the garments, seem such
+very little things."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet all these are very necessary things,"
+returned the mother quietly, "and if done
+cheerfully and willingly, call for an unselfish
+heart. A gentle, loving life lived amid little
+cares and trials is no small thing, my child."</p>
+
+<p>Mary kissed her mother. "Mother, you always
+say what comforts one; you always
+make me wish to live more patiently and
+lovingly."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet, Mary," said her father,
+"mother's life has been one round of small
+duties."</p>
+
+<p>Mary sat thinking for a moment. "Yes,
+father," she answered slowly, "I see now
+that mother's life has been the very best sermon
+on duty. I shall try to be patient and
+happy in simply doing well whatever my
+hands find to do. But I wish Manasseh were
+home;" and she looked wistfully to the west,
+where bands of color were spreading up the
+sky, saffron at the horizon, blending into
+gold and tender green above, while all
+melted into a sapphire dome streaked and
+flecked with rosy pink rays and bars.</p>
+
+<p>"How he would enjoy this glorious sunset!
+Oh, father, how dreadful if he were to
+be killed!&mdash;if he were nevermore to sit with
+us looking at the sunsets!" Her voice trembled
+a little as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"We are committing him to the care of
+Almighty God," returned Nathan, solemnly.
+"God is love, and whatever he does will be
+best."</p>
+
+<p>"You find great comfort, father, in believing
+that 'all things work together for good
+to them that love God,'" said Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"For the children of God, everything that
+happens must be best."</p>
+
+<p>"Even persecution and death?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even persecution and death, if God so
+will."</p>
+
+<p>Mary looked at his placid face for a long
+time, then she said: "How very peaceful
+you and mother are!"</p>
+
+<p>"How could we be otherwise," the father
+replied, smiling, "with Jesus with us each
+hour, each moment? And we know that he
+'will never leave nor forsake us.' I think,
+too, that he is very close to my daughter.
+Mary, is there anything in this world that
+could take the place of Jesus to you? Would
+wealth or honor or any earthly joy make you
+perfectly happy if you could never pray to
+Jesus more, never feel him near you as an
+ever-present Friend, nevermore have the
+hope of seeing his face?"</p>
+
+<p>Mary clasped her hands, and her face
+glowed. "Never, oh, never!" she cried. "I
+would rather be like poor blind Bartimeus
+begging by the wayside, yet able to call,
+'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!'"</p>
+
+<p>The sun had now set, and the sky had
+faded with that suddenness common in Eastern
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>Nathan arose. "Let us now offer up
+prayer for the safety of Manasseh, and for
+the steadfastness of the brethren; for we
+know that where two or three are gathered
+together in Jesus' name, there is he in the
+midst of them. Let us pray!"</p>
+
+<p>The three knelt in the dim chamber, with
+silence about and the evening stars above,
+and prayed for the lad who, amid very different
+scenes, was in the heart of the strange
+revolution. And then they sang the words
+of that sublime psalm, than which no
+grander poem was ever written:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from
+whence cometh my help.</p>
+
+<p>My help cometh from the Lord, which made
+heaven and earth.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he
+that keepeth thee will not slumber.</p>
+
+<p>Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither
+slumber nor sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade
+upon thy right hand.</p>
+
+<p>The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the
+moon by night.</p>
+
+<p>The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil;
+he shall preserve thy soul.</p>
+
+<p>The Lord shall preserve thy going out and
+thy coming in from this time forth, and even
+for evermore.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BATTLE OF OHOD.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Dost thou not know the fate of soldiers?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They're but Ambition's tools, to cut a way<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To her unlawful ends."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Southern.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap061"><span class="dropcap">W</span></span>hile these events
+had been taking
+place in the
+North, Henda had
+given Abu Sofian
+little peace, urging
+him every day
+to pay the dues
+of blood-revenge
+for her relatives,
+and taunting him
+with cowardice in his long delay.</p>
+
+<p>At length, in the third year of the Hegira
+he gathered a considerable army, and with
+three thousand men of the Koreish tribe,
+among whom were two hundred horsemen,
+left Mecca, accompanied by Henda and fifteen
+of the matrons of Mecca bearing timbrels
+and singing war-like chants.</p>
+
+<p>The whole army advanced with the intention
+of besieging Medina, but Mohammed's
+men entreated him to let them encounter
+Abu Sofian outside of the city, and he
+yielded to their entreaties. With only one
+thousand men,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> fifty of whom were chosen
+archers, the prophet took up his stand on a
+declivity of Mount Ohod, about six miles
+north of the city. There, on its black and
+barren slope, he divided his army into four
+parts, three of which bore sacred banners,
+while the great standard was placed before
+Mohammed himself.</p>
+
+<p>In order to imbue his men with courage,
+he came out in full view of the whole army,
+and, in a loud voice that penetrated even
+the farthest ranks, gave promise of victory.
+Then, for the sake of those who should be
+killed in battle, he expatiated upon the delights
+of that Paradise which surely awaited
+all who should be slain in the cause, representing
+it such a paradise as would be peculiarly
+adapted to the tastes and stimulating
+to the imagination of the Arabs&mdash;a race
+accustomed to arid wastes, burning sands,
+and glaring skies; a paradise of green fields
+and flowery gardens cooled by innumerable
+rivers and sparkling fountains, which glittered
+from between shaded bowers inter-woven
+with perfumed flowers. He gave
+them promise of streams literally flowing
+with milk and clearest honey; of trees bending
+with fruit which should be handed down
+by houris of wondrous beauty; he told them
+of treasures of gold, silver, and jewels.
+"They shall dwell in gardens of delight, reposing
+on couches adorned with gold and
+precious stones.... Upon them shall be garments
+of fine green silk and brocades, and
+they shall be adorned with bracelets of silver,
+and they shall drink of a most pure
+liquor&mdash;a cup of wine mixed with the water
+of Zenjebil, a fountain in Paradise named
+Salsabil."</p>
+
+<p>Such was the sensual character of the
+paradise promised to his followers by Mohammed.
+The soldiers were listening eagerly
+to the words when the army of Abu Sofian
+was seen, advancing in the form of a crescent,
+with Abu Sofian and his idols in the
+center, and Henda and her women in the
+rear, sounding their timbrels, and singing
+loud war-chants.</p>
+
+<p>The horsemen of the left wing of the
+Koreish now advanced to attack the Moslems
+in the flank, but the archers fired upon
+them from the top of some steep rocks, and
+they retired in confusion.</p>
+
+<p>Hamza, a Moslem leader, then shouted the
+Moslem cry, "Death! Death!" and rushed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>down the hill upon the center. The crash
+and roar of battle began. High in air
+gleamed spear and lance; horses shrieked
+and reared, and tossed their long manes;
+dark, contorted visages and shining teeth
+shone out from clouds of dust; sashes floated
+on the air, and sabres flashed in the sunlight;
+all was mad confusion.</p>
+
+<p>In the m&ecirc;l&eacute;e two young men met hand to
+hand. Both were tall and slight, and had
+dark, waving hair. So like were they that a
+warrior near them called out, "Behold, doth
+Manasseh fight with Manasseh!" But the
+youths heard not, recked not. Their blows
+fell thick and fast, until at last the Moslem
+gave way, and fell, wounded and bleeding,
+in the dust by the side of Hamza, who lay
+stiffening in death.</p>
+
+<p>Then arose the shout, "The sword of God
+and his prophet!" and Abu Dudjana, armed
+with the prophet's own sword, waved it
+above his head and dashed into the thick of
+the battle.</p>
+
+<p>Mosaab, the standard-bearer, followed
+close and planted the standard at the top of
+a knoll. An arrow struck him in the eye.
+He fell, and the cry arose that the prophet
+himself had fallen. Ali seized the standard
+and floated it aloft on the air; but the Moslems,
+seized with confusion, would not rally,
+and withdrew to the hill-top.</p>
+
+<p>The Koreish, thinking Mohammed killed,
+forbore to follow them, and began the revolting
+work of plundering the dead. Henda
+and her companions savagely assisted in the
+gruesome task; and, coming upon Hamza,
+the fierce woman mutilated his dead body.</p>
+
+<p>By him she found the handsome youth,
+whom she believed to be Manasseh, so torn
+and covered with blood as to conceal his
+Moslem adornments. To Manasseh she had
+taken a strange fancy, and she now ordered
+the youth to be conveyed in safety to the
+camp, with the army which was forming in
+line of march.</p>
+
+<p>The band of Jews who had come with the
+forces of Abu Sofian, mainly for the purpose
+of delivering those of their afflicted brethren
+who had refused to join Mohammed, and of
+whom many were imprisoned in Medina,
+now joined with a band of the Koreish, who
+desired the freedom of some of their tribe,
+and, while the excitement of battle was still
+fresh, the party entered the city by stealth,
+then, dashing furiously down the street to
+the guard-house, overpowered the guards
+and battered open the doors, setting many of
+the prisoners free. Among these were Amzi,
+Asru, and Yusuf.</p>
+
+<p>It was Manasseh himself who broke in the
+door of the apartment in which Yusuf was
+confined.</p>
+
+<p>An exclamation of pleasure burst from
+him on recognizing the priest, and he threw
+his arms about his neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Yusuf! My dear Yusuf!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"My boy!" exclaimed the priest, in astonishment.
+"What means this?"</p>
+
+<p>"It means that you are free," said the
+youth as he knocked off the chains. "Haste!
+We must on to the camp ere the Moslems return.
+Anything more than this I will tell
+you on the way."</p>
+
+<p>Once again Yusuf stepped out into the
+pure air, along with many others who bore
+part of their chains in the broken links that
+still clanked upon their wrists and ankles.</p>
+
+<p>In passing through the court-yard, the
+priest noticed some one crouched in a pitiable
+heap in a corner of the yard. Manasseh
+hauled him out. It was the peddler,
+with ashen face and eyes rolling with fear.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along, my man!" laughed Manasseh.
+"Like the worm in a pomegranate,
+you are apt to do harm if left to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Abraham writhed and begged for mercy.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along!" said Manasseh, impatiently.
+"I shall not hurt you; I shall
+merely look after you for awhile."</p>
+
+<p>Thus consoled, the peddler hopped on
+with alacrity. A hasty mount was made
+and the party set out for the camp of Abu
+Sofian.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf then had a chance to ask the question
+burning at his heart. "How comes it,
+Manasseh, that you again fight against the
+prophet? When last I saw you, you wore
+the green of the Moslem."</p>
+
+<p>"I!" said the youth in astonishment. "You
+jest, Yusuf!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>"It was surely you who met me on the
+field of Bedr."</p>
+
+<p>"Yusuf, are you mad? It was never I."</p>
+
+<p>"Then who can it have been? It was
+your very face."</p>
+
+<p>"For once, Yusuf, your eyes have played
+you false. How could you have believed
+such a thing of Manasseh?"</p>
+
+<p>"A strange resemblance!" mused Yusuf;
+then&mdash;"Whom see I before me yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh's eyes do not play him false,
+and he declares it to be Amzi," said the
+youth.</p>
+
+<p>They hastened up the narrow street, now
+crowded with soldiers, prisoners, camels,
+and horses; and, escaping the missiles
+thrown by infuriated Moslem women from
+the housetops, soon overtook Amzi and
+Asru. All proceeded at once to the camp of
+Abu Sofian.</p>
+
+<p>Some large tents were set apart for the
+wounded Koreish, and here Yusuf and Amzi
+found speedy occupation in binding wounds,
+and giving drinks of water to the parched
+soldiers. Manasseh entered with them.</p>
+
+<p>"What means this?" cried Henda. "Did
+I not have you conveyed, soaked with blood,
+among the wounded of the Koreish?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not been wounded to-day," returned
+Manasseh. "Read me this riddle,
+Henda. There must be a second self&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Manasseh!" <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'interupted'">interrupted</ins> Yusuf from
+one side. "Had you a twin brother, this
+must be he."</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf was bending over a youth whose
+dark eyes spoke of suffering, and who lay
+listlessly permitting the priest to bathe his
+blood-covered brow. His eyes were fixed on
+Manasseh, who was quickly coming forward,
+and those near wondered at the striking resemblance,
+more marked than is often found
+between brothers.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, friend?" asked Manasseh,
+curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Kedar the Bedouin!" returned the youth,
+proudly. "Though how I came into a Koreish
+camp, is more than I can explain."</p>
+
+<p>"For that you may thank your resemblance
+to me," laughed Manasseh. "You
+are weak, Kedar, my proud Bedouin, and we
+will ask you to talk but little; yet, I pray
+you, tell me, who was your father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Musa, the Bedouin Sheikh,"&mdash;haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>"And your mother was Lois, daughter of
+Eleazar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even so," returned the other, wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>"My cousin!" exclaimed Manasseh, delightedly
+seizing his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"And son of my Bedouin friend, Musa!"
+exclaimed Yusuf.</p>
+
+<p>So the Bedouin youth, the rash, hot-headed
+Moslem recruit, found himself among friends
+in a Koreish camp.</p>
+
+<p>Night had now fallen, and under cover of
+darkness, Mohammed's army silently returned
+to Medina.</p>
+
+<p>There were those who censured the
+prophet for his conduct at this battle; and
+some even dared to charge him with deception
+in promising them victory. But Mohammed
+told them that defeat was due to
+their sins: "Verily, they among you who
+turned their backs on the day whereon the
+two armies met at Ohod, Satan caused them
+to slip for some crime which they had committed."</p>
+
+<p>To quiet those who lamented for their
+slain friends, he brought forth the doctrine
+that the time of every man's death is fixed
+by divine decree, and that he must meet it
+at that time, wherever he be.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning the majority of Abu Sofian's
+forces set out for Mecca. Among them
+were Yusuf and Amzi, also Asru the captain;
+and it was with no small sense of comfort
+that the half-starved prisoners sat again
+about Amzi's well-stocked board.</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh was with them. Kedar, scorning
+to desert the Moslem army, had refused
+to leave Medina, and, by the earnest intercession
+of Yusuf and Amzi, whose word was
+of some import in Meccan ears, he had been
+given his freedom.</p>
+
+<p>It was with deep relief that all felt the
+short respite from the blare of battle; and,
+though they looked forward to the future
+with anxious forebodings, and though their
+joy was clouded by the death of Dumah, they
+were thankful for present blessings. Not
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>alone prayer, but praise, was an essential
+part of their religion, and their voices ascended
+in song,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise
+shall continually be in thy mouth.</p>
+
+<p>My soul shall make her boast in the Lord;
+the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.</p>
+
+<p>O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt
+his name together.</p>
+
+<p>I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered
+me from all my fears.</p>
+
+<p>They looked unto him, and were lightened;
+and their faces were not ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,
+and saved him out of all his troubles.</p>
+
+<p>The angel of the Lord encampeth round
+about them that fear him, and delivereth them.</p>
+
+<p>O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed
+is the man that trusteth in him.</p>
+
+<p>O fear the Lord, ye his saints; for there is no
+want to them that fear him.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BATTLE OF THE DITCH.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Blood! blood! The leaves above me and around me<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Are red with blood."<br /></span>
+<br /></div></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap064"><span class="dropcap">I</span></span>n the year which followed,
+Mohammed's
+forces were more than
+once directed against
+Syrian caravans, and
+the plunder divided
+among the Moslem
+troops after one-fifth
+had been appropriated
+by the prophet; but otherwise the truce was
+unbroken, until at the end of the year, the
+Koreish, uniting with neighboring tribes,
+many of whom were Jews, formed the plan
+of a grand attack which was to free El Hejaz
+forever from the power of the Islam despot.</p>
+
+<p>From the Caaba the call was given to all
+who could be appealed to through religion,
+through the interests of commerce, or
+through desire for blood-revenge in consequence
+of the battles of Bedr and Ohod. To
+the more earnest Jews the undertaking took
+the form of a vast religious war, undertaken
+against the hosts of Satan for the deliverance
+of a land in bondage; to the Meccan
+merchants it assumed the guise of a commercial
+transaction which would again restore
+the trade so long ruined by Mohammed's
+hostile measures; to the Koreish and
+the desert tribes it seemed the grand opportunity
+of clearing the honor stained by the
+unrevenged death of their friends.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly a host of volunteers to the
+number of one hundred thousand offered
+themselves, and the vast array set out.
+Among the volunteers were Yusuf, Amzi,
+Asru, and the valiant Manasseh, all of whom
+deemed the necessity of the hour a sufficient
+reason for entering upon a course foreign to
+the laws of peace which they would fain
+have seen established.</p>
+
+<p>A mighty host it seemed in a land whose
+battles had chiefly been confined to skirmishes
+between different tribes. As it
+wound its way down the narrow valley, the
+women of Mecca stood upon the housetops,
+listening to the trampling, and beseeching
+their household gods to bless the enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Long ere they reached Medina the prophet
+had received word of their advance, and had
+had a ditch or entrenchment dug about the
+city as a sort of fortification.</p>
+
+<p>Abu Sofian ordered his tents to be pitched
+below on the plain, and, this done, he at
+once laid siege to the city.</p>
+
+<p>But his bad generalship ruined the undertaking.
+For a month he kept his men
+wholly inactive, and during that time Mohammed
+busied himself in sending emissaries
+in the midst of Abu Sofian's men for
+the purpose of sowing disaffection among
+them; and so completely was this done that
+the besieging force became hollow and rotten
+to its core. Tribe after tribe left. The
+few faithful besought their leader to permit
+them to attack the city, and when at last the
+order was given, but a feeble remnant of
+the original host remained. Notwithstanding
+this, the command "Forward!" was
+hailed with tumultuous joy, and the besiegers
+pressed forward in irregular yet serried
+masses.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the attack begun when a terrific
+storm arose. It was in the winter season,
+and a sudden hurricane of cold winds
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>came shrieking through the gaps of the
+mountains to the north.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi, having, as an influential Meccan,
+been appointed to the command of a division,
+charged boldly forward in the teeth of
+the tempest, waving his sword above his
+head and cheering his men on with his hopeful
+voice. Yusuf, Asru and Manasseh pressed
+forward close behind him. A cloud of
+arrows met them, yet they poured impetuously
+on. And now the bank was climbed
+and the conflict became almost hand-to-hand.
+The priest's tall form rendered him
+conspicuous in the fray. Some one came
+hacking and hewing his way towards him.
+It was the agile Uzza. The priest was beset
+on all sides and was defending himself
+against fearful odds, when the face of Uzza,
+fiend-like in its hate, burst upon him as a
+new opponent. He raised his weapon for a
+blow, but the vision of a Guebre altar upon
+which a little, bleeding child lay, rose before
+him, and his arm fell.</p>
+
+<p>Uzza perceived his advantage. With a
+howl of triumph he cried, "False priest, you
+shall not escape me this time!" and made a
+fierce stroke with his scimitar. But the
+blow was parried.</p>
+
+<p>"Simpleton! Would you let him kill you?"
+cried a harsh voice close by the priest. And
+the next moment Uzza fell with a death-groan
+at the feet of Asru.</p>
+
+<p>And now the storm struck with full fury,
+howling among the houses of Medina, whistling
+shrilly on the upper air, and bending
+the palm trees low along its furious path.
+Thatches were torn from the roofs and carried
+whirling through the air; clouds of dust
+were blown high along the streets, and
+black, ragged clouds scurried across the sky
+as if urged on by demon-force. Horses
+neighed loudly. Many of them became unmanageable,
+and dashed, with terrified eyes
+and distended nostrils, through the midst of
+the flying soldiery. The tents of Abu Sofian
+were torn from their pegs and hurled away.
+Then the rain descended in sheets, or,
+whirled round by the wind, swirled along in
+columns with almost the force of a water-spout.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a cry was raised: "It is Mohammed!
+The prophet has raised the storm
+by enchantment!"</p>
+
+<p>The cry echoed from mouth to mouth
+above the roar of the tempest. The superstitious
+Arabs were seized with terror and
+fled precipitately, believing themselves surrounded
+by legions of invisible spirits.
+Amzi and his little band stayed until the
+last; then, deserted by all and blinded by the
+descending torrents, they, too, were obliged
+to withdraw, and another victory, that of
+the Battle of the Ditch, had fallen to the
+prophet.</p>
+
+<p>This was the last expedition undertaken
+by the Koreish against their victorious
+enemy. Mohammed, of course, attributed
+his great conquest to divine agency. In a
+passage from the Koran he declared:</p>
+
+<p>"O true believers, remember the favor of
+God toward you, when armies of infidels
+came against you, and we sent against them
+a wind and hosts of angels which ye saw
+not."</p>
+
+<p>The heart sickens in following further
+Mohammed's willful career of blood. During
+the following five years he is said to have
+commanded twenty-seven expeditions and
+fought nine pitched battles. Against the
+Christian Jews in particular the bitterest
+expressions of his hate were directed; and to
+his dying day this incomprehensible man,
+from whose lips proceeded words of mercy
+and of deadliest rancor, words of love and
+of hate, words of purity and of gross sensuality&mdash;this
+strange man persecuted them to
+the last, nor ever ceased to direct his arms
+against all who followed that gentle Jesus
+of Nazareth of whose power this blood-marked,
+self-proclaimed prophet of Allah
+was envious.</p>
+
+<p>His followers, dazzled by the glare of his
+brilliant victories or solicitous for self-preservation,
+constantly swelled in numbers, but
+there were a few who, like Kedar, had
+heard of the peaceableness of the religion of
+Jesus Christ, and who began to sicken of the
+flow of blood which deluged the sands of El
+Hejaz, and ran even into the Nejd, the borders
+of Syria, and of Arabia-Felix.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>Kedar often longed for the friendly touch,
+the hearty, kindly words, of the friends
+whom he had met and parted from as in a
+dream. He had soon refused to believe in
+Mohammed's divine appointment. Even
+this Bedouin youth had enough penetration
+to see that religion must stand upon its
+results, and that the private life of Mohammed
+would not stand the test of inspection.
+Fain would he have left his ranks many and
+many a time. The brand of coward he
+knew could not be attached to him for leaving
+victorious ranks to ally himself with the
+few and feeble Jews, yet there was something
+in the idea of "turning his coat"
+which he did not like. He imagined in a
+vague way that such a proceeding would
+compromise his principles of honor, and he
+had not reached the wisdom of that great
+educator, Comenius, who, not long ere his
+death, wrote a treatise upon "the art of
+wisely withdrawing one's own assertions."
+So he fought doggedly on, until circumstances
+again threw him into the bosom of
+his friends.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FAMILY OF ASRU.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"God's in his heaven, all's right with the world."</p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap066"><span class="dropcap">O</span></span>n the evening upon
+which the Battle of
+the Ditch was
+fought, the wife of
+Asru, and his
+daughter, Sherah,
+now almost grown
+to womanhood,
+were returning from performing
+Tawaf at the temple.
+They had prayed for the success of the
+Koreish expedition; they had drank of the
+well of Ismael, Zem-Zem, and had poured its
+water on their heads. Now they were hastening
+home to offer prayers to their household
+gods in the same cause, for, during Asru's
+apostasy to the Moslem ranks, his wife, a
+woman of the Koreish, and her family had
+never swerved from their hostility to Mohammed
+and all connected with him. For
+their obstinacy in this, they had been cruelly
+abused by Asru, who, with the superiority
+which most men in the East assume over
+women, ruled as a tyrant in his house.</p>
+
+<p>It was with unspeakable satisfaction that
+Sherah and her mother found that Asru had
+at last broken all connection with the
+prophet, but a change had come into his
+manner which was to them most unaccountable.
+Instead of cruelty now was kindness;
+instead of stormy petulance, now was patience;
+and yet, Asru had not mentioned the
+cause of his new life. A sort of backwardness
+on the subject, a desire to know more of
+it before communicating with others, strove
+with him against the dictates of his conscience,
+and he had as yet been dumb. He
+had not concealed his connection with the little
+band of Jewish Christians. In spite of
+the jeers of his friends among the Koreish,
+he had attended their meetings regularly.
+That had been the extent of his active Christian
+work; yet his life had been preaching
+while his lips were still.</p>
+
+<p>Sherah and her mother talked of him as
+they walked.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, however it be, father was never
+kind until he went to the Jewish meetings."</p>
+
+<p>"True. Yet many of these same Jews are
+wicked, thieves, low robbers, not fit for such
+as Asru to mingle with," said the mother
+haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet not the Jews who attend the church,"
+returned the girl, quickly. "I know them.
+Most of them are poor, but not thieves; they
+seem quiet, industrious people. Then, Amzi
+attends there now, you know, and Yusuf,
+who, when the plague was raging, spent
+weeks in attending the sick. Did he not
+come to father and sit with him night after
+night, when, mother&mdash;I shame to say it&mdash;both
+you and I fled!"</p>
+
+<p>The mother walked in silence for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be some strange power that
+urges a man to do such acts," she said,
+musingly. "It would be easier far to go out
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>to battle, urged on by the enthusiasm of conquest,
+and cheered by the music and clash
+of timbrels to deeds of bravery. It takes a
+different spirit to enter the houses of filthy
+disease, to court death in reeking lazar-houses,
+to sit for weeks watching hideous
+faces and listening to the ravings of madmen
+through the long, hot nights of the plague-season."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, I am convinced that their religion
+prompts them to do it. What else can
+it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is their religion?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know not; yet we may know for the
+going, perhaps. See, the lights gleam in
+their little hall. They hold meeting to-night.
+Let us go."</p>
+
+<p>"What! And let the proud tribe of the
+Koreish, the guardians of the Caaba, see a
+woman of the Koreish enter there?"</p>
+
+<p>"We can go in long cloaks, mother, and it
+is well-nigh dark. Come, will you not?"</p>
+
+<p>The pleading voice was so earnest that the
+mother consented. Yet, that the influence of
+the gods in the result of the battle might not
+be lost, they first entered their own house,
+prostrated themselves before the gods, and
+besought their aid in the Koreish cause.
+Then, donning long outer cloaks, and veiling
+their faces closely, the two slipped out of a
+back way and stealthily hastened towards
+the Jewish church.</p>
+
+<p>It was late when they arrived. Neither
+Yusuf nor Amzi was present to raise the
+hearts of their hearers with words of simple
+and earnest piety, no voice of Manasseh was
+there to lead in the songs of praise, but an
+old man with snowy hair and a saint-like
+face was standing behind a table, a volume
+of the Scriptures before him, and the
+voices of the congregation, some twenty in
+number, arose in the old, yet ever new
+words:</p>
+
+<p>"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not
+want. He maketh me to lie down in green
+pastures; he leadeth me beside the still
+waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth
+me in the paths of righteousness for his
+name's sake. Yea, though I walk through
+the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
+no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and
+thy staff they comfort me."</p>
+
+<p>The Koreish woman listened. She could
+not understand all this. Yet it was beautiful,&mdash;"green
+pastures," "still waters." Could
+it be that these people knew of an Elysian
+spot, unknown to Meccans&mdash;that their God
+led them to such favored retreats? She
+could restrain her impatience no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the green pastures and still
+waters?" she cried, impetuously, "that I too
+may go to them!"</p>
+
+<p>The old man smiled with serene kindness.
+"Daughter," he said, "the green pastures
+and still waters are the pleasant places of
+the soul. Hast thou never known what it
+was to have doubts and fears, restlessness
+and dissatisfaction in the present, uncertainty
+for the future, a feeling that there is
+little in life, and a great gulf in death?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have felt so almost every day," she replied,
+passionately.</p>
+
+<p>"Hast thou not found comfort in thy
+gods?" he asked, gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, I fear to say that I have not!" she
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"And why fearest thou thus?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, knowest thou not that the gods are
+gods of vengeance?" she replied in an awed
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"I know naught of your gods," he returned.
+"Our God is a God of love. He
+gives us the certainty of his presence ever
+with us in this life, his companionship in
+death, and the privilege of looking upon his
+face and being 'forever with the Lord' in
+the world to come."</p>
+
+<p>"And are you not afraid of death?" she
+asked. "To me it seems a dreadful thing.
+It makes me shudder to think that I too
+must one day suffer the struggle for breath,
+and then lie still and cold."</p>
+
+<p>"To those who love the Lord 'to die is
+gain,'" he said. "Have we not sung 'Yea,
+though I walk through the valley of the
+shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for
+Thou art with me'? Surely one who believes
+that, and knows that he is going to be
+always with the Lord, always able to look
+on his face, need not fear death."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>"It is a beautiful thought," the woman
+said, bowing her head on her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet not more beautiful than the thought
+that the Holy Spirit is ever with us; that
+Jesus himself is our brother, and understands
+all our little troubles; that he has
+promised to help us in overcoming all evil.
+'For every one that asketh receiveth, and he
+that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh
+it shall be opened.' 'If a son shall ask
+bread of any of you that is a father, will he
+give him a stone? If he ask a fish, will he
+for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall
+ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If
+ye, then, being evil, know how to give good
+gifts to your children, how much more shall
+your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
+them that ask him.' Daughter, these are the
+very words of Jesus. Do they not show you
+the way to the still waters and green pastures?
+Do you not see that the love of our
+God acts upon the heart as gentle showers
+upon the barren land, causing it to rejoice
+and bring forth fruit worthy of being presented
+to our Lord and Master? 'He hath
+loved us with an everlasting love.' He loves
+us ever, therefore in our returning this love
+to him doth the 'peace of God that passeth
+all understanding' lay hold upon our
+hearts."</p>
+
+<p>"But ye are Jews!" she said. "Such
+promises are not for the Koreish."</p>
+
+<p>"Such promises are for all," was the confident
+reply. "Jesus said whosoever believeth
+in him should not perish, but have everlasting
+life. None so sinful that Jesus cannot
+wash out the stain; none are excluded
+from his mercy. Daughter, believe, receive.
+Let the love of God enter thine heart,
+and repent best by doing thine evil deeds no
+more. Only come to Jesus himself. Only
+have faith in him."</p>
+
+<p>The Koreish woman hid her face in her
+hands again, and answered nothing. The
+old man turned to the Scriptures and read
+the story of Jesus and the woman of
+Samaria, raising his voice in triumphant fervor
+as he reached the words: "Whosoever
+drinketh of the water that I shall give him
+shall never thirst; but the water that I shall
+give him shall be in him a well of water
+springing up into everlasting life."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned to the words spoken by
+Jesus to his disciples just before his betrayal,
+and read: "Peace I leave with you;
+my peace I give unto you. Let not your
+heart be troubled," and, "Abide in me, and
+I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
+itself except it abide in the vine, no more can
+ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine,
+ye are the branches; he that abideth in me,
+and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
+fruit; for without me ye can do nothing."</p>
+
+<p>The woman listened. With the quick appreciation
+of the Arab for metaphor and
+simile, she grasped the meaning of the
+words, and a new, wonderful train of
+thought came into her mind as she sat with
+bowed head while simple, pleading, heart-offered
+prayer was sent up to the Throne of
+Grace, and the parting hymn was sung.</p>
+
+<p>Then the little band gathered around her,
+speaking words of cheer, and the aged leader
+dismissed her with a gentle, "Come again,
+daughter."</p>
+
+<p>As Sherah and her mother walked home,
+the last remnant of the fearful storm that
+had visited Medina passed over Mecca. They
+saw the ragged clouds borne wildly over
+the northern hills; they saw the stunted
+aloes bending low beneath the sweep of the
+wind. Yet to them there was a grandeur in
+it, for there was still upon them the influence
+of the Divine presence, and they thought of
+Him who "walketh upon the wings of the
+wind."</p>
+
+<p>And as they went on, bowing their heads
+before its spent fury, Asru, Amzi, and Yusuf,
+far to the northward, struggled on with the
+fugitive army, wondering at the continued
+triumph of the false prophet, yet serene in
+the confidence that in the Divine Hands all
+was well, and that in the far-distant end,
+however blurred to human vision, all must
+work for good to those who love God, even
+though the reason of his working, the seeming
+mystery of the fortunes of the great conflict,
+might not be unravelled until in the
+bright hereafter, when all things will at last
+be made plain.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MANASSEH AND ASRU AT KHAIBAR.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Spirit of purity and grace,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Our weakness, pitying, see!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O make our hearts thy dwelling-place,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And worthier Thee."<br /></span>
+<br /></div></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap069"><span class="dropcap">T</span></span>he Koreish, after their
+disastrous defeat at the
+Battle of the Ditch, returned
+in bitter disappointment
+to Mecca.
+Many even of the bravest
+of the tribe felt that it was
+hopeless to strive against
+the prophet, whose phenomenal
+success seemed
+to render his troops invincible.
+Many, too, with the superstition
+at all times common to the Arabs, were in
+deadly dread of his "enchantments," and
+were only too ready to listen to his bold
+assertions that the momentous storm at the
+siege of Medina had been caused in his favor
+by heavenly agency; that a great host of
+angels had been in invisible co-operation
+with the Moslems and had drawn their
+legions about the ill-fated company, crying,
+"God is great!" and striking panic to the
+hearts of the besiegers.</p>
+
+<p>Because of these superstitions the hearts
+of the Arabs failed them, and they day after
+day lessened in their hostility, and increased
+in their spirit of submission to the now
+famous prophet of El Islam.</p>
+
+<p>The Jews, however, held out to the last,
+and against them the reeking blades of Mohammed's
+army were turned. The Jewish
+tribes of the Koraidha, Kainoka, and the
+Nadhirites, in the vicinity of Medina, were
+speedily overthrown, and their goods taken
+possession of by the Moslems. Then, before
+the blood cooled on the scimitars, these conquests
+were followed by the dastardly assassination
+of the few Jews who were still in
+Medina, and, being possessed of considerable
+property, were a tempting bait to the avaricious
+prophet, who now, making religion a
+cloak to cover his greed and ambition, went
+to the wildest excesses in attaining his objects.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the Jews, escaping dearly with
+their lives, fled to the city of Kha&iuml;bar, five
+days' journey to the northeast of Medina, a
+city inhabited by Jews, who, living in the
+midst of a luxuriant farming district, had
+grown rich in the peaceful arts of agriculture
+and commerce. Others hastened
+thither in the hope that Kha&iuml;bar might become
+the nucleus of a successful resistance
+of Mohammed's power in the near future;
+and among the latter class was Manasseh.</p>
+
+<p>Late one afternoon he arrived in the rich
+pasture-lands surrounding the city. The air
+of peace and prosperity, the lowing of herds
+and bleating of sheep, delighted him; and,
+though weary from his journey, it was with
+a light heart that he urged his flagging horse
+between the long groves of palm-trees until
+the city came in sight.</p>
+
+<p>His martial spirit glowed as he noted the
+heavy out-works, and the strength of the
+citadel Al Kamus, which, built on a high
+rock, and towering ragged and black against
+the orange sky of the setting sun, seemed to
+the young soldier almost impregnable.</p>
+
+<p>He was welcomed at the gates as another
+recruit to the gathering forces, and, on his
+request, was at once directed to the house of
+the chief, Kenana Ibn al Rabi, a man reputed
+to be exceedingly wealthy. Here he
+was courteously received by Kenana and his
+wife Safiya; and, in a long conference,
+he informed the chief of the numbers
+and zeal of Mohammed's army, urging upon
+him the immediate strengthening of the city,
+as it was highly probable that the prophet
+would not long desist from making an attempt
+upon a tid-bit so tempting as that
+which Kha&iuml;bar presented.</p>
+
+<p>That evening an informal council of war
+was held in the court-yard of the chief's
+house. Al Hareth, a brother of Asru, a man
+who, although an Arab, had been appointed
+to high office, and had proved himself one of
+the most distinguished commanders of the
+Jewish colony, was present; and, among
+others, Asru himself entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Asru!" exclaimed Manasseh, delightedly,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>hurrying him aside to an arbor, "you here!
+I thought I had become separated from you
+all in that ill-fated storm. Where are Amzi
+and Yusuf, know you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gone to Mecca with Abu Sofian's remnant
+of an army&mdash;as miserable and hang-head
+lot of fugitives as ever disgraced field!"
+said Asru contemptuously. "By my faith,
+it shamed me to see our brave friends in
+their company, even for the journey!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why did they go to Mecca?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because they were firmly convinced that
+Mecca will be the next point of attack," said
+Asru, "but methinks they shall find themselves
+mistaken. Mohammed will keep
+Mecca as a sort of sacred spot, dedicated to
+his worship&mdash;and the worship of Allah!"
+with infinite scorn. "But Kha&iuml;bar is a pomegranate
+of the highest branches, too mellow,
+too luscious, too tempting, to elude his grasp.
+Yes, Manasseh, Kha&iuml;bar will be his next
+point of attack. However, I am truly glad
+that Yusuf and Amzi have gone home. The
+Jews and Christians in Mecca will be safe
+enough for some time to come, and our
+friends are getting too old to endure much
+fatigue of battle."</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, Asru, you and I are better fitted to
+face the brunt of the charge and the weariness
+of the march. The work of Yusuf and
+Amzi should be milder, though not less
+glorious, than ours."</p>
+
+<p>"You say well," returned the other, with
+kindling eye. "Asru, for one, can never forget
+what they have done for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Asru, are all the stories of the wickedness
+of your past life&mdash;your cruelty, your
+treachery, your blasphemy&mdash;true?"</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh, let my past life go into the
+tomb of oblivion if you will. 'Tis a sorry
+page for Asru to look upon. The cruelty,
+the blasphemy,&mdash;aye, boy, I was full of it;
+but treacherous, never! Whatever Asru was,
+and no devil was blacker than he in many
+ways, he was never guilty of perfidy, except
+you call the trying to free Amzi and poor
+Dumah perfidy."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad," returned Manasseh, quietly;
+"yet it would not matter now, since our
+Asru is a changed man."</p>
+
+<p>Asru looked at the youth earnestly.
+"Manasseh," he said, "does the old nature
+never come back upon you? Or have you
+never known what it was to feel wrong impulses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wrong impulses!" exclaimed the other.
+"Yes, Asru, many and many a time. Yet,
+when one does not even look at the evil, but
+keeps his face turned steadfastly towards
+the right, the old self seems to lose its hold.
+In drawing near to God we draw away from
+evil."</p>
+
+<p>"Your words, I know, are true," returned
+the other; "yet the keeping from doing
+wrong seems to me the hardest thing in living
+a Christian life."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Asru," said Manasseh, "perhaps
+you are not loving enough. The more you
+love Jesus, and the more you feel him in
+your life, the easier it will be to turn from
+temptation&mdash;to hate the thing that inspires
+it. If you really love him you simply cannot
+do what will pain him."</p>
+
+<p>"But the temptation to act hastily, to
+speak unkindly, comes upon me so often,
+Manasseh, that I grow discouraged."</p>
+
+<p>"The only safety is in always looking
+Above for help. Believe me, Asru, I speak
+from experience. Temptation in itself is not
+sin; the yielding to it is. Little by little the
+temptations bother us less, and we grow in
+grace. You know this is expected of us.
+Paul speaks of 'perfecting holiness in the
+fear of the Lord.' He says, too, 'The
+weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
+mighty through God to the pulling down of
+strongholds.' He said, also, to the Philippians,
+'It is God that worketh in you, both
+to will and to do of his good pleasure,' and
+the Lord himself has said, 'My grace is sufficient
+for you, for my strength is made perfect
+in weakness.' So, Asru, my friend, the
+whole secret is in accepting that gift, in
+knowing him, and in keeping the soul in a
+constant state of openness for the working
+of the Holy Spirit&mdash;a 'pray-without-ceasing'
+attitude in which one's whole life is resolved
+into the prayer: 'Thy will, not mine, be
+done.'"</p>
+
+<p>Asru regarded Manasseh curiously.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>"How is it, young as you are," he said,
+"that these things are so plain to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you forget," said Manasseh, "what a
+blessed home training I have had, and that
+from my childhood I have had Yusuf for my
+counsellor. For these Christian friends of
+my childhood, I never cease to be thankful."</p>
+
+<p>Asru turned his face away. "And I, too,
+have children, Manasseh," he said in a low
+voice, "children who, with their mother, are
+little better than idolaters, and I have never
+told them differently."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will teach them?" returned
+Manasseh.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, if God spares me through this
+perilous time I shall teach them."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard or seen aught of Kedar,
+lately?" asked Manasseh, abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"In the Battle of the Ditch I saw him for
+a moment, charging furiously against one
+of Abu Sofian's divisions. He was in advance
+of the rest, riding with his head bent
+in the teeth of the tempest. On a knoll above
+me, I saw him for a moment, between me
+and the sky, his hair and long sash streaming
+in the wind; then the rain came, and I
+saw him no more. Aye, but he is a brave
+lad!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor cousin!" said Manasseh. "It is misplaced
+bravery. Would he were one of us!"</p>
+
+<p>"He is not a Christian; and, unless he
+were so, a spirit like his would scorn to be
+one of such a craven, contention-torn mob as
+that which Abu Sofian brought to the field.
+Strange, is it not, that the little band of
+Christians find themselves allied to a set of
+idolaters, against one who would cast idols
+down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, but Mohammed would trample
+Christians and idolaters alike. Think you
+that defeat was owing wholly to cowardice
+of the soldiers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not so much, perhaps, as to bad generalship
+of the leader," returned Asru. "Nevertheless
+the superstition of the heathen Arabs,
+and their fear when the cry of Mohammed's
+enchantment was raised, made a craven of
+every one of them. Manasseh, had we had
+ten thousand Christian Jews, there might
+have been a different story."</p>
+
+<p>"We are nearly all Jews, here," said
+Manasseh, proudly. "Have you happy forebodings
+for the issue of the next combat?"</p>
+
+<p>Asru shook his head, gloomily. "There
+will be a brave resistance on the part of our
+garrisons," he said, "although many of the
+men are well-nigh as ignorant and superstitious
+as the heathen Arabs; but Mohammed's
+forces have swelled wondrously since
+the 'enchanted' storm. Well, we can but
+do our best. Now, I see that the council has
+assembled. They call us. Come."</p>
+
+<p>The two left the arbor and joined the
+others in the middle of the garden. And
+there, while the stars shone peacefully above
+in the evening sky, and the palm-trees
+waved, and a little bird twittered contentedly
+over its nest in an olive bush, these
+men talked of measures of fortification, of
+tactics of war, and schemes of blood-shed;
+a conversation forced upon them, not as a
+matter of choice but of necessity&mdash;the necessity
+of a desperate few, earthed by a relentless
+conqueror and a ruthless despot,
+whose intolerance to all who denied his
+claims has never been surpassed in earth's
+history.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MOHAMMED'S PILGRIMAGE.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us, viz.:
+Avarice, Ambition, Envy,
+Anger, and Pride."&mdash;<i>Petrarch.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap071"><span class="dropcap">I</span></span>n the meantime Yusuf
+and Amzi had taken
+up the old routine of
+life in Mecca&mdash;the
+faithful doing of the
+daily round, the little
+deeds of charity, the
+duties of business, the
+attendance at meetings
+in the little
+church. Everything
+seemed to sink back
+into the old way, yet there was not a man in
+the city but held himself in readiness to take
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>up arms were an attack made upon them to
+wrest from them their freedom.</p>
+
+<p>And word came that Mohammed was coming,&mdash;coming,
+not in war, but in peace, on his
+first pilgrimage to the Caaba. Mecca was
+instantly thrown into the wildest confusion.
+Some deemed the prophet's message honorable,
+but the majority were dubious, and
+thought that if Mohammed once gained an
+entrance, notwithstanding the fact that it
+was the sacred month Doul Kaada, his coming
+would be but to deluge the streets with
+blood.</p>
+
+<p>A hasty consultation was held, and a troop
+of horse under one Khaled Ibn Waled, was
+sent out to check the prophet's advance.
+Mohammed, however, by means of his spies,
+early got word of this sally, and, turning
+aside from the way, he proceeded by ravines
+and by-paths through the mountains; and,
+ere the Meccans were aware of his proximity,
+his whole force was encamped near
+the city.</p>
+
+<p>A deputation came from his army to the
+dignitaries of Mecca bearing messages of
+peace; but their reception was haughty.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to him who sent you," was the reply
+to their overtures, "and say that Meccan
+doors are shut to one against whom every
+family in Mecca owes the revenge of blood."</p>
+
+<p>For days the deputation was sent, with the
+same result, until at last ambassadors of
+the prophet entered with the offer of a truce
+for ten years.</p>
+
+<p>The promise of a long respite from blood,
+and the hope of securing time to recuperate
+their forces, caught the ear of the Meccans.
+A deputation was appointed to treat with the
+prophet, and Amzi, though a Christian, by
+reason of his wisdom and learning was
+chosen as one of the representatives.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf accompanied him to an eminence
+above the defile in which the Moslem tents
+were pitched. A strange sight it was. Far
+as eye could reach, tents, white and black,
+dotted the narrow valley; horses were
+picketed, and camels browsed; and in the
+foreground one thousand four hundred men
+were grouped, waiting to hear the issue of
+the conference,&mdash;one thousand four hundred
+men, bare-footed, and with shaven heads,
+and each wearing the white skirt and white
+scarf over the shoulder, assumed by pilgrims.
+Strangely different were they from
+the ordinary troops of the prophet, strangely
+unrecognizable in their garb of humility and
+peace; yet a second glance revealed the fact
+that each carried a sheathed sword.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf remained above, but Amzi descended
+with the embassy sent with the message
+that the treaty, if suitable, would be at
+once ratified. Mohammed, who, in place of
+his green garb, now with obsequious humility
+wore the pilgrims' costume, expressed
+his pleasure at the amicable attitude of the
+Meccans. He was seated upon a white camel
+named El Kaswa in honor of the faithful
+beast which had borne him in the earlier
+vicissitudes of his fortunes. Beside him, at
+a table placed on the sand, sat his vizier and
+son-in-law, Ali, to whom was given the task
+of writing the treaty as dictated by Mohammed.</p>
+
+<p>"Begin, O Ali," said the prophet, "'In the
+name of the most merciful God'&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sohail, the spokesman of the Meccan deputation,
+immediately objected, "It is the custom
+of the Meccans to begin, 'In Thy name,
+O God.'"</p>
+
+<p>"So be it," assented the prophet; then, continuing,
+he dictated the opening of the body
+of the treaty&mdash;"'These are the conditions on
+which Mohammed, the apostle of God, has
+made peace with those of Mecca.'"</p>
+
+<p>A deep murmur of disapproval arose
+throughout the Meccan embassy.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so, O Mohammed!" cried Sohail
+again. "Had we indeed acknowledged you
+as the prophet of God, think you we would
+have sent Khaled Ibn Waled with armed
+men against you? Think you we would have
+closed the streets of Mecca against one
+whom we recognized as an ambassador of
+the Most High? No, Mohammed, son of Abdallah,
+it must not be 'apostle of God.'"</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed again bowed in token of submission.
+"Write thus, then, O Ali," he said.
+"'These are the conditions on which Mohammed,
+son of Abdallah, has made peace
+with those of Mecca<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: missing ' in original">.'</ins>"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>He then proceeded to the terms of the
+treaty, stipulating that the prophet and his
+followers should have access to the city at
+any season during the period of truce, provided
+they came unarmed, habited as pilgrims,
+and did not remain over three days at
+a time.</p>
+
+<p>This business concluded, the embassy from
+Mecca retraced its way; and Mohammed,
+changing his mind about entering the city at
+that time, ordered that prayers should be
+offered up on the spot, that seventy camels
+should there be sacrificed, and that the pilgrims
+should then return home.</p>
+
+<p>This was accordingly done, and the people
+went back in some disappointment to
+Medina, where the prophet announced the
+success of his mission in a new passage from
+the Koran:</p>
+
+<p>"Now hath God verified unto his apostle
+the vision wherein he said, Ye shall surely
+enter the holy temple of Mecca, if God
+please, in full security."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SIEGE OF KHAIBAR.&mdash;KEDAR.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"The drying up a single tear has more of honest
+fame than shedding seas of gore."</p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap073"><span class="dropcap">I</span></span>n the same year, the seventh
+year of the Hejira,
+Mohammed made the expected
+attack on Kha&iuml;bar.
+The chief, Kenana,
+got word of his approach,
+and ordered that the
+country for miles around
+the capital should be laid
+waste. For days the long roads leading into
+the city from every direction, swarmed with
+a moving line of anxious-faced people, driving
+their camels and sheep ahead of them,
+and leading mules laden with household
+property. Low wagons creaked beneath the
+weight of fodder for the animals, and corn
+and dates for the people; and the loud
+"Y&aacute;kh! Y&aacute;kh!" of the camel-drivers
+mingled with the thud of the camel-sticks
+falling upon the thick hides of the lazy animals.</p>
+
+<p>Asru was given charge of the expedition
+for laying waste the country; and never was
+a more considerate destroyer.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, here!" he would cry to an aged
+man, "let me load that animal for you!" and
+he would lift the heavy burden to the back
+of the pack-mule, while the old man would
+say, "You are surely a kind soldier after
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"I will carry this sick girl," he would say,
+to another, and would lift her as gently as
+a mother and place her in the shugduf in
+which she was to be conveyed to the city.</p>
+
+<p>His spirit of gentleness spread among his
+men.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us be kind to our friends, men," he
+would urge upon them. "The day is fast
+coming when we can scarcely be kind to our
+enemies, be we never so willing."</p>
+
+<p>So the people, though sad as they looked
+back upon their smouldering homes and
+blazing palm trees, were filled with love for
+the gentle soldiers, and went up with a new
+motive in striking for their liberty, for there
+is naught that will bring forth the strongest
+powers of action like the impulse of love.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, the blight and misery of war! Manasseh
+looked out from the citadel upon the
+scene which he had deemed so fair&mdash;the
+waving corn-fields, the groves of palms and
+olives and aloes, the nestling houses, the
+pastures covered with flocks&mdash;now but a
+blackened and smoking waste, with here
+and there the skeleton of a palm tree pointing
+upward like a bony finger; and here and
+there a reeking column of black smoke, or
+the dull glare of a burning homestead.</p>
+
+<p>The people murmured not. "Better let it
+lie in ashes than permit it to fall into the
+hands of the impostor!" they cried, and they
+muttered curses upon the head of the destroyer
+of their happiness and prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>All were at last in and the anxious waiting
+began. Keen eyes peered from the citadel
+night and day. Watchmen were posted at
+every point of the out-works and spies were
+sent broadcast through the country.</p>
+
+<p>Then the fateful word came. Breathless
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>scouts told of an army fast approaching,
+twelve hundred men and two hundred
+horse, commanded by the prophet himself,
+his vizier Ali, and his friend Abu Beker.</p>
+
+<p>Al Kamus, the citadel, was immediately
+crowded with men, and soldiers were posted
+along the walls, neither strong in numbers
+nor in arms, for many were armed but with
+staves and stones. Desperation was in their
+hearts, and calm, resolute faces looked forth
+for the advancing host.</p>
+
+<p>Just as the morning sun flashed defiantly
+from the towers of Al Kamus, the Moslem
+army came in sight. At first it seemed like
+a moving, shapeless mass over the blackened
+fields,&mdash;and as the rising sun fell upon it,
+the moving mass became dotted with glints
+and lines of silver, like the ripple of waves
+on a sunlit sea; but the watchers recognized
+the deadly import of those bright gleams, and
+by the flash of scimitars and lances were
+able to compute in a vague way the strength
+of their opponents.</p>
+
+<p>On they came until the stony place called
+Mansela was reached, and there, beneath a
+great rock, the host halted. The anxious
+watchers from the city could not discern the
+exact meaning of this, but more than one
+guessed that the halt was made for the
+offering of ostentatious prayer by the
+prophet.</p>
+
+<p>This indeed was the case. As Mohammed
+came in full view of the citadel he cried out:
+"There, O believers, is the eyrie to which
+ye must climb. But victory has been promised
+us. Angels shall again lend us their invisible
+aid. Therefore have courage, O
+believers! Remember that for each of those
+vile infidels slain, a double joy awaits you
+in paradise. Know ye that every drop of an
+unbelieving Jew shed is as the crystal drops
+of nectar of paradise to the happy follower
+of Mohammed, the prophet of God. And
+fear not that ye be slain in this combat, O
+faithful! Ye will not be slain except your
+appointed time has come, when ye must in
+any case die. Remember that to be slain in
+battle for the cause of Islam is to reap a
+glorious reward!"</p>
+
+<p>Then, mounting the great rock, he called
+with a loud voice: "La illaha il Allah!
+Mohammed Resoul Allah!" (There is no God
+but God! Mohammed is the prophet of
+God!)</p>
+
+<p>And while the fanatics below prostrated
+themselves he prayed long and loudly.</p>
+
+<p>Then the tents were pitched and the siege
+began. For many days it lasted. So abundant
+had been the supplies of food, and so
+numerous the droves of animals brought
+into the city, that those within the
+walls had no fear of famine. But so complete
+was the devastation of the country
+that the prophet's troops began to suffer
+for want of food. Yet they waited, as a
+suitable time of attack had not arrived. In
+the meantime they were engaged in digging
+trenches as a protection to the troops.</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh and Asru were much together.
+They had become like brothers, and night
+after night they met on the citadel and
+looked out over the strange scene that was
+presented to the inhabitants of Kha&iuml;bar
+every evening during the siege. For, daily,
+just as the sun was setting, the whole Moslem
+army, with the prophet praying loudly
+at its head, set out in solemn procession,
+then proceeded round and round the city
+until seven circuits were completed, as in
+Tawaf at the Caaba.</p>
+
+<p>Many among the more superstitious Jews
+of Kha&iuml;bar and their few Koreish adherents
+felt a thrill of awe as they looked upon
+this ceremony, fearing that the prophet was
+again practicing his arts of enchantment
+upon them; but the performance never failed
+to bring the smile of scorn to Asru's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Blind fanatics!" he exclaimed one evening.
+"A precious set of idiots!"</p>
+
+<p>But Manasseh looked serious. "Asru," he
+said, "of course, I do not believe in all
+this; yet there is a something solemn in it
+to me. It makes me think of the seven circuits
+made about Jericho, when the priests
+blew upon the trumpets and the walls fell."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but the voice of Jehovah gave the
+order then; now,"&mdash;and he smiled contemptuously&mdash;"the
+commanding voice is that of
+Mohammed, the peaceful Meccan trader,
+anon the gentle prophet of Allah, anon the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>blood-thirsty vulture and cut-throat robber,
+destroyer of life and liberty."</p>
+
+<p>"Verily, Asru the Moslem soldier has completely
+changed," returned Manasseh, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, Manasseh, thanks to the peaceful
+Gospel of Jesus, Asru the Moslem, the lover
+of war, would now fain see this fair land
+smiling with happy homes and peaceful
+tillers of the soil. What is that about the
+child and the cockatrice?"</p>
+
+<p>"'And the sucking child shall play on the
+hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall
+lay its hand on the cockatrice' den. They
+shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
+mountain; for the earth shall be full of the
+knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover
+the sea,'" quoted Manasseh solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>Asru looked thoughtfully out towards the
+distant hills, but he did not see them. He
+saw a quiet home in Mecca, where a pale-faced
+wife, a beautiful daughter, and two
+bright-eyed boys, sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh," he said at length, "it may
+be that I shall be killed in this battle. If I
+am and you are spared, go to my wife and
+children. Tell them the Gospel for me. My
+great regret is that I myself put it off until
+too late. Will you, Manasseh?"</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh pressed his friend's hand
+warmly. "You may trust me, if I live," he
+said simply. And the soldier was satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh, I am rich," he continued.
+"See that my wealth is used for the best."</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh pressed his hand again, and the
+tall soldier left him, feeling that, whatever
+happened, this young man's fidelity and integrity
+could be depended upon.</p>
+
+<p>And now the Moslem army began to weary
+of inaction. Several desultory attacks were
+made by them, and battering-rams were set
+in play against the walls, but with no effect,
+until a grand attempt was decided upon.
+Night had scarcely faded into morning, and
+the rock of Mansela still stood black and
+shapeless against a gray sky, when a commotion
+was seen in the Moslem camp. Mohammed's
+troops no longer made the wild
+onslaught of untrained Bedouin hordes. The
+experience of scores of engagements had
+taught their leader the necessity of system;
+and now the host began to move in regular
+order in three main divisions. Above the
+center one floated the sacred flag of the
+prophet; to the right waved Ali's standard,
+a design of the sun; and to the left fluttered
+the Black Eagle of Abu Beker's division.</p>
+
+<p>The battle began by an assault led by Abu
+Beker. Scaling-ladders were placed, and
+the Moslems swarmed up the walls, but a
+desperate band led by Al Hareth met them,
+and the besieging party, after a sharp fight,
+was compelled to withdraw. Shouts of triumph
+and jeers of derision arose from the
+city walls. The Moslems were frantic. Cries
+of vengeance were heard from their ranks.</p>
+
+<p>Then Ali, shouting, "For God and the
+prophet!" dashed forward. He was dressed
+in scarlet, and wore a cuirass of steel. Over
+his head he waved the prophet's sword, and
+at the head of his division floated a sacred
+banner. Straight on he dashed towards a
+breach in the wall, and there, on a pile of
+loose stones, he fixed the standard.</p>
+
+<p>Al Hareth rushed to the fore, and a desperate,
+single-handed combat ensued. The
+Moslem army and the garrison of the city
+alike held their breath. The contest was unequal.
+In a moment Al Hareth had fallen,
+and a mighty cheer burst from the prophet's
+men.</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh was stationed at the head of a
+band of horsemen, whom he was now with
+difficulty keeping in check. Yet for a moment
+he forgot all in watching a figure that
+was ascending the breach.</p>
+
+<p>Whose but Asru's that gigantic form?
+Whose but Asru's that floating turban of
+white&mdash;that helmet in which flashed a diamond
+placed there by Kenana's own hand?
+Whose but Asru's that clanking sword and
+that three-pronged spear which none but he
+could wield?</p>
+
+<p>"Surely now the Moslem will waver!"
+thought the youth; and with bated breath
+he watched this second combat, waged beside
+the bleeding form of Asru's dead
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>With dauntless air the Moslem awaited
+the coming of Asru. They closed upon each
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>other. The armies looked on, motionless,
+breathless, the combatants struggled, a
+writhing mass, broken only by the flash of
+the spear and glitter of the lance, as deadly
+blows were dealt or parried&mdash;and the sunshine
+rained from above. The very air
+seemed to stand still in watching, and the
+clash of every stroke was borne, with painful
+distinctness, to the ears of Asru's friend.</p>
+
+<p>The combat was an equal one, Ali's agility
+matching well the superior strength of his
+antagonist, and it was not soon over. At
+last the Moslem seemed to stagger.</p>
+
+<p>There, there, Asru, strike! He falls, he
+falls! There is your advantage! Strike!
+Joy, joy! victory is ours!</p>
+
+<p>But no! Ye gods, what is wrong! Why
+stands Asru there, helpless? Why does he
+not act? By Allah, he loses time! Ha! his
+turban end has become twisted over his eyes
+beneath his helmet! Help! Help! Ye gods!
+Ha! Ali rises with a sharp recoil! He
+strikes! Woe! Woe! Asru is down!</p>
+
+<p>A shout breaks afresh from the Moslem
+army as the brave Asru's body is dragged
+to one side of the breach. And now the
+Moslems dash forward like an avalanche.
+The breach widens; the green and yellow
+turbans swarm within the walls. Manasseh's
+horse dash forward. Over the open
+square a detachment of Moslem horse is
+spurring, the horsemen bending low as they
+ride, their maddened animals, gorgeous in
+trappings of scarlet, yellow and blue, with
+tails knotted at the ends, "like unto the
+heads of serpents." With regular sway the
+long spears swing with the motion of the
+horses.</p>
+
+<p>Clash! The opposing forces meet. Men
+fall. Horses roll over in the dust. Back!
+Back! The Moslems are in headlong flight!
+Yet one youth fights on. Straight for the
+young Jewish leader he dashes. Blows rain
+on each side. Some of the Jewish horse
+close round.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep off, men!" shouts Manasseh.
+"Would ye attack a man fifty to one?"</p>
+
+<p>Blows fall faster and breath comes in
+short gasps.</p>
+
+<p>The Moslem's horse gives way beneath
+him, and falls with a shriek backwards.
+The gallant youth springs to his
+feet, then throws up his arms and falls. His
+turban drops off from his brow, and, for the
+first time, Manasseh recognizes Kedar.</p>
+
+<p>He turns sick. Is the Moslem dead? No,
+his heart still beats. "Here, men, take him
+into that house. I will seek him later."</p>
+
+<p>On goes the young leader to a fresh scene
+of battle. Alas! in the meantime the poorly-armed
+Jews have been everywhere driven
+back. The Moslems have entered the citadel;
+the Jews give way before them everywhere.
+Even his own hopeful spirit cannot
+revive them. They are seized with a panic
+and fly, leaving the brave youth almost
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh was soon overpowered, bound,
+and thrown into the corner of a great hall of
+the citadel, where he lay apparently forgotten,
+listening, with heavy heart, to the
+shrieks and cries of his countrymen without,
+and to the hum of war, gradually growing
+fainter, until it ceased, and he knew that
+the conflict was over. The Moslems began
+to enter the hall, among them Mohammed.</p>
+
+<p>The prophet took his seat at the end of the
+apartment, and presently several of the
+chief citizens were brought in with hands
+bound. Manasseh perceived that a tribunal
+was being held, and, from his corner, listened
+eagerly to the sentence passed upon
+each.</p>
+
+<p>It soon appeared that treasure was the
+prophet's aim. Exorbitant demands were
+made upon the rich merchants, who, pale
+and trembling, offered their all in exchange
+for their lives. Among the rest, Kenana,
+with his handsome wife, was brought in.</p>
+
+<p>"They tell me, Kenana," said the prophet,
+"that you have immense wealth stored up
+in this citadel. If you desire your life, inform
+me where this treasure is."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no treasure in the citadel," said
+Kenana, proudly; "and if I had, the apostle
+of Azazil should not know of it."</p>
+
+<p>The prophet's face colored with passion.
+"Apostle of Azazil! O blasphemer!" he exclaimed.
+"Do you then thus defy the only,
+the true prophet of Allah?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we shall see what can be done
+with a stubborn infidel spirit!" returned
+Mohammed. "Hither! Apply the torture!"</p>
+
+<p>A machine of
+fiendish invention was
+applied to the chief's
+hands. His fingers
+were squeezed until
+the bones cracked; his
+veins swelled in
+agony; yet no sound
+escaped his lips. He
+could not, or would
+not, tell where the
+treasure was concealed,
+and he was
+handed over to a
+Moslem whose
+brother Kenana had
+slain. Manasseh
+closed his eyes in
+horror, for he knew
+that Kenana's fate
+was sealed.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 306px;">
+<a href="images/p077.jpg">
+<img src="images/p077thum.jpg" width="306" height="400" alt="The Moslem&#39;s horse gives way beneath him!" />
+</a>
+<span class="caption">The Moslem&#39;s horse gives way beneath him!&mdash;See <a href="#Page_76">page 76</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Kenana's wife, Safiya,
+was taken by
+Mohammed, and on
+the homeward march
+she became the wife
+of the prophet.</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh lay there
+in great depression of
+spirit. He was weary
+in mind and cramped
+in body, and it almost
+seemed as though he
+were completely forsaken.
+Yet his ever-present
+source of comfort
+returned to him,
+and like a sweet refrain
+came the words
+into his mind: "Thou
+hast been a strength to the poor, a strength
+to the needy in his distress, a refuge from
+the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the
+blast of the terrible ones is as a storm
+against the wall."</p>
+
+<p>The half-starved Moslem troops now began
+to clamor for food, and the defenceless Jewish
+women were forced to prepare victuals
+and to serve their conquerors. Among these
+women entered Zaynab, the niece of Asru.
+She placed a shoulder of mutton before the
+prophet, then went towards the door. Perceiving
+Manasseh in the corner, she severed
+his bonds with a quick stroke of a small dagger,
+then, shielding him as best she might,
+she bade him begone.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>"Have hope!" she whispered in his ear.
+"I have poisoned the prophet."</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh uttered an exclamation of
+horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" she said, with a laugh.
+"Manasseh fights with a lance, Zaynab with
+poison. Now, fly, ere they see you!"</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh hastened down the dark streets
+to the house in which Kedar had been
+placed. He found the youth moaning feebly.
+Hurrying out, he caught a couple of stray
+camels, and fastened a shugduf in its place.
+Then, raising the youth in his strong arms,
+he laid him in the shugduf, and set off in the
+darkness.</p>
+
+<p>To Mecca he must go. It was a long, weary
+way. He had little money, and the few provisions
+which a Jewish woman in the house
+gave him would not last long; yet he trusted
+to Providence, and remembered with satisfaction
+that the dates were now at their
+ripest. He would nurse Kedar tenderly; they
+would journey in the cool shades of night
+when there was less danger of being stopped
+on the way. Planning thus, he proceeded, as
+noiselessly as possible, with his precious burden,
+through a gap in the wall, and urged
+his faithful beasts on in the cool night
+breezes over the blackened plain.</p>
+
+<p>Then he thought of Asru. Asru must not
+be left to be rudely thrown into a grave by
+infidel hands. There was danger in it, but
+he must go back. Kedar was sleeping. He
+fixed the camels by a charred palm grove,
+and went back, with flying feet, through the
+gloom. The towers of Al Kamus rose above
+him, with lights twinkling on the battlements.
+He wondered if the prophet were
+yet alive and what would be the result to
+Arabia if he were dead. On, on, through the
+darkness, until the fatal breach was reached.
+It was quite deserted, peopled only by a
+heap of dead bodies, from which, in the night
+time, the superstitious Arabs shrank in
+horror. Groping among them, he soon came
+upon Asru's huge form, which he readily
+recognized by its armor. He dragged the
+precious clay of his friend from the mass of
+dead and brought it, with difficulty, outside
+of the wall; and there beneath a palm tree,
+he hollowed out a lonely grave, loosening the
+clay with a battle-axe taken from a dead
+Arab, and throwing the clods out with his
+shield. He then cut a wisp of hair from the
+dead soldier's long locks, placed it in his
+bosom, kissed the cold brow, and uttered a
+short prayer over the lifeless form. Tenderly
+he placed the body in the shallow grave, and
+covered it with the clay, then, breathing a
+last farewell, left Asru forever in this life.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Mohammed and one of
+his followers had begun to eat of the
+poisoned mutton. The soldier was ravenous
+with hunger, and set upon the tempting
+roast with eager relish. Mohammed partook
+of it more slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the soldier threw up his arms,
+and fell back in a convulsion. Mohammed
+started back in consternation. He, too, felt
+pain, and raised the cry of "Poison!" The
+Moslems came rushing in in great alarm.
+Antidotes were given him, and he shortly recovered,
+with but a slight sensation of burning
+in his head. The poor soldier was soon
+stiff in death.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed sent for the woman who had
+brought him the mutton. She came at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Know you who put the poison in this
+meat?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It was I," she confessed, boldly.</p>
+
+<p>"And how dared you perpetrate so wicked
+a scheme?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you were a true prophet," she replied,
+"you would have known that the meat was
+poisoned; if not, it were a favor to Arabia to
+rid it of such a despot."</p>
+
+<p>"See then," exclaimed the prophet, "how
+Allah hath preserved the life of his apostle!
+Behold, I forgive you. Return to your tribe,
+and sin not in like manner again."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, with one of his strange freaks
+of magnanimity, he waved her off, and soon
+afterward went to rest.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 362px;">
+<img src="images/p078.png" width="362" height="138" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>MANASSEH AND KEDAR AT MECCA.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"Home, sweet home."</p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap079"><span class="dropcap">T</span></span>he flame of a smoky
+oil-dip dimly lighted
+a spacious room in the
+house of Amzi. At the
+low table sat Yusuf and
+his friend with a chart
+before them, anxiously
+following, with eye and
+finger, the course of Mohammed's
+northern exploits.</p>
+
+<p>The thoughts of both
+were with Manasseh. A knock sounded at
+the bolted door. Yusuf opened it, and there,
+like a cameo in the setting of darkness, was
+the youth himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh, my son!" cried both in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>He stepped in, now laughing, now brushing
+tears from his eyes. "There!" he said,
+freeing himself from their embraces, "I have
+one more surprise. I come like a grandee,
+bearing my company in a litter. Help me
+bring him in."</p>
+
+<p>They stepped out, and Manasseh's second
+face, that of Kedar, peered from the curtains
+of the shugduf. None the less warm was
+the greeting extended to the Moslem, whose
+weak and trembling frame was an instant
+call upon their sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Manasseh, piling up a heap of
+cushions, in his impetuous way, "get us
+some supper, will you not? I can eat my
+own share, and half of Kedar's. Like the
+birds, he takes but a peck at a time."</p>
+
+<p>Supper was ordered, and soon attendants
+entered bearing platters, until the copper
+table was burdened with the most tempting
+dishes of Mecca&mdash;roast of spiced lamb, slices
+of juicy melon and cucumber, pyramids of
+rice, pomegranates, grapes of Tayf, sweetmeats,
+fragrant draughts of coffee.</p>
+
+<p>Kedar watched with a languid smile. The
+peace of this quiet home life affected him
+almost to tears. Strange had been his emotions
+when he awoke to consciousness in the
+shugduf, alone with Manasseh, in the wilderness&mdash;feelings
+first of indignation, then of
+gratitude, then of admiration for Manasseh,
+in whom he now discovered the leader of the
+Jewish horse. And on the way this admiration
+had ripened into love for the unselfish
+Jewish youth.</p>
+
+<p>The weariness of the long journey began
+to tell upon him now, and he was glad that
+he was among friends. He could eat but little,
+and was content to listen to Manasseh's
+bright talk, and to watch him as, with flashing
+eye and eloquent gesture, he fought over
+again the Battle of Kha&iuml;bar, or when, with
+hushed tone and tearful eye, he told of the
+death of Asru, and his lonely burial.</p>
+
+<p>"I must seek his widow and his children,"
+said he. "This is all I have brought them;"
+and he drew the tangled, blood-stained lock
+of hair from his bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Silence fell on the little group as they
+looked upon it, then Yusuf's tones, falling
+like the low, deep cadence of a chant, repeated
+the words:</p>
+
+<p>"And there shall be no more curse, but the
+throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in
+it; and his servants shall serve him. And
+they shall see his face; and his name shall be
+in their foreheads. And there shall be no
+night there; and they need no candle, neither
+light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth
+them light; and they shall reign forever and
+forever."</p>
+
+<p>"Amen!" responded Amzi, fervently. And
+Manasseh looked out of the window towards
+the bright heavens above Abu Kubays,
+imagining that he could see Asru, clad in
+shining apparel, with a happy smile on his
+lips, and the courageous eyes of old looking
+forth with a new love-light from his radiant
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know his family?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes; they are now regular attendants
+at the Christian church. They have destroyed
+all their household gods."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed Manasseh, "is this
+true! How I wish Asru had known it! What
+joy it would have given him!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>Amzi smiled. "Dare you think, Manasseh,
+that he does not know it long ere this,&mdash;that
+he did not know it even at the breach of
+Kha&iuml;bar? I like to think that our Asru now
+has a spiritual body wholly independent of
+time or space, capable of transporting itself
+whenever and wherever the mind dictates."</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot know these things as they
+are, in this time," remarked Yusuf. "But
+the day is not very far distant now, Amzi,
+when you and I shall explore these mysteries
+for ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>So the talk went on. Kedar listened with
+interest. He thought it a curious conversation,
+and felt so strangely out of place that
+it seemed as though he were dreaming, and
+listening to the talk of genii.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning he was in a decided fever.
+Then came long days of pain and nights of
+delirium, in which Manasseh and his two
+friends hovered like ministering spirits about
+the youth, whose wounds had healed only to
+give place to disease far more deadly. In
+those terrible nights of burning heat his
+parched tongue swelled so that he could
+scarcely swallow; he tossed in agony, now
+fancying himself chained to a rock unable to
+move, while the prophet urged him on to the
+heights above where the battle was raging;
+now imagining himself fastened near a burning
+furnace whose flames were fed by the
+bodies of those whom he had slain. He
+would cry out in terror, and beads of perspiration
+would start upon his forehead. He
+lived the whole war over again, and his only
+rest was at times when, partially conscious,
+he felt kindly hands placing cool bandages
+on his burning head, or gently fanning his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>The time at last came when he sank into a
+heavy sleep, and awoke calling "Mother."</p>
+
+<p>It was Manasseh who came, almost
+startled by the naturalness of the tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been very ill, Manasseh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very."</p>
+
+<p>"Long?"</p>
+
+<p>"For weeks. But you must not talk. You
+will soon be well now."</p>
+
+<p>The invalid closed his eyes, not to sleep,
+but to think. Presently he opened them.</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh, if I had died, would I have
+seen Asru?"</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh was embarrassed. "I&mdash;I cannot
+say," he stammered. "I do not know you
+well enough to be sure."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not think I should. I do not think
+so either," he returned decidedly, and closed
+his eyes again.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days he was able to talk.</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh, did I hear Yusuf praying for
+me once when I was ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"He prayed for you every day,&mdash;not only
+that you might be spared to us, but that you
+might come to know Jesus, and to reject Mohammed."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think that I ever accepted him&mdash;that
+is, in a religious sense," he returned.</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh's eyes opened wide in astonishment.
+"Then why did you follow him?" he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, I suppose, his successes dazzled
+me. It seemed a grand thing to be a hero in
+the war&mdash;to ride, and charge, and drive all
+before me. Aye, Manasseh, it is after the
+war that the scales fall from one's eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"How could you, then, follow one whom
+you did not accept, and must, therefore, have
+deemed an impostor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, Manasseh, I gave little heed
+to matters of religion. For the first time,
+during the last few days, I have thought of
+a religious life, or of a hereafter, as I lay
+here feeling that but for you and your
+friends, I should even now be in the unknown
+land beyond the grave."</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh talked long and earnestly to the
+now convalescent youth. Yusuf and Amzi
+too talked gently to him when he seemed inclined
+to hear, but, in his present weak state,
+they deemed that the consciousness of living
+in a godly house would appeal more strongly
+than words of theirs. The weeks passed on,
+yet he gave no indication that their hopes
+were being realized. Once indeed he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh, would that I had had a godly
+training such as yours!"</p>
+
+<p>"Did your mother not tell you of these
+things?"</p>
+
+<p>Kedar shook his head. "My poor mother
+drifted away from her early training in our
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>half-heathen Bedouin atmosphere," he said.
+"The Bedouins know little of Christ. They
+have traditions of the creation, of the
+deluge, and such old-time stories; in all else
+they are almost heathen. When I am well,
+Manasseh, we will go to them&mdash;to my father&mdash;and
+you will tell them, Manasseh?"</p>
+
+<p>Manasseh nodded a smiling assent.</p>
+
+<p>It was with no little trepidation that Yusuf
+and Amzi watched for some sign of spiritual
+growth in the young Bedouin. As the days
+wore on, and he was able to get about,
+though still weak, he was willing to attend
+the Christian meetings; but he sat in silence,
+and persisted in wearing the garb of a Moslem.
+The friends did not understand his attitude.
+They did not recognize the sort of
+petulant shamefacedness that hindered him
+from coming forth boldly in defence of principles
+which he fully endorsed in his secret
+heart, and made him fear to cut himself
+loose from the side on which he had taken
+so bold a stand, lest the epithet of "turncoat,"
+be fixed upon him. Kedar had not
+yet been touched by that "live coal" which
+alone can set man in touch with God, and
+free him from all human restrictions. But
+though he said little, he was thinking deeply.
+He was not indifferent; and there is ever
+great room for hope where there is not indifference.</p>
+
+<p>And while the little Meccan household
+was thus engrossed in its own circle, momentous
+events were happening without
+the capital.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>INTERVENING EVENTS.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap081"><span class="dropcap">D</span></span>uring the months
+that followed, Mohammed
+still went
+on in his career of
+conquest&mdash;a course
+rendered easier day
+by day, as his enemies
+were now
+weak indeed. The tribes of Watiba, Selalima
+and Bedr speedily gave way before
+him, but were permitted to remain in their
+homes upon the payment of a heavy yearly
+tribute.</p>
+
+<p>He made one more pilgrimage to Mecca,
+and on this occasion the Koreish, in accordance
+with the truce, offered no resistance;
+hence for three days the prophet and his
+shaven followers walked the streets of
+Mecca, and performed Tawaf at the Temple.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed found the Caaba still desecrated
+by idols, and, while pressing his lips
+to the sacred Black Stone, he solemnly
+vowed to conquer Mecca and to remove the
+pollution of images from the floor of the
+sanctuary.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the prophet enticed many
+of the most prominent families of Mecca to
+his standard. By his marriage with the aunt
+of Khaled Ibn Waled he secured the alliance
+of that famous soldier; and by marrying
+Omm Habiba, daughter of Abu Sofian, he
+hoped to gain the friendship of his ancient
+and inveterate enemy.</p>
+
+<p>But time seemed to lag, and his restless
+spirit soon set itself to look about for some
+pretext by which he might attack Mecca. A
+casual skirmish of a few soldiers of the
+Koreish with a detachment of his soldiers
+gave the necessary excuse, and he at once
+charged the Koreish with having broken the
+truce. They were anxious to make overtures
+of peace, but Mohammed would listen to
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>All saw plainly that no concessions would
+conciliate a conqueror thus bent upon hostility,
+and the attitude of Mecca became that
+of a patient waiting, a dread looking for a
+surely impending calamity ready to fall at
+any hour.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, when it did come, the Meccans
+were not expecting it, so silent, so sudden
+was the swoop of the conqueror. Every road
+leading to Mecca was barred by Mohammed,
+so that none might tell of his plans. All his
+allies received a mysterious summons to
+meet him at a point some distance from
+Mecca, and they came none the less readily
+that they did not know why they were thus
+assembled.</p>
+
+<p>With a host of ten thousand men, Moham<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>med
+set out over the barren plains, and
+through the defiles of the mountains. Like
+a vast funeral procession the long train
+wound its way in a silence broken only by
+the dull tread of the beasts and the whispered
+ejaculations of the soldiers. In the
+night they reached the appointed valley.
+Lines of men came pouring in from every
+side, and at last, as a signal to all the rest,
+Omar, the chief in command, gave the order
+that the watch-fires be lighted,&mdash;and at once
+every summit sent up its spire of flame.</p>
+
+<p>The citizens of Mecca were stricken with
+awe.</p>
+
+<p>"I myself will go and see what this
+means," said Abu Sofian; and with a single
+companion he set out over the hills. As they
+stood in sight of the great host below, the
+step of men sounded near them. They were
+seized as spies, and hurried off to the tent of
+Omar.</p>
+
+<p>The bright light of Omar's camp-fire revealed
+the white hair and flashing eye of the
+grim old warrior.</p>
+
+<p>"By the prophet of Allah! Ye have
+brought in a rich prize!" exclaimed Omar,
+and his dagger flashed in the firelight as he
+drew it to plunge into Abu Sofian's bosom.
+But deliverance was near. Out from the
+darkness galloped Al Abbas, uncle of Mohammed,
+mounted on the prophet's white
+mule. He caught the Meccan up with him,
+and hastened off to the tent of the prophet.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" exclaimed Mohammed, "you have
+come at last, Abu Sofian, to acknowledge the
+supremacy of the prophet of Allah?"</p>
+
+<p>"I come," said Abu Sofian surlily, "to beg
+mercy for my people."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you, then, acknowledge Mohammed
+as the prophet of God? Do this, Abu Sofian,
+and thy life shall be spared, and terms of
+peace granted to all Meccans who are willing
+to follow their leader's example."</p>
+
+<p>Abu Sofian gave a surly assent, and was
+set free. Favorable terms for the inhabitants
+of the city were then presented to him;
+and, that he might be able to take back with
+him a full account of the strength of the
+prophet's army, he was placed with Al
+Abbas at the head of a narrow defile,
+through which the whole army, with fluttering
+banners and proudly flapping standards,
+passed before him.</p>
+
+<p>Even the stern old warrior stood aghast at
+the mighty multitude. He returned to the
+city, and, from the roof of the Caaba, once
+more assembled the people of Mecca. Then,
+while they listened, with bowed heads and
+heaving sobs, he told them of the great host,
+of the uselessness of resistance, and of the
+terms offered in case of submission. To this
+course, humiliating as it was, he strongly
+urged them. Silent in despair, or weeping
+wildly, they returned to their homes, and
+that night the darkness which fell seemed
+like a pall upon the stricken city.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TRIUMPHANT ENTRANCE INTO MECCA.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"One murder made a villain;
+millions, a hero."&mdash;<i>Porteus.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap082"><span class="dropcap">U</span></span>pon the following morning
+ere the sun rose, a
+deputation was sent to
+the prophet to inform
+him that his terms had
+been accepted.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Mecca
+were curious to note the
+triumphant entrance of
+the great conqueror.
+Many, indeed, threw themselves upon their
+faces in agony of lost hope; but the housetops
+swarmed with people, and the side of
+Abu Kubays was moving with a dense
+crowd of women and children, who, at a
+safe distance, watched for the strange
+pageant.</p>
+
+<p>The prophet was allowed to enter the borders
+of the town unmolested, but when the
+deserter, Khaled Ibn Waled, appeared, the
+rage of the Koreish knew no bounds; a howl
+of derision arose, and an ungovernable mob
+fired straight upon him with their arrows.
+Khaled dashed upon them with sword and
+lance, but Mohammed, noting the commotion,
+rode up and ordered him to desist.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>The m&ecirc;l&eacute;e subsided, and, just as the sun
+rose over Abu Kubays, the conqueror entered
+the city. He was habited in scarlet,
+and mounted upon a large Syrian camel;
+and, as he rode, followed by the whole host
+of his army, he repeated aloud passages from
+the Koran.</p>
+
+<p>Straight on towards the Caaba he went,
+looking neither to right nor to left. Its gates
+were thrown open before him, and the vast
+procession, with the prophet at its head, performed
+Tawaf about the temple. Then, ere
+the mighty trampling ceased, Mohammed
+entered the Caaba&mdash;that Caaba in which he
+had been spat upon and covered with mud
+thrown by derisive hands. Little wonder
+that he felt his triumph complete!</p>
+
+<p>Three hundred and sixty idols still stared
+from the walls of the temple, and, ere night
+fell, not an image remained to pollute an
+edifice in which, if in ever so blind a manner,
+the name of the living God had been
+once mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed then took his stand upon the
+little hill Al Safa, and gave the command
+that every man, woman, and child in Mecca,
+save those detained by illness, should pass
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>Kedar found his weakness a sufficient
+reason for remaining at home, but Yusuf,
+Amzi, and Manasseh were forced to join the
+long procession.</p>
+
+<p>One by one, the inhabitants knelt before
+the victor, renouncing idolatry and declaring
+their fealty to him as their governor and
+spiritual head. But a few among the Christian
+Jews refused to acknowledge him as the
+prophet of God.</p>
+
+<p>"As conqueror we accept you," they said;
+"as subjects we will obey you in all that
+does not interfere with our worship of the
+true God, and his Son, the Christ. But as
+Mohammed prophet of God, we will not acknowledge
+you."</p>
+
+<p>The prophet, however, was in a lenient
+frame of mind. At no time a cruel tyrant
+when victory was once assured, he was still
+less inclined to be so upon a day when everything
+augured so favorably for the future.
+Moreover, when it seemed to him practicable,
+Mohammed delighted in showing mercy.
+This trait is but one of the incomprehensible
+features of his strange, contradictory character.</p>
+
+<p>"So be it," he returned, graciously. "I give
+you your lives and property. They are a
+gift from the prophet ye despise. Yet, lest
+ye be stirrers up of sedition, I enjoin you to
+leave the city with what expedition ye will.
+Go where ye please, provided it be out of
+my dominions; take what time ye need to
+settle your affairs, and dispose of your
+property; then, in the name of Allah, I bid
+you good speed."</p>
+
+<p>The Jews, among them Yusuf and Amzi,
+passed thankfully on. A tall, gaunt, Bedouin
+woman, with flashing eyes and hands showing
+like the claws of a vulture beneath her
+black robe, came next. It was Henda in disguise.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed the prophet, with a
+smile, "has Abu Sofian taken to the hills
+again, that his wife thus comes in Bedouin
+garb<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: original has '&quot;">?"</ins></p>
+
+<p>Henda, seeing that her disguise was penetrated,
+fell at his feet imploring for pardon.</p>
+
+<p>"I forgive you freely," he said, raising her
+to her feet. "You will now acknowledge
+your prophet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" cried the Koreish woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Boldly said!" returned Mohammed. "The
+wife of Abu Sofian doth not readily follow in
+the path of her master. He has trained her
+but poorly. Yet, go in peace, O daughter of
+the Koreish, and know that the prophet of
+Islam has a merciful heart."</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed the whole long day until the
+stars shone through the blue; and Mohammed
+went to rest, serene in his triumph, yet
+troubled by bodily pain, for, ever since he
+had eaten the poisoned mutton at Kha&iuml;bar,
+his health had been steadily declining.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days he returned to Medina. A
+fresh revelation of the Koran, commending
+fully his doctrine of the sword, was there
+proclaimed from the mosque; and to Khaled
+was given the task of subjugating the remaining
+tribes.</p>
+
+<p>The prophet's health now began to give
+way rapidly, and he resolved upon a last pil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>grimage
+to the holy city. In the month
+Ramadhan, at the head of one hundred
+thousand men, the mightiest expedition he
+had ever led, he started for Mecca. He rode
+in a litter, and about him were his nine
+wives, also seated in litters; while, at the
+rear of the procession, trudged a great array
+of camels destined for sacrifice, and gayly
+decorated with ribbons and flowers.</p>
+
+<p>About a day's journey from Mecca, at twilight,
+the vast host met the troops of Ali, returning
+from an expedition into Yemen, and
+these immediately turned with the pilgrimage.
+It was a weird and impressive scene.
+In the night, the augmented host now
+pressed onward, with increased impatience,
+over a plain strewn with basaltic drift. The
+soft thud of padded feet sounded over the
+hard ground. Huge camels loomed shapelessly
+through the uncertain haze. No voice
+of mirth or singing arose from the vast
+assemblage, but the night-wind sighed
+through the ribs of the scant-leaved acacias
+above, and stooped to blow the red flames of
+the torches back in a smoky glare; while,
+here and there, a more pretentious light,
+issuing from between the curtains of a shugduf,
+shed a passing gleam upon the dusky
+faces of the pilgrims, plodding like eerie
+genii of the night over the barren wilds.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, the host reached Mecca.
+The prophet once more entered the sacred
+court-yard of the temple, and was borne
+sadly about the Caaba in Tawaf. Then,
+weak as he was, he insisted upon taking part
+in the sacrificial ceremony. With his own
+hand he slew sixty-three camels, one for
+each year of his life. Then he ascended the
+pulpit and preached to the people.</p>
+
+<p>Upon his return to Medina, he preached
+again from the mosque, enjoining upon the
+faithful strict compliance with the form of
+worship set forth in the Koran and by the
+example of the prophet&mdash;the giving of alms;
+prayer towards the kebla; the performance
+of Tawaf, and ablutions at Zem-Zem; prostration
+prayers at the Caaba, and all the
+rites of pilgrimage. Thus did Mohammed
+formulate the rules for the future guidance
+of the Moslem world.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>KEDAR AT THE CAABA.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap084"><span class="dropcap">O</span></span>nce more the shades of night
+hung over the Eastern world.
+And there, while the hush of
+slumber fell upon the hills of
+the North, the cities of the
+South awoke to life and bustle,
+for during the earlier half
+of the hours of darkness the Oriental
+awakes from the lethargy of
+the day, and really begins to live.
+The moon, almost at full, and glowing like
+a silver orb on a purple sea, rose slowly over
+the black top of Abu Kubays, tipping its
+crest with a shimmering line of light, and
+throwing its radiance across the vale below,
+where all lay shapeless in shade save the
+top of the huge temple, which, with its pall-like
+kiswah (curtain), arose like a bier above
+the low houses about it. Upon it the moonbeams
+fell with solemn, white light, and the
+young man standing alone by one of the pillars
+of the portico felt a thrill of awe as he
+looked upon the mysterious structure, and
+thought of the great antiquity of the institution.</p>
+
+<p>For the moment, lost in contemplation, he
+was oblivious to the swarming of the dusky
+multitudes now pouring into the court-yard
+on all sides. Then, as the increasing hum
+fell upon his ears, he gave them his attention.
+It was the scene of which he had so
+often heard, and upon which he now looked
+for the first time. There were the people at
+Tawaf, walking, running, or standing with
+upturned eyes, sanctimoniously repeating
+passages of the Koran; there were the frantic
+few clinging to the great folds of the
+kiswah, as though its contact procured for
+them eternal salvation; there were the
+crowds gulping down copious draughts of
+the brackish water of Zem-Zem, or pouring
+it upon their heads.</p>
+
+<p>There, too, within a stone's throw of the
+temple, were the busy stalls of the venders,
+whence issued cries of:</p>
+
+<p>"Cucumbers! Cucumbers O!"</p>
+
+<p>"Grapes! Grapes!&mdash;luscious and juicy
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>with the crystal dews of Tayf! Grapes, O
+faithful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who will buy cloth of Damascus, rich
+and fit for a king? Come, buy thy lady a
+veil! Buy a veil to
+screen her charms
+blooming as the rosy
+light of morn, to
+screen her hair black
+as midnight shades on
+the hills of Nejd, and
+her eyes sparkling
+like diamonds of
+Oman!"</p>
+
+<p>"O water! Precious
+water from Zem-Zem!
+Water to wash
+away thy sin, and
+help thee into Paradise!
+O believer, buy
+water of Zem-Zem!"</p>
+
+<p>And there, beneath
+the twinkling lights
+of the portico, sat a
+group of Abyssinian
+girls, waiting to be
+sold as slaves.</p>
+
+<p>As the youth looked
+upon it all with no little
+curiosity he observed
+the crowd give
+way before a man
+clothed wholly in
+white, who proceeded
+directly to the Caaba
+and, pausing beneath
+the door, gave utterance
+to a loud prayer,
+while the people
+about fell prostrate
+on the ground. Then,
+in a loud voice, he
+commanded that the
+stair be brought. Attendants
+hastened to roll the bulky structure
+into its place, and the priest, or guardian of
+the temple, ascended, and received from his
+attendants several buckets of water which
+he carried into the edifice.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, small streams began to trickle
+from the doorway, and the guardian's white
+vestments again appeared, as he proceeded
+to sweep the water out, dashing it far over
+the steps. The people rushed beneath it,
+crowding over one another in their anxiety
+holding their upturned faces towards it and
+counting themselves blessed if a drop of it
+fell upon them. It was the ceremony of
+washing the Caaba.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 294px;">
+<a href="images/p085.jpg">
+<img src="images/p085thum.jpg" width="294" height="400" alt="&quot;Be not discouraged, my son,&quot; was Yusuf&#39;s reply." />
+</a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;Be not discouraged, my son,&quot; was Yusuf&#39;s reply.&mdash;See <a href="#Page_87">page 87</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The youth beside the pillar, though he
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>wore Moslem garb, looked on in contempt;
+and, barely waiting for the conclusion of the
+ceremony, walked proudly from the enclosure,
+merely pausing to examine somewhat
+critically the Black Stone, which, deserted
+for the moment, was visible in the red light
+of a torch above. Then, passing through the
+nearest gate, he walked, rather feebly, towards
+the house of Amzi.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf, wearied after a long day's work,
+was resting upon the carpeted Mastabah
+(platform) which forms a part of the
+vestibule of every comfortable house in
+Mecca. There was no light in the apartment
+save that afforded by the dim glimmer of a
+fire-pan, over which bubbled a fragrant urn
+of coffee. His thoughts had been wandering
+back over the events of his changeful life;
+events which would culminate, as far as his
+immediate history was concerned, in his
+early banishment from this city of his adoption.
+The little Jewish band would go together&mdash;precisely
+where, they did not know,&mdash;Amzi,
+Manasseh, the family of Asru, a few
+other devoted souls, and, it was to be hoped,
+Kedar.</p>
+
+<p>Yusuf's thoughts dwelt upon Kedar. To-night
+he seemed to feel a sweet assurance
+that his prayers in the youth's behalf were
+soon to be answered; and, in the darkness,
+he cried out for the lad's salvation, until
+the blessed Lord seemed so near that he almost
+fancied he could put forth his hand
+and feel the strong, loving, helping touch of
+Him who said, "I am the good shepherd,
+and know my sheep, and am known of mine....
+And other sheep I have, which are not
+of this fold; them also I must bring; and
+they shall hear my voice; and there shall be
+one fold, and one shepherd."</p>
+
+<p>A step sounded on the door-stone, and the
+very youth of whom Yusuf was thinking entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my Kedar," said the priest, "have
+you been enjoying the moon?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been to the Caaba," returned Kedar,
+with amused contempt in his voice,
+"yet I have neither swung by the kiswah
+nor drenched myself, like a rain-draggled
+hen, at Zem-Zem."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have not kissed the Black
+Stone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither have I kissed the stone. By my
+faith, if it has become blackened by the
+kiss of sinners, those poor simpletons caress
+it in vain! On the word of a Bedouin, it can
+hold no more, since it is as black as well
+may be already."</p>
+
+<p>"The worship of our little church, then,
+suits you better?" The priest's tone scarcely
+concealed the anxiety with which he asked
+the question.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to worship in truth," returned
+the youth, solemnly. "You seem to find a
+comfort in your service which these poor
+blindlings seek in vain. Aye, Yusuf, in living
+among you I have noted the peaceful
+tenor of your lives, the rest and confidence
+which nothing seems to overthrow. You rejoice
+in life, yet you do not fear death!
+Could such a life be mine, I would gladly accept
+it. But I do not seem to be one of you."</p>
+
+<p>The priest made no reply for a moment.
+Kedar did not know that he was praying for
+the fit word. Then his deep, tender tones
+broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p>"You believe in Jesus, whom we love?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that he was the Son of God;
+that he lived on the very hills to the north
+of us; that he died to reveal to us the greatness
+of his love. Yet&mdash;" He paused.</p>
+
+<p>"'Whosoever believeth on the Son hath
+everlasting life,'" said Yusuf in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, but&mdash;" the youth hesitated again.</p>
+
+<p>"But what, Kedar?" asked the priest.</p>
+
+<p>"Jesus said to Nicodemus," returned the
+youth, "'Except a man be born again, he
+cannot see the kingdom of heaven.' Yusuf,
+this is what bothers me. I cannot understand
+this being born again."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us call it, then, just 'beginning to
+love and trust Jesus,'" said Yusuf quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Kedar almost started in his surprise. This
+aspect of the question had never appeared
+to him before. For a long time he sat, deep
+in thought, and Yusuf did not break in upon
+his meditations.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?" he asked at length.</p>
+
+<p>"That is all," returned Yusuf. "To trust
+him you must believe in him, love him,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>recognize his love, and leave everything to
+his guidance&mdash;everything in this physical
+life, in your spiritual life, and in the life to
+come. Then you will find peace. All your
+days will be spent in a loving round of
+happy labor, in which no work seems low or
+trifling&mdash;happy because love to Jesus begets
+the wish to do his will in every affair of life;
+and perfect love renders service, not a bondage,
+but the joyful spontaneity of freedom."</p>
+
+<p>Kedar was again silent, then he said
+slowly:</p>
+
+<p>"Yusuf, I begin to understand it all now;
+yet&mdash;is there something wrong still?&mdash;I
+have not the overpowering thrill of joy, the
+exuberance of feeling, the wondrous rapture
+of delight, which Amzi says he experienced,
+when, in the prison of Medina, he saw the
+light."</p>
+
+<p>"Be not discouraged, my son," was the
+reply. "To different temperaments, in religion
+as in all else, the truth appeals in different
+ways. If you are trusting implicitly
+now in God's love, go on without doubt
+or fear. Most Christians&mdash;growing Christians&mdash;find
+that at different stages in their
+experience certain truths stand out more
+clearly, and, as the days go by, their difficulties
+clear away like mists before the
+morning sun."</p>
+
+<p>"Yusuf, can I ever become such a Christian
+as you?" returned Kedar, in a half-awed
+tone at the thought.</p>
+
+<p>"My son, look not on me," returned Yusuf,
+tenderly. "Strive only to perceive Jesus in
+all your life, to find him a reality to you&mdash;a
+companion, ever with you, walking by your
+side in the hot mart, riding by you in the
+desert, sitting by you in solitude,&mdash;then,
+where he is, evil cannot come. Your life
+will become all upright, conscientious, and
+loving, for his life will show through yours."</p>
+
+<p>"And do temptations never come to those
+so blessed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, Kedar, so long as life lasts 'our
+adversary, the devil, goeth about as a roaring
+lion, seeking whom he may devour.' Yet,
+think you that the God who 'stretcheth out
+the heavens as a curtain, who layeth the
+beams of his chambers in the waters, who
+maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh
+upon the wings of the wind, who maketh
+his angels spirits, his ministers a naming
+fire'&mdash;think you that such an One is not able
+to stand between you and the tempter?
+Think you that he before whom devils cried
+out in fear, is not able to deliver you from
+the power of evil? Kedar, know that the
+Christian may even glory in his own weakness,
+for Jesus has said, 'My strength is
+made perfect in weakness;' and yet, while
+thus feeling his helplessness, the believer
+must ever be conscious of the unconquerable
+strength of Christ, and should rest
+serene in the knowledge that, clothed in the
+full armor of God, he is able to withstand
+all the darts of the wicked one."</p>
+
+<p>Kedar said no more, but from that hour
+his humility, his patience, his gentleness, began
+to show forth as the outcome of the
+power of that working of the Spirit, whose
+fruit is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
+goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>KEDAR RETURNS TO HIS HOME.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"Death exempts not a man from being, but only
+presents an alteration."&mdash;<i>Bacon.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap087"><span class="dropcap">W</span></span>hen Kedar left
+Yusuf on that
+memorable night
+it was not to sleep.
+He ascended the
+stair and went out
+upon the hanging
+balcony, where he
+could look at the sky and
+the mountains, and ponder
+over the conversation of the evening. His
+was not the excitable, rapturous joy experienced
+by many, but a feeling of quiet contentment
+that settled upon his soul, and
+brought a calm smile to his features.</p>
+
+<p>So he sat, when Manasseh burst upon him
+exclaiming, "What! my invalid able to stay
+up all the night as well as half the day!
+Come, listen to me! I have news!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>"Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"This evening a courier from Medina arrived
+in the city. He has with him a proclamation
+requiring all unsubmissive Jews to
+leave Mecca by to-morrow night at the
+latest."</p>
+
+<p>"So soon!" exclaimed Kedar. "Where
+are they to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have just talked with Yusuf, and with
+Amzi, who, poor fat man! is trying to get a
+little sleep in the fresh air of the housetop.
+They propose that we join my father's family
+in Palestine. Of course, I do not object!"
+added the youth, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Think you it will be safe for so small a
+band to face the dangers of the desert
+alone?" asked Kedar.</p>
+
+<p>"A caravan leaves for Damascus to-morrow,"
+replied Manasseh. "Fortunately we
+may obtain its protection."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! Then I shall turn aside to the
+table-lands of Nejd and see my parents
+again," said Kedar.</p>
+
+<p>"Think you your parents would join our
+band?"</p>
+
+<p>Kedar shook his head. "Not likely. You
+see my father has lived all his days as a
+Bedouin. To be tied down to commerce he
+would consider a degradation. Neither
+would he become a shepherd, as watching
+sheep is a task held fit for women only in
+our tribe."</p>
+
+<p>"And will you stay with them, Kedar?"
+asked Manasseh.</p>
+
+<p>"I know not. We will see what the future
+has in store; but, at any rate," he added,
+half slyly, "your cousin Kedar will wear the
+Moslem turban no more."</p>
+
+<p>The tone, rather than the words, told all.
+Manasseh took a quick, sharp look at the
+face smiling quietly in the moonlight, then
+he seized Kedar's hand warmly and whispered,
+"I am glad."</p>
+
+<p>The following day was spent in packing
+and bidding adieux. Yusuf and Amzi passed
+the last hours among their poor, and, from
+the housetop, Kedar and Manasseh saw them
+returning in the evening, followed by a
+ragged crowd who clung to their gowns or
+wiped tearful eyes with tattered sleeves.</p>
+
+<p>The sun went down as the caravan left
+the city, and on an eminence above, the little
+Jewish band stopped to take a last look at
+their old home&mdash;Mecca, with its low houses,
+its crooked streets, its mystic Caaba, and its
+weird mountain scenery.</p>
+
+<p>All gray it lay beneath the shades of falling
+night; yet, as they looked, a wondrous
+change ensued. Gradually the landscape began
+to brighten; the houses shone forth; the
+aloe trees became green; the side of Abu
+Kubays sparkled with a seemingly self-emitted
+light; the rocks of the red mountain
+were dyed with a rosy glow; the Caaba grew
+more and more distinct, until even the
+folds of its kiswah were visible; and the
+sand of the narrow valley shone, beneath a
+saffron sky above, with a coppery radiance.
+It was the wondrous "after-glow" of the
+Orient,&mdash;a scene unique in its beauty, yet not
+often beheld in so sheltered a spot as Mecca.</p>
+
+<p>The exiles, with tearful eyes, looked upon
+the fair landscape, which thus seemed to bid
+them an inanimate farewell. Then, as the
+glow paled and the rocks again took their
+sombre hue, and the city faded in redoubled
+shadow, the little band turned slowly away,
+and followed in the wake of the caravan
+now winding through the pass at some distance.</p>
+
+<p>The Hebrew band consisted of twenty
+souls, among whom were Sherah, the daughter
+of Asru, and her mother, and the old
+white-haired man Benjamin, who had
+preached in the church and had become a
+father indeed to Asru's family.</p>
+
+<p>Needless to speak of the long, tedious journey.
+Suffice it to say that, while the caravan
+wound through the north of El Hejaz,
+Kedar and Manasseh turned aside to the
+fresher plateaux of the Nejd, and the Bedouin
+once more found himself amid the
+scenes of his boyhood.</p>
+
+<p>His spirits rose as the cool breeze from the
+plains struck him. The vision of sweet
+home&mdash;sweet to the roving Bedouin as to
+the pampered child of luxury&mdash;rose before
+him, and he urged his horse on with an ever-increasing
+anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>From neighboring tribes they found out
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>the way to Musa's present encampment,
+then, spurring their horses on over a crisp
+plain, and beguiling the time with many a
+laugh and jest, they proceeded in the direction
+indicated, until, in a broad valley, the
+circle of tents lay before them.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Manasseh," said Kedar, "let us
+give them a surprise. Let us take a turn up
+yonder hill and swoop down upon them like
+a falcon."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed!" quoth Manasseh; and, with almost
+childish pleasure, they proceeded to
+make a short detour, and then galloped rapidly
+down from the hill-crest.</p>
+
+<p>The encampment was strangely quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, Manasseh?" asked
+Kedar. "There is scarcely anyone about."</p>
+
+<p>A few dogs now set up a savage barking,
+and a man came out with a heavy whip and
+drove them, yelping, away.</p>
+
+<p>"What is wrong, Tema?" asked Kedar,
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, my young master," said the man,
+"your father will soon be no more."</p>
+
+<p>The youth sprang to the ground and entered
+the chief's tent. There lay the brave
+old Sheikh, dying, as he had scorned to die,
+in his bed, with pallid face and closed eyes,
+his gray hair damp and tangled, and his
+grizzled beard descending upon his brawny
+chest, from which the folds of his garments
+were drawn back. About him knelt his wife
+and children. Lois raised a tear-stained
+face to her son, then buried it again in her
+hands. Kedar threw himself beside the
+couch. The old man's lips moved.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" cried he, "it is blood-revenge!
+Mizni, bold chief, I have you now! Yes, fly
+up to your eyrie among the rocks, if you can.
+I shall reach you there! Blood must be
+spilled. My honor! My honor!"</p>
+
+<p>He was thinking of a fray of his youth in
+which he had paid the dues of blood for an
+only brother. Again, he seemed to be dashing
+on in the chase.</p>
+
+<p>"On, on, Zebe!" he cried, in a hoarse whisper,
+"on, good steed! The quarry is ahead
+there! See the falcon swoop! Good steed,
+on!"</p>
+
+<p>His voice was growing fainter, yet he
+continued to wave his arms feebly, and to
+move his lips in inaudible muttering. Once
+more the words became distinct:</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Kedar, little man! Let father put
+you on his horse. There, boy, there! You
+will make a son for a Bedouin to be proud
+of!"</p>
+
+<p>A tear rolled down Kedar's cheek as the
+dying man thus pictured a happy scene of
+his childhood. "Poor old father!" he murmured.
+"Manasseh, it is hard to see him
+die thus godlessly. Had I but come sooner!"</p>
+
+<p>The old Sheikh's breath came shorter. His
+hand moved more feebly; he turned his head
+uneasily and opened his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He fixed them upon his son with a look of
+consciousness. His face brightened.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear father," whispered the youth, and
+kissed his cheek.</p>
+
+<p>A smile spread over the old man's face.
+His lips formed the words "My son!" His
+eyes closed, and the old Bedouin was dead.</p>
+
+<p>The women broke into a low wail, and
+Kedar, with a tenderness not of the old time,
+strove to comfort his mother. The rites of
+anointing the body for burial were performed,
+and all through the evening the different
+members of the tribe gathered mournfully
+in to take a last look at the brave old
+leader.</p>
+
+<p>When night fell Kedar went out; the atmosphere
+of the tent seemed to choke him.
+Manasseh stood silently by his side. The
+wail of the women sounded in a low burial-song
+from within, and groups of men, talking
+in whispers, gathered before the door.</p>
+
+<p>Kedar stood with folded arms and head
+thrown back, looking upon the heavens. A
+star fell. Every Bedouin bowed his head,
+for the Arabs believe that when a star falls
+a soul ascends to paradise.</p>
+
+<p>"Manasseh," said Kedar in a low tone, "I
+cannot let them bury him. They would do
+it with half-heathen rites."</p>
+
+<p>"Can none among all these conduct Christian
+service?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not one. My mother is the only one who
+knows aught of Christianity."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Manasseh, "if you will let
+me, I shall offer prayers above his grave."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>"No, Manasseh," said Kedar decidedly,
+"these people would resent it in a stranger.
+I shall do it; they will grant me the privilege
+as the right of a son."</p>
+
+<p>"And rightly," exclaimed Manasseh, surprised
+and pleased at the staunchness with
+which his cousin took his new stand.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day the funeral wound
+slowly up the defile to the place of the lonely
+grave. And there Kedar prayed simply and
+earnestly, a prayer in which the spiritual enlightenment
+of the sorrowful people about
+him was the chief theme. They did not understand
+all its meaning, but they were impressed
+by the solemnity and sincerity of the
+young Arab's manner.</p>
+
+<p>Then the little heap of sand was raised,
+and four stone slabs were placed, according
+to Bedouin custom, upon the grave.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DEATH OF MOHAMMED.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"Nothing can we call our own but death"&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap090"><span class="dropcap">W</span></span>hile Musa thus
+lay dying in the
+tents of Nejd, the
+cold hand of death
+was fast closing
+upon another in
+the land of Arabia.
+Day by day
+the germs of disease
+pulsed
+stronger and stronger through the veins of
+Mohammed. Monarch of Arabia, originator
+of a creed which was eventually to push itself
+throughout Egypt, India, Afghanistan,
+Persia, and even to the wild steppes of
+Siberia, he must now die. He viewed the
+end with firmness, and it has been a matter
+of controversy as to whether in these later
+days he still had the hallucination of being
+a prophet.</p>
+
+<p>Too feeble to walk to the mosque, he lay,
+tended by his wives, in the tent of Ayesha,
+his favorite. Not many days before his
+death he asked that he might be carried to
+the mosque. Willing arms bore him thither,
+and placed him in the pulpit, from whence
+he could look down upon the city, and away
+to the palm-groves of Kuba. Then, turning
+his face towards the holy city, Mecca, he
+addressed the crowds of waiting people
+below.</p>
+
+<p>"If there be any man," said he, "whom I
+have unjustly scourged, I submit my own
+back to the lash of retaliation. Have I
+aspersed the reputation of any Mussulman?&mdash;let
+him proclaim my faults in the face of
+the congregation. Has anyone been despoiled
+of his goods?&mdash;the little that I possess shall
+compensate the principal and the interest of
+the debt."</p>
+
+<p>He then liberated his slaves, gave directions
+as to the order of his funeral, and appointed
+Abu Beker to supply his place in
+offering public prayer. This seemed to indicate
+that Abu Beker was to be his successor
+in office; and the long-tried friend accordingly
+became the first caliph of the Saracen
+empire.</p>
+
+<p>After this the prophet was conveyed again
+to the house of Ayesha. The fever increased,
+and the pain in his head became so great
+that he more than once pressed his hands
+upon it exclaiming, "The poison of Kha&iuml;bar!
+The poison of Kha&iuml;bar!"</p>
+
+<p>Once, perceiving the mother of Bashar, the
+soldier who had died of the poison in the
+fatal city, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"O mother of Bashar, the cords of my
+heart are now breaking of the food which I
+ate with your son at Kha&iuml;bar!"</p>
+
+<p>At another time, springing up in delirium,
+he called for pen and ink that he might
+write a new revelation; but owing to his
+weak state, his request was refused. In talking
+to those about him he said that Azra&euml;l,
+the Angel of Death, had not dared to take his
+soul until he had asked his permission.</p>
+
+<p>A few nights before his death, he awoke
+from a troubled sleep, and, starting wildly
+from his couch, sprang up with unnatural
+strength from his bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Belus!" he cried to an attendant.
+"Come with me to the burial-place of El
+Bakia! The dead call to me from their
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>graves, and I must go thither to pray for
+them."</p>
+
+<p>Alone they passed into the night; through
+the long, silent streets they walked like
+phantoms; up the white road of Nedj they
+glided, until the few low tombs of the cemetery
+to the southeast of the city were in
+sight.</p>
+
+<p>At the border of the bleak, lonely field,
+where the wind moaned among the tombs
+like the sighing of a weeping Rachel, Mohammed
+paused.</p>
+
+<p>"Peace be with you, O people of El
+Bakia!" he cried. "Peace be with you,
+martyrs of El Bakia! One and all, peace be
+with you! We verily, if Allah please, are
+about to join you! O Allah, pardon us and
+them! And the mercy of God and his blessings
+be upon us all!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus he prayed, stretching his hands towards
+the spot where his friends lay in their
+long sleep. His companion stood in awe
+behind him, shivering in superstitious terror,
+as the white tombs gleamed like moving apparitions
+through the gloom, and the night-owls
+hooted with a mournful cadence o'er
+the dreary waste.</p>
+
+<p>When he had concluded, the prophet
+turned towards home. But the excitement
+of mind which had endowed him with almost
+supernatural strength now deserted
+him. His steps grew feeble and he was fain
+to lean upon Belus on his painful way back.</p>
+
+<p>He grew rapidly worse. His wife Ayesha,
+and his daughter Fatima, wife of Ali, seldom
+left his bedside. When the last came, he
+raised his eyes to the ceiling and exclaimed,
+"O Allah, pardon my sins!" He then, with
+his own feeble hand, sprinkled his face with
+water, and soon afterwards, with his head
+on Ayesha's bosom, he departed, in the sixty-third
+year of his age, and the eleventh year
+of the Hejira, A.D. 632.</p>
+
+<p>The frenzied people would not believe that
+he was dead. "He will arise, like Jesus,"
+they said. But no returning breath quivered
+through the cold lips or animated the rigid
+form of him whom they passionately called
+to life; and not until Abu Beker assured
+them that he was really no more, saying,
+"Did he not himself assure us that he must
+experience the common fate of all? Did he
+not say in the Koran, 'Mohammed is no
+more than an apostle; the other apostles
+have already deceased before him; if he die
+therefore, or be slain, will ye turn back on
+your heels?'"&mdash;not until then did they disperse,
+with deep groans.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed was buried in the house in
+which he died, his grave being dug in the
+spot beneath his bed; but some years later
+a stone tomb was erected over the grave,
+and until the present day the place is held
+so sacred that it is at the risk of his life that
+anyone but a Mussulman dares enter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NEW HOME.</h3>
+
+<div class="chpoem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The almost sacred joys of Home depend."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Hannah More.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap091"><span class="dropcap">I</span></span>n the quiet valley in Palestine
+life had been dealing
+gently with Nathan and his
+family. The long, long absence
+of Manasseh was the
+one thing lacking for their
+perfect contentment.</p>
+
+<p>"It is well," Nathan would
+say, yet his eyes would turn
+wistfully towards the South,
+as though he half-hoped to see the beloved
+face of his son appearing over the hill. The
+mother grew weary with waiting, yet she
+did not murmur, but whispered to her lonely
+heart, "Living or dead, it must be well."
+Only once she said, "Husband, he is surely
+dead," and Nathan replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us still hope, wife, that we may yet
+see the goodness of the Lord in permitting
+us to behold his face."</p>
+
+<p>So they hoped on, and worked on, amid
+their orange trees, their corn and vegetables,
+and their sheep browsing peacefully on the
+hills. And Mary tended the jasmine flowers
+and rose-bushes at the door, carrying water
+to them night and morning, that they might
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>look at their prettiest when Manasseh came.
+Only one letter had reached them&mdash;a
+cheery, hopeful letter,&mdash;but it had been a
+long time on the way, and the events of
+which it told had taken place many weeks
+before it reached the Jordan valley. It had
+told them of Yusuf and Amzi, of the little
+church, of the sender's strange meeting with
+Kedar, and the news he had gathered of
+Lois. Then it had told of the war, and had
+closed with an affectionate farewell, in
+which the writer expressed his wish, rather
+than his expectation, of being able to make
+his way to the new home soon.</p>
+
+<p>How long it seemed to Mary since that
+last word had come! And he was not home
+yet! She kept the precious manuscript in
+her bosom, and twenty times a day she
+looked down the long valley for the well-known
+form. One morning she sat by the
+river, idly plashing her bare feet in its
+golden ripples, and looking at the shadows
+on the little stones near the shore. About
+her gamboled a pet lamb, and above, a soft
+blue sky was flecked with fleecy white
+clouds. She twirled a sprig of blossoms in
+her hand, but her thoughts were far away in
+dear, hot, dusty, dreary Mecca.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so pleasant as this, though," she
+thought, "if Manasseh were only here."</p>
+
+<p>Just then the tinkle of a camel-bell was
+heard,&mdash;a strange sound in that secluded
+spot. Mary looked up, and saw what seemed
+to be a great many people coming over the
+hill, camels bearing shugdufs, too, and pack-mules,
+heavily laden.</p>
+
+<p>Trembling, she rushed into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother, what means this? See the
+people! Manasseh would not bring all of
+those with him?"</p>
+
+<p>The mother shaded her eyes with her hand,
+and looked forth, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Nearer and nearer came the train. Who
+were they? Not Manasseh; Manasseh would
+not come so slowly. Can it be? Not
+Yusuf! Not Amzi! Yes, yes! O joy! It is
+they!&mdash;and many other familiar faces smile
+also from the train!</p>
+
+<p>"Is Manasseh well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Manasseh is well, and happy."</p>
+
+<p>So questions were asked and answered in
+joyful confusion; and Nathan came in from
+the hills to bid the travelers welcome. Then
+the dusty, travel-stained tents were pitched
+once more, this time on a grassy slope by the
+rippling Jordan. A simple repast was
+spread, and the company dined in royal
+state.</p>
+
+<p>With what surprise did Nathan and his
+household greet the wife of Asru and her
+sweet-faced daughter as sisters in Christ,
+and with what sympathy did they hear of
+Asru's sad death!</p>
+
+<p>Then plans for the immediate settlement
+of the little party were made. Pasture-land
+in abundance was to be had; hence the
+majority of the new-comers would be
+speedily and comfortably provided with new
+homes. Amzi would take up his abode in
+some comfortable town-house not far distant,
+and Yusuf would remain with him for
+the present.</p>
+
+<p>Mary and Sherah were friends at once, and
+ere evening fell, they sat, as girls will, in a
+cozy nook by the river-side forming plans
+for walks and talks during the long, bright,
+summer days.</p>
+
+<p>Every cloud had drifted, for the time being,
+from the happy company; and, ere they retired
+to rest, all united with fervor in the
+words of the grand song:</p>
+
+<p>"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not
+all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine
+iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who
+redeemeth thy life from destruction; who
+crowneth thee with loving kindness and
+tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth
+with good things; so that thy youth is renewed
+like the eagle's. The Lord executeth
+righteousness and judgment for all that are
+oppressed.... Bless the Lord, all his
+works, in all places of his dominion! Bless
+the Lord, O my soul!"</p>
+
+<p>And later in that same evening, another
+group came to Nathan's house. The door
+was closed, for the evening was chill without.
+A knock was heard. Mary opened the
+door, and there was Manasseh himself,
+radiantly happy; and close behind him was
+another Manasseh with Bedouin eyes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>Mother, sister, and father pressed round
+the youth until he could scarcely move.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there!" he said, shaking them off
+playfully, "my cousin Kedar will be jealous.
+Mother, this is Lois' son, and there is someone
+in the darkness here still."</p>
+
+<p>The youth went out. Who was this that
+he assisted from the shugduf?&mdash;the living
+image of Lois in her girlhood days! Not
+Lois, but her daughter, a Bedouin maid,
+fresh as the breeze from her native hills.
+And can this be Lois&mdash;this sad-faced yet
+stately woman? It is, indeed, and the long-separated
+sisters are once more united.
+Kedar's brothers are there too, and one more
+family is added to the little community.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A WEDDING IN PALESTINE.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"God, the best maker of all marriages."&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+<p><span class="dropcap093"><span class="dropcap">F</span></span>or a moment let us
+look more closely
+at the little district
+where the Jewish band
+found a home after all
+their wanderings.</p>
+
+<p>They settled at a
+point where the Jordan
+River, that strange
+river flowing for its entire length through a
+depression one thousand feet below the
+level of the sea, is cut up by many a
+cataract; and the rushing noise of the
+water, carried from its mysterious source
+at the foot of Mount Hermon, fills the
+valley with a music not lost upon ears
+long accustomed to the dry wastes of
+Arabian deserts. To the north lie plains
+where cold blasts blow, and mountains
+whose crests gleam with never-failing snow;
+yet in the fair vales of Jordan the tempered
+breeze fans the air with the mildness of a
+never-ceasing-summer, and the soft alluvial
+soil is luxuriant with the rich growth of the
+tropics. To the west the rugged and picturesque
+mountains of Judea rise, and to the
+east, at a distance of some ten miles, lie the
+blue-tinted mountains of Moab, rich in associations
+of sacred history.</p>
+
+<p>In this favored spot, shaded by waving
+groves and hidden by vines, was the house
+of Asru's wife; and at a little distance from
+it was a well, an old-fashioned well such as
+is seen only in the East, walled about with
+ancient and worn flag-stones, between
+which, at one side, the water trickled and
+ran over mossy stones to the river below.</p>
+
+<p>A large tamarisk tree waved above it, and
+in its shade, with one knee resting on the
+flag-stone, her hands clasped behind her
+head, and her large eyes fixed upon the
+mountains of Moab beyond, stood Sherah,
+ere the sun rose, on one beautiful autumn
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>An earthen water-pitcher, such as is carried
+by the girls of the Orient, was beside
+her, yet she moved not to execute her
+errand.</p>
+
+<p>The sun arose behind the mountain; the
+amber sky became golden; the rosy pink
+clouds changed to radiant silver; the birds
+sang; the dew glittered; and the sun shone
+through the leaves of the trees with a flush
+of green-gold.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty of the scene touched the girl.
+In a low, clear voice, spontaneous as the
+song of a bird, she sang: "For the Lord shall
+comfort Zion; he will comfort her waste
+places: and he will make her wilderness like
+Eden, and her desert like the garden of the
+Lord; joy and gladness shall be found
+therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."</p>
+
+<p>The song brought comfort to her; for was
+she not soon to leave this fairy spot, this
+Aidenn, to return to the land of the Mussulman;
+not the land of&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Deep myrrh thickets blowing round<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The stately cedar, tamarisks.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thick rosaries of scented thorn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tall Orient shrubs, and obelisks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Graven with emblems of the time,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>but to the bleak, treeless plains of Nejd,
+breezy with the warm breath of desert-swept
+winds, bounded by rolling mountains,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>and dotted by the black tents of those roving
+hordes of whom it has been said that "their
+hand is against every man, and every man's
+hand is against them,"&mdash;the fierce, cruel yet
+generous, impulsive, courteous tribes of the
+desert.</p>
+
+<p>For Manasseh and Kedar were both going
+back to the desert tribes, braving the dangers
+of persecution, that they might exert an
+influence in christianizing the Bedouin
+tribes over whom the Moslems as yet had
+little power. Sherah was going back as
+Manasseh's wife, and this was her wedding-day.
+She was willing to go, yet she could
+not help feeling a little lonely on this last
+morning in her mother's home.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the call "Sherah! Sherah!" came
+through the olive groves, and the old nurse
+hobbled out. The woman was a thorough
+type of an aged Arab, lean, wrinkled, hook-nosed,
+with skin like shrunken leather, and
+a voice like a raven. Yet Sherah knew her
+goodness of heart, and loved her dearly.
+She was taking the old woman back with
+her, for, oddly enough, Zama had never
+felt at home in the new land, and often
+craved that her bones might be buried in
+the old soil.</p>
+
+<p>"Why disturb me, Zama?" said the young
+woman kindly. "See you not that I am bidding
+farewell to this dear valley?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, aye, child," muttered the old nurse,
+"but we must put the wedding-gown upon
+you, and twine jasmine in your hair." She
+stroked the glossy masses fondly. "Ah,
+to-morrow it must be braided in the plaits of
+the matron, and the coins will be placed
+about my precious one's neck; yet it seems
+only yesterday that she was a toddling baby
+at my feet."</p>
+
+<p>The two women, the one tall and lithe as a
+willow, the other bent and shrunken, took
+their way to the house. Mary was already
+there, and assisted in adorning the bride.</p>
+
+<p>The guests arrived, and the simple ceremony
+was soon over; then the company sat
+down to the wedding feast. Lois and her
+sister talked in low tones to the mother of
+Sherah, who grieved a little at the separation
+from her daughter. Happy jests and laughter
+passed about among the young people.
+Amzi went, with beaming face, from group
+to group; and Yusuf looked quietly on.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the entertainment some one
+came to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a peddler!" cried one. "Let us see
+what he has&mdash;perhaps another gift for our
+fair bride."</p>
+
+<p>The young people gathered about the glittering
+trinkets. Manasseh came near, and,
+with a merry twinkle in his eyes, placed his
+hand on the man's shoulder. The peddler
+looked up, and his face blanched with fear.</p>
+
+<p>It was the little Jew, who, having escaped
+like an eel from Manasseh's care after the
+Battle of Ohod, and having become thoroughly
+frightened at the idea of remaining
+longer in a war-ridden district, had disappeared
+like magic from the plains of Arabia,
+and had become once more the insignificant
+Jewish peddler in the more secure provinces
+to the north.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be frightened," laughed Manasseh.
+"We no longer take prisoners of war;
+yet, for the sake of old acquaintance, I
+claim you to partake of our feast."</p>
+
+<p>The little man was half-dragged to the
+table and given a place by Nathan, who
+spoke kindly to him. Yet he did not feel at
+ease. The stolen cup seemed to point an accusing
+finger at him; and he ate little, and
+talked less.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he caught a glimpse of Yusuf.
+The sight of the man whom he had so nearly
+delivered to death was too much for him.
+His little eyes darted about as if suspicious
+of some design upon his freedom. He could
+not understand the magnanimity of these
+people, and, deeming discretion the better
+part of valor, he sprang from the table,
+shouldered his pack, and was off, to be seen
+no more.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;">
+<img src="images/p094.png" width="368" height="152" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FAREWELL.</h3>
+
+<div class="chquote"><p>"Sondry folk, by aventure
+y-falle in felaweschipe."&mdash;<i>Chaucer.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap095"><span class="dropcap">A</span></span>nd now, our tale
+draws to a close,
+and time permits but
+a parting glance at
+those who have been
+so long a goodly company
+of friends.</p>
+
+<p>Amzi has, in his
+descent to old age,
+developed a wonderful activity
+of mind and body. He has become
+one of the most influential
+members of the little town in which he has
+taken up his abode. Realizing as never before
+the duty which man owes to man, and
+fully awakened at last to the fact that our
+talents are given us to be exercised fully, he
+no longer dreams away time in the Arab
+Kaif; but, from morning to night, his plump
+figure and good-natured old face are seen, up
+and down, in the mart, in the council-chamber,
+in the church, wherever he can lend a
+helping hand. He has even assumed the
+role of schoolmaster, and upon the earthen
+floor of an unused hall he gathers day by
+day a troop of little ones, over whom he
+bends patiently as they cling to his gown for
+sympathy in their small trials, or as they
+trace upon their wax tablets, with little, uncertain
+hands and in almost illegible characters,
+the words of a copy, or text.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," he says, "who knows what these
+little ones may some day become? They are
+as impressionable as the wax upon which
+they write. Heaven grant that the impression
+made upon them may be mighty for
+good!"</p>
+
+<p>Kedar has married a Bedouin maid, and is
+happy in his free life in the old land. Naught
+but the desert could satisfy him; he would
+stagnate in the calm life which those in the
+Jordan valley are finding so pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>As yet he and Manasseh have not been
+molested in their work by the Moslems; and
+in their remote mountain recesses they are
+persistently fighting against heathendom,
+and are leading many to live better and nobler
+lives.</p>
+
+<p>And Yusuf? He is in his home-land again.
+Once more he stands upon the highest point
+of the Guebre temple. The priests have not
+refused him admittance, for no one has
+recognized in this harmless old man the
+once Guebre Yusuf.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, it is heathen Persia still! The fires
+flicker upon the altar, and the idolatrous
+chants arise on the air. Yusuf covers his
+face with his mantle and weeps. He has
+but a few years of strength before him, but
+he will spend them in trying to bring the
+Gospel of love to these poor, blind people.</p>
+
+<p>He grieves for his benighted country; but
+when the moon slowly rises, shedding her
+soft rays over the old scene, the mountains,
+the valleys below, all calm, peaceful, radiant,
+he is comforted. He thinks of Him who
+"created the lesser orb to rule the night,"
+and a great joy fills his heart that he has
+been led to a recognition of Him, and
+that he has been enabled to lead others to
+Him.</p>
+
+<p>His face glows with serene happiness and
+hope. He raises his eyes to the calm, deep
+heavens, and says:</p>
+
+<p>"O Father, I thank thee that 'mine eyes
+have seen the King, the Lord of hosts,' and
+his dear Son! I thank thee that thou hast
+led me to see Truth! O God, thou hast
+taught me from my youth, and hitherto have
+I declared thy wondrous works! Now also
+when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake
+me not until I have showed thy
+strength unto this generation, and thy power
+to every one that is to come! And now,
+Father, 'what wait I for? My hope is in
+thee,' the great God, the ever-loving Father,
+now and for evermore. Amen and amen."</p>
+
+<p>And there will we leave him.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">"May he live<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Longer than I have time to tell his years!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ever beloved and loving, may his rule be!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And when old Time shall lead him to his end,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Goodness and he fill up one monument!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="cite">&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">THE END.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>
+    The month of Ramadhan was held as holy prior to Mohammed's time; its sanctity
+    was but confirmed by him.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>
+    Medina at this time bore the name of Yathrib, but in this volume we shall
+    give it the later and better-known name of "Medina," derived from the earlier
+    "<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: period missing in original">Mahdinah.</ins>"</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>
+    The Moslems <i>now</i> assert that the sacred fire went out of itself at the
+    birth of Mohammed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>
+    A fourth, the "Darb-el-Sharki," or Eastern Road, has since been built by order
+    of the wife of the famous Haroun al Raschid.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a>
+    Joseph Pitts, A.D. 1680, says: "Mecca is surrounded for several miles with
+    many thousands of little hills which are very near to one another. They are
+    all stony-rock, and blackish, and pretty near of a bigness, appearing at a
+    distance like cocks of hay, but all pointing towards Mecca."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a>
+    Burton says the black stone is volcanic, but is thought by some to be a meteorite
+    or a&euml;rolite. Burckhardt thought it composed of lava. Of its appearance
+    Ali Bey says: "It is a block of volcanic basalt, whose circumference is sprinkled
+    with little crystals, with rhombs of tile-red feldspath on a dark background
+    like velvet or charcoal<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: missing quote mark in original">."</ins></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>
+    By the latest statistics the number of Mohammedans now scattered throughout
+    Asia, Africa, and the south-eastern part of Europe amounts to some 176,834,372.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a>
+    Moslems assert that upon this night Mohammed was carried through the seven
+    heavens of which El Islam tells.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a>
+    The initial "A" is placed at the top of all Arabian writings. It is the initial
+    of "Allah" and the first letter of the alphabet, and is symbolic of the origin
+    of creation.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+  <p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a>
+    Burton gives seven hundred.</p>
+  <br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='tnote'><h4>Transcriber's Notes</h4>
+
+<p>The Table of Contents was added by the transcriber.</p>
+
+<p>Obvious printing errors were repaired and noted by the use of
+a dashed <ins class="correction" title="like this">underline</ins>
+in the text. Scrolling the mouse over such text will display the change that was made.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
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@@ -0,0 +1,7773 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Days of Mohammed, by Anna May Wilson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Days of Mohammed
+
+
+Author: Anna May Wilson
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 31, 2005  [eBook #17435]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Amy Cunningham, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 17435-h.htm or 17435-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/4/3/17435/17435-h/17435-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/4/3/17435/17435-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED.
+
+by
+
+ANNA MAY WILSON.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+David C. Cook Publishing Company,
+Elgin, Ill., and 36 Washington St., Chicago.
+Copyright, 1897, by David C. Cook Publishing Company.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In "The Days of Mohammed," one aim of the author has been to bring out
+the fact that it is possible to begin the heaven-life on earth. It is
+hoped that a few helpful thoughts as to the means of attaining this life
+may be exemplified in the career of the various characters depicted.
+
+An attempt has been made, by constant reference to the best works on
+Mohammed and Arabia, to render the historical basis strictly correct.
+Especial indebtedness is acknowledged to the writings of Irving, Burton,
+and the Rev. Geo. Bush; also to the travels of Burckhardt, Joseph Pitts,
+Ludovico Bartema and Giovanni Finati, each of whom undertook a
+pilgrimage to the cities of Medina and Mecca; also to the excellent
+synopsis of the life and times of Mohammed as given by Prof. Max Mueller
+in the introduction to Palmer's translation of the Koran.
+
+As the tiny pebble cast into the water sends its circling wavelets to
+the distant shore, so this little book is cast forth upon the world, in
+the hope that it may exert some influence in bringing hope and comfort
+to some weary heart, and that, in helping someone to attain a clearer
+conception of Divine love and companionship, it may, if in never so
+insignificant a degree, perhaps help on to that time when all shall
+
+    "Trust the Hand of Light will lead the people,
+    Till the thunders pass, the spectres vanish,
+    And the Light is Victor, and the darkness
+    Dawns into the Jubilee of the Ages."
+
+
+
+
+PRECEDING EVENTS--SUMMARY.
+
+
+Yusuf, a Guebre priest, a man of intensely religious temperament, and
+one of those whose duty it is to keep alive the sacred fire of the
+Persian temple, has long sought for a more heart-satisfying religion
+than that afforded to him by the doctrines of his country. Though a man
+of kindliest disposition, yet so benighted he is that, led on by a deep
+study of the mysteries of Magian and Sabaean rites, he has been induced
+to offer, in human sacrifice, Imri, the little granddaughter of Ama, an
+aged Persian woman, and daughter of an Arab, Uzza, who, though married
+to a Persian, lives at Oman with his wife, and knows nothing of the
+sacrifice until it is over.
+
+The death of the child, though beneath his own hand, immediately strikes
+horror to the heart of the priest. His whole soul revolts against the
+inhumanity of the act, which has not brought to him or Ama the blessing
+he had hoped for, and he rebels against the religion which has, though
+ever so rarely, permitted the exercise of such an atrocious rite. He
+becomes more than ever dissatisfied with the vagueness of his belief. He
+cannot find the rest which he desires; the Zendavesta of Zoroaster can
+no longer satisfy his heart's longing; his country-people are sunk in
+idolatry, and, instead of worshiping the God of whom the priests have a
+vague conception, persist in bowing down before the symbols themselves,
+discerning naught but the objects--the sun, moon, stars, fire--light,
+all in all.
+
+Yusuf, indeed, has a clearer idea of God; but he worships him from afar
+off, and looks upon him as a God of wrath and judgment rather than as
+the Father of love and mercy. In his new spiritual agitation he
+conceives the idea of a closer relation with the Lord of the universe;
+his whole soul calls out for a vivid realization of God, and he casts
+about for light in his trouble.
+
+From a passing stranger, traveling in Persia--a descendant of those
+Sabaean Persians who at an early age obtained a footing in Arabia,
+and whose influence was, for a time, so strongly marked through
+the whole district known as the Nejd, and even down into Yemen,
+Arabia-Felix,--Yusuf has learned of a new and strange religion held by
+the people of the great peninsula. His whole being calls for relief from
+the doubts which harass him. He is rich and he decides to proceed at
+once towards the west and to search the world, if necessary,--not, as
+did Sir Galahad and the knights of King Arthur's Table, in quest of the
+Holy Grail, but in search of the scarcely less effulgent radiance of the
+beams of Truth and Love.
+
+
+
+
+THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+YUSUF BEGINS HIS SEARCH FOR TRUTH.
+
+    "O when shall all my wanderings end,
+    And all my steps to Thee-ward tend!"
+
+
+"Peace, oh peace! that thy light wings might now rest upon me! Truth,
+that thou mightest shine in upon my soul, making all light where now is
+darkness! Ye spirits that dwell in yon bright orbs far above me, ye that
+alone are privileged to bow before the Great Creator of the universe, ye
+that alone may address yourselves to the Great Omnipotent Spirit with
+impunity, intercede for me, I beseech you! Bow before that Great
+Sovereign of all wisdom and light, whom we worship through these vague
+symbols of fire and brightness; plead with him before whom I dare not
+come, in my behalf. Beseech of him, if he will condescend to notice his
+most humble priest, that he may lead him into light effulgent, into all
+truth, and that he may clear from his soul these vapors of doubt which
+now press upon him in blackest gloom and rack his soul with torment. If
+I sin in doubting thus, beseech him to forgive me and to lead me to a
+conception of him as he is. Ye that are his ministers, from your starry
+spheres guide me! Whether through darkness, thorns, or stony ways, guide
+me; I shall not falter if I may see the light at last! Oh, grant me
+peace!"
+
+Thus prayed Yusuf, the Magian priest. He paused. No sound passed from
+his lips, but he still stood with upraised arms, gazing into the intense
+depths of the Persian sky, purple, and flecked with golden stars, the
+"forget-me-nots of the angels."
+
+His priestly vestments were dazzlingly white, and upon his shoulders
+were fixed two snowy wings that swept downward to the ground. His black
+beard descended far over his breast, and from the eyes above shone forth
+the glow of a soul yearning towards the infinite unknown, whose all is
+God.
+
+Behind him, near the altar of the rounded tower,--round in the
+similitude of the orbs of light, the sun, moon, and stars,--danced the
+sacred fire, whose flames were said to have burned unceasingly for
+nearly one thousand years. The fiery wreaths leaped upwards toward the
+same purple sky, as if pointing with long, red fingers, in mockery of
+the priest's devotion; and the ruddy glare, falling upon him as he
+stood so still there, enveloped him with a halo of light. It gleamed
+upon his head, upon his uplifted hands, upon the curves of the wings on
+his shoulders, silhouetting him against the darkness, and lighting his
+white habiliments until, all motionless as he was, he seemed like a
+marble statue dazzlingly radiant in the light of one crimson gleam from
+a sinking sun.
+
+And so he stood, heeding it not, till the moon rose, soft and full; the
+mountain-tops shone with a rim of silver, the valleys far below the
+temple looked deeper in the shade, and the fire burned low.
+
+Rapt and more rapt grew the face of the priest. Surely the struggle of
+his soul was being answered, and in his nearness to Nature, he was
+getting a faint, far-off gleam of the true nature of Nature's God. His
+glance fell to the changing landscape below; his arms were extended as
+if in benediction; and his lips moved in a low and passionate farewell
+to his native land. Then he turned.
+
+The fire burned low on the altar.
+
+"Sacred symbol, whose beams have no power to warm my chilled heart, I
+bid you a long farewell! They will say that Yusuf is faithless, a false
+priest. They will mayhap follow him to slay him. And they will bow again
+to yon image, and defile thine altars again with infants' blood, not
+discerning the true God. Yet he must be approachable. I feel it! I know
+it! O Great Spirit, reveal Thyself unto Yusuf! Reveal Thyself unto
+Persia! Great Spirit, guide me!"
+
+For the first time, Yusuf thus addressed a prayer direct to the Deity,
+and he did so in fear and trembling.
+
+A faint gleam shone feebly amid the ashes of the now blackening altar.
+It flared up for an instant, then fell, and the sacred fire of the
+Guebre temple was dead.
+
+"The embers die!" cried the priest. "Yea, mockery of the Divine, die in
+thine ashes!"
+
+He waited no longer, but strode with swift step down the mountain, and
+into the shade of the valley. Reaching, at last, a cave in the side of a
+great rock, he entered, and stripped himself of his priestly garments.
+Then, drawing from a recess the garb of an ordinary traveler, he dressed
+himself quickly, rolled his white robes into a ball, and plunged farther
+into the cave. In the darkness the rush of falling water warned him that
+an abyss was near. Dropping on his knees, he crept carefully forward
+until his hand rested on the jagged edge of a ledge of rock. Beside him
+the water fell into a yawning gulf. Darkness darker than blackest night
+was about him, and, in its cover, he cast the robes into the abyss
+below, then retraced his way, and plunged once more into the moonlight,
+a Persian traveler wearing the customary loose trousers, a kufiyah on
+his head, and bearing a long staff in his hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT.
+
+      "The cares that infest the day
+    Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
+      And as silently steal away."
+
+                              --_Longfellow._
+
+
+Many months after the departure of Yusuf from Persia a solitary rider on
+a swift dromedary reached the extreme northern boundary of El Hejaz, the
+province that stretches over a considerable portion of western Arabia.
+His face was brown like leather from exposure, and his clothes were worn
+and travel-stained, yet it scarcely required a second glance to
+recognize the glittering eyes of the Magian priest.
+
+It seemed as if the excitement of danger and the long days of toil and
+privation had at last begun to tell upon his iron frame. His eye,
+accustomed by the fear of robbers to dart its dark glances restlessly,
+was less keen than usual; his head was drooped downward upon his breast,
+and his whole attitude betokened bodily fatigue. His camel, too, went
+less swiftly, and picked its way, with low, plaintive moans, over the
+rough and precipitous path which led into a wild and weird glen.
+
+It was evening, and the shadows fell in fantastic streaks and blotches
+across the arid valley, through whose barren soil huge, detached rocks
+of various-colored sandstone rose in eerie, irregular masses, veritable
+castles of genii of the uncanny spot.
+
+Yusuf looked uneasily around, but neither sight nor sound of life was
+near, and he again allowed his faithful beast to slacken its pace and
+crop a few leaves of the coarse camel-thorn, the only sign of vegetation
+in the deserted place.
+
+A few trees, however, could be seen in the distance, and he urged his
+camel towards them in the hope of finding some water, and some dates for
+food. Reaching the spot, he found that a stagnant pool lay below, but
+there were no dates on the trees, and the water was brackish. A couple
+of red-legged partridges fluttered off, cackling loudly as they went. He
+would fain have had them for food, but their presence seemed like
+company to the poor wanderer, and he did not attempt to secure them; so,
+throwing himself at full length on the ground, he flung his arms across
+his eyes to shield them from the white glare of the sky.
+
+Suddenly a step sounded near. Yusuf started to his feet and grasped his
+scimitar, but he was instantly beset by half a dozen wild Arabs, who
+dashed upon him, screaming their wild Arabian jargon, and waving their
+short swords over their heads.
+
+Blows fell thick and fast. Yusuf had a dazed consciousness of seeing the
+swarthy, wrinkled visages and gleaming teeth of his opponents darting in
+confusion before him, of hacking desperately, and of receiving blows on
+the head; then a sudden gush of blood from a wound on his forehead
+blinded him, and he fell.
+
+All seemed over. But a shout sounded close at hand. Several Arabs,
+splendidly mounted on nimble Arabian horses, and waving their long,
+tufted spears, appeared on the scene. The Bedouin robbers fled
+precipitately, and Yusuf's first sensation was that of being gently
+raised, and of feeling water from the pool dashed upon his face.
+
+The priest had not been severely wounded, and soon recovered enough to
+proceed with the party which had rendered him such timely aid.
+
+An hour's ride brought them to the head of another and more fertile glen
+or wady, through which a mountain stream wended its way between two
+bands of tolerably good pasturage. A full moon in all its brilliancy was
+just rising. Its cold, clear light flooded the wady, bringing out every
+feature of the landscape with remarkable distinctness. At some distance
+lay a group of tents, black, and pitched in a circle, as the tents of
+the Bedouins usually are. Camp-fires studded the valley with glints of
+red; and the barking of dogs and shouts of men arose on the night air
+above the hoarse moanings of the camels. Yusuf was indeed glad to see
+evidences of Arab civilization, and to look forward to the prospect of a
+good supper and a friendly bed.
+
+The return of the party was now noticed by the men of the encampment. A
+group of horsemen, also armed with long spears tufted with ostrich
+feathers, left the tents and came riding swiftly and gracefully towards
+their returning companions.
+
+An explanation of Yusuf's sorrowful plight was given, and he was
+conducted to the tent of the Sheikh, which was marked by being larger
+than the rest, and situated in the center of the circle, with a spear
+placed upright in the ground before the door.
+
+The Sheikh himself received the stranger at the door of his tent. He was
+a middle-aged man, of tall and commanding appearance, though the scowl
+habitual to the Bedouins by reason of their constant exposure to the
+sun, rested upon his face. He wore a kufiyah, or kerchief, of red and
+yellow on his head, the ends falling on his shoulders behind in a
+crimson fringe. His hair was black and greased, and his eyes, though
+piercing, were not unkindly. His person was thin and muscular, but he
+wore gracefully the long abba or outer cloak, white and embroidered,
+which opened in front, disclosing an undergarment of figured muslin,
+bound by a crimson sash. And there was native grace in every movement
+when he came courteously forward and saluted Yusuf with the "Peace be
+with you" of the Arabs. He then extended his hand to help the traveler
+to dismount, and led him into the tent.
+
+"Friend," he said, "a long journey and a close acquaintance with death
+are, methinks, a good preparation for the enjoyment of Bedouin
+hospitality, which, we sincerely hope, shall not be lacking in the tents
+of Musa. Yet, in truth, it seems to us that thou art a fool-hardy man to
+tempt the dangers of El Hejaz single-handed."
+
+"So it has proved," returned the priest; "but a Persian, no more than an
+Arab, will draw back at the first scent of danger. Yet I deplore these
+delays, which but hinder me on my way. I had hoped long ere this to be
+at the end of my journey."
+
+"We will hear all this later," returned the Bedouin with quiet dignity;
+"for the present, suffice it to keep quiet and let us wash this blood
+from your hair. Hither, Aswan! Bring warm water, knave, and let the
+traveler know that the Arab's heart is warm too. Now, friend-stranger,
+rest upon these cushions, and talk later, if it please you."
+
+With little enough reluctance, Yusuf lay down upon the pile of rugs and
+cushions, and, while the attendants bathed his brow, looked somewhat
+curiously about him.
+
+[Illustration: He stood with upraised arms, gazing into the depths of
+the sky.--See page 2.]
+
+By the light of a dim lamp and a torch or two, he could see that the
+tent was divided into two parts, as are all Bedouin tents, by a central
+curtain. This curtain was occasionally twitched aside far enough to
+reveal a pair of black eyes, and, from the softness of the voices which
+sounded from time to time behind the folds, he surmised correctly that
+this apartment belonged to the chief's women.
+
+Several men entered the tent, all swarthy, lithe and sinewy, with the
+scowling faces and even, white teeth characteristic of the typical Arab.
+They gesticulated constantly as they talked; but Yusuf, though
+thoroughly familiar with the Arabic language, paid little attention to
+the conversation, giving himself up to what seemed to him, after his
+adventures, perfect rest.
+
+Presently the chief's wife entered. She was unveiled, and her features
+were distinctly Hebrew; for Lois, wife of the Bedouin Musa, had been
+born a Jewess. She was dressed in a flowing robe of black confined by a
+crimson girdle. Strings of coins and of blue opaque beads hung upon her
+breast and were wound about her ankles, and she wore a black head-dress
+also profusely decorated with beads and bangles of silver.
+
+On a platter she carried some cakes, still smoking hot. These she placed
+on a low, circular table of copper. A wooden platter of boiled mutton
+was next added, along with a caldron filled with wheat boiled in camel's
+milk, and some cups of coffee.
+
+Yusuf was placed at the table, and Musa, after sipping a little coffee,
+handed the cup to him; the chief then picked out the most savory bits of
+mutton, and, according to Arabian etiquette, handed them to his guest.
+
+Several men gathered around to partake of the banquet. They crouched or
+reclined on the ground, about the low table; yet, savage-looking though
+they were, not one of the Bedouins ventured an inquisitive question or
+bestowed a curious glance on the Persian.
+
+Among them, however, was a little, inquisitive-looking man, whose quick,
+bird-like movements attracted Yusuf's attention early in the evening.
+His round black eyes darted into every place and upon every one with an
+insatiable curiosity, and he talked almost incessantly. He was a Jewish
+peddler who traded small wares with the Arabs, and who was constantly
+somewhere on the road between Syria and Yemen, being liable to appear
+suddenly at the most mysterious times, and in the most unlikely places.
+
+In his way, Abraham of Joppa was a character, and one may be pardoned
+for bestowing more than a passing glance upon him. Though permitted to
+eat at the table with the rest, it was evident that the Arabs looked
+upon him with some contempt. They enjoyed listening to his stories, and
+to his recital of the news which he picked up in his travels, but they
+despised his inquisitiveness, and resented the impertinence with which
+he coolly addressed himself even to the Sheikh, before whom all were
+more or less reserved.
+
+The Persian was, for the present, the chief object of the little Jew's
+curiosity, and as soon as the meal was over he hastened to form his
+acquaintance.
+
+Sitting down before the priest, and poising his head on one side, he
+observed:
+
+"You are bound for the south, stranger?"
+
+"Even so," said Yusuf, gravely.
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"I seek for the city of the great temple."
+
+"Phut! The Caaba!" exclaimed the Jew, with contempt. "Right well I know
+it, and a fool's game they make of it, with their running, and bowing,
+and kissing a bit of stone in the wall as though 'twere the dearest
+friend on earth!"
+
+"But they worship--"
+
+"A statue of our father Abraham, and one of Ishmael, principally. A
+precious set of idolaters they all are, to be sure!"
+
+Yusuf's heart sank. Was it only for this that he had come his long and
+weary way, had braved the heat of day and the untold dangers of night?
+In searching for that pure essence, the spiritual, that he craved, had
+he left the idolatrous leaven at home only to come to another form of it
+in Mecca?
+
+"But then," he thought, "this foolish Jew knows not whereof he speaks:
+one with the empty brain and the loose tongue of this wanderer has not
+probed the depths of divine truth."
+
+"You cannot be going to Mecca as a pilgrim?" hazarded the little man.
+"The Magians and the Sabaeans worship the stars, do they not?"
+
+"Alas, yes!" said the priest. "They have fallen away from the ancient
+belief. They worship even the stars themselves, and have set up images
+to them, no longer perceiving the Great Invisible, the Infinite, who can
+be approached only through the mediation of the spirits who inhabit the
+starry orbs."
+
+"Methinks you will find little better in Mecca. What are you going there
+for?" asked the Jew abruptly.
+
+"I seek Truth," replied the priest quietly.
+
+"Truth!" repeated the Jew. "Aye, aye, the Persian traveler seeks truth;
+Abraham, the Jew, seeks myrrh, aloes, sweet perfumes of Yemen, silks of
+India, and purple of Tyre. Aye, so it is, and I think Abraham's
+commodity is the more obtainable and the more practical of the two. Yet
+they do say there are Jews who have sought for truth likewise; and they
+tell of apostles who gave up their trade and fisheries to go on a like
+quest after a leader whom many Jews will not accept."
+
+"Who were the apostles?"
+
+"Oh, Jews, of course."
+
+"Where may I find them?"
+
+"All dead, well-nigh six hundred years ago," returned the Jew,
+indifferently.
+
+Yusuf's hopes sank again. He longed for even one kindred spirit to whom
+he could unfold the thoughts that harassed him.
+
+"I do not know much about what they taught," continued the Jew. "Never
+read it; it does not help in my business. But I got a bit of manuscript
+the other day from Sergius, an old Nestorian monk away up in the Syrian
+hills. I am taking it down to Mecca. I just peeped into it, but did not
+read it; because it is the people who live now, who have gold and silver
+for Abraham, that interest him, not those who died centuries ago; and
+the bit of writing is about such. However, you seem to be interested
+that way, so I will give it to you to read."
+
+So saying, the Jew unpacked a heavy bundle, and, after searching for
+some time, upsetting tawdry jewelry, kerchiefs, and boxes of perfume,
+he at last succeeded in finding the parchment.
+
+He handed it to the Persian. "I hope it may be of use to you, stranger.
+Abraham the Jew knows little and cares less for religion, but he would
+be sorry to see you bowing with yon heathen Arab herd at Mecca."
+
+"Dog! Son of a dog!"
+
+It was Musa. Able to restrain his passion no longer, he had sprung to
+his feet and stood, with flashing eyes and drawn scimitar, in resentment
+of the slur on his countrymen.
+
+With a howl of fear, the little Jew sprang through the door and
+disappeared in the darkness.
+
+Musa laughed contemptuously.
+
+"Ha, lack-brained cur!" he said, "I would not have hurt him, having
+broken bread with him in mine own tent! Yet, friend Persian, one cannot
+hear one's own people, and one's own temple, the temple of his fathers,
+desecrated by the tongue of a lack-brained Jew trinket-vender."
+
+"You know, then, of this Caaba--of the God they worship there?" asked
+the priest.
+
+Musa shook his head, and made a gesture of denial.
+
+"Musa knows little of such things," he replied. "Yet the Caaba is a name
+sacred in Arabian tradition, and as such, it suits me ill to hear it on
+the tongue of a craven-hearted Jew. In sooth, the coward knave has left
+his trumpery bundle all open as it is. I warrant me he will come back
+for it in good time."
+
+A dark-haired lad in a striped silk garment here passed through the
+tent.
+
+"Hither, Kedar!" called the Sheikh. "Recite for our visitor the story of
+Moses."
+
+The lad at once began the story, reciting it in a sort of chant, and
+accompanying his words with many a gesture. The company listened
+breathlessly, now giving vent to deep groans as the persecution of the
+children of Israel was described, now bowing their heads in reverence at
+the revelation of the burning bush, now waving their arms in excitement
+and starting forward with flashing eyes as the lad pictured the passage
+of the Red Sea.
+
+Yusuf had heard some vague account of the story before, but, with the
+passionate nature of the Oriental, he was strangely moved as he listened
+to the recital of how that great God whom he longed to feel and know had
+led the children of Israel through all their wanderings and sufferings
+to the promised land. He felt that he too was indeed a wanderer, seeking
+the promised land. He was but an infant in the true things of the
+Spirit. Like many another who longs vainly for a revelation of the
+working of the Holy Spirit, his soul seemed to reach out hopelessly.
+
+But who can tell how tenderly the same All-wise Creator treasures up
+every outreaching of the struggling soul! Not one throb of the loving
+and longing heart is lost;--and Yusuf was yet, after trial, to rejoice
+in the serene fullness of such light as may fall upon this terrestrial
+side of death's dividing line.
+
+Poor Yusuf, with all his Persian learning and wisdom, had, through all
+his life, known only a religion tinctured with idolatry. Almost alone he
+had broken from that idolatry, and realized the unity of God and his
+separation from all connected with such worship; but he was yet to
+understand the connection of God with man, and to taste the fullness of
+God's love through Christ. He had not realized that the finger of God is
+upon the life of every man who is willing to yield himself to Divine
+direction, and that there is thus an inseparable link between the
+Creator and the creature. He was not able to say, as said Carlyle in
+these later days, "A divine decree or eternal regulation of the universe
+there verily is, in regard to every conceivable procedure and affair of
+man; faithfully following this, said procedure or affair will
+prosper.... Not following this,... destruction and wreck are certain for
+every affair." And what could be better? Divine love, not divine wrath,
+over all! Yusuf had an idea of divine wrath, but he failed to
+see--because the presentation of the never-failing Fatherhood of God had
+not yet come--the infinite love that makes Jesus all in all to us,
+heaven wherever he is, and hell wherever he is not.
+
+Since leaving Persia, this was the first definite opportunity he had had
+of listening to Bible truth.
+
+"Kedar knows more of this than his father," explained Musa. "'Tis his
+mother who teaches him. She was a Jewess, of the people of Jesus of
+Nazareth, but I fear this roving life has caused my poor Lois to forget
+much of the teaching of her people."
+
+"You speak of Jesus of Nazareth. I have heard something of him. Tell me
+more."
+
+Musa shook his head slowly. "I know nothing," he said. "But I shall call
+Lois. The men have all gone from the tent, and mayhap she can tell what
+you want."
+
+So saying, he entered the women's apartment, and sent his wife to Yusuf.
+
+"You wish to know of Jesus of Nazareth?" she said. "Alas, I am but a
+poor teacher. I am unworthy even to speak his name. I married when but a
+child, and since then I have wandered far from him, for there have been
+few to teach me. Yet I know that he was in very truth the Son of God. He
+was all-good. He healed the sick on this earth, and forgave sin. Then,
+woe, woe to me!--he was crucified,--crucified by my people! And he went
+up to heaven; his disciples saw him go up in the white clouds of a
+bright day."
+
+"Where dwells he now? Is he one of the spirits of the stars?"
+
+"I know not. He is in heaven."
+
+"And does he stoop to take notice of us, the children of earth?"
+
+"Alas, I know not! There was once a time when Jesus was more than a name
+to me. When I knelt, a child, beside my mother on the grassy hills of
+Hebron, it seemed that Jesus was, in some vague way, a reality to me;
+but long years of forgetfulness have passed since then. Stranger, I wish
+you well. Your words have brought back to me the desire to know more of
+him. If you learn aught of him, and it ever lies in your way to do so,
+come and tell us,--my Musa and me,--that we too may learn of him."
+
+Rising to her feet, the woman saluted the Persian and left him. Musa
+entered to conduct him to the rugs set apart for his couch, and soon
+all was silent about the encampment.
+
+But ere he fell asleep, Yusuf went out into the moonlight. The night was
+filled with the peculiar lightness of an Oriental night. The moon blazed
+down like a globe of molten silver, and a few large stars glowed with
+scarcely secondary brilliance. In the silvery brightness he could easily
+read the manuscript given him by the Jew. It was the story of the man
+with the withered hand, whose infirmity was healed by Jesus in the
+synagogue. And there, in the starlight, the priest bowed his head, and a
+throng of pent-up emotions throbbed in his breast.
+
+"Spirits of the stars, show me God. If this Jesus be indeed the Son of
+God, show me him. Give me faith, such faith as had he of the withered
+hand, that I too may stretch forth my hand and be made whole; that I may
+look, and in looking, see."
+
+This was his prayer. Ah, yet, the "spirits of the stars" were as a
+bridge to the gulf which, he fancied, lay between him and Infinite
+Mercy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+YUSUF MEETS AMZI, THE MECCAN.
+
+    "Mecca's pilgrims, confident of Fate,
+    And resolute in heart."
+
+                              --_Longfellow._
+
+
+The next morning, Yusuf, against the remonstrances of Musa and his wife,
+prepared to proceed on his way. Like the Ancient Mariner, he felt forced
+to go on, "to pass like night from land to land," until he obtained that
+which he sought.
+
+When he was almost ready to depart, a horseman came galloping down the
+valley, with the news that a caravan, en route for Mecca, was almost in
+sight, and would make a brief halt near the stream by which Musa's
+tents were pitched. Yusuf at once determined to avail himself of the
+timely protection on his journey.
+
+Presently the caravan appeared, a long, irregular line--camels bearing
+"shugdufs," or covered litters; swift dromedaries, mounted by tawny
+Arabs whose long Indian shawls were twisted about their heads and fell
+in fringed ends upon their backs; fiery Arabian horses, ridden by Arabs
+swaying long spears or lances in their hands; heavily-laden pack-mules,
+whose leaders walked beside them, urging them on with sticks, and giving
+vent to shrill cries as they went; and lastly a line of pilgrims, some
+trudging along wearily, some riding miserable beasts, whose ribs shone
+through their roughened hides, while others rode, in the proud security
+of ease and affluence, in comfortable litters, or upon animals whose
+sleek and well-fed appearance comported with the self-satisfied air of
+their riders.
+
+A halt was called, and immediately all was confusion. Tents were
+hurriedly thrown up; the pack-mules were unburdened for a moment; the
+horses, scenting the water, began to neigh and sniff the air; infants,
+who had been crammed into saddle-bags with their heads out, were hauled
+from their close quarters; the horsemen of Musa, still balancing their
+tufted spears, dashed in and out; while his herdsmen, anxious to keep
+the flocks from mixing with the caravan, shrieked and gesticulated,
+hurrying the flocks of sheep off in noisy confusion, and urging the
+herds of dromedaries on with their short, hooked sticks. It was indeed a
+babel, in which Yusuf had no part; and he once more seized the
+opportunity of looking at the precious parchment To his astonishment, he
+perceived that it was addressed to "Mohammed, son of Abdallah, son of
+Abdal Motalleb, Mecca," with the subscription, "From Sergius the Monk,
+Bosra."
+
+Here then, Yusuf had, in perfect innocence, been entrapped into reading
+a communication addressed to some one else, and he smiled sarcastically
+as he thought of the inquisitiveness of the little Jew who had taken the
+liberty of "just peeping in."
+
+It remained, now, for Yusuf to find the Jew and to put him again in
+possession of his charge. He searched for him through the motley crowd,
+but in vain; then, recollecting that the peddler's bundle had been left
+behind, he sought Musa, to see if he had heard anything of the little
+busybody.
+
+Musa laughed heartily. "Remember you not that I said his trumpery would
+be gone in the morning? I was no false prophet. The man is like a
+weasel. When all sleep he finds his way in and helps himself to what he
+will: when all wake, no Jew is to be seen; trumpery and all have gone,
+no one knows whither."
+
+So the priest found himself responsible for the delivery of the
+manuscript to this Mohammed, of whom he had never hitherto heard; and,
+knowing the contents, he was none the less ready to carry out the trust,
+hoping to find in Mohammed some one who could tell him more of the same
+wondrous story. He therefore placed the parchment very carefully within
+the folds of his garment, bade farewell to Musa and his household, and
+prepared to leave with the caravan, which had halted but a short time on
+account of the remarkable coolness of the day.
+
+"Peace be with you!" said the Sheikh; "and if you ever need a friend,
+may it be Musa's lot to stand in good stead to you. I bid you good speed
+on your journey. We have no fears for your safety now, besides the
+safety of numbers, the holy month of Ramadhan[1] begins to-day, and even
+the wildest of the Bedouin robbers usually refrain from taking life in
+the holy months. Again, Peace be with you! And remember that the Bedouin
+can be a friend."
+
+Yusuf embraced the chieftain with gratitude, and took his place in the
+train, which was already moving slowly down the wady.
+
+As it often happens that in the most numerous concourse of people one
+feels most lonely, so it was now with Yusuf. There seemed none with whom
+he cared to speak. Most of the people were self-satisfied traders
+busied with the care of the merchandise which they were taking down to
+dispose of at the great fair carried on during the Ramadhan. A few were
+Arabs of the Hejaz, short and well-knit, wearing loose garments of blue,
+drawn back at the arms enough to show the muscles standing out like
+whip-cords. Some were smoking short chibouques, with stems of wood and
+bowls of soft steatite colored a yellowish red. As they rode they used
+no stirrups, but crossed their legs before and beneath the pommel of the
+saddle; while, as the sun shone more hotly, they bent their heads and
+drew their kufiyahs far over their brows. Many poor and somewhat
+fanatical pilgrims were interspersed among the crowd, and here and there
+a dervish, with his large, bag-sleeved robe of brown wool--the Zaabut,
+worn alike by dervish and peasant--held his way undisturbed.
+
+Yusuf soon ceased to pay any attention to his surroundings, and sat,
+buried in his own thoughts, until a voice, pleasant and like the ripple
+of a brook, aroused him.
+
+"What thoughts better than the thoughts of a Persian? None. Friend,
+think you not so?"
+
+The words were spoken in the Persian dialect, and the priest looked up
+in surprise, to see a ruddy-faced man smiling down upon him from the
+back of a tall, white Syrian camel. He wore the jubbeh, or cloak, the
+badge of the learned in the Orient; his beard was turning slightly gray,
+and his eyes were keen and twinkling.
+
+"One question mayhap demands another," returned Yusuf. "How knew you
+that I am a Persian? I no longer wear Persian garb."
+
+"What! Ask an Arab such a question as that!" said the other, smiling.
+"Know you not, Persian, that we of the desert lands are accustomed to
+trace by a mark in the sand, the breaking of a camel-thorn, things as
+difficult? The stamp of one's country cannot be thrown off with one's
+clothes. Nay, more; you have been noted as one learned among the
+Persians."
+
+Yusuf bent his head in assent. "Truly, stranger, your penetration is
+incomprehensible," he said, with a touch of sarcasm.
+
+"No, no!" returned the other, good-humoredly; "but, marking you out for
+what you are, I thought your company might, perchance, lessen the
+dreariness of the way. I am Amzi, the Meccan. Some call me Amzi the rich
+Meccan; others, Amzi the learned; others, Amzi the benevolent. For
+myself, I pretend nothing, aspire to nothing but to know all that may be
+known, to live a life of ease, at peace with all men, and to help the
+needy or unfortunate where I may. More than one stranger has not been
+sorry for meeting Amzi the benevolent, in Mecca. Have you friends
+there?"
+
+"None," said Yusuf. "Yet there is a tradition among our people that the
+Guebres at one time had temples even in the land of Arabia. Have you
+heard aught of it?"
+
+"It is said that at one time fire-temples were scattered throughout this
+land, each being dedicated to the worship of a planet; that at Medina[2]
+itself was one dedicated to the worship of the moon and containing an
+image of it. It is also claimed that the fire-worshipers held Mecca, and
+there worshiped Saturn and the moon, from whence comes their name of the
+place--Mahgah, or moon's place. The Guebres also hold here that the
+Black Stone is an emblem of Saturn, left in the Caaba by the Persian
+Mahabad and his successors long ago. But, friend, Persian influence has
+long since ceased in El Hejaz. Methinks you will find but few traces of
+your country-people's glory there."
+
+"It matters not," returned the priest. "The glory of the fire-worshipers
+has, so far as Yusuf is concerned, passed away. Know you not that before
+his eyes the sacred fire,[3] kept alive for well-nigh one thousand
+years, went out in the supreme temple ere he left it? May the great
+Omniscient Spirit grant that Persia's idolatries will die out in its
+ashes!"
+
+"And think you that there is no idolatry in Mecca? Friend, believe me,
+not a house in Arabian Mecca which does not contain its idol! Not a man
+of influence who will start on an expedition without beseeching his
+family gods for blessing!"
+
+"And do they not recognize a God over all?"
+
+"They acknowledge Allah as the highest, the universal power,--yet he is
+virtually but a nominal deity, for they deem that none can enter into
+special relationship with him save through the mediation of the
+household gods. In his name the holiest oaths are sworn, nevertheless in
+true worship he has the last place. Indeed, it must be confessed that
+neither fear of Allah nor reverence of the gods has much influence over
+the mass of our people."
+
+"What, then, is the meaning of this great pilgrimage, whose fame reached
+me even in Persia? Does not religious enthusiasm lead those poor
+wretches, hobbling along behind, to take such a journey?"
+
+Amzi nodded his head slowly. "Religious incentives may move the few," he
+said. "But, friend, can you not see that barter is the leading object of
+the greater number--of those well-to-do pilgrims who are superintending
+the carriage of their baggage so complacently there? The holy months,
+particularly the Ramadhan, afford a period of comparative safety, a long
+truce that affords a convenient season for traffic. Alas, poor stranger!
+you will be sad to find that our city, in the time of the holy fast,
+becomes a place of buying and selling, of vice and robbery--a place
+where gain is all and God is almost unknown."
+
+"But you, Amzi; what do you believe of such things?"
+
+"In truth, I know not what to think. Believe in idols I cannot; worship
+in the Caaba I will not; so that my religion is but a belief in Allah,
+whom I fear to approach, and whose help and influence I know not how to
+obtain, a confidence in my own morality, and a consciousness of doing
+good works."
+
+"Strange, strange!" said the priest, "that we have arrived at somewhat
+the same place by different ways! Amzi, let us be brothers in the quest!
+Let us rest neither night nor day until we have found the way to the
+Supreme God! Amzi, I want to feel him, to know him, as I am persuaded he
+may be known; yet, like you, I fear to approach him. Have you heard of
+Jesus?"
+
+"A few among a band of coward Jews who live in the Jewish quarter of
+Mecca, believe in One whom they call Jesus. The majority of them do not
+accept him as divine; and among those who do, he seems to be little more
+than a name of some one who lived and died as did Abraham and Ishmael.
+His teaching, if, indeed, he taught aught, seems to have little effect
+upon their lives. They live no better than others, and, indeed, they are
+slurred upon by all true Meccans as cowardly dogs, perjurers and
+usurers."
+
+Yusuf sighed deeply. It seemed as though he were following a flitting
+ignis-fatuus, that eluded him just as he came in sight of it.
+
+The rest of the day was passed in comparative silence. The evening halt
+was called, and it was decided to spend the night in a grassy basin,
+traversed by the rocky bed of a mountain stream, a "fiumara," down which
+a feeble brooklet from recent mountain rains trickled. Owing to the
+security of the month Ramadhan, it was deemed that a night halt would be
+safe, and the whole caravan encamped on the spot.
+
+As the shades of the rapidly-falling Eastern twilight drew on, Yusuf sat
+idly near the door of a tent, looking out listlessly, and listening to
+the chatter of the people about him.
+
+Not far off a Jewish boy, a mere child, of one of the northern tribes,
+as shown by his fair hair and blue eyes, sang plaintively a song of the
+singing of birds and the humming of bees, of the flowers of the North,
+of rippling streams, of the miraged desert, of the waving of the
+tamarisk and the scent of roses.
+
+Yusuf observed the child-like form and the effeminate paleness of the
+cherub face, and a feeling of protective pity throbbed in his bosom as
+he noted the slender smallness of the hand that glided over the
+one-stringed guitar, showing by its movements, even in the fading
+evening light, the blue veins that coursed beneath the transparent skin.
+He called the lad to his side, and bade him sing to him. Not till then
+did he notice the vacancy of the look which bespoke a slightly wandering
+mind. Yusuf's great heart filled with sympathy.
+
+"Poor lad!" he said, "singing all alone! Where are your friends?"
+
+"Dumah's friends?" said the child, wonderingly. "Poor Dumah has no
+friends now! He goes here and there, and people are kind to him--because
+Dumah sings, you know, and only angels sing. He tells them of flocks
+beside the pool, of lilies of Siloam, of birds in the air and angels in
+the heavens--then everyone is kind. Ah! the world is fair!" he
+continued, with a happy smile. "The breeze blows hot here, sometimes,
+but so cool over the sea; and the lilies blow in the vales of Galilee,
+and the waves ripple bright over the sea where he once walked."
+
+"Who, child?"
+
+"Jesus--don't you know?" with a wondering look. "He sat often by the
+Lake of Galilee where I have sat, and the night winds lifted his hair as
+they do mine, and he smiled and healed poor suffering and sinful people.
+Ah, he did indeed! Poor Dumah is talking sense now, good stranger;
+sometimes he does not--the thoughts come and go before he can catch
+them, and then people say, 'Poor little Dumah is demented.' But if Jesus
+were here now, Dumah would be healed. I dreamed one night I saw him, and
+he smiled, and looked upon me so sweetly and said, 'Dumah loves me!
+Dumah loves me!' and then I saw him no more. Friend, I know you love
+him, too. What is your name?"
+
+"Yusuf."
+
+"Then, Yusuf, you will be my friend?"
+
+"I will be your friend, poor Dumah!"
+
+"Oh, no, Dumah is not poor! He is happy. But his thoughts are going now.
+Ah, they throng! The visions come! The birds and the mists and the
+flowers are twining in a wreath, a wreath that stretches up to the
+clouds! Do you not see it?" and he started off again on his wild,
+plaintive song.
+
+Yusuf's eyes filled with tears, and he drew the lad to his bosom, and
+looked out upon the grassy plot before the door, where a huge fire was
+now shedding a flickering and fantastic glare upon the wrinkled visages
+of the Arabs, and lighting up the scene with a weird effect only to be
+seen in the Orient.
+
+Caldrons were boiling, and a savory odor penetrated the air. Men were
+talking in groups, and a little dervish was spinning around nimbly in a
+sort of dance. Yusuf looked at him for a moment. There seemed to be
+something familiar about his figure and movements, but in the darkness
+he could not be distinctly seen, and Yusuf soon forgot to pay any
+attention to him.
+
+He drew the boy, who had now fallen asleep, close to him. What would he,
+Yusuf, not give to learn fully of that source from whence the few meagre
+crumbs picked up by this poor child were yet precious enough to give
+him, all wandering as he was at times, the assurance of a sympathetic
+God, and render him happy in the realization of his presence! What must
+be the joy of a full revelation of these blessed truths, if, indeed,
+truths they were!
+
+The longing for such companionship filled Yusuf, as he lay there, with
+an intense desire. He could scarcely define, in truth he scarcely
+understood, exactly what he wanted. There was a lack in his life which
+no human agency had, as yet, been able to satisfy. His heart was
+"reaching out its arms" to know God--that was all; and he called it
+searching for Truth.
+
+[Illustration: A head was thrust forward.... It was the little
+dervish.--See page 15.]
+
+Far into the night the Persian pondered, his mind beating against the
+darkness of what was to him the great mystery; and he prayed for light.
+He thought of the Father, yet again he prayed to the spirits of the
+planets which were shining so brightly above him. But did not an echo of
+that prayer ascend to the throne of grace? Was not the eye of Him who
+notes even the sparrows when they fall, upon his poor, struggling child?
+
+And the end was not yet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WHEREIN YUSUF ENCOUNTERS A SAND-STORM IN THE DESERT, AND HAS SOMEWHAT OF
+AN EXPERIENCE WITH THE LITTLE DERVISH.
+
+    "A column high and vast,
+      A form of fear and dread."
+
+                              --_Longfellow._
+
+
+With but few events worthy of notice the journey to Mecca was concluded.
+After a short halt at Medina, the caravan set out by one of the three
+roads which then led from Medina to Mecca.[4]
+
+The way led through a country whose aspect had every indication of
+volcanic agency in the remote ages of the earth's history. Bleak
+plains--through whose barren soil outcrops of blackened scoriae, or sharp
+edges of black and brittle hornblende, appeared at every turn--were
+interspersed with wadies, bounded by ridges of basalt and green-stone,
+rising from one hundred to two hundred feet high, and covered with a
+scanty vegetation of thorny acacias and clumps of camel-grass. Here and
+there a rolling hill was cut by a deep gorge, showing where, after rain,
+a mighty torrent must foam its way; and, more rarely still, a stagnant
+pool of saltish or brackish water was marked out by a cluster of daum
+palms.
+
+On all sides jackals howled dismally during the night; and above,
+during the day, an occasional vulture wheeled, fresh from the carcass of
+some poor mule dead by the wayside.
+
+Such was the appearance of the land through which the caravan wound its
+way, beneath a sky peculiar to Arabia--purple at night, white and
+terrible in its heat at noon, yet ever strange, weird and impressive.
+
+But one incident worth recounting occurred on the way. Yusuf, Amzi, and
+the boy Dumah had been traveling side by side for some time. The way, at
+that particular spot, led over a plain which afforded comparatively easy
+traveling, and thus gave a better opportunity for conversation. The talk
+had turned upon the Guebre worship, and the priest was amazed at the
+knowledge shown by Amzi of a religion so little known in Arabia.
+
+"I can tell you more than that," said Amzi in a low tone. "I can tell
+you that you are not only Yusuf the Persian gentleman of leisure, but
+Yusuf the Magian priest, accustomed to feed the sacred fire in the
+Temple of Jupiter. Is it not so? Did not Yusuf's hand even take the
+blood of Imri the infant daughter of Uzza in sacrifice? Can Yusuf the
+Persian traveler deny that?"
+
+Yusuf's head sank; his face crimsoned with pain, and the veins swelled
+like cords on his brow.
+
+"Alas, Amzi, it is but too true!" he said. "Yet, upon the most sacred
+oath that a Persian can swear, I did it thinking that the blessing of
+the gods would thus be invoked. The rite is one not unknown among the
+Sabaeans of to-day, and common even among the Magians of the past. Amzi,
+it was in my days of heathendom that I did it, thinking it a duty to
+Heaven. It was Yusuf the priest who did it, not Yusuf the man; yet Yusuf
+the man bears the torture of it in his bosom, and seeks forgiveness for
+the blackest spot in his life! How knew you this, Amzi?--if the question
+be an honorable one."
+
+"Amzi knows much," returned the Meccan. "He knows, too, that Yusuf can
+never escape the brand of the priesthood. See!"
+
+He leaned forward, and drew back the loose garment from the Persian's
+breast. A red burn, or scar, in the form of a torch, appeared in the
+flesh. As Yusuf hastened to cover it, a head was thrust forward, and two
+bead-like eyes peered from a shrouded face. It was the little dervish.
+
+The priest was annoyed at the intrusion. He determined to take note of
+the meddler, but the occurrence of an event common in the desert drove
+all thought of the dervish from his mind.
+
+The cry "A simoom! A simoom!" arose throughout the caravan.
+
+There, far towards the horizon, was a dense mass of dull, copper-colored
+cloud, rising and surging like the waves of a mad ocean. It spread
+rapidly upwards toward the zenith, and a dull roar sounded from afar
+off, broken by a peculiar shrieking whistle. And now dense columns could
+be seen, bent backward in trailing wreaths of copper at the top,
+changing and swaying before the hurricane, yet ever holding the form of
+vapory, yellow pillars,--huge shafts extending from earth to heaven, and
+rapidly advancing with awful menace upon the terrified multitude.
+
+The Arabs screamed, helpless before the manifestation of what they
+believed was a supernatural force, for they look upon these columns as
+the evil genii of the plains. Men and camels fell to the ground. Horses
+neighed in fear, and galloped madly to and fro. But the hot breath of
+the "poison-wind" was upon them in a moment, shrieking like a fiend
+among the crisping acacias. The sand-storm then fell in all its fury,
+half smothering the poor wretches, who strove to cover their heads with
+their garments to keep out the burning, blistering, pitiless dust.
+
+Fortunately all was over in a moment, and the tempest went swirling on
+its way northward, leaving a clear sky and a dust-buried country in its
+wake.
+
+In the confusion the dervish had escaped to the other end of the
+caravan, and was forgotten.
+
+At the end of the tenth day after leaving Medina the caravan reached
+the head of the long, narrow defile in which lies the city of Mecca, the
+chief town of El Hejaz. It was early morning when the procession passed
+through the cleft at the western end; and the sun was just rising, a
+globe of red, above the blue mountains towards Tayf, when Yusuf stopped
+his camel on an eminence in full view of the city. There it lay in the
+heart of the rough blackish hills, whose long shadows still fell upon
+the low stone houses and crooked streets beneath.[5]
+
+The priest's eager glance sought for the Caaba. There it was, a huge,
+stone cube, standing in the midst of a courtyard two hundred and fifty
+paces long by two hundred paces wide, and shrouded from top to bottom by
+a heavy curtain of dark, striped cloth of Yemen.
+
+There was something awe-inspiring in the scene, and the priest felt a
+thrill of apprehensive emotion as he gazed upon what he had fondly hoped
+would prove the end of his long journey. Yet his eye clouded; he covered
+his face with his mantle and wept, saying to his soul, "Here, too, have
+they turned aside to worship the false, and have bowed down to idols! My
+soul! My soul! Where shalt thou find truth and rest?"
+
+Amzi touched him on the arm. "Why do you weep, friend? Thou art a false
+Guebre, truly! Know you not that even they hold the Caaba in high
+reverence?"
+
+There was a tone of good-natured raillery in the voice, and the speaker
+continued: "Arouse yourself, my friend. See how they worship in Mecca.
+They are at it already! See them run! By my faith 'tis a lusty morning
+exercise!"
+
+Yusuf looked up to see a great concourse of people gathering in the
+court-yard. Many were rushing about the Caaba, and pausing frequently at
+one corner of the huge structure.
+
+"Each pilgrim," explained Amzi, "holds himself bound to go seven times
+about the temple, and the harder he runs the more virtue there is in
+it--performing the Tawaf, they call it. Those who seem to pause are
+kissing the Hajar Aswad--the Black Stone, which, the Arabs say, was once
+an angel cast from heaven in the form of a pure white jacinth. It is now
+blackened by the kisses of sinners, but will, at the last day, arise in
+its angel form, to bear testimony of the faithful who have kissed it,
+and have done the Tawaf faithfully. And now, friend, come to the house
+of Amzi, and see if he can be as hospitable as Musa the Bedouin."
+
+Yusuf gratefully accepted the invitation, and the camels were urged on
+again down the narrow, crooked street.
+
+"Know you aught of one Mohammed?" asked the priest. "A roguish Hebrew
+left me, with scant ceremony, in possession of a manuscript which must
+be given to him."
+
+"Aye, well do I know him," said Amzi. "Mohammed, the son of Abdallah the
+handsome, and grandson of Abdal Motalleb, who was the son of Haschem of
+the tribe of the Koreish--a tribe which has long held a position among
+the highest of Mecca, and has, for ages past, had the guardianship of
+the Caaba itself. Mohammed himself is a man of sagacity and honor in all
+his dealings. He is married to Cadijah, a wealthy widow, whose business
+he has long carried on with scrupulous fairness. He, too, is one of the
+few who, in Mecca, have ceased to believe in idols, and would fain see
+the Caaba purged of its images."
+
+"There are some, then, who cast aside such beliefs?"
+
+"Yes, the Hanifs (ascetics), who utterly reject polytheism. Waraka, a
+cousin of the wife of Mohammed, is one of the chief of these; and
+Mohammed himself has, for several years, been accustomed to retire to
+the cave of Hira for meditation and prayer. It is said that he has
+preached and taught for some time in the city, but only to his immediate
+friends and relatives. Well, here we are at last,"--as a pretentious
+stone building was reached. "Amzi the benevolent bids Yusuf the Persian
+priest welcome."
+
+Amzi led the priest into a house furnished with no small degree of
+Oriental splendor.
+
+    "Right to the carven cedarn doors,
+    Flung inward over spangled floors,
+    Broad-based flights of marble stairs
+    Ran up with golden balustrade,
+    After the fashion of the time."
+
+A meal of Oriental dishes, dried fruit and sweetmeats was prepared; and,
+when the coolness of evening had come, the two friends proceeded to the
+temple.
+
+Entering by a western gate, they found the great quadrangle crowded with
+men, women and children, some standing in groups, with sanctimonious
+air, at prayers, while others walked or ran about the Caaba, which
+loomed huge and somber beneath the solemn light of the stars. A few
+solitary torches--for at that time the slender pillars with their
+myriads of lamps had not been erected--lit up the scene with a weird,
+wavering glare, and threw deep shadows across the white, sanded ground.
+
+A curious crowd it seemed. The wild enthusiasm that marked the conduct
+of the followers of Mohammed at a later day was absent, yet every motion
+of the motley crowd proclaimed the veneration with which the place
+inspired the impressionable and excitable Arabs.
+
+Here stood a wealthy Meccan, with flowing robes, arms crossed and eyes
+turned upward; there stalked a tall and gaunt figure whose black robes
+and heavy black head-dress proclaimed the wearer a Bedouin woman. Here
+ran a group of beggars; and there a number of half-naked pilgrims clung
+to the curtained walls. Once a corpse was carried into the enclosure and
+borne in solemn Tawaf round the edifice.
+
+"Look!" cried poor Dumah. "The son of the widow of Nain! The son of the
+widow of Nain! Oh, why does not he whom Dumah sees in his dreams come to
+raise him! But then, there are idols here, and he cannot come where
+there are other gods before him."
+
+On surveying the temple, Yusuf discovered that the door of the edifice
+was placed seven feet above the ground. Amzi informed him that the
+temple might be entered only at certain times, but that it contained an
+image of Abraham holding in its hand some arrows without heads; also a
+similar statue of Ishmael likewise with divining arrows, and lesser
+images of prophets and angels amounting almost to the number of three
+hundred.
+
+Passing round the temple to the north-eastern corner, Yusuf looked
+curiously at the Black Stone, which was set in the wall at a few spans
+from the ground, and which seemed to be black with yellowish specks in
+it.[6] Many people were pressing forward to kiss it, while many more
+were drinking and laving themselves with water from a well a few paces
+distant,--the well Zem-Zem,--believing that in so doing their sins were
+washed off in the water.
+
+"This," said Amzi, pointing to the spring, "is said to be the well which
+gushed up to give drink to our forefather Ishmael and Hagar his mother,
+when they had gone into the wilderness to die."
+
+Yusuf sighed heavily. Such empty ceremony had no longer any attraction
+for him, and he turned his eyes towards the mountain Abu Kubays,
+towering dark and gloomy above the town, its black crest touched with a
+silvery radiance by the light of the stars shining brilliantly above.
+
+Was this, then, the Caaba? Was this what he had fondly hoped would fill
+his heart's longing? Was there any food in this empty ceremonial for a
+hungering soul? Why, oh why did the truth ever elude him, flitting like
+an ignis-fatuus with phantom light through a dark and blackened
+wilderness!
+
+Amzi was talking to someone in the crowd, and Yusuf passed slowly out
+and bent his way down a silent and deserted street. No one was in sight
+except a very young girl, almost a child, who was gliding quickly on in
+the shadows. Once or twice she seemed to stagger, then she fell. Yusuf
+hurried to her, and turned her face to the starlight. Even in that dim
+light he could see that it was contorted with pain. Yusuf heard the
+murmur of voices in a low building close at hand, and, without waiting
+to knock, he lifted the girl in his arms, opened the door, and passed
+in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+NATHAN THE JEW.
+
+    "I shall be content, whatever happens, for what God chooses must
+    be better than what I can choose."--_Epictetus._
+
+
+The same evening on which Yusuf visited the temple, a woman and her two
+children sat in a dingy little room with an earthen floor, in one of the
+most dilapidated streets of Mecca. The woman's face bore traces of want
+and suffering, yet there was a calm dignity and hopefulness in her
+countenance, and her voice was not despairing. She sat upon a bundle of
+rushes placed on the floor. No lamp lighted the apartment, but through
+an opening in the wall the soft starlight shone upon the bands of hair
+that fell in little braids over her forehead. Her two beautiful children
+were beside her, the girl with her arm about her mother, and the boy's
+head on her lap.
+
+"Will we have only hard cake for breakfast, mother, and to-morrow my
+birthday, too?" he was saying.
+
+"That is all, my little Manasseh, unless the good Father sees fit to
+send us some way of earning more. You know even the hairs of our heads
+are numbered, so he takes notice of the poorest and weakest of his
+children, and has promised us that there will be no lack to them that
+fear him."
+
+"But, mother, we have had lack many, many times," said the boy
+thoughtfully.
+
+The mother smiled. "But things have usually come right in the end," she
+said, "and you know 'Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
+worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' We
+cannot understand all these things now, but it will be plain some day.
+'We will trust, and not be afraid,' because our trust is in the Lord;
+and we know that 'he will perfect that which concerneth us,' if we trust
+him."
+
+"And will he send father home soon?" asked the boy. "We have been
+praying for him to come, so, so long! Do you think God hears us, mother?
+Why doesn't he send father home?"
+
+The woman's head drooped, and a tear rolled down her cheek, but her
+voice was calm and firm.
+
+"Manasseh, child," she said, "your father may never return; but, though
+a Jew, he was a Christian; and, living or dead, I know he is safe in the
+keeping of our blessed Lord. Yes, Manasseh, God hears the slightest
+whisper breathed from the heart of those who call upon him in truth. He
+says, Jesus says, 'I know my sheep, and am known of mine.' Little son, I
+like to think that our blessed Savior, who 'laid down his life for the
+sheep,' is here--in this very room, close to us. Sometimes I close my
+eyes and think I see him, looking upon us in mercy and love from his
+tender eyes, and he almost seems so near that I may touch him. No, he
+will never forsake us. Little ones, my constant prayer for you is that
+you may learn to realize the depths of his love, and to render him your
+hearts in return; that you may feel ever closer to him than to any
+earthly parent, and prove yourselves loving, faithful children of whom
+he may not be ashamed."
+
+The woman's voice trembled with emotion as she concluded, and a glow of
+happiness illuminated her thin features.
+
+"Well, mother, I was ashamed to-day," said little Manasseh. "I got angry
+and struck a boy."
+
+"Manasseh! My child!"
+
+"You cannot understand, mother; you are so good that you never get
+angry or wicked. But the anger keeps rising up in me till it seems as if
+my heart would burst; the blood rushes to my face, my eyes
+flash--then--I strike, and think of nothing."
+
+She stroked his hair gently. "Manasseh, my boy's temper is one enemy
+which he has to conquer. But he must not try to conquer it in his own
+strength. We have an Almighty Helper who has given us to know that he
+will not suffer us to be tempted beyond that we are able, and has bidden
+us cast all our care upon him. He will be only too willing to guide us
+and uphold us by his power, if we will but let him keep us and lead us
+far from all temptation."
+
+"Then what would you do, mother, if you were in my place when the anger
+comes up?"
+
+She stooped and kissed him. "I would say, 'Jesus, help me,' and leave it
+all to him."
+
+Just then a step sounded at the door. Some one entered, and a cry of
+"Father! Oh, father!" burst from the children. The mother sprang,
+trembling, to her feet. It was the long-lost husband and father!
+
+Then the lamp was lighted, and the traveler told his loved ones the
+story of his long absence; how he had embarked at Jeddah on a foist
+bound for the head of the Red Sea; how he had been shipwrecked; had
+become ill of a fever as the result of exposure; and how he had at last
+made his painful way home by traveling overland.
+
+As they thus sat, talking in ecstasy of joy at their reunion, the door
+opened and Yusuf entered with the girl in his arms.
+
+Water was sprinkled upon her face and she soon recovered. She placed her
+hand on her brow in a dazed way, then sprang up, and, just pausing for
+an instant in which her wondrous beauty might be noted, dashed off into
+the night.
+
+"It is Zeinab, the beautiful child of Hassan," said the Jewess. "She
+will be well again now. The paroxysms have come before."
+
+"Sit you down, friend," said her husband to Yusuf. "We were just about
+to break bread. 'Tis a scanty meal," he added, with a smile. "But we
+have been enjoined to 'be not forgetful to entertain strangers,' because
+many have thus entertained angels unawares. We shall be glad of the
+company."
+
+There was a manly uprightness in the look and tone of Nathan the Jew
+which caught Yusuf's fancy at once, and he sat down without hesitation
+at the humble board.
+
+And there, in that little, dingy room, he saw the first gleam of that
+radiant light which was to transform the whole of his after life. He
+heard of the trials and disappointments, of the heroic fortitude born of
+that trust in and union with God which he had so craved. He received his
+first glimpse of a God, human as we are human, who understands every
+longing, every doubt, every agony that can bleed the heart of a poor
+child of earth.
+
+He scarcely dared yet to believe that this God was one really with him
+at all times and in all places, seeing, hearing, knowing, sympathizing.
+He scarcely dared to realize the possibility of a companionship with
+him, or the fact that the mediation of the planet-spirits was but a
+myth. Yet he did feel, in a vague way, that the light was breaking, and
+a tumultuous, undefined, hopeful ecstasy took possession of his being.
+Yusuf's heart was ready for the reception of the truth. He was
+unprejudiced. He had cast aside all dependence upon the tenets of his
+former belief. He had become as a little child anxious for rest upon its
+father's bosom. He sought only God, and to him the light came quickly.
+
+There was an infinity of blessed truth to learn yet, but, as he went out
+into the night, he knew that a something had come into his life,
+transforming and ennobling it. The divinity within him throbbed heart to
+heart with the Divinity that is above all, in all, throughout all good.
+Though vaguely, he felt God; he knew that now, at last, he had entered
+upon the right road.
+
+Then he thought of Amzi. He must try to tell him all this. Surely Amzi
+the learned, the benevolent, would rejoice too in hearing the story of
+Jesus' life on earth, of his coming as an expression of the love of God
+to man, that man might know God.
+
+Through the dark streets he hastened, thinking, wondering, rejoicing. He
+sought the bedside of Amzi on the flat roof.
+
+"Amzi, awake!" he cried.
+
+"What now, night-hawk?" said the Meccan, in his good-natured,
+half-railing tone. "Why pounce upon a man thus in the midst of his
+slumbers?"
+
+"Amzi, I have heard glorious news of him--that Jesus of whom we have
+talked!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"He seems indeed to be the God for whom I have longed. They have been
+telling me of his life, yet I realize little save that he came to earth
+that men might know him; that he died to show men the depth of his love;
+and that he is with us at every time, in every place--even here, now, on
+this roof! Only think of it, Amzi! He is close beside us, seeing us,
+hearing us, knowing our very hearts! There is no need more of appealing
+to the spirits of the stars. Ah, they were ever far, far off!"
+
+"And where learned you all this, friend priest?" There was an
+indifferent raillery in the tone which chilled Yusuf to the heart.
+
+"From Nathan, a Christian Jew, and his wife--people who live close to
+God if any one does."
+
+"In the Jewish quarter?"
+
+"Even so."
+
+Amzi laughed. "Truly, friend, you have chosen a fair spot for your
+revelation--a quarter of filth and vice. A case of good coming out of
+evil, truly!"
+
+"Will you not grant that there are some good even in the Jewish
+quarter?"
+
+"Some, perhaps; yet there are some good among all peoples."
+
+"Amzi, can you not believe?"
+
+"No, no, friend Yusuf; I am glad for your happiness--believe what you
+will. But it is foreign to Amzi's nature to accept on hearsay that which
+he has not inquired into--probed to the bottom even. He cannot accept
+the testimony of any passing stranger, however plausible it may seem.
+Rejoice if you will, Yusuf, in the spring of a night-tune, but leave
+Amzi to seek for the deep waters still."
+
+Amzi was now talking quickly and impressively.
+
+Yusuf was amazed. The light was beginning to shine so brightly in his
+own soul that he could not comprehend why others could not see and
+believe likewise. He talked with his friend until the dawn began to tint
+the top of Abu Kubays, but without effect. At every turn he was met by
+the bitter prejudice held by the Meccans against the whole Jewish race,
+a prejudice which kept even Amzi the benevolent from believing in
+anything advocated by them.
+
+"Why do they not show Christ in their lives, then?" he would say.
+
+"You cannot judge the whole Christian band by the misdeeds of a few, who
+are, indeed, no Christians," Yusuf pleaded.
+
+"True; yet a religion such as you describe should appeal to more of
+them, and would, if it were all you imagine it to be. A perfect religion
+should be exemplified in the lives of those who profess it."
+
+"I grant you that that is true," was Yusuf's reply. "And as an example
+let me bring you to Nathan and his family. Nobody could talk for one
+hour to them without feeling that they have found, at least, something
+which we do not possess. This something, they say, is their God."
+
+"Well, well. I shall do so to please you," said Amzi indifferently, "but
+I hope that a longer acquaintance may not spoil your trust in these
+people."
+
+Further expostulation was vain. Yusuf retired to his own apartment, and
+prayed long and fervently, in his own simple way, offering thanks for
+the light which was breaking so radiantly on his own soul, and
+beseeching the loving Jesus to touch the heart of Amzi, who, he knew,
+though less enthusiastic than he, also desired to know truth.
+
+And before he lay down for a short rest, he said:
+
+"Grant, O Jesus, thou who art ever present, that I may know thee better,
+and that Amzi, too, may learn to know thee. Reveal thyself to him as
+thou art revealing thyself to me, that we may know thee as we should."
+
+The priest's face grew radiant with happiness as he concluded.
+
+And yet, in that same city, vice held sway; for, even as the priest
+prayed, a dark figure emerged from an unused upper attic in the house of
+Nathan the Jew, and, escaping by a window, descended a garden stair and
+disappeared in the darkness. Even in that dim light, had one looked he
+might have noted that the mysterious prowler wore the dress of a
+dervish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+YUSUF'S FIRST MEETING WITH MOHAMMED.
+
+    "A person with abnormal auditory sensations often comes to
+    interpret them as voices of demons, or as the voice of one
+    commanding him to do some deed. This hallucination, in turn,
+    becomes an apperceiving organ, _i.e._, other perceptions and
+    ideas are assimilated to it: it becomes a center about which
+    many ideas gather and are correspondingly
+    distorted."--_McLellan, Psychology._
+
+
+Upon the evening of the following day, Amzi and Yusuf set out in quest
+of Mohammed, to whom the manuscript had not yet been given. Stopping at
+the house of Cadijah, a stone building having some pretensions to
+grandeur, they learned that Mohammed had left the city. Accordingly,
+thinking he would probably be found in the Cave of Hira, they took a
+by-path towards the mountains.
+
+The sun was hot, but a pleasant breeze blew from the plains towards the
+Nejd, and, from the elevation which they now ascended, Yusuf noted with
+interest a scene every point of which was entirely different from that
+of his Persian home--different perhaps from that of any other spot on
+the face of the earth; a scene desolate, wild, and barren, yet destined
+to be the cradle of a mighty movement that was ere long to agitate the
+entire peninsula of Arabia, and eventually to exercise its baneful
+influence over a great part of the Eastern Hemisphere.[7]
+
+Below him lay the long, narrow, sandy valley. No friendly group of palms
+arose to break its dreary monotony; no green thing, save a few parched
+aloes, was there to form a pleasant resting-place for the eye. The
+passes below, those ever-populous roads leading to the Nejd, Syria,
+Jeddah, and Arabia-Felix, were crowded with people; yet, even their
+presence did not suffice to remove the air of deadness from the scene.
+Of one thing only could the beholder be really conscious--desolation,
+desolation; a desolate city surrounded by huge, bare, skeleton-like
+mountains, grim old Abu Kubays with the city stretching half way up its
+gloomy side, on the east; the Red mountain on the west; Jebel Kara
+toward Tayf, and Jebel Thaur with Jebel Jiyad the Greater, on the south.
+
+[Illustration: "Read, O Mohammed, and see him who was able to restore
+the withered hand."--See page 23.]
+
+Yusuf watched the people, many of whom were pilgrims, swarming like so
+many ants below him towards the Caaba, which was in full view, standing
+like a huge sarcophagus in the center of the great courtyard. In the
+transparent air of the Orient, even the pillars supporting the covered
+portico about the courtyard were quite visible. Yusuf had observed the
+great system of barter, the buying and selling that went on beneath the
+roof of that long portico, within the very precincts of the temple set
+apart for the worship of the Deity, and, as he watched the pigmy
+creatures, now swarming towards the trading stalls, now hastening to
+perform Tawaf about the temple, he almost wept that such sacrilege
+should exist, and a great throb of pity for these erring people whose
+spiritual nature was barren as the vast, treeless, verdureless waste
+about them, filled his breast.
+
+Amzi directed his attention towards the east, where the blue mountains
+of Tayf stood like outposts in the distance.
+
+"There," said he, "at but a three days' journey is the district of
+plenty, the Canaan of Mecca, whence come the grapes, melons, cucumbers,
+and pomegranates that are to be seen in our markets. There are pleasant
+dales and gardens where the camel-thorn gives way to a carpet of
+verdure; where the mimosa and acacia give place to the glossy-leaved
+fig-tree, to stately palms, and pomegranates of the scarlet fruit; where
+rippling streams are heard, and the songs of birds fill the air. There
+is a tradition that Adam, when driven out of the Garden of Eden, settled
+at Mecca; and there, on the site of the temple yonder, and immediately
+beneath a glittering temple of pearly cloud, shimmering dews, and
+rainbow lights said to be in Paradise above,--the Bait-el Maamur of
+Heaven,--was built, by the help of angels, the first Caaba, a
+resplendent temple with pillars of jasper and roof of ruby. Adam then
+compassed the temple seven times, as the angels did the Bait above in
+perpetual Tawaf. He then prayed for a bit of fertile land, and
+immediately a mountain from Syria appeared, performed Tawaf round the
+Caaba, and then settled down yonder at Tayf. Hence, Tayf is even yet
+called 'Kita min el Sham'--a piece of Syria, the father-land."
+
+"So then, this Caaba, according to tradition, is of early origin?"
+
+"The Arabs believe that when the earthly Bait-el Maamur was taken to
+heaven at Adam's death, a third one was built of stone and mud by Seth.
+This was swept away by the Deluge, but the Black Stone was kept safe in
+Abu Kubays, which is, therefore, called 'El Amin'--the Honest. After the
+flood, a fourth House was built by our father Abraham, to whom the angel
+Gabriel restored the stone. Abraham's building was repaired and in part
+restored by the Amalikah tribe. A sixth Caaba was built by the children
+of Kahtan, into whose tribe, say the Arabs, Ismail was married. The
+seventh house was built by Kusay bin Kilab, a forefather of Mohammed,
+and I have reason to believe that he was the first who filled it with
+the idols which now disgrace its walls. Kusay's house was burnt, its
+cloth covering (or kiswah) catching fire from a torch. It was rebuilt by
+the Koreish (Qurais) a few years ago. It was then that the door was
+placed high above the ground, as you see it, and then that the movable
+stair was constructed. Then, too, the six columns which support the roof
+were added, and Mohammed, El Amin, was chosen to determine the position
+of the Black Stone in the wall. So, friend, I have now given you in
+part, the history of the Caaba."
+
+Bestowing a last look upon the temple, the friends walked for some
+distance northward across the slopes of Mount Hira, until a low, dark
+opening appeared in the face of a rock.
+
+Drawing back a thorny bush from its door, they entered the cave. A low
+moaning noise sounded within. For a moment, the transition from the
+white glare without to the twilight of the cave blinded them, then they
+saw that the moans proceeded from Mohammed, who was lying on his back on
+the stone floor. His head-dress was awry, his face was purple, and froth
+issued from his mouth.
+
+Amzi seized an earthen vessel of water, and bathed his brow.
+
+"Poor fellow!" he said, "how often he may have suffered here alone! It
+has been his custom for years to spend the holy month of Ramadhan here
+in prayer and meditation. He has often taken these fits before; but, if
+what is said be true, he knows not that he is suffering, for angels
+appear to him during the paroxysms."
+
+"It seems to me much more like a fit of epilepsy," said Yusuf, rather
+sarcastically. "See, he begins to come to himself again."
+
+Mohammed had stopped moaning, and his face began to regain its natural
+color.
+
+Presently he opened his eyes in a dazed way, and sat up. He was a man of
+middle height, with a ruddy, rather florid complexion, a high forehead,
+and very even, white teeth. There was something commanding and
+dignified in his appearance. He wore a bushy beard, and was habited in a
+striped cotton gown of cloth of Yemen; and, from his person emanated the
+sweet odor of choicest perfumes of the Nejd and Arabia-Felix.
+
+"Ah, it is Amzi!" he said. "Pardon me, friend, but the angel has just
+left me, and I failed to recognize you at once, my mind was so occupied
+with the wonder of his communications; for, friend, the time is nigh,
+even at hand, when the prophet of Allah, the One, the only Person of the
+Godhead, is to be proclaimed!"
+
+His voice was low and musical, and he spoke as one under the influence
+of an inspiration.
+
+"Has the angel appeared to you in visible form?"
+
+"Sometimes he appears in human form, but in a blinding light; at other
+times I hear a sound as of a silver bell tinkling afar. Then I hear no
+words, but the truth sinks upon my soul, and burns itself into my brain,
+and I feel that the angel speaks."
+
+"Of what, then, has he spoken?" asked Amzi.
+
+"The time in which the full revelation shall be thrown open to man is
+not yet. But it will come ere long. None, heretofore, save my own kin
+and friends, have been given aught of the great message; yet to you,
+Amzi, may I say that Abraham, Moses, Christ, have all been servants of
+the true God, yet for Mohammed has been reserved the honor of casting
+out the idolatry with which the worship of our people reeks. For him is
+destined the glory of purging our Caaba of its images, and of
+reinstating the true religion of our fathers in this fair land. Then
+shall men know that Allah is the one God, and Mohammed is his prophet!"
+
+"Think you to place yourself on an equality with the Son of God?" cried
+Yusuf, sternly.
+
+Mohammed turned quickly upon him, and his face worked in a frenzy of
+excitement.
+
+"I tell you there is but one God,--one invisible, eternal God, Allah
+above all in earth and heaven,--and Mohammed is the prophet of God!" he
+cried.
+
+Yusuf perceived that he had to deal with a fanatic, a religious
+enthusiast, who would not be reasoned with.
+
+"Yes," he continued, "may it be Mohammed's privilege to lead men back to
+truth, and to turn them from heathendom; to teach them to be wise as
+serpents, harmless as doves, and to show them how to walk with clean
+hands and hearts through the earth, living uprightly in the sight of all
+men!"
+
+"Yet," ventured Yusuf, "did not Jesus teach something of this?"
+
+"Jesus was great and good," said Mohammed; "he was needed in his day
+upon the earth, but men have fallen away again, and Mohammed is the
+greatest and last, the prophet of Allah!"
+
+The speaker's eyes were flashing; he was yet under the influence of an
+overpowering excitement. The color began to rush to his face, and Yusuf,
+fearing a return of the swoon, deemed it wise not to prolong the
+argument, but delivered the manuscript left by the peddler, saying:
+
+"Read, O Mohammed, and see him who was able to restore the withered hand
+stretched forth in faith. Perceive him, and commit not this sacrilege."
+
+Trusting himself to say no more, Yusuf hastily left the cavern, followed
+by Amzi, who remarked, thoughtfully:
+
+"Yet, there is much good, too, in that which Mohammed would advocate."
+
+"There is," assented Yusuf. "Yet, though I know not why, I cannot trust
+this man. 'Tis an instinct, if you will. What, think you, does he mean
+to win by this procedure,--power, or esteem, or fame?"
+
+Amzi shook his head quickly in denial. "Mohammed is one of the most
+upright of men, one of the last to seek personal favor or distinction by
+dishonest means, one of the last to be a maker of lies. Verily, Yusuf, I
+know not what to think of his revelations. If he does not in truth see
+these visions, he at least imagines he does. He is honest in what he
+says."
+
+"'If he does not in truth'!" repeated Yusuf. "Surely you, Amzi, have no
+confidence in his visions?"
+
+Amzi smiled. "And yet Yusuf, no longer ago than last night, was ready to
+believe the testimony of a pauper Jew in regard to similar assertions,"
+he said. "But keep your mind easy, friend; I have not accepted
+Mohammed's claims. I am open to conviction yet, and I am not hasty to
+believe. In fact, I must confess, Yusuf, an entire lack of that fervor,
+of that capacity for religious feeling, which is so marked a trait in my
+Persian priest."
+
+"Yet you, too, professed to be a seeker for truth," said Yusuf,
+reproachfully.
+
+"My desire for truth is simply to know it for the mere sake of knowing
+it," said Amzi.
+
+Yusuf sighed. He did not realize that he had to deal with a peculiar
+nature, one of the hardest to impress in spiritual things--the
+indifferent, calculating mind, which is more than half satisfied with
+moral virtue, not realizing the infinitely higher, nobler, happier life
+that comes from the inspiration of a constant companionship with God.
+
+"Alas, I am but a poor teacher, Amzi," he said. "You know, perhaps, more
+of the doctrines of these Christians than I; yet I am convinced that to
+me has come a blessing which you lack, and I would fain you had it too.
+And I know so little that it seems I cannot help you. You will, at
+least, come and talk with Nathan?"
+
+"As you will," said Amzi, in a half-bantering tone. "Prove to me that
+these Hebrews are infallible, and I shall half accept their Jewish
+philosophy."
+
+"You cannot expect to find them or any one on this earth infallible,"
+returned Yusuf, quietly. "I can only promise that you will find in them
+quiet, sincere, upright Christians."
+
+They had reached a sudden turn on the path, and before them, on the top
+of a steep cliff, stood Dumah, with his fair hair streaming in the
+sunshine. He was singing, and they paused to listen.
+
+    "He is gone, the noble, the handsome,
+    And the tears of the mother are falling
+    Like dews from the cup of the lily
+    When it bends its head in the darkness."
+
+"Poor Dumah!" said Amzi, "singing his thoughts as usual. What now,
+Dumah? Who is weeping?"
+
+"A poor Jewess," said the boy, "and her two children cling to her gown
+and weep too. Ah, if Dumah had power he would soon set him free."
+
+"Set whom free?" asked Yusuf.
+
+"The father; they say he took the cup to buy bread; but for the sake of
+the children, Dumah would set him free."
+
+"Oh, it is only a case of stealing down in the Jewish quarter," said
+Amzi, carelessly.
+
+"Yet," returned the other, "a weeping mother and helpless children
+should appeal to the heart of Amzi the benevolent. Let us turn aside and
+see what it is about. Dumah, lead us."
+
+They followed the boy to the hall or court-room of the city. A judge sat
+on a raised dais; witnesses were below, and the owner of the gold cup
+was talking excitedly and calling loudly for justice.
+
+"There is the culprit," whispered Amzi.
+
+Yusuf was struck dumb. It was Nathan, the Christian Jew! Agony was
+written in his face, yet there was patience in it too. His arms were
+bound, and his head was bent in what might have been interpreted as
+humiliation.
+
+"Once more," cried the judge, "have you aught to say for yourself, Jew?"
+
+Nathan raised his head proudly, and looked the Judge straight in the
+eyes.
+
+"I am guiltless," he said, in low, firm tones.
+
+A murmur burst from the crowd, and exclamations could be heard.
+
+"Not guilty! And the cup found in his house!"
+
+"Coward dog! Will he not yet confess?"
+
+"The scourge is too good for him!"
+
+"Have you no explanation to offer?" asked the judge.
+
+"None."
+
+"Then, guards, place him in irons to await our further pleasure. In the
+meantime forty lashes of the scourge. Next!"
+
+Nathan walked out with firm step and head erect. A low sob burst from
+some one in the crowd. It was the wife of Nathan, weeping, while little
+Manasseh and Mary clung to her weeping too.
+
+Yusuf touched her on the arm. "Hush! Be calm!" he said. "All will yet be
+well. I, for one, know that he is innocent, and I will not rest until he
+is free."
+
+"Thank God! He has not forsaken us!" exclaimed the woman.
+
+Yusuf put a piece of money into Manasseh's hand. "Here, take your mother
+home, and buy some bread," he said.
+
+"And here, pretty lad, know you the touch of gold?" said Amzi, as he
+slipped another coin into the child's hand. "Now, Yusuf," he went on,
+"come, let us see your Jewish friends of yester-even."
+
+"Alas, Amzi, these are they," returned the priest, sadly, "and I fear
+yon poor woman feels little like talking to us in the freshness of her
+grief."
+
+Amzi laughed, mysteriously. "So your teacher has proved but a common Jew
+thief," he said.
+
+Yusuf turned almost fiercely. "Do you believe this vile story?" he
+exclaimed. "Did you not see truth stamped upon Nathan's face?"
+
+"You must admit that circumstances are against him. The proof seems
+conclusive."
+
+"I will never believe it, were the proof produced by their machinations
+ten times as conclusive! There is some mystery here which I will
+unravel!"
+
+"My poor Yusuf, you are too credulous in respect to these people. So be
+it. You believe in your Jews, I shall believe in my Mohammed, until the
+tale told is a different one," laughed Amzi; and for the moment Yusuf
+felt helpless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+YUSUF STUDIES THE SCRIPTURES.--CONNECTING EVENTS.
+
+    "Surely an humble husbandman that serveth God is better than a
+    proud philosopher who, neglecting himself, is occupied in
+    studying the course of the heavens."--_Thomas a Kempis._
+
+
+For many weeks, even months, after this, Yusuf's life, to one who knew
+not the workings of his mind, seemed colorless, and filled with a
+monotonous round of never-varying occupation. Yet in those few weeks he
+lived more than in all his life before. Life is not made up of either
+years or actions--the development of thought and character is the
+important thing; and in this period of apparent waiting, Yusuf grew and
+developed in the light of his new understanding.
+
+He read and thought and studied, and yet found time for paying some
+attention to outer affairs. In Persia he had amassed a considerable
+fortune, which he had conveyed to Mecca in the form of jewels sewn into
+his belt and into the seams of his garments, hence he was abundantly
+able to pay his way, and to expend something in charity; and between his
+and Amzi's generosity the family of Nathan lacked nothing.
+
+Yusuf obtained possession of parts of the Scriptures, written on
+parchment, and spent every morning in their perusal, ever finding this
+period a precious feast full of comforting assurances, and
+hope-inspiring promises. He never forgot to pray for Amzi, to whom he
+often read and expounded passages of Scripture, without being able to
+notice any apparent effect of his teaching.
+
+It troubled him much that Amzi lent such a willing ear to Mohammed, and
+to the few fanatics among the Hanifs who had now professed their belief
+in this self-proclaimed prophet of Allah. It seemed marvelous that a man
+of Amzi's wisdom and learning should be so carried away by such a flimsy
+doctrine as that which Mohammed now began to proclaim. Amzi appeared to
+have fallen under the spell which Mohammed seemed to cast over many of
+those with whom he came in contact; and, though he acknowledged no
+belief in the so-called prophet, neither did he profess disbelief in
+him.
+
+Yusuf's happiest hours were those spent in the little Jewish Christian
+church, a poor, uncomfortable building, where an earnest handful of
+Jews, who were nevertheless firm believers in the divinity of Christ,
+met, often in secret, always in fear of the derisive Arabs, for prayer
+and study of the Gospel. Among these, the wife of Nathan was never
+absent.
+
+Yusuf sought untiringly to solve the mystery of the gold cup.
+Circumstantial evidence was certainly against Nathan. Awad, a rich
+merchant of Mecca, had placed the cup near a window in his house, and
+had forgotten to remove it ere retiring for the night. A short time
+before dawn he had heard a noise and risen to see what it was. He had
+gone outside just in time to see a figure passing hurriedly across a
+small field near his house. Even then he had not thought of the cup. But
+in the morning it was missed, and tracks were followed from the window
+as far as the ruined house to which Nathan's family had gone in their
+poverty. The house was searched, and the cup was found hidden in a heap
+of rubbish in an unused apartment.
+
+Nathan had just returned with little save the clothes he wore; it was
+well known that his wife and children had been verging on starvation,
+and the public, ever ready to judge, formed its own conclusion, and
+turned with Nemesis eye upon the poor Jew.
+
+No clue whatever remained, except a small carnelian, which Yusuf found
+afterwards upon the floor, and which he took possession of at once. For
+hours he would wander about, hoping to find some trace of the robber,
+who, he firmly believed, had fancied himself followed by Awad, and had
+hurriedly secreted the cup, trusting to return for it later, and to make
+his escape in the meantime.
+
+All this, however, did not help poor Nathan, who, chained and fettered,
+languished in a close, poorly-ventilated cell, with little hope of
+deliverance. Yusuf knew the rancor of the Meccans against the Jews, and
+somewhat feared the result, yet he did not give up hope.
+
+"We are praying for him," Nathan's wife would say. "Nathan and Yusuf are
+praying too, and we know that whatever happens must be best, since God
+has willed it so for us."
+
+Little Manasseh chafed more than anyone at the long suspense. One day he
+said:
+
+"Mother, my name means blackness, sorrow, or something like that, does
+it not? Why did you call me Manasseh? Was it to be an omen of my life?"
+
+"Forbid that it should!" the mother exclaimed, passing her hand lovingly
+through his waving hair. "It must have been because of your curls, black
+as a raven's wing. Sorrow will not be always. Joy may come soon; but if
+not, 'at eventide it shall be light.'"
+
+"Does that mean in heaven?" he asked.
+
+"He has prepared for us a mansion in the heavens, an house not made with
+hands. 'There shall be no night there,' and 'sorrow and sighing shall
+flee away,'" said the mother with a far-away look in her eyes.
+
+"But it seems so long to wait, mother," said the boy impatiently.
+
+"Yet heaven is not far away, Manasseh," she returned, quickly. "Heaven
+is wherever God is. And have we not him with us always? 'In all thy ways
+acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.' Never forget that,
+Manasseh."
+
+"Well, I wish we were a little happier now," he would say; and then, to
+divert the boy's attention from his present troubles, his mother would
+tell him about her happy home in Palestine, where she and her little
+sister, Lois, had watched their sheep on the green hillsides, and woven
+chains of flowers to put about the neck of their pet lamb; of how they
+grew up, and Lois married the Bedouin Musa, and had gone far away.
+
+Thus far, Yusuf knew nothing of this connection of Nathan's family with
+his Bedouin friends. It was yet to prove another link in the chain which
+was binding him so closely to this godly family. His many occupations,
+and the feeling which impelled him at every spare moment to seek for
+some clue which would lead to Nathan's liberation, left him little time
+for conversation with them for the present, except to see that their
+wants were supplied.
+
+Then, too, he was troubled about Amzi, and somewhat anxious about the
+result of Mohammed's proclamations, which were now beginning to be
+noised abroad. From holding meetings in caves and private houses, the
+"prophet" had begun to preach on the streets, and from the top of the
+little eminence Safa, near the foot of Abu Kubays.
+
+Many of the people of Mecca held him up to ridicule, and treated his
+declarations with derisive contempt. Among his strongest opponents were
+his own kindred, the Koreish, of the line of Haschem and of the rival
+line of Abd Schems. The head of the latter tribe, Abu Sofian, Mohammed's
+uncle, was especially bitter. He was a formidable foe, as he lived in
+the highlands, his castles being built on precipitous rocks, and manned
+by a set of wild and savage Arabs.
+
+Yet Mohammed went on, neither daunted by fear nor discouraged by
+sarcasm. The number of his followers steadily increased; his first
+converts, Ali, his cousin, and Zeid, his faithful servant, being quickly
+joined by many others.
+
+Mohammed now boldly proclaimed the message delivered to him in the cave
+of Hira the Koran. He declared that the law of Moses had given way to
+the Gospel, and that the Gospel was now to give way to the Koran; that
+the Savior was a great prophet, but was not divine; and that he,
+Mohammed, was to be the last and greatest of all the prophets.
+
+Such assertions were usually received with shouts of derision; and yet,
+when Mohammed eloquently upheld fairness and sincerity in all public and
+private dealings, and urged the giving of alms, and the living of a pure
+and humble life, there were those who, like Amzi, felt that there was
+something worthy of admiration in the new prophet's religion; and his
+very firmness and sincerity, even when spat upon, and covered with mud
+thrown upon him as he prayed in the Caaba, won for him friends.
+
+The opposition of his uncles, Abu Lahab and Abu Sofian, was, however,
+carried on with the greatest rancor; and at last a decree was issued by
+Abu Sofian forbidding the tribe of the Koreish from having any
+intercourse whatever with Mohammed. This decree was written on
+parchment, and hung up in the Caaba, and Mohammed was ultimately forced
+to flee from the city. He and his disciples went for refuge to the
+ravine of Abu Taleb, at some distance from Mecca. Here they would have
+suffered great want, had it not been for the kindness of Amzi, who
+managed to send them food in secret.
+
+But the prophet's zeal never flagged. When the Ramadhan again came
+round, and it was safe to venture from his temporary retreat, he came
+boldly into the city, preached again from the hill Safa, and proclaimed
+his new revelations, praying for the people, and ending every prayer
+with the declaration now universal throughout the Moslem world,--
+
+"God! There is no God but he, the ever-living! He sleepeth not, neither
+doth he slumber! To him belong the heavens and the earth, and all that
+they contain. Who shall intercede with him unless by his permission? His
+sway extendeth over the heavens and the earth, and to sustain them both
+is no burthen to him. He is the High, the Mighty!"
+
+The sublimity of this eulogy of the Most High may be readily traced to
+the psalms, particularly to that grandest of all songs, the one hundred
+and fourth psalm, which has been said to be remarkable in that it
+embraces the whole cosmos. And, in fact, the whole trend of the Koran
+may be traced to a study of the Bible, particularly to the New
+Testament, with occasional digressions into the Mishnu, and the Talmud
+of the Hebrews.
+
+"Feed the hungry! Visit the sick! Bow not to idols! Pray constantly, and
+direct thy prayers immediately to the Deity!" These were the constant
+exhortations of the prophet during these first days of his
+ministry--exhortations which demand the admiration of all who consider
+the grossness and idolatry of the age in which he lived. Had he never
+gone further, succeeding ages might have been tempted to pardon his
+hallucinations. At the time, doctrines which savored of so much
+magnanimity, and which were immeasurably in advance of the mockery of
+religion that had so long held sway among the majority of the Arabs, at
+once commended themselves to many. The effect of the new teaching was
+enhanced by the burning enthusiasm and powerful oratory of Mohammed, who
+was not ignorant of the effect of eloquent delivery and glowing language
+on a people ever passionate and keenly susceptible to the influence of a
+strong and vivid presentation.
+
+Ridicule and persecution ceased for a time, and at last, when the decree
+was removed, Mohammed and his followers returned in triumph to Mecca.
+
+Once again he was obliged to fly for his life. Accompanied by Zeid, he
+went to Tayf, and there spent a month in its perfumed vales, wandering
+by cooling streams, meditating beneath the waving fronds of the
+palm-trees, or resting in cool gardens, lulled by the rustling leaves of
+the nebeck (the lotus-tree), and inhaling the fresh perfume of peach and
+apple blooms.
+
+But the inhabitants of Tayf grew hostile, and the prophet again set out
+on foot for Mecca. He sat down to rest in an orchard. There he dreamed
+that a host of genii waited before him, begging him to teach them El
+Islam.
+
+In the night[8] he arose and proceeded, with renewed courage, on his
+journey. On the way he fell in with some pilgrims from Yathrib, or
+Medina, and to them he unfolded his revelations. They listened
+spell-bound as he preached from Al Akaba, and besought him that he would
+come or would send disciples with them to their northern town.
+Accordingly, Mohammed chose several converts to accompany them upon this
+first mission, and a time was set for their going.
+
+On the evening preceding this appointed time, Yusuf sat in a hanging
+balcony of Amzi's house. The pink flush of the setting sun was over the
+sky; the murmur of the city arose with a subdued hum--"the city's stilly
+sound"; a parchment containing a part of the Scriptures was on the
+priest's knee, but he stopped reading and gave himself up to meditation,
+wondering deeply at the strange course that events were taking, and
+surmising vaguely the probable result of the revolution that seemed
+impending.
+
+His thoughts turned to Amzi, who, as yet, closed his ears to the Gospel
+tidings which were proving such a comfort and joy to the priest.
+
+A step sounded behind him. It was Amzi himself, attired in traveling
+garb, and with his camel-stick already in his hand.
+
+"What now, friend Yusuf? Dreaming still?" he said. "Will you not say
+farewell to your friend?"
+
+"What! Are you going on a journey? Pray, where goes Amzi on such short
+notice?"
+
+"Ah," smiled Amzi, "I almost fear to tell my Persian proselyte, lest the
+vials of his wrath be poured on my defenceless and submissive head. To
+make a long story short, I go with the disciples of Mohammed to Medina."
+
+"As Mohammed's disciple? Amzi, has it come to this!" exclaimed the
+priest.
+
+"Chain your choler, my friend," laughed the other. "I merely go to
+observe the outcome of this movement in the town of the North. Besides,
+the heat of Mecca in this season oppresses me, and I long for the cool
+breezes of Medina. Yusuf, I shall have rare letters to write you, for I
+feel that there will be a mighty movement in favor of Mohammed there."
+
+"You begin to believe in him, Amzi!" said Yusuf in tones of deepest
+concern.
+
+"His doctrines suit me, as containing many noble precepts. His
+proclamations are moving the town in such a way as was never known
+heretofore."
+
+"Consider the movement caused by the teaching of Christ when he was on
+earth!" cried Yusuf. "Dare you compare this petty tempest with that?"
+
+"Yet Christ's very words have been here where all might read them, for
+long enough. Why have they not drawn the attention of, and, if divine,
+why have they not shown their power among, our citizens?"
+
+"Because ye have eyes that see not, and ears that hear not!" cried the
+priest impetuously. "Can you not see that the doctrines of the
+Scriptures are just those which Mohammed proclaims? He seizes upon them,
+he gives them as his own, because he knows they are good, yet he commits
+the sacrilege of posing as a divine agent! Good cannot come out of this
+except in so far as a few precepts of the Gospel, all plagiarized as
+they are, exert their influence upon the lives of people."
+
+Amzi looked inconvincible. "I grant the excellence of Gospel teaching,"
+he said, "but your conception of God's love I cannot seem to feel, often
+as you have explained it to me. Mohammed's revelations appear plausible.
+Yet, look not so doleful, brother. Amzi has not become a Mohammedan. He
+is still ready to believe as soon as he can see."
+
+"Yes, yes; like Thomas, you must see and feel ere you will believe. God
+grant that the seeing and feeling may not come too late!"
+
+Amzi smiled, and passed his arm affectionately about the priest's
+shoulder. "What a thorn in the flesh to you is Amzi the benevolent," he
+said, kindly. "Notwithstanding, give me your blessing, priest. Give me
+credit for being, at least, honest, and bid me good speed before I go."
+
+"Heaven forbid that aught but blessing from Yusuf should ever follow
+Amzi!" returned the other, warmly. "May heaven keep and direct you, my
+friend, my brother!"
+
+The friends embraced, according to the custom of the land, and
+separated; Amzi to join the half-naked pilgrims, who had not yet donned
+their traveling-robes, Yusuf to lift his heart to Heaven, as he now did
+in every circumstance. In this silent talk to God he received comfort,
+and his heart was filled with hope for Amzi.
+
+Even this journey, which seemed so inauspicious, might, he thought, be
+but the beginning of a happy end. He had learned that there are no
+trifles in life; that no event is so insignificant that God may not make
+use of it. He felt that Amzi was not utterly indifferent to the
+influence of divine power, so he waited in patience.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WHEREIN IS TOLD THE STORY OF NATHAN'S LIBERATION.
+
+    "The winds, as at their hour of birth,
+      Leaning upon the ridged sea,
+    Breathed low around the rolling earth
+      With mellow preludes, 'We are free.'"
+
+                              --_Tennyson._
+
+
+During all this time, there was no news of release for poor Nathan. In
+his close cell, ventilated by one little window, and, in the fetid odor
+of its air, he pined away. A low fever had rendered him exceedingly
+weak; he could not eat the wretched food of the prison; his face grew
+haggard, and his bones shone through the flesh with almost skeleton-like
+distinctness. Yet no murmur passed his lips.
+
+From his window, set high in the wall, he could see the sun as it rose
+over Abu Kubays; he could catch the occasional glint of a bright wing as
+a dove or a swallow flitted past beneath the white sky; and he said,
+"God is still good, blessed be his name!"
+
+Yet the grief of being separated from his loved ones, and the
+uncertainty of their welfare, preyed upon his mind, almost shaking the
+trust which had upheld him so long. It was a time of trial for poor
+Nathan, yet his faith came forth from the trial untarnished.
+
+Yusuf sought in vain to gain admission to the poor prisoner: the utmost
+that he could accomplish was to pay the attendant for carrying one
+brief message to him, assuring him that his wife and children were well,
+and cared for.
+
+The mystery of the gold cup was still unsolved. One day, however, when
+going down one of the busiest streets, Yusuf saw, at some distance, a
+little man walking along with a pack on his back. The peculiar hopping
+motion of his gait proclaimed him at once to be Abraham, the little Jew.
+
+"The very man!" thought Yusuf. "If any one between Syria and Yemen can
+ferret out a mystery, it is Abraham the peddler. If I can once set him
+in earnest upon the track, deliverance may be speedy for poor Nathan."
+
+The peddler was walking very rapidly, but Yusuf strode after him, now
+losing sight of him in the crowd, now catching a glimpse of his little
+bobbing figure, until, out of breath, he finally reached him and caught
+his arm.
+
+The Jew started in surprise. "Defend us, friend!" he exclaimed. "You
+come on a man like the poison-wind, as quickly if not as deadly. So you
+are still in Mecca! What are you doing now?"
+
+He was as inquisitive as ever, but Yusuf did not resent the trait in him
+now.
+
+"I am on important business just at present, my friend," he said, in his
+kindliest tone, "on business in which I am sure Abraham the Jew can help
+me, better than any other man in Mecca."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed the peddler, "and what may that be?"
+
+"Can you keep a still tongue when it is necessary, Jew?"
+
+The peddler placed his fingers on his lips, rolled up his eyes, and
+nodded assent.
+
+"Then come with me to the house of Amzi the benevolent,--my Meccan
+home,--and I shall explain."
+
+When seated comfortably on divans in the coolest part of the house,
+Yusuf told the story of the gold cup, and intimated that Abraham's
+wandering life and the numberless throngs of people with whom his trade
+threw him in contact, gave him facilities, impossible to others, of
+doing a little detective work in a quiet way.
+
+The Jew listened, silent and motionless, with his eyes fixed on a
+lotus-bud carved on the cornice. Only once did he turn and fix his
+little round eyes sharply on the priest's face.
+
+"There is just one more thing--" continued Yusuf, then he stopped. He
+was about to tell of the little carnelian stone, when his eye fell upon
+one of the numerous rings upon the Jew's fat fingers. There, in the
+center of it, was a small cavity from which, apparently, a jewel of some
+sort had fallen from its setting.
+
+Yusuf almost sprang to his feet in the excitement of the discovery.
+
+"Well?" asked the Jew, noting the pause.
+
+"I will tell you later," said Yusuf. "For the present--have some dates,
+will you not?"
+
+A servant entered with a tray on which were fruits and small cakes.
+
+The peddler besought Yusuf, for friendship's sake, to eat with him; but
+the Persian made a gesture of disgust.
+
+"I have already eaten," he said. "Overeating in Mecca in the hot season
+is not wise. Abraham, do you always wear so many rings on your fingers?"
+
+"Oh, no," returned the Jew, "sometimes I wear them; sometimes I carry
+them for months in my belt. This"--pointing to a huge band of ancient
+workmanship--"is the most curious one of the lot. I got it for carrying
+a bundle of manuscript from a man at Oman to your friend Amzi, here. It
+seems that Amzi had once lived with him at Oman, but the man--I forget
+his name--went inland to Teheran, or some other place in Persia, and
+Amzi, after traveling about for two or three years, settled in Mecca.
+This one"--and he pointed out the ring on which Yusuf's eyes were
+fixed--"is the most expensive of the lot, but a stone fell out of it
+once when I was carrying it in my belt."
+
+"Did you not look in your belt for it?"
+
+"No use; it had worked out between the stitches. I had no idea where I
+lost it."
+
+"Have you had that ring long?"
+
+"Long! Why, that ring has not been off my person for fifteen years."
+
+"I suppose you would not sell it?"
+
+The peddler shrugged his shoulders, and looked up with a shrewd glance.
+
+"That depends on how much money it would bring."
+
+"I have little idea of the value of such rings," said the Persian, "but
+I have a friend who, I am convinced, would appreciate that one. I should
+like to present it to him. Will you take this for it?"
+
+He drew forth a coin worth three times the value of the ring. The
+peddler immediately closed the bargain and handed the ring over, then
+devoted his attention again to the table.
+
+The priest went to the window. He drew the little stone from his bosom
+and slipped it into the cavity. It fitted exactly. He then walked back
+to the table, and held it before the astonished Jew.
+
+"How now, Jew?" he said with a smile. "Saw you such a gem before?"
+
+"My very own carnelian!" exclaimed the peddler. "Where did you find it?"
+
+"You are sure it is yours?"
+
+"Sure! On my oath, it is mine. There is not another such stone in
+Arabia, with that streak across the top."
+
+The priest laid his hand on the Jew's shoulder and bent close to him.
+"That stone," he said, "was found in the house of Nathan the Jew, beside
+the stolen cup. How came it there?"
+
+The little Jew turned pale. His guilt showed in his face. He knew that
+he was undone.
+
+With a quick, serpent-like movement, he attempted to escape, but the
+priest's grasp was firm as a vise.
+
+"No, peddler!" he said, "you may go, but it must be with me. To the
+magistrate you must go, and that right speedily. The innocent must no
+longer suffer in your rightful place. Come, Aza,"--to an attendant who
+had been in the room--"your tongue may be needed to supplement mine."
+
+The Jew's little eyes rolled around restlessly. He was a thorough
+coward, and his teeth chattered with fear as he was half-dragged into
+the blinding glare of the street, and down the long, crooked way, with a
+crowd of beggars and saucy boys following in the wake of the trio. Once
+or twice again he made a quick and sudden movement to elude the grasp of
+his captors, but the priest's grip was firm and his muscle like steel.
+Justice was in Yusuf's heart, and his anxiety to procure Nathan's
+release was so great that he strode on, almost forgetting the poor
+little Jew, who was obliged to keep up a constant hobbling run to save
+himself from being dragged to the ground.
+
+In the hall of justice the usual amount of questioning went on, but the
+evidence afforded by the ring was so conclusive that the order for
+Nathan's release and the peddler's imprisonment was soon given.
+
+Yusuf accompanied the guards to Nathan's cell. The poor prisoner was
+sitting on the bare clay with his head buried on his knee. An unusual
+clamor sounded outside of the door. The heavy bolt was withdrawn, and
+the next moment Yusuf rushed in, crying, "Free, Nathan, free!"
+
+Nathan fell on the other's bosom. The sudden joy was too much for him,
+and he could only lie, like a little child, sobbing on the breast of the
+stalwart priest.
+
+The warden rattled the bolts impatiently. "Come, there's room outside!"
+he said. "I have not time to stand here all day!"
+
+"Pardon us," said the priest, gently. "We go; yet, warden, ere we
+depart, may I ask you to deal leniently with that poor wretch?" and he
+pointed to the Jew, who was now crouched shivering in his chains.
+
+"We but do as we are ordered," returned the warden unfeelingly. "The
+officers will be here presently with the scourge; we can not prevent
+that."
+
+The peddler winced, and Nathan raised a face full of pity. "Warden," he
+said, "if you have a drop of mercy in your heart, if you hope for mercy
+for yourself, treat him as a man. Let him not die for want of a pittance
+of water."
+
+He turned the sleeve of his loose garment back to expose the emaciated
+arm with the bones showing through the loose skin. "There," he said,
+"let that touch your heart, if heart you have, and spare him. Poor
+Abraham!"--turning to the peddler--"did I not see you here, the joy of
+my release would be unspeakable."
+
+But Abraham only turned to bestow a look of hate and malice upon the
+priest.
+
+Then Yusuf and Nathan passed out into the pure, fresh air, now growing
+cool with the approach of evening. Never did air seem so pure and sweet;
+never did swallows twitter so gladly; never did the peak of Abu Kubays
+shine so gloriously in the sun; never did the voices of people sound so
+joyous or their faces beam so brightly.
+
+"Come," said Nathan, "to my wife and children, that we may all return
+thanks together. Verily 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but
+the Lord delivereth him out of them all.' 'Blessed be God, which hath
+not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.' 'I had fainted unless
+I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
+living.' 'My flesh faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my
+portion forever.'"
+
+So, uttering exclamations from the pages of Scripture, did the devout
+Jew pass onward to his home, which was once more filled with "joy and
+gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of melody." Before leaving, Yusuf
+presented him with the ring containing the little stone, as a memento of
+his deliverance.
+
+And Abraham? He received the full weight of the scourge; and may we be
+pardoned in anticipating, and say that for two days he lay nursing his
+wrath and his wounds; but, on the third day after his imprisonment, his
+agility suddenly returned. He managed in some inexplicable way known
+only to himself to work free of his fetters, and when the keeper came
+with food in the evening, blinded by the dim light of the cell, he did
+not perceive the little peddler crouched in a heap in the middle of the
+floor.
+
+Scarcely was the door opened when the Jew bounced like a ball past the
+keeper's feet, almost upsetting him; then, darting like an arrow between
+the astonished guards without, he was off. A hue and cry was raised, but
+the little peddler had disappeared as completely as if the earth had
+opened up and swallowed him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AMZI AT MEDINA.
+
+    "With half-shut eyes ever to seem
+    Falling asleep in a half dream!
+    To dream and dream like yonder amber light
+    Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height."
+
+                              --_Tennyson._
+
+
+Without entering into detail it may be briefly stated that the success
+of Mohammed's disciples in Medina was simply marvelous. Converts joined
+them every day, while those who were not prepared to believe in the
+Meccan's divine mission were at least anxious to see and hear the
+prophet.
+
+Amzi did no work in behalf of the new religion. He was simply an
+onlooker, though not an unsympathetic one; and, it must be confessed, he
+spent most of his time in that voluptuous do-nothingness in which the
+wealthy Oriental dreams away so much of his time,--sitting or reclining
+on perfumed cushions, a fan in his hand and a long pipe at his mouth,
+too languid, too listless, even to talk; listening to the soft murmur of
+Nature's music, the night-wind sighing through the trees beneath a
+star-gemmed sky, the song of a solitary bulbul warbling plaintively
+among the myrtle and oleander blooms, the plash of a fountain rippling
+near with "a sound as of a hidden brook in the leafy month of June";
+this, the exquisite languor of the East, "for which the speech of
+England has no name," the "Kaif" of the Arab, the drowsy falseness of
+the Lotos-eaters' ideal:
+
+    "Death is the end of life; ah, why
+    Should life all labor be?
+    Let us alone."
+
+And so the months went by, until at last a band of emissaries, to the
+number of seventy, was appointed to take a journey to Mecca for the
+purpose of meeting with Mohammed and discussing with him the
+advisability of his taking up his residence at Medina.
+
+A herald brought news of this embassy to the prophet. He went forth to
+meet them, and Yusuf, hearing by chance of the appointed conference, set
+out posthaste after Mohammed's party, eager to get even a pressure of
+the hand from Amzi, his heart's brother, who he felt sure would
+accompany the emissaries. In order to overtake them more quickly, he
+proceeded with a trusty guide by a shorter route across the hills.
+
+The night was exceptionally dark, and even the guide became confused.
+The way led on and on between the interminable hills, until the two in
+complete uncertainty reined their steeds on the verge of a cliff that
+seemed to overhang a deep and narrow basin, bounded by flinty rock which
+even in the darkness loomed doubly black, and which rang beneath the
+horses' feet with that peculiar, metallic sound that proclaimed it black
+basalt, the "hell-stone" of the Arabs.
+
+It was indeed an eerie spot. A thick fringe of thorny shrubs grew along
+the edge of the cliff; at intervals yawned deep fissures, across which
+the wise little Arabian ponies stepped gingerly; and above, outlined in
+intense black against the dark sky, were numerous peaks and pinnacles
+and castellated summits, such as the Arabs love to people with all
+manner of genii and evil spirits of the waste and silent wilderness. It
+was a spot likely to be infested with robbers, and Yusuf and his guide
+waited in some trepidation while considering what to do.
+
+[Illustration: "Hold!" cried a voice from the air above.--See page 34.]
+
+Presently a dull trampling sounded in the distance. It came nearer and
+nearer, and the two lone wanderers on the cliff scarcely dared to
+breathe.
+
+The tread of camels was soon discernible, the "Ikh! Ikh!" (the sound
+used to make camels kneel) of the camel-drivers rising from the dark
+pass below to the ears of the men above. Apparently the party was about
+to make a halt in the dark basin; and should it prove to be a band of
+hill-robbers, Yusuf and his companion were in a precarious position, for
+the slightest sound made by them or their ponies would probably prove
+the signal for an onslaught; but by patting and quieting the animals,
+they managed to keep their restlessness in check and so waited, scarcely
+knowing what to do next.
+
+Ere ten minutes had elapsed, however, the tread of camels was again
+heard, and another party came in from the opposite direction, halting at
+the other end of the ravine. A call was sounded and at once answered by
+the body immediately below. The new-comers advanced, and mutual
+recognitions seemed to take place, although Yusuf could distinguish
+neither the voices nor the words.
+
+The parties were, in reality, those of Mohammed and the emissaries of
+Medina, who at once opened negotiations. After the salutations were
+over, they extended to Mohammed a formal invitation to Medina.
+
+"We will receive you as a confederate, obey you as a leader, and defend
+you to the last extremity, even as we defend our wives and children,"
+said the spokesman.
+
+"For your gracious invitation accept my most hearty thanks," said
+Mohammed. "My work is not yet ended in Mecca, yet ere long I hope to pay
+at least a visit to you, O believers of Medina."
+
+"But," said the leader, "if you are recalled to your own district you
+will not forsake us?"
+
+"All things," replied Mohammed, "are now common between us. Your blood
+is my blood. Your ruin is my ruin. We are bound to each other by the
+ties of honor and interest. I am your friend and the enemy of your
+foes."
+
+He then chose twelve of the men to be the especial heralds of his faith,
+and all, placing their hands in his, swore fealty to him in life and in
+death.
+
+"If we are killed in your service, what shall be our reward?" asked one
+of the number.
+
+"Paradise!" cried the prophet. "Vales of eternal rest and felicity,
+odors of sweet spices on the air, blessed spirits to--"
+
+"Hold!" cried a voice from the air above. "Who are you, Mohammed, who
+can dare to promise that which belongs to the Creator alone? Impostor,
+take heed!"
+
+It was only Yusuf, who, in his anxiety to discover if the gloomy vale
+were indeed the nest of some daring mountain chief, had noiselessly
+descended to an overhanging ledge, and had heard the last confident
+assertion of the prophet.
+
+But the utmost consternation fell upon the Arabs below. Some, believing
+the voice to be that of a demon of the rock, were seized with sudden
+panic; others shouted excitedly, "Spies! spies!" and the assembly broke
+up in confusion, all scurrying off, leaving Yusuf and his guide again
+alone on the rock.
+
+"Amzi! Amzi!" shouted the priest, with a forlorn hope that his friend
+might have lingered behind the fleeing party; but the only response was
+the beat of hoofs flying in every direction, and the dull thud of the
+camels' padded feet. There was nothing better to be done than wait until
+morning, so Yusuf and the guide lay down on the hard rock for the rest
+of the night.
+
+For some time after this affairs seemed to be at a standstill. Mohammed
+still continued to preach, now from the hill Safa, now from the knoll El
+Akaba at the north of the town.
+
+His wife, Cadijah, had died some time before, and he had since married a
+widow, Sawda, and become betrothed to a child, Ayesha, the daughter of
+his friend and disciple, Abu Beker.
+
+But events in Mecca were fast hastening to a crisis. Abu Sofian, still
+the most mortal enemy to Mohammed and his religion, had succeeded Abu
+Taleb in the government of Mecca, and no sooner had he become head of
+the state than he determined to crush Mohammed, and exterminate his
+religion at any cost. A plot for the assassination of the prophet was
+formed. Several of the tribe of the Koreish and their allies were
+appointed to kill Mohammed, in order to avert the blood-revenge of
+Mohammed's immediate kin, the Haschemites, who, it was thought, would
+not dare to avenge themselves upon such numerous and such scattered
+foes.
+
+The attack was planned with the utmost secrecy in the cellar of a house,
+and at a time but the space of three hours before daybreak, when all
+Mecca lay chained in slumber.
+
+Yet not all. Abraham, the Jew, was, as usual, on the alert. Since his
+escape he had been prowling about the hills, penniless, and hence unable
+to leave the district. He had now come down to steal food, for
+necessity, in his eyes, rendered any such proceeding pardonable; and,
+perceiving a mysterious light issuing from a chink in the wall, his
+natural curiosity asserted itself. He lay down flat on the ground, put
+his ear to the chink, and succeeded in hearing every word of the plot.
+
+Here, then, was a chance to gain favor and protection from at least a
+few in Mecca. He would disclose the plot to Mohammed and his vizier, and
+beseech their protection as the price of his services as a savior of the
+prophet's life. Accordingly, a couple of hours before the time appointed
+for the assassination, and as soon as the cover of darkness rendered his
+own appearance in the city safe, he hastened to the prophet.
+
+No time was to be lost. Mohammed, accompanied by Abu Beker and the Jew,
+at once fled; while Ali, to deceive the spies, and keep them as long as
+possible in check, wrapped himself in the prophet's green cloak, moved
+round with it on for some time, and at last lay down on Mohammed's bed.
+
+When the assassins entered, intending to rush upon the sleeping form
+and destroy it, Ali threw the cloak off and sat up. In the meantime the
+fugitives had reached the cave of Thor, three miles distant, from
+whence, after three days, they escaped to Medina.
+
+This was the famous flight of the prophet, the Hegira, or Hejra, in the
+year 622 A.D. and about the fifty-third year of Mohammed's age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MOHAMMED'S ENTRANCE INTO MEDINA.
+
+                  "Oh, it is excellent
+    To have a giant's strength: but it is tyrannous
+    To use it like a giant."
+
+                              --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Once more after the lapse of years let us look at Amzi as he sat one
+morning in his house at Medina.
+
+The cool and pleasant atmosphere of the town in contrast with the
+burning, breathless heat of Mecca had charmed him. He had immediately
+purchased a house and furnished it with the luxurious splendor which
+suited his rather voluptuous taste.
+
+The apartment in which he sat was in the middle story, the one sacred to
+the men in a house of Medina. Rich Persian carpets were on the floor,
+rugs of Inde were scattered about and piled with cushions filled with
+softest down. Low divans invited repose, and heavy curtains of yellow
+silk shut out the too bright glare of day. The ceiling, after the
+Persian fashion, was inlaid with mirrors, fitted in in different
+patterns, and divided by carved sticks of palm, stained red; and the
+sweet odor of richest perfumes of Arabia-Felix spread through the room
+as if emanating from the silken hangings of the wall.
+
+The window was open, and the breeze from the east, bearing, as it were,
+tales of the Nejd, the land of brave men and beautiful women, swayed
+the curtains softly. Outside, in the sloping garden, waved the graceful
+branches of the tamarisk, glittering with dew in the early morning sun;
+and near the window a jujube tree stretched its dark, shining leaves and
+yellow fruit temptingly near. Acacias with sweet-scented yellow
+blossoms, oleanders glowing with rosy bloom, and a thicket of
+silver-leaved castors separated the little plot from the gardens below,
+where grew gourds and cucumbers, lime and fig trees, grape-vines,
+water-melons and pomegranates; and beyond that lay a bright patch of
+Bursim, or Egyptian clover, like a yellow-green island on a darker sea.
+
+Amzi, comfortably habited in a jubbeh of pink silk, worn over a caftan
+of fine white silk flowered with green and confined by a fringed, yellow
+sash at the waist, reclined in a position of luxurious ease at the
+window. Between his plump fingers he held the amber stem of a handsomely
+carved pipe. He looked scarcely older than when on that memorable
+journey in which he first met Yusuf. His eye was still as bright, his
+hair scarcely more gray, and his cheek as ruddy as then; yet there was a
+somewhat discontented look on his face.
+
+His eye wandered over the rich garden before him, and he thought of
+barren, ashen Mecca. Then he looked restlessly back over the landscape
+below. Surely it was fair enough to calm a restless spirit.
+
+Immediately before, and to the eastward, the sun had risen out of a mass
+of lilac and rose-colored cloud. The tufted trees on the distant hills
+stood black and distinct against the splendor of the sky. To the right
+the date-groves of Kuba, famed throughout Arabia, struggled through a
+sea of mist that piled and surged in waves of amber and purple, leaving
+the tree tops like islands on a vapory sea. To the left the seared and
+scoriae-covered crest of Mount Ohod rose, dark and scowling, like a grim
+sentinel on the borders of an Elysian valley. In the rear lay the plain
+of El Munakhah, and the rush of the torrent El Sayh was borne on the
+breeze, bearing the willing mind beyond to the cool groves of Kuba,
+whence this raging flood dispersed itself in gentle rills, or was
+carried in silent channels to turn the water-wheels, or to fall, with
+musical plash, into wooden troughs that lay deep in the shade.
+
+The ripple of water,--ah, what it means to Arabian ears! Little wonder
+that the inhabitant of the desert land never omits it from his idea of
+paradise, save in his conception of the highest heaven,--a conception
+not lacking in sublimity--that of a silent looking upon the face of God.
+
+In the immediate foreground lay El Medina itself, with its narrow
+streets, its busy bazars, its fair-skinned people, and its low, yellow,
+flat-roofed houses, each with its well and court-yard, nestling cozily
+among the feathery-fronded date-trees.
+
+From the Eastern Road, a caravan from the Nejd was descending slowly
+into the town, and so clear was the atmosphere that Amzi could
+distinguish the huge, white dromedaries, and catch an occasional glint
+of a green shugduf, or the gorgeous litter of a grandee, trapped in
+scarlet and gold.
+
+It was indeed a fair scene, and Amzi enjoyed it to the full with the
+keen enjoyment of one who possesses an esthetic temperament, an intense
+love of the beautiful. Yet he began to feel lonely in this town of his
+adoption. It was long since he had seen Yusuf, and he commenced to think
+seriously of returning for a time to Mecca.
+
+Besides, he was tired of waiting for Mohammed's long-deferred visit, and
+he was anxious again to see the man whose strange fascination over him
+he scarcely dared to acknowledge even to himself. The emptiness and
+idleness of his own life was beginning to pall upon him, and he compared
+unfavorably his sluggish existence with the busy, quietly energetic way
+in which Yusuf was spending his days.
+
+One source of unfailing pleasure to him had been the companionship of
+Dumah, who had followed him to Medina, but was wandering about as usual,
+returning to Amzi when tired or hungry, as a birdling returns to its
+mother's wing.
+
+And Amzi had almost a mother's love for the boy, for poor Dumah seemed a
+child still; he had grown but little, his face was paler than of old,
+his eyes were as large and blue, and his bright hair fell in the same
+soft curls above his regular and clear-cut features. Like Yusuf, Amzi
+felt that the orphan's very helplessness was an appeal to his heart, and
+he did not lock its doors.
+
+Dumah now came in wearily. He lay down at Amzi's feet and put his head
+on his knee. The Meccan stroked his soft hair gently.
+
+"Where has my Dumah been?" he asked tenderly.
+
+"Watching the people going out foolishly. Dumah would not go with them."
+
+"Going where, lad?"
+
+"Out to the gardens where the lotus blows, and the date-palms wave, and
+the citron and orange grow."
+
+"And why go they, then, foolishly?" smiled Amzi.
+
+"Because they go to meet him, and they are carrying white robes, and
+they will bring him in as a prince,--the wicked one, who would place
+himself above our blessed Master!"
+
+Amzi started up quickly, and threw his pipe down.
+
+"Is Mohammed here?" he cried.
+
+"He is here. But you will not go too, Amzi? Alas that I told you! The
+angels I see in my dreams do not smile, they look away and vanish when I
+think of Mohammed. Yusuf does not love him! Let not Amzi!" pleaded the
+orphan.
+
+But the Meccan was gone. Hastening on towards the outskirts of the city,
+he met a great crowd of people, pressing about Mohammed and Abu Beker,
+each of whom was dressed in a white garment, and riding triumphantly
+upon a white camel, the prophet being mounted on his own beast El Kaswa.
+
+The little peddler, assigning himself a lower place, rode behind on a
+pack-mule.
+
+Mohammed had come, and was, from the very beginning, a monarch,
+surrounded by an army of blind devotees, believers in his holy mission,
+and slavishly obedient to his will.
+
+Amzi took the prophet to his house, and there entertained him as a
+respected Meccan friend, until Mohammed's home was erected. It was at
+Amzi's house, too, that the nuptials of Mohammed and the beautiful
+Ayesha, also those of Ali and the prophet's daughter Fatimah, took
+place.
+
+One of Mohammed's first acts was to have a mosque built, and, from it,
+morning and night the call to prayers was given:
+
+"God is great! There is no God but God! Mohammed is the prophet of God!
+Come to prayers. Come to prayers! God is great!"
+
+And from this mosque Mohammed exhorted with wondrous eloquence, the
+music of his voice falling like a spell on the multitudes, as they
+listened to teachings new and more living than the old, dead,
+superstitious idolatry to which they were in bondage; yet, had they
+known it, teachings whose choicest gems were but crumbs borrowed from
+the words of One who had preached in all meekness and love on the shores
+of Galilee and the hills of Palestine more than six hundred years
+before.
+
+They listened in wonder to condemnation of their belief in polytheism.
+
+"In the name of the most merciful God," Mohammed would say, "say God is
+one God, the Eternal God; he begetteth not, neither is he begotten, and
+there is not anyone like unto him!" Thus did he aim at the foundation of
+Christianity, seeking to overthrow belief in the "only begotten Son of
+God" as a divine factor of the Trinity. Jesus he recognized as a
+prophet, not as God's own Son; and, while he borrowed incessantly from
+the Scriptures, he refused to accept them, declaring that they had
+become perverted, and that the original Koran was a volume of Paradise,
+from which Gabriel rendered him transcripts, and was, therefore, the
+true word of God which had been laid from time everlasting on what he
+called the "preserved table," close to the throne of God in the highest
+heaven.
+
+And yet, during the greater part of his career, the utterances of this
+strange, incomprehensible man were characterized by a seemingly real
+glow of philanthropy and an earnest solicitude for the salvation of his
+countrymen from the depths of moral and spiritual degradation into
+which they had fallen. A missionary spirit seemed to be in him, in
+strange contrast and incompatibility with the sacrilegious words that
+often fell from his lips.
+
+In all the records of history there is nothing more wonderful than the
+marvelous success which attended Mohammed at Medina. Staid and sober
+merchantmen, men with gray heads, fiery youths, proselytes from the
+tribes of the desert, even women, flocked to him every day; and he soon
+realized that he had a vast army of converts ready to live or die for
+him, ready to fight for him until the last.
+
+Amzi, alone, of all his followers, seemed to stand aloof,
+half-believing, yet unwilling to proclaim his belief openly; simply
+waiting, as he had waited all his life, to see the truth, yet too
+indolent to set out bravely in the quest. He preferred to look on from
+aside; to weigh and calculate motives, actions and results; to judge men
+by their fruits, though the doing so called for long waiting.
+
+Yet Amzi grew more and more dissatisfied. He felt, though he knew not
+its cause, the want of a rich spiritual life, that empty hollowness
+which pleasures of the world and the mere consciousness of a moral life
+cannot satisfy.
+
+More than once he was tempted to declare himself a follower of the
+prophet, but he put it off until a riper season.
+
+Poor Dumah noted Amzi's frequent visits to the mosque with a vague
+dread. He had an instinctive dislike of Mohammed, whose assumptions of
+superiority to Jesus he understood in a hazy way, and resented with all
+his might.
+
+One day he entered with a tablet of soft stone to which a cord was
+attached. Putting the cord about Amzi's neck, he said:
+
+"Amzi, promise your Dumah that you will wear this always, will you not?
+Because Dumah might die, and could not say the words any more. Promise
+me!"
+
+"I promise you," smiled Amzi, and Dumah left the room contented.
+
+Amzi turned the tablet over, and read the familiar words traced upon the
+soft stone,--the words recognized as the corner-stone of Christianity:
+
+"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
+life."
+
+Amzi smiled, and put the tablet in his bosom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MOHAMMED BECOMES INTOLERANT.--WAR.
+
+    "Our virtues disappear when put in competition with our
+    interests, as rivers lose themselves in the ocean."--_La
+    Rochefoucauld._
+
+
+Thirteen years had now passed since Mohammed first began to meditate in
+the Cave of Hira. During all that time he had preached peace, love and
+gentleness. With power, however, came a change in his opinions. He
+became not only pastor of his flock, and judge of the people, but also
+commander of an army. Worldly ambition took possession of his breast,
+and the voice of him who had cried, "Follow the religion of Abraham, who
+was orthodox and was no idolater. Invite men unto the way of the Lord by
+wisdom and mild exhortation.... Bear opposition with patience, but thy
+patience shall not be practicable unless with God's assistance. And be
+not thou grieved on account of the unbelievers. Let there be no violence
+in religion,"--now began to call, "War is enjoined you against the
+infidels. Fight therefore against the friends of Satan, for the
+stratagem of Satan is weak. And when the months wherein ye shall not be
+allowed to attack them be past, kill the idolaters wherever ye shall
+find them, and besiege them, and lay wait for them in every convenient
+place. Verily God hath purchased of the true believers their souls and
+their substance, promising them the enjoyment of Paradise on condition
+that they fight for the cause of God. Whether they slay or be slain,
+the promise for the same is assuredly due by the law, and the Gospel,
+and the Koran."
+
+Clemency, he claimed, had been the instrument of Moses; wisdom, that of
+Solomon; righteousness, that of Christ; and now the sword was to be the
+instrument of Mohammed.
+
+"The sword," he exclaimed, with flashing eye, "is the key of heaven and
+hell. All who draw it in the cause of the faith will be rewarded with
+temporal advantages; every drop shed of their blood, every peril endured
+by them, will be registered on high as more meritorious than fasting or
+prayer. If they fall in battle, their sins will at once be blotted out,
+and they will be transported to paradise!"
+
+This fierce, intolerant spirit took possession of Mohammed almost from
+his entrance into Medina. Chapter after chapter of the Koran was
+produced, breathing the same blood-thirsty, implacable hatred of
+opposition. Mohammed, in fact, seemed like one possessed in his
+enthusiasm, but his doctrines caught the fancy of the wild,
+impressionable Arabs, who flocked to him in crowds as his fame spread
+throughout the length and breadth of El Hejaz, throughout the Nejd, and
+even to the extremities of Arabia-Felix.
+
+And now the bloody cloud of war hovered over the peninsula, and the
+people trembled.
+
+The following letter from Amzi will describe the outbreak.
+
+                              =A=[9]
+
+    From Amzi the Meccan, at Medina,
+                              To Yusuf the priest, Mecca.
+
+    My Dear Yusuf:--
+
+    I can scarcely describe the emotions with which I write you again
+    after a six months' interval. Affairs here in Medina have taken such
+    an unlooked-for turn that I scarcely know what to think or what to
+    do.
+
+    Of Mohammed's wonderful progress, you have, of course, heard. You
+    should see him now, my dear Yusuf,--Mohammed, the peaceful trader,
+    the devout hermit, now little less than monarch, with all the sway
+    assumed by the most powerful despot; and yet those over whom he
+    wields his despotism are but too willing servants, ready to say as
+    he says, and to give their dearest heart's blood in his cause.
+
+    Indeed I know not what the outcome of it all will be. What
+    astonishes me most is that Mohammed has suddenly assumed an
+    aggressive attitude. Fire and the sword seem to be the watchword of
+    him whom we knew as the gentle husband of Cadijah, the mild preacher
+    who bowed his head and reviled not even when assailed with mud and
+    filth in the Caaba.
+
+    Needless to say, Yusuf, I am disappointed in him. You will be only
+    too glad to hear that. I hear that you have been exhorting the
+    people in Mecca to pay no heed to him; that you have been seeking to
+    promulgate your Hebrew faith, or rather the faith of your Hebrew
+    friend, of whose innocence and release I was glad to hear.
+
+    My brother, I pride in your courage, and in the strength of your
+    principles; yet, Yusuf, I beseech of you, be careful what you do or
+    say, lest you draw down upon your head a storm of fury which you
+    little expect. You have no idea of the revolution of feeling here in
+    Mohammed's favor, and of the fanatic zeal of many of his followers.
+    Be not too bold. You cannot cope single-handed with such an
+    overwhelming tide.
+
+    The past month, as you know, was the holy month Radjab, in which, as
+    in the month of Ramadhan, throughout all El Hejaz, life should be
+    held sacred, and no act of violence committed. Can you believe it
+    when I tell you that the prophet's men have attacked more than one
+    caravan of quiet traders and pilgrims upon their way to or from
+    Mecca? Such a sacrilege seems unpardonable in Arab eyes, but,
+    forsooth, the prophet has been favored with another revelation
+    justifying him in what he has done.
+
+    This, more than aught else, makes me wonder. You, Yusuf, know what a
+    lover of peace I have been; how it has ever grieved me to see even a
+    butterfly fluttering along the ground with a crushed wing. Judge,
+    then, of my horror, when I went out to the scene of the pillage and
+    saw men lying, some dead, with ghastly faces glaring up at the hot
+    sun, others with gaping wounds, and others moaning pitifully on the
+    road-way, with sand on their faces and in their hair. Yusuf, it made
+    me sick to see it. Had they been slain in fair battle I could have
+    borne it better. Yet I was enabled to give the poor wounded
+    creatures some water, all warm as it was from being carried so long
+    a distance; and some of them I had conveyed to my house, so that
+    every bed-chamber has been turned into a sick-room, and your friend
+    Amzi has been suddenly metamorphosed into a sick-nurse. Does that
+    astonish you?
+
+    Yet, Yusuf, though I get little sleep any night, and have to be on
+    my feet much during the day, I can assure you that I was never so
+    happy in my life before. The constant occupation, and the sense of
+    being able to render the poor creatures a little ease, is just what
+    I need at present to keep me from growing moody.
+
+    The other day I saw some one who knows of you--Uzza, the Oman Arab.
+    How or why he has come here I know not; but he is one of Mohammed's
+    most devoted followers. For your sake, I hope you may not meet him
+    in Medina.
+
+    I knew him, years ago, at Oman, and had letters from him for a time
+    after he went to Persia. Perhaps that will read you the riddle as to
+    how I knew so much of your past history, my priest. Recognizing your
+    name, and noting your priestly bearing, it was an easy matter to
+    connect you with the Guebre Yusuf, of whom I had heard.
+
+    I am convinced that you are looking after my Meccan affairs as
+    closely as possible, yet remember that Amzi has a house in Medina,
+    too, which has ever a door open for you.
+
+    Dumah sends his love. The poor lad is greatly excited over the
+    stirring events which are the talk of the town here.
+
+    Commend me to your friend Nathan and his family. Trusting to see or
+    to hear from you soon,
+
+                              And the peace,
+                                          Amzi.
+
+To this letter Yusuf returned the following answer:
+
+    Yusuf, at Mecca,
+                              To Amzi the Benevolent, Medina.
+
+    My Heart's Brother:--
+
+    Your most welcome letter lies before me, and it is quite unnecessary
+    to say with what mingled feelings of pleasure and pain I read
+    it,--pleasure, because, whether you will it or not, your confidence
+    in this false prophet is tottering; pain, because of the marvelous
+    power which this Mohammed seems to be wielding over your excitable
+    Arab populace. Strange, indeed, is his new attitude; we had not
+    deemed him possessed of a martial spirit; yet may we hope that this
+    procedure will be but as the stone which shall crush his ends,
+    falling upon his own head.
+
+    It is possible that I may be in Medina ere long. I am impatient to
+    see you and our poor Dumah again.
+
+    And so Uzza is there, too, to bring up afresh the darkest page of
+    my history; for Amzi, it was I, in my fanatic zeal, who induced the
+    Persian grandmother to give up his child for sacrifice. Scarcely was
+    it over when, even in my heathen darkness, my whole soul revolted
+    against what I had done, and against the faith which had sanctioned
+    such deeds of blood. It was then that I began to think and strive
+    against the mists of darkness, until at last I fought away from the
+    creed of my country.
+
+    I fear not to meet Uzza, although I know that he bears me no
+    good-will, and would not refrain from the assassin's knife did it
+    satisfy his wish for blood-revenge.
+
+    Our friend, Nathan, and his family are well. Did I tell you that
+    they have gone to live near Tayf?
+
+    I spent a pleasant day with them not long ago. They have a little
+    cabin in the mountains, and Nathan has a few flocks which he herds
+    out on the green hill-sides. They are all so happy, and so contented
+    with their pastoral mode of living that they think of moving back
+    into Palestina, as the pasturage is better there. It will be a long
+    journey, but, with the consciousness of the Father's care over them,
+    and the bond of love to shorten the way, they will not mind it.
+    Nathan's wife, in particular, is anxious to return to her
+    childhood's home, and never wearies of telling her children stories
+    of her girlhood days, when she and her sister, whom she still loves
+    passionately, watched their sheep on the hills of Hebron.
+
+    Mary and Manasseh have grown quite tall. Manasseh is almost a man,
+    fiery and impetuous as ever, yet wise beyond his years, and a devout
+    Christian.
+
+    Nathan is very happy. After all his trials he has perfect rest. His
+    face almost beamed when he said to me in the words of the Psalmist,
+    "Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in
+    silence. When I said, My foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me
+    up. For the Lord is my defence, and my God is the rock of my
+    refuge."
+
+    He is very anxious about the hostile attitude which Mohammed has
+    taken. "God grant," he said, "that there may not be another season
+    of persecution. If there be, and the Lord will, I shall stay at
+    Medina to comfort, if I may, my poor brethren there. 'Blessed are
+    they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
+    kingdom of heaven.' God grant that we may all be imbued with the
+    spirit of him who said, 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse
+    you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that
+    despitefully use you.' Yet, Yusuf, it may be that we shall be forced
+    to defend our lives, and those of our wives and children,--God
+    knoweth. He will direct us, if we permit him, so that, living or
+    dying, it shall be well with us."
+
+    Is not such love, such comfort in the help and presence and sympathy
+    of God, worth more, infinitely more, than power or wealth or worldly
+    pleasure? Nothing that happens can overwhelm this happy family, for
+    they have the consciousness of God's love and care in all. They have
+    Jesus for a personal friend. Amzi, what would I not give to know
+    that you felt as they do, and as I learn to feel, more and more,
+    every day.
+
+    My friend, I could keep on in this strain for the whole night; but I
+    am weary, for to-day I talked for many hours with some of those who
+    are half-apostatizing to Mohammed.
+
+    So, Mizpah; and may the blessing of God be upon you.
+
+                                        Yusuf.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WHEREIN THE BEDOUIN YOUTH KEDAR BECOMES A MOSLEM.
+
+    "Mine honor is my life: both grow in one;
+    Take honor from me, and my life is done."
+
+                              --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+The scene again opens far to the north of the Nejd, El Shark, or the
+East. Into one of its most favored spots, a green and secluded valley,
+surrounded by grassy slopes, the sun shone with the fresh brightness of
+early morning, sending floods of green-gold light through the leaves Of
+the acacias, now covered with yellowish blossoms heavy with perfume.
+
+By the side of a little torrent, rose the black tents of a Bedouin
+encampment. Flocks were on the hill-side, and the tinkling of the
+camel-bells and soft bleat of the lambs sounded faintly from the
+distance.
+
+At the head of the valley, upon a rounded boulder of granite sat a
+woman; and before her stood a young man to whom she was earnestly
+talking, at times stretching out her hands as though she were beseeching
+him for some favor.
+
+The woman was tall and well-built, her eyes were large and dark, and
+their brilliancy increased, according to Bedouin custom, by the
+application of kohl to the lids. Her face was keen and intelligent, and
+her hair, braided in innumerable small plaits, and surmounted by a much
+bespangled head-dress, was slightly streaked with gray.
+
+The youth was slight and agile, his every movement full of grace. His
+face was oval, regular in its contour, and full of expression, although
+the Jewish cast of his features had traces of Arab blood. He seemed to
+be in some excitement, for, with a trait peculiar to Bedouins, his
+restless and deep-set eyes were now half-closed until but a narrow,
+glittering line appeared, and now suddenly opened to their fullest
+extent and turned directly upon the woman to whom he talked.
+
+"Would you have me branded among the whole tribe as a coward, mother?"
+he was saying. "Are not the Bedouin lads from all over the Nejd flocking
+to the field, even as the sparrows flock before the storm clouds of the
+north? And will the son of Musa be the craven, crouching at home in his
+mother's nest?"
+
+"A flock of vultures are they, rather!" she cried
+passionately--"Vultures flocking to a feast of blood, to gloat over the
+carrion of brothers, sons, and husbands, left dead on the reeking plain,
+while in their solitary homes the women moan, even as moans the bird of
+the tamarisk, robbed of its young."
+
+"'Tis your Jewish heart speaks now, mother. Ah, but your Jewish women
+are too soft-hearted! Know you not that Bedouin mothers have not only
+sent their sons to battle, but have gone themselves and fought in the
+thickest of the fray?"
+
+"Ah, you are a true Bedouin, and ashamed of your mother!" returned Lois,
+with a sigh. "Truly, a Jewess has no place among the tribes of the
+wilderness."
+
+The youth's face softened. "I am not ashamed of my mother!" he said,
+quickly. "But my blood leaps for the glory of battle, for the clash of
+cymbals, the speed of the charge, the tumult, and the victory!"
+
+"But a hollow glory you will find it," she said scornfully. "Murder and
+pillage,--and all sanctioned in the name of religion!"
+
+"Even so, is not the name of harami (brigand) accounted honorable among
+the desert tribes?" asked the youth, quickly.
+
+"Alas, yes. Ye reck not that it has been said, 'Thou shalt not steal.'
+But you, Kedar, care not for the Jewish Scripture. Why need I quote it
+to you."
+
+"Arabian religion, Arabian honor, for the Arab, say I!" returned the
+youth haughtily. "Let me roam over the wild on my steed, racing with the
+breeze, lance in hand, bound for the hunt or fray; let me swoop upon the
+cowardly caravans whose hundreds shriek and scream and fall back before
+a handful of Bedouin lads, if I will. More honorable it is to me than to
+plod along in a shugduf on a long-legged camel with a bag of corn or a
+trifle of cloth to look after. Be the Jew if you will, but give me the
+leaping blood, the soaring spirit of the Bedouin!"
+
+The woman sighed again. "You will be killed, Kedar," she said. "Then
+what will all this profit you?"
+
+"To die on the field is more glorious than to breathe one's life out
+tamely in bed," replied the other.
+
+There was no use of reasoning with this rash youth.
+
+"And think you this Mohammed is worthy of your sacrifice?" she asked.
+
+"If he be really inspired, as hundreds now believe, is he not worthy of
+every sacrifice? Does he not promise his followers an eternal felicity?"
+
+"A vile impostor!" exclaimed the woman harshly. "Yet you will not
+believe what I say, until your own eyes see and your own ears hear! Go!
+Go! I shall talk no more to you! If you fall it shall be no fault of
+Lois'!"
+
+She arose and waved him off with an impatient gesture. Yet he lingered.
+
+"You will forgive me, mother?" he asked, gently.
+
+The woman's mother-heart welled to the brim. She answered brokenly:
+
+"My son, my son! Could I do aught else? Take my blessing with you! And
+now, here comes your father."
+
+Musa was feebler than upon that first night when he met Yusuf in his
+tent, and his hair had become almost white, yet there was the same
+dignity in his appearance.
+
+"Go, Kedar," he said, "and prove that you are indeed the son of Musa.
+Go, and see that you bring back good news of battle!"
+
+Kedar bent his head in token of assent.
+
+Before an hour had passed he was mounted on the swiftest of his father's
+horses--a short, fleshless animal, with legs thin and of steel-like
+muscle. But its slender neck, its small, snake-like head, its dilating
+nostrils, through which the light shone crimson, and its fiery,
+intelligent eye, showed its blood as it pawed the ground and neighed
+impatiently. A noble animal and a noble rider they looked as they were
+off like an arrow, Kedar's fine figure swaying with the movement of the
+steed as though rider and horse were one.
+
+All alone went the youth across hill and valley, over rock and torrent,
+fearless and swift as an eagle; for Kedar scorned to seek the protection
+of numbers, although quite aware of the fact that a large caravan, under
+Abu Sofian, was even then on its way from Syria to Mecca, and was within
+three hours' journey from him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ABU SOFIAN'S CARAVAN.
+
+
+While Kedar was thus speeding towards Medina, the caravan was also
+proceeding more slowly towards the south. It consisted of thirty
+horsemen and one thousand camels richly laden with grain, with spices,
+with purple of Syria, richest cloths of Damascus, and choicest perfumes
+of the northern regions.
+
+It was the month Ramadhan, and the peaceful traders went confidently and
+securely on their way, well pleased with the success of their journey
+and hopeful in anticipation of the large gain they were to make during
+the great bazar of the pilgrimage.
+
+While thus proceeding leisurely on, the leaders were somewhat surprised
+to see a solitary rider coming towards them in the greatest haste. He
+was mounted on a swift dromedary, and with head bent down so that his
+turban concealed his face, he kept striking the animal with his short
+camel-stick and urging it on with his shrill "Yakh! Yakh!"
+
+All breathless he at last reached the caravan. "Is Abu Sofian here?" he
+cried.
+
+"I am Abu Sofian," said the sturdy old chief. "What do you desire of
+me?"
+
+"I have been sent by Amzi the benevolent," returned the other. "He bids
+me say to Abu Sofian that it will be well for the caravan to advance
+with the greatest caution, as Mohammed and his forces are in ambush on
+the way."
+
+"What guarantee have I," said Abu Sofian, "that you are truly from Amzi
+the Meccan, and not an emissary of Mohammed sent to entrap us into some
+narrow glen?"
+
+"Here is your guarantee," replied the stranger, stretching forth his
+hand. "Recognize you not this ring?"
+
+"It is well," answered Abu Sofian, satisfied. "We are much beholden to
+you and to our friend Amzi, who we had feared was but too good a friend
+to this same Mohammed."
+
+"Can you trust Amzi?" asked one near, anxiously.
+
+"As my own soul," returned the leader. "Amzi's heart is gold; Amzi's
+words are jewels of purest luster. He speaks truth." Then to the
+messenger, "Know you what route Mohammed will take?"
+
+"I know not. He has, doubtless, spies, who will inform him of your
+movements, and thus enable him to act accordingly."
+
+"Then it remains for us to meet him by his own tactics," said Abu
+Sofian, "and no time is to be lost. You, Omair my faithful, speed to
+Mecca with what dispatch you may. Go by the by-paths which you know so
+well. Tell Abu Jahl, whom I have left in charge, to send us help
+quickly."
+
+Omair made obeisance and left at once.
+
+"You, Akab and Zimmah," continued the leader, "go by the hills ahead and
+find out what you can. As for us, we will keep our lips closed and our
+eyes and ears open. Abu Sofian is not yet so old that he has forgotten
+the signs of the wilderness."
+
+The vast procession moved on again slowly and in a dead silence, broken
+only by the trampling of the beasts and the moans of the camels.
+
+Presently, on coming near a spot which might be deemed hazardous ground,
+Abu Sofian ordered a halt and went forward himself, alone and on foot.
+With eye on the alert, ear on a tension to catch the slightest sound,
+and body bent downward to facilitate the closest scrutiny of the ground,
+the keen old man proceeded slowly, stepping with cat-like precision and
+quietness.
+
+Suddenly he uttered an exclamation. A small object lay dark on the
+yellow sand. He picked it up. It was a date-stone. He examined it
+closely. It was slightly smaller than the stones of the ordinary fruit.
+
+"A Medina date!" he exclaimed; "whoever has thrown it there!"
+
+Going a few paces further, he found several similar ones thrown by the
+wayside. The trampling of the sand, too, showed that a considerable
+force had been on the road at no distant time.
+
+He bent down again and directed his keen scrutiny on the road, then
+retraced his steps for a short distance. There were tracks pointing in
+both directions, but at one point the company seemed to have turned.
+
+It was clear, then, that for some reason the force had been ordered to
+turn and go back for a distance, probably to await the caravan in some
+ravine, and that they were now not very far away. It was necessary,
+then, to be as expeditious as possible.
+
+He hastily returned and gave the order that the route of the caravan be
+changed, and that the party should cross over the hills and proceed by a
+route close to the Red Sea until the place of danger was left behind.
+
+This was accordingly done, and the long lines passed anxiously yet
+laboriously onward over flinty summits, down steep and rugged
+hill-sides, past rocky clefts and over barren desert spots peopled only
+by the echoes that rang from the mountain sides, until at last the
+sparkling waters of the Red Sea lay below, and the anxious travelers
+felt that, for the present at least, they were safe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE BATTLE OF BEDR.
+
+    "A Prodigy of Fear, and a portent
+    Of broached mischief to the unborn times."
+
+                              --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+The afternoon was intensely warm. Although the heat of the day was past,
+the houses of Mecca seemed to bake in the sun, the sand burned like a
+furnace, and a visible, shimmering heat seemed to fill the air.
+Nevertheless the ceremonies of Tawaf and the ablutions of Zem-Zem went
+on unceasingly, for it was the month of Ramadhan, and the half-naked
+pilgrims, with their scanty white garments, shaven heads, and bare feet,
+kept up the perpetual promenade about the temple, even when so hot as to
+be ready to drop of exhaustion. The courtyard was crowded with people,
+the carriers of Zem-Zem water were in constant demand, and, in the
+cooler recesses of the covered portico around the great yard, a humming
+trade went on, the venders' cries rising above the prayers of the
+pilgrims.
+
+Such was the scene upon which Omair suddenly staggered, all breathless,
+with haggard face, turban awry, and thin wisps of hair streaming in wet
+hanks over his brow.
+
+"Where is Abu Jahl?" he cried, gasping.
+
+"Why, what is wrong? Tell us!" cried the curious crowd in some
+consternation. "Where is Abu Sofian? Where is the caravan? Why have you
+come alone?"
+
+"Send me Abu Jahl!" was his only reply.
+
+The old man happened to be at the Caaba, and came anxiously at the
+unexpected summons.
+
+"Omair!" he exclaimed. "Allah! What has happened?"
+
+"Send them help!" gasped Omair. "Send them help at once, or not one in
+our fair caravan may escape! Mohammed is lying in wait for them in the
+mountain passes."
+
+"May Allah have mercy!" ejaculated the old man; and the crowd about
+shrieked and groaned.
+
+"Bring me the stair!" called Abu Jahl. "Place it close to the Caaba!"
+
+This done, he ascended to the roof where all might see him. His snowy
+beard descended to his waist over his flowing garments, and his white
+locks fell thinly from beneath his kufiyah.
+
+Silence fell upon the assembly below, and from every street men came
+hurrying in to hear the strange tidings.
+
+"In the name of Allah, hear!" called Abu Jahl in loud tones. "Ye of the
+tribe of Koreish, hear! Ye who love Abu Sofian, hear! Ye who have
+friends or goods in the great caravan from Syria, hear! Ye above whom
+the arch-impostor, Mohammed, aspires, and whom he would fain crush
+beneath his feet as the vile serpent in the dust, hear! He hath beset
+our friends in the fastnesses of the mountains. He swoopeth upon them as
+the eagle upon the defenceless lamb out of the fold! Who, then, among
+you, will follow Abu Jahl to deliver them?"
+
+An approving murmur rose, long and loud; then a hush fell as the aged
+man continued, appealing to the courage of his hearers:
+
+"Ye who fear not the foul rebel's sword, ye who would uphold the honor
+of your wives and little ones, nor send your children out upon the world
+as the offspring of cowards, beseech your gods for blessing, then mount,
+and meet me as soon as may be outside the temple gates. In the name of
+Allah, good-speed!"
+
+A shout of assent arose. The thoroughly excited multitude swayed and
+surged like the waves of the sea. Hundreds hurried off to do the behest
+of their leader, and, returning, hastened to perform Tawaf about the
+Caaba before setting out on their perilous journey.
+
+Yusuf, as a Christian, dared not enter the temple; but he heard the news
+from without. His heart was moved with compassion for the poor,
+defenceless traders, caught like mice in a trap, and he decided to fall
+into the ranks of the rescue party, intending, if his life were spared,
+to pay a visit to Amzi, at Medina.
+
+While the recruits were gathering, Henda, the wife of Abu Sofian, rushed
+up, her face wild and haggard with terror, her long black hair streaming
+on the wind, her eyes flashing with excitement, and her lips drawn back,
+exposing her yellow, fang-like teeth. A tigress she looked in her fury,
+and it was with difficulty that Abu Jahl prevented her from going with
+the expedition, which, in the cooler shades of evening, started off at a
+rapid pace, leaving her to nurse her vengeance until a later day.
+
+Hurried, yet long and tedious, was the journey, and the anxiety and
+impatience of the volunteers made it seem almost interminable.
+
+[Illustration: The youth made a quick lunge, piercing the priest's
+shoulder.--See page 46.]
+
+At length news was brought of the safety of the caravan, and of its
+deviation towards the sea. But the blood of the Meccans was up, and the
+fiery old leader was determined to punish Mohammed for his misconduct,
+and thus, perhaps, prevent him from committing similar atrocities in the
+future. Accordingly he sent part of his troops for protection to the
+caravan, and commanded the rest, about nine hundred in number, to push
+on; and among those ordered forward to the field was Yusuf.
+
+Mohammed, with three hundred and thirteen soldiers, mounted chiefly on
+camels, received word of this advance. His men were lying between Medina
+and the sea, and, as he thought, directly between the caravan and Abu
+Jahl's army. He told his men to be of good cheer, as Allah had promised
+them an easy victory; yet he was careful to omit no human means of
+securing an advantage. He posted his troops beside the brook Bedr, and
+had them hastily throw up an entrenchment to cover the flank of his
+troops. Then, sure of a constant supply of water, and safe from fear of
+surprise, he awaited the Meccan army.
+
+He himself ascended a little eminence, accompanied only by Abu Beker,
+and, in a small hut made of branches, he prayed for the assistance of
+three thousand angels. In his excitement, one of his old paroxysms came
+on, but this was regarded as auspicious by his men, to whom,
+superstitious as they were, every occurrence of this kind was an
+additional presage of victory and an additional spur to bravery in
+battle.
+
+And now the opposing force appeared, coming down the opposite hill, the
+men hot, weary, and covered with dust.
+
+After a preliminary skirmish between individual combatants, the battle
+began,--not a systematic charge in close ranks, not the disciplined
+attack of trained warriors, but a wild melee of camels, horses, flashing
+scimitars, gleaming daggers and plunging spears, in the midst of clouds
+of dust and streaming scarfs.
+
+The combat was long, and at one time the party of Mohammed seemed to
+waver. The prophet rushed out, threw a handful of dust into the air and
+exclaimed:
+
+"May confusion light upon their faces! Charge, ye faithful! charge for
+Allah and his prophet!"
+
+Nothing could withstand the wild dash made by his men. Filled with the
+passion of enthusiasm, the zeal of fanatics, and the confidence of
+success, they bore down like madmen. The Koreish, many of whom were
+fearful of enchantment by the prophet, were seized with sudden panic. In
+vain Abu Jahl tried to rally them. He was torn from his horse by a
+savage Moslem, and his head severed from his body. His troops fled in
+terror, leaving seventy men dead on the field and seventy prisoners.
+
+The bodies and prisoners were robbed, and the spoil divided. Mohammed,
+in order to avert dispute over the booty, very conveniently had a
+revelation at the time.--"Know that whenever ye gain any spoil, a fifth
+part thereof belongeth unto God, and to the apostle, and to his kindred,
+and the orphans, and the poor, and the traveler."
+
+Upon this occasion he claimed a considerable amount of silver, and a
+sword, Dhu'l Fakar (or the Piercer), which he carried in every
+subsequent battle.
+
+During the battle, Yusuf, the priest, had fought bravely. Mounted on a
+magnificent horse, his commanding figure had marked him out as an object
+worthy of attack. Accordingly he was ever in the thickest of the fight.
+With cool and calm determination his blows fell, until suddenly an event
+occurred which completely unmanned him, and gave his enemies the
+advantage.
+
+Among the opponents who singled him out for attack was a youth mounted
+on a horse of equal power and agility. The youth was rather slight, but
+his skill in thrusting and in averting strokes, and his evidence of
+practice in every exercise of the lance, rendered him a fitting
+adversary for the priest with his superior strength.
+
+For some time their combat had gone on single-handed, when the youth's
+head-dress falling off revealed a face strikingly familiar to Yusuf. It
+was Manasseh's own face, pale, and with clots of blood upon it!
+
+The priest was horror-stricken. He forbore to thrust, and the youth,
+seizing the opportunity, made a quick lunge, piercing the priest's
+shoulder, and felling him to the ground. A new opponent came and engaged
+the youth's attention; the panic fell, and the priest, seeing that it
+was useless to remain, managed to mount and ride off after the
+retreating troops.
+
+Scarcely injured, yet covered with blood, he dismounted at Amzi's door
+in Medina.
+
+"Yusuf! My brother!" cried the Meccan in astonishment, "what means
+this?"
+
+In a few words Yusuf told the tale of the battle, and Amzi placed him
+comfortably upon a soft couch, insisting upon ministering to him as
+though he had been severely wounded.
+
+"So, Yusuf the gentle too has become a seeker of man's blood!" he said.
+"Verily, what an effect hath this degenerate age!"
+
+"Believe me, friend," returned the other, earnestly, "you too would have
+gone had you been in Mecca and had heard of our poor friends, all
+unarmed, and apparently in the power of the enemy. When the advance to
+Bedr was ordered, I was one under authority, and had no choice but to
+submit, though I had little enough love for the stench of blood."
+
+"Yet," returned Amzi, "Yusuf's life is too precious to be risked in such
+madness. It is not necessary for him to court death; for the time may
+soon come when he shall be forced to fight in self-defence. Till then,
+let foolish youths dash to the lance's point if they will."
+
+Yusuf bowed his head, and in a low tone replied: "'O God, the Lord, the
+strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of
+battle. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was
+against me. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
+death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. He that dwelleth in
+the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
+Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my
+God; in him will I trust.' Amzi, whether in life or in death, it shall
+be as he wills."
+
+Amzi looked at him curiously. "Yusuf," he said, "is there no extremity
+of your life in which your religion fails to give you comfort? It seems
+to furnish you with words befitting every occasion."
+
+"Comfort in every hour of need," returned Yusuf, "deliverance in every
+hour of temptation, is our God able to bestow if we seek him in spirit
+and in truth. Things temporal, as well as things spiritual, call for his
+almighty love and attention; and our love for him brightens every
+pathway in life. It is the knowledge of this which has upheld his
+children in all the ages;--not one of them who has not gloried in
+feeling that 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
+time of trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be
+removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.'
+Not one of them but has at some time found comfort in the promises,
+'When the poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their
+tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them; I, the God of
+Israel, will not forsake them. He that keepeth Israel slumbers not, nor
+sleeps. Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy
+God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold
+thee with the right hand of my righteousness.' Think of this help, Amzi,
+in every struggle: in the struggle, worse than any time of battle, with
+one's own sinful heart. And there is not one of God's children but has
+realized the blessedness of following the commands of Jesus, 'Have faith
+in God. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
+and it shall be opened unto you.' Amzi, you who love gentleness and
+peace, truth and humility, cannot you find in Christ and his loving
+precepts all you would ask? Can anything appeal to your warm heart more
+than such injunctions as these?--'Love your enemies, bless them that
+curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that
+despitefully use you and persecute you. When thou doest alms, let not
+thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Let your light so shine
+before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
+which is in heaven. Judge not, that ye be not judged. Watch ye,
+therefore, and pray always. Pray that ye enter not into temptation.'"
+
+He paused, out of breath; for such had been his study of the Scriptures
+that the words came in a flood to his lips.
+
+Amzi sighed. "Yes, Yusuf," he said, "such words seem to me full of
+goodness and sweetness; yet, try as I may, I cannot realize their true
+import. I cannot rejoice, as you and your friends do, in your religion
+and its promises."
+
+"My Amzi," returned the priest, "how can you be warmed except you come
+to the fire? Remember the man with the withered hand. Did he not stretch
+it out in faith? My friend, like him, act! Reach out your heart to God.
+He will not fail you. Look not upon yourself. Look upon God, who is,
+indeed, closer to you than you can imagine. Put your hand in his, behold
+his love manifested to us in the coming of his dear Son, and feel that
+that love is to-day the same, proceeding from the Father in whom is 'no
+variableness, neither shadow of turning.'"
+
+Amzi sighed. "Yusuf," he said, "it appears all dark, impenetrable, to
+me. A wall of adamant seems to stand between me and God. Pray for me,
+friend. In this matter I fear I am heartless."
+
+In spite of this assertion, there was genuine concern in the tone, and
+the priest's face flushed in the glad light of hope.
+
+"Amzi," he exclaimed, "my hope for you increases. Even now, you begin to
+realize your own self: it remains for you to realize God's self. Know
+God--would I could burn that upon your heart! All else would be made
+plain."
+
+Amzi sighed again. For a time he sat in silence, then he said:
+
+"I have been reading of the tabernacle, and of the sacrifices therein."
+
+"Typical of the death of Christ," returned Yusuf. "A constant emblem of
+that mind which was, and is to-day, ready to suffer, that we may
+understand its infinite love."
+
+"Strange, strange!" said Amzi, musingly. Then after a long silence:
+"Yusuf, have you ever noted the resemblance of the Caaba to the reputed
+appearance of the tabernacle?"
+
+"The resemblance struck me from the first glance--the courtyard, the
+temple itself, and the curtain (or 'Kiswah') corresponding to the veil
+of the tabernacle. This same Caaba may trace its origin in some dim way
+to the ancient tabernacle, of which, in this land, the significance must
+have become lost in the centuries during which the Ishmaelitish race
+forgot the true worship of God."
+
+"And what think you of the course which affairs are now taking in
+Arabia?" asked Amzi. "You believe in the supervision of God; why, then,
+does he permit such outbreaks as the present one is proving to be?"
+
+"I certainly believe that the Creator sees and knows all things. I
+believe, too, that even to Mohammed, at one time in his life, the Holy
+Spirit appealed, as he did to me, and, I hope, does now to you,
+Amzi,--for his pleadings come sometime to all men; but, I think that if
+in earnest at first, Mohammed--if, indeed, he be not a monomaniac on the
+subject of his divine calling--has given himself up to the wild
+indulgence of his ambition, forgetting Him whose power is able to direct
+us all aright. Hence, he guides himself, rather than seeks to be guided,
+and, in such a case, he may sometimes be allowed to go on in his own
+way, bearing with him those who are so foolish as to accept his
+teaching. Something of this kind may, indeed, be one of the secrets of
+the crimes and calamities which enter into many human lives. God leaves
+us free to choose. When we come to know him we choose to be his
+followers. If we are indifferent to him, he may, at times, look on
+without interfering in our lives except to send us occasionally great
+trouble, or great joy, as an appeal to us. His mercy is great. He pities
+and pleads with us, yet he leaves us free."
+
+"And what, think you, will be the effect upon Arabia of this rising?"
+
+Yusuf shook his head. "I know not," he said. "We cannot see now, nor
+mayhap until ages have rolled by; but 'at eventide it shall be light.'"
+
+So talked Amzi and the priest until the gray dawn shone in, and the
+voice of Bilal, the muezzin, was heard calling from the mosque:
+
+"God is great! There is no God but God! Mohammed is the prophet of God!
+Come to prayers! God is great!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE PERSECUTION BEGINS.
+
+    "In doing good we are generally cold and languid and
+    sluggish.... But the works of Malice and Injustice are quite in
+    another style."--_Burke._
+
+
+Among those left dead on the field of Bedr were the father, uncle and
+brother of Henda, the wife of Abu Sofian. Fierce and savage as was her
+nature, she was yet capable of deep feeling, and her love for her
+kindred was one of the ruling passions of her life.
+
+When the caravan at last reached Mecca in safety, she rushed to meet Abu
+Sofian, weeping wildly, wringing her hands in grief, and throwing dust
+on her long hair. She besought him frantically to avenge their death,
+and he, knowing that the debt of "blood revenge" was now upon him, and
+that blood alone would wipe the stain from his honor, gathered two
+hundred swift horsemen and set out almost immediately for Medina.
+
+On the way he ravaged the whole country, burning the villages and
+date-groves of Mohammed's followers.
+
+When within three miles of Medina the prophet sallied out to meet him. A
+brief contest took place, and Abu Sofian was once more defeated in what
+was jestingly called the Battle of the Meal Sacks.
+
+The Moslems were exultant over their success, but Abu Sofian returned to
+Mecca, the blood-dues still unpaid, and with bitter enmity gnawing at
+his heart.
+
+In the meantime Mohammed began to assume all the airs of an independent
+sovereign. He married a beautiful maiden, Hafza, to whom he entrusted
+the care of the Koran, according as it was revealed; and shortly
+afterwards he issued a decree by which all true believers were ordered
+to face Mecca when praying. Thus early in his career of conquest he had
+fixed upon Mecca as the future holy city of the Moslems. As usual, the
+Koran was called in to authorize him in thus fixing the Kebla, or point
+of prayer.
+
+"Unto God belongeth the East and the West. He directeth whom he pleaseth
+in the right way. Turn, therefore, thy face towards the holy temple of
+Mecca; and wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that place."
+
+At this time also he sanctioned the retaining of the holy fast of
+Ramadhan and the pilgrimages connected therewith. As he was well aware
+that the doing away with the great bazar upon which the prosperity of
+Mecca so largely depended would loose a host of enemies upon him, he
+declared:
+
+"O true believers, a fast is ordained you, as it was ordained unto them
+before you, that ye may fear God. The month of Ramadhan shall ye fast,
+in which the Koran was sent down from heaven, a direction unto men."
+
+Henceforth, during the fast, all true believers were to abstain from
+eating or drinking, and from all earthly pleasures, while the sun shone
+above the horizon and until the lamps at the mosques were lighted by the
+Imaums. It is needless to say that the Moslems obviated this
+self-sacrifice by sleeping during the day as much as possible, giving
+the night up to all the proscribed indulgences of the interdicted
+season.
+
+And now Mohammed's hatred to the Jews began to show itself, and the
+awful persecution of the little Jewish band in Medina commenced.
+
+Poor Dumah was one of the first to bring the rod of wrath upon himself.
+When wandering down the street one day, not very long after the Battle
+of Bedr, he paused by a well, just as Mohammed, accompanied by his
+faithful Zeid, appeared in the way. Dumah saw them and at once began to
+sing his thoughts in a wild, irregular lament. His voice was peculiarly
+sweet and clear, and every word reached the ear of the enraged prophet.
+The song was a weird lament over those slain at Bedr:
+
+    "They are fallen, the good are fallen,
+    Low in the dust they are fallen;
+    And their hair is steeped in blood;
+    But the poison-wind shrieks above them,
+    Sighing anon like the cushat,
+    And breathing its curses upon him,
+    Upon him, the chief of impostors.
+    As he passes the leaflets tremble,
+    And the flowers shrink from his pathway;
+    And the angels smile not upon him,
+    For he maketh the widow and orphan;
+    And the voice of Rachel riseth
+    In mourning loud for her children.
+    And no comfort doth fall upon her.
+    Soft like the balm of Gilead."
+
+Turning to one of his followers, Mohammed commanded angrily:
+
+"Seize that singer!"
+
+Dumah heard the exclamation, and was off like the wind, followed by two
+or three Moslems, each anxious to secure the victim first, and thus win
+the approval of the august Mohammed.
+
+On, on, straight to the house of Amzi fled Dumah. Bursting open the
+door, he rushed in, his long hair disordered, his face purple with
+running and his eyes wide with terror.
+
+"Save me, Yusuf! Save me, Amzi!" he cried. "Mohammed will kill me!
+Mohammed will kill me!"
+
+Yusuf sprang to the door, and the poor fugitive threw himself at Amzi's
+feet, clinging to his garments with his thin, white hands.
+
+But the pursuers were already upon him. Yusuf strove in vain to detain
+them, to reason with them.
+
+"Can you not see he is a poor artless lad? Can you not have mercy?" he
+cried.
+
+"It is the order of the prophet of Allah!" was the response.
+
+Yusuf resisted their entrance with all his might, but, unarmed as he
+was, he was quickly thrown down, and the terrified Dumah was dragged
+over his body and hurried off to be put in chains in a Moslem cell.
+
+Amzi was distracted. There seemed little hope for Dumah. The small
+Jewish band then in Medina could not dare to cope with the overwhelming
+numbers of Moslems that swarmed in the streets. If Dumah were delivered
+it must be by stratagem; and yet what stratagem could be employed?
+
+Early in the evening Amzi and the priest withdrew to the roof for
+consultation.
+
+"You believe that your God is all-powerful--why do you not beseech him
+for our poor lad's safety?" cried Amzi passionately.
+
+"I have not ceased to do so since his capture," returned Yusuf. "But it
+must be as the Lord willeth. He sees what is best. Even our blessed
+Jesus said to the Father, 'Not my will, but thine be done.'"
+
+Amzi was not satisfied. "Can he then be the God of Love that you say, if
+he could look upon the death of that poor innocent nor exercise his
+power to save him?"
+
+"Amzi, I do not wonder at you for speaking thus. Yet consider. We will
+hope the best for our poor singer. May God preserve him and enable us,
+as instruments in his hands, to deliver him. But God may see differently
+from us in this matter. Who can say that to die would not be gain to
+poor Dumah? All witless as he is, he shall have a perfect mind and a
+perfect body in the bright hereafter. We know not what is well. We can
+only pray and do all in our power to effect his deliverance; we must
+leave the issue to God."
+
+Amzi bowed his head on his hands and groaned. Yusuf raised his eyes
+towards heaven; the tears rolled down his cheeks, and his lips moved.
+Even he could not understand the mysteries of this strange time. Yet he
+was constantly comforted in knowing that "all things work together for
+good to them that love God."
+
+Saddest of all was the vision of the handsome, dark face that, contorted
+in the fury of combat, had glared upon him from the Moslem ranks in the
+Battle of Bedr, while Manasseh's hand showered blows upon the head of
+his best friend--for the sake of the prophet of Islam.
+
+"Manasseh! Manasseh!" he exclaimed in bitter sadness. "Why hast thou
+forsaken thy father's God? O heavenly Father, do thou guide him and lead
+him again into thy paths!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+AMZI FINALLY REJECTS MOHAMMED.
+
+    "'Do the duty which lies nearest thee' which thou knowest to be
+    a duty! Thy second duty will already have become
+    clearer."--_Carlyle, "Sartor Resartus."_
+
+
+Upon the following morning Yusuf hastened to obtain an interview with
+Mohammed. The prophet lived in an ostentatiously humble abode--a low,
+broad building, roofed with date-sticks, and thatched with the broad
+leaves of the palm tree.
+
+Mohammed absolutely refused to see him. Ayesha, the youngest and fairest
+of the prophet's wives, sent to inform him that Mohammed had nothing to
+say to the Christian Yusuf. So with heavy heart he turned away and
+sought the house of Zeid, deeming that he, as the prophet's adopted son
+and most devoted follower, might have some influence in obtaining
+Dumah's release.
+
+Zeid sat in a low, airy apartment, through whose many open windows a
+cool breeze entered. By him sat his newly-wedded wife, unveiled, for at
+that time the rules in regard to veiling were not so strictly insisted
+upon as at a later day, when the prophet's decree against the unveiling
+of women was more rigorously enforced.
+
+Even Yusuf noted her marvelous beauty. There was a peculiarity of
+action, a something familiar about her, too, which gave him a hazy
+recollection of having seen her before; but not for several moments did
+the association come up in his memory, and he saw again the little
+Jewish home of Nathan in Mecca, the dim light, and the beautiful child
+whose temples Nathan's wife was so tenderly bathing. Yes, after the
+lapse of years, in a flash he knew her for Zeinab!
+
+She listened with interest to the tale of the Jewish singer; but there
+was a heartlessness in her air, and a certain contempt in the look which
+she bent upon the Christian who was thus making intercession for an
+unworthy Jew.
+
+"I have neither eyes to see, tongue to speak, nor hands to act, save as
+the prophet is pleased to direct me," was Zeid's reply, in the most
+determined tone.
+
+Yusuf, seeing no hope, left the house, and shortly afterwards Zeid, too,
+went down into the town. Scarcely had he left when Mohammed entered.
+
+Zeinab was still at the window, which opened directly on the courtyard.
+A myrtle bush grew near, and she listlessly plucked some of the white
+blossoms and twined them in the braids of her glossy black hair. She
+wore a loose gown of sky-blue silk with a drape of crimson, and deep
+pointed sleeves of filmy, white lace. Her veil was cast aside, and when
+the prophet entered she turned her magnificent dark eyes, with their
+shading of kohl, full upon him.
+
+Ever susceptible to the influence of beauty, he exclaimed, "Praise be
+God, who turneth the hearts of men as he pleaseth!" And he at once
+coveted her for his wife; although according to law she bore the
+relation of daughter to him.
+
+He intimated his desire to Ali, who, in turn, broke the news to Zeid.
+Zeid returned pale and trembling to his home. He loved his wife deeply;
+yet his devotion to the prophet and the sense of obligation which he
+owed him as foster-father, for having freed him from servitude, appealed
+to him strongly. Bowing his head upon his wife's knee, he wept.
+
+"Why do you weep, Zeid?" she asked.
+
+"Alas!" he cried, "could one who has known thee as wife forbear to weep
+at having thee leave him?"
+
+"But I will never leave my Zeid."
+
+"Not even to become the wife of the prophet?"
+
+"Mohammed does not want me for his wife," she said quickly.
+
+Zeid sighed. "Could you be happy were you his wife?" he asked.
+
+The beauty's ambitious spirit rose, but she only said: "Were I made his
+wife, it would be the will of Allah."
+
+Zeid pushed her gently from him, and went out. "Mohammed," he said,
+seating himself at the prophet's feet, "you care for Zeinab. I come to
+offer her to you. Obtain for your poor Zeid a writ of divorce."
+
+The prophet's face showed his satisfaction. "I could never accept such a
+sacrifice," he said, hesitatingly.
+
+"My life, my all, even to my beloved wife, belongs to my master,"
+returned Zeid. "His pleasure stands to me before aught else."
+
+"So be it, then, most faithful," said the prophet. "O Zeid, my more than
+son, a glorious reward is withheld for you."
+
+Then, as ever, a revelation of the Koran came seasonably ere another
+day, to remove every impediment to the union of Mohammed and Zeinab.
+
+"But when Zeid had determined the matter concerning her, and had
+resolved to divorce her, we joined her in marriage unto thee, lest a
+crime should be charged on the true believers in marrying the wives of
+their adopted sons: and the command of God is to be performed. No crime
+is to be charged on the prophet as to what God hath allowed him."
+
+There were those in Medina who resented Mohammed's selfishness in thus
+appropriating Zeinab to himself, and there were those who questioned the
+honor of such a proceeding; but this questioning went on mostly among
+the few Bedouin adherents who had flocked into the town in his service,
+for the most sacred oath of the highest class of Bedouins has long been,
+"By the honor of my women!"
+
+In none did the prophet's action inspire more disgust than in our two
+friends, Yusuf and Amzi. Amzi had long since lost all faith in the
+prophet as a divine representative; and this marriage with Zeinab only
+confirmed his distrust.
+
+"Pah!" he said to Yusuf, "he not only lets his own impulses sway him,
+but he uses the sanction of heaven to authorize the satisfaction of
+every desire, no matter who is trampled upon in the proceeding. Was
+there ever such sacrilege?"
+
+Yusuf returned: "For this I am thankful, brother: that you at last
+apply the term 'sacrilege' to the claims of this impostor."
+
+"Think you he is no longer in earnest at all for the raising of his
+countrymen from idolatry?"
+
+"He seeks to throw down idols, but to raise himself in their stead.
+Cupidity and ambition, Amzi, have well-nigh smothered every struggling
+seed of good in Mohammed's haughty bosom."
+
+"Do you not think that, at the beginning, he imagined himself inspired?"
+
+"Mohammed is strangely visionary. At the beginning he, doubtless,
+thought he saw visions, but, if the man thinks himself inspired now, he
+is mad."
+
+"Yet what a personality he has!" said Amzi, musingly. "What a charm he
+bears! How his least word is sufficient to move this crowd of howling
+fanatics!"
+
+"A man who might be an angel of light, were he truly under divine
+guidance," returned Yusuf. "And, mark me, Amzi, his influence will not
+stop with this generation. The influence of every man on God's earth
+goes on ever-rolling, ever-unceasing, down the long tide of eternity;
+but, in every age, there are those who, like Mohammed, possess such an
+individuality, such a personality, that their power goes on increasing,
+crashing like the avalanche down my native mountains."
+
+"How eloquently such a thought appeals to right impulse, right action!"
+said Amzi, thoughtfully. "Did a man realize its import fully, he would
+surely be spurred on to act, not to sit idly letting the world drift
+by."
+
+"'No man liveth unto himself,'" said Yusuf slowly. "Whether we will it
+or not, we are each of us ever exerting some influence for good or for
+ill upon those with whom we come in contact. No one can be neutral. Acts
+often speak in thunder-tones, when mere words are heard but in
+whispers."
+
+"I fear me, Yusuf," said the Meccan, with a half-smile, "that Amzi has
+neither thundered in action, nor even whispered in words. So little good
+has he done, that he almost hates to think of your great influence
+theory."
+
+Yusuf smiled and slipped his arm about the Meccan's shoulder. "Amzi,
+the name of 'benevolent' belies your words," he said. "Think you that
+your home duties faithfully performed, your pure and upright life, pass
+for naught?"
+
+"You would stand aghast, Yusuf," returned Amzi, "if I told you the
+amount of time that I have squandered, simply in dreaming, smoking, and
+taking my ease."
+
+"Time is a precious gift," replied Yusuf, "it flows on and on as a great
+river towards the sea, and never returns. It appears to me, every day,
+more clearly as the talent given to all men to be used rightly. I, as
+well as you, have let precious hours pass, and, in doing so, we have
+both done wrong. Yet I pray that we may every day see, more and more,
+the necessity of well occupying the hours,--'redeeming the time, because
+the days are evil.'"
+
+"Would that I had your decision of purpose, your firmness of will!" said
+Amzi, wistfully. "Yusuf, it would be impossible for me to spend all my
+time as you do,--visiting, relieving, studying, speaking ever the word
+in season, and ever working for others. I should miss my _kaif_."
+
+"Even if you know it was in the cause of the Lord?" asked Yusuf, with
+gentle reproof. "Yet, Amzi, you have done as much as I, considering your
+opportunities. The great thing is to do faithfully whatever comes to
+one's hand, whether that be great or small. Know you not that it was
+said to him who had received only two talents, 'Well done, good and
+faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make
+thee ruler over many things.' As bright crowns await the humble
+home-workers as the great movers of earth, provided all be done 'as unto
+the Lord.'"
+
+"But," returned Amzi, impatiently, "my 'good works,' as you call them,
+have not been done 'as unto the Lord.' My charities have been done
+simply because the sight of misery caused me to feel unhappy. I felt
+pity for the wretched, and in relieving them set my own mind at ease,
+and gave satisfaction to myself. I feel that it is right to do certain
+things, and so I do them under a sense of moral obligation."
+
+"Then," said Yusuf, "has this acting under a sense of moral obligation
+brought you perfect satisfaction, perfect rest?"
+
+"Frankly, it has not."
+
+Yusuf rose, and, placing both hands on Amzi's shoulders, said earnestly:
+"My friend, who can say that every good impulse of man may not be an
+outcome of the divine nature implanted in him by the Creator, and which,
+if watered and developed, will surely burst into the flower of goodness
+when once the influence of God's Spirit is fully recognized and ever
+invoked? Amzi, you have many such seeds of innate good. Your very
+longings for good, your tone of late, show me that you are near this
+blessed recognition. Why will you not believe? Why will you not embrace
+the Lord Jesus Christ? We are all weak of ourselves, but we have
+strength in him. Amzi, my friend, pray for yourself."
+
+He turned abruptly and left Amzi alone, to ponder long and earnestly
+over the conversation of the past hour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE FATE OF DUMAH.
+
+    "Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the
+    physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of
+    him whom time cannot console."--_Colton._
+
+
+And now began a veritable reign of terror for the Jews of Medina. The
+first evidence of the closing of Mohammed's iron hand was shown in his
+forcing them to make Mecca, rather than Jerusalem, their kebla, or point
+of prayer. Many refused to obey this command, and were consequently
+dragged off to await the pleasure of the prophet.
+
+At first the keenest edge of Moslem vindictiveness seemed to be directed
+against the bards or poets, for the power of stirring and pathetic
+poetry in arousing the passionate Oriental blood to revenge was
+recognized as an instrument too potent to be overlooked.
+
+Ere long even the form of imprisonment was, to a great extent, set
+aside, and the knife of the assassin was set at work. Among those who
+thus fell were Kaab, a Jewish poet who strove to incite the Koreish to
+aggressive measures against the Moslems; and Assina, a young woman who
+had been guilty of writing satires directed against the prophet himself.
+
+Yusuf and Amzi became greatly alarmed for the safety of Dumah. Every
+possible means of rendering assistance to the poor singer seemed to be
+cut off. They could not even find any clue to his whereabouts, and
+feared that he, too, had fallen beneath some treacherous blade.
+
+As yet, Amzi and Yusuf had been permitted to wander at will. For hours
+and hours did they roam about the streets seeking for some clue to
+Dumah's place of imprisonment, but all efforts were futile, until one
+day Amzi heard a faint voice singing in the cellar of one of the Moslem
+buildings. He lay down by the wall, closed his eyes, and strained his
+ears to catch the sound. It was assuredly Dumah, singing weakly:
+
+    "Oh, why will they not come,
+    The friends of Dumah!
+    For living death is upon him,
+    And the walls of his tomb close over,
+    Yet will not in mercy fall on him.
+    Does the sun shine still on the mountain,
+    And the trees wave?
+    Do the birds still sing in the palm-trees,
+    And the flowers still bloom in Kuba?
+    And yet doth Dumah languish
+
+    "But Dumah's friends have forgotten him,
+    Nor seek him more,
+    And even the angels vanish,
+    And the tomb is all about him:
+    O Death, come, haste to Dumah!"
+
+The voice sank away in a low wail, and Amzi sprang up. His first impulse
+was to rush in and batter at the door of Dumah's cell; his second, to
+call words of comfort through the wall. Yet either would be imprudent
+and might ruin all, so he hastened home to Yusuf.
+
+"I will go to him immediately," said the priest.
+
+"But how?"
+
+"In disguise if need be," was the reply.
+
+"In disguise!" exclaimed Amzi. "Friend, with your physique, think you
+you can disguise yourself? Not a Moslem in Mecca who does not know the
+figure of Yusuf the Christian. Nay, Yusuf, your friend Amzi can effect a
+disguise much more easily. Here,"--running his fingers through his gray
+beard,--"a few grains of black dye can soon transform this; some stain
+will change the Meccan's ruddy cheeks into the brown of a desert Arab.
+The thing is easy."
+
+"As you will, then," said the priest; and the two were soon busy at work
+at the transforming process.
+
+With the garb of a Moslem soldier, Amzi was soon, to all appearance, a
+passable Mussulman, with divided beard, and chocolate-brown skin.
+
+He set out, and, having arrived at the door of the sort of barracks in
+which Dumah was imprisoned, mingled with the soldiers, quite unnoticed
+among the new arrivals who constantly swelled the prophet's army.
+
+With the greatest difficulty, yet without exciting apparent suspicion,
+he found out the exact spot in which Dumah was confined. Upon the first
+opportunity he slipped noiselessly after the attendant who was carrying
+the prisoner's pittance of food. Under his robe he had tools for
+excavating a hole beneath the wall, and his plan was to step silently
+into the room, secrete himself behind the door, and permit himself to be
+locked in, trusting to subsequent efforts for effecting the freedom of
+himself and Dumah.
+
+Silently he glided into the darkened room behind the keeper. All within
+seemed dark as night after the brighter light without; but Dumah's eyes,
+accustomed to the darkness, could see more clearly. He penetrated the
+disguise at once.
+
+"Amzi! Amzi!" he cried out delightedly, "you have come! You have come!"
+
+Amzi knew that all was undone.
+
+"Treachery!" called the keeper.
+
+The Moslems came pouring into the room. Amzi was overpowered, and
+pinioned on the spot.
+
+"What means this?" cried Asru, the captain of the guard.
+
+"Treachery, if it please you," returned the keeper. "An asp which has
+been in our camp with its poison-fangs hid! No Moslem, but an enemy--a
+friend of this dotard poet!"
+
+"Search him!" was the order.
+
+The tools were found.
+
+"Aha!" said the captain. "Most conclusive proof, wretch! We will teach
+you, knave, that foxes are sometimes trapped in their own wiles. Off
+with him! Chain him!"
+
+Amzi was hurried off, and Asru strode away to execute some other act of
+so-called justice. He was a man of immense stature, heavy-featured, and
+covered with pock-marks, yet his face was full of strength of character,
+and bore traces of candor and honesty, though the lines about the mouth
+told of unrestrained cruelty and passion.
+
+At home Yusuf waited in an agony of suspense. The day passed into night,
+the night into day, the day into night again, yet Amzi did not come.
+Yusuf could bear it no longer. Anything was better than this awful
+waiting. Only once he almost gave up hope and cried in the words of the
+Psalmist, "O Lord, why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy
+face from me?" Then like balm of healing came the words, "Cast thy
+burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee; he shall never suffer
+the righteous to be moved."
+
+Dressed in his quiet, scholarly raiment, and quite unarmed, he set out
+in search of Amzi. Arriving at the place, he saw none whom he knew. He
+was stopped at the door.
+
+"I wish to see the captain who has command here," he said.
+
+"You are a peaceable-looking citizen enough," said a guard, "yet we have
+orders to search all new-comers, and you will have to submit, stranger."
+
+Yusuf was searched, but as neither arms nor tools were found upon him,
+he was allowed to have audience with the captain.
+
+"Ah!" said Asru, recognizing him at once. "What seeks Yusuf, a
+Christian, of a follower of Mohammed the prophet?"
+
+"I seek but the deliverance of two harmless, inoffensive friends," he
+replied.
+
+"A bold request, truly," said the other. "Yet have I not forgotten my
+debt of gratitude to you. I have not forgotten that it was Yusuf who
+nursed me through the foul disease whose marks I yet bear, when all
+others fled;" and he passed his hand over his pock-marked face.
+
+"Of that speak not," returned Yusuf, with a gesture of impatience.
+"'Twas but the service which any man with a heart may render to a needy
+brother. However, if you are grateful, as you say, you can more than
+repay the debt, you can make me indebted to you, by telling me aught of
+Amzi, the benevolent Meccan, whose hand would not take the life of a
+worm were he not forced into it."
+
+"He is here in chains," said Asru haughtily, "as every spy who enters a
+Moslem camp should be."
+
+"Amzi is no spy!" declared Yusuf emphatically.
+
+"His sole object, then, was to free that half-witted poet?" asked Asru,
+incredulously.
+
+"It was none other. He loves him as his own son, as do I. Amzi would
+suffer death willingly, Yusuf would suffer death willingly, would it
+spare that poor, confiding innocent!"
+
+The priest's eyes were flashing, and his tones bore witness to his
+earnestness. He did not notice, nor did Asru, a pair of bright eyes that
+peered at him from the chink of the doorway; he did not know that a face
+full of petty, vindictive spite was partially hidden by the darkness
+without, or that two keen ears were listening to every word he said.
+
+"Yusuf," returned the captain in a low tone, "you are the only man who
+has ever seemed to me good. Your words, at least, are ever truth. You
+wonder, then, that I follow the prophet? Simply because the excitement
+of war suits me, and"--he shrugged his shoulders with a laugh--"it is
+the best policy to be on the winning side. Most of these crazed idiots
+believe in him, and fear that he will work enchantments upon them if
+they do not; but the doctrine of the sword and of plunder goes farther
+with a few, of whom Asru is one. Because I believe in you, Yusuf, I
+shall try to carry out your request. But it would cost me my life were
+it found out, so it must be seemingly by chance. Rest assured that, bad
+as I am, cruel as I am, I shall see that Yusuf's friends have some
+'accidental' way of escape."
+
+So spoke Asru, nor knew that a pair of feet were hurrying and shuffling
+towards the prophet, while a soldier kept guard at the door.
+
+"May heaven bless you for this!" cried the priest. "So long as Amzi and
+Yusuf breathe you shall not lack an earthly friend."
+
+"Tush!" exclaimed the captain. "'Tis but the wish to make old scores
+even. You serve me; I serve you. We are even."
+
+"Then I shall leave you," said Yusuf, rising with a smile.
+
+Asru opened the door.
+
+"Hold!" cried a guard. "By order of the prophet, Asru is my prisoner!"
+
+"Wherefore?" cried Asru, attempting to seize his dagger.
+
+"Because, though it is politic to be on the winning side, it is not
+always safe to be a traitor and to countermand Mohammed's orders,"
+replied the prophet's musical voice, as the soldiers gave way to permit
+his advance.
+
+Asru freed himself and dashed forward, wielding his dagger right and
+left, but it was a rash effort. He was instantly overpowered and bound
+hand and foot. The priest shared the same fate.
+
+The prophet looked down upon the captain. "Asru," he said, "you whom I
+deemed a most faithful one, you who have proved false, know that death
+is the meed of a traitor. Yet that you may know Mohammed can show mercy,
+I give you your life. For the sake of your past services I grant it you,
+and trust that, having learned obedience and humility, you may once
+again grace our battle-fields nobly. Guards, chain him, yet see that he
+is kept in easy confinement and lacks nothing. Send me Uzza."
+
+The Oman Arab came forward. He was a dark-browed man, under-sized, and
+with one shoulder higher than the other. His eyes were long and narrow,
+with a look of extreme cunning about them, and his mouth was cruel, his
+lips being pressed together so tightly that they looked like a long
+white line.
+
+"Upon you, Uzza, O faithful, as next in command, I confer the honor of
+the position left vacant by Asru. Do thou carry out its obligations with
+honor to thyself and to the prophet of Allah."
+
+Uzza prostrated himself to the ground.
+
+Mohammed turned to Yusuf. "Whom have we here? What said you in your
+accusation, Abraham? An accomplice of Asru, was it?"
+
+The little peddler, the silent watcher at the door, came forward,
+hopping along as usual, but with malignant triumph in his face.
+
+"This, O prophet," he said, making obeisance, "is not only an accomplice
+of Asru, but a sworn enemy of the prophet of Allah and of all who
+believe in him."
+
+"Why, methinks I have seen him before," said Mohammed, passing his hand
+over his brow. "Is not this the gentle friend of Amzi?"
+
+"He is the friend of Amzi," returned the Jew, "but even Amzi lies in
+chains as a spy among the Moslems."
+
+"I had forgotten," said the prophet. "Yet what harm hath this gentle
+Meccan done?"
+
+"He is Yusuf, the Magian priest," said the Jew. "And believe, O prophet
+of Allah, the Magians are your most bitter enemies."
+
+Uzza started and leaned forward with intense interest. Yusuf felt his
+burning gaze fixed on his face.
+
+"What proof have you that this is a Magian priest?" asked the prophet,
+wearily.
+
+"See!" exclaimed the Jew.
+
+He tore back the priest's garment, and there was the red mark of the
+torch outlined distinctly against the white skin.
+
+"Ha!" cried Uzza, starting forward, the veins of his forehead swelling
+with excitement. "The very mark! The secret mark of the priests among
+those who worship fire and the sun! This, O Mohammed, is not only a
+priest, but a priest who has fed the temple fires, and as such has been
+pledged to uphold the Guebre religion at whatever cost."
+
+Yusuf said nothing.
+
+"Can you not speak, Yusuf?" asked Mohammed. "Have you no word to say to
+all this?"
+
+"It is all true, O Mohammed," replied Yusuf, quietly. "It is true that
+in my youthful days I was a priest at Guebre altars. Now, I am not Yusuf
+the Magian priest, but Yusuf the Christian, and a humble follower of our
+Most High God and his Son Jesus."
+
+"Dare you thus proclaim yourself a Christian to my very face?" exclaimed
+Mohammed. "Magian or Christian, ye are all alike enemies. Off with him!
+Do with him as you will, Uzza,--yet," relenting, "I commend him to your
+mercy." He turned abruptly and left the apartment.
+
+Yusuf was immediately taken and thrown into a close, dark room. He was
+still bound hand and foot.
+
+The little Jew entered, and sat down with his head on one side.
+
+[Illustration: "He knows that Yusuf's hands reek with blood," said
+Uzza.--See page 58.]
+
+"Now, proud Yusuf," he said, "has come Abraham's day. Once it was
+Yusuf's day; then the poor peddler, the little dervish, was scourged and
+chained, and well-nigh smothered in that vile Meccan chamber. Now it has
+come Abraham's day, and Yusuf and Abraham will be even. How does this
+suit your angelic constitution? Angelic as you are, you cannot slip
+through chains and bolted doors so easily as the little Jew. Oh, Yusuf,
+are you not happy? Uzza hates you; I saw it in his face. Did you ever
+know him before?" The Jew's propensity for news was to the fore as
+usual.
+
+Yusuf answered nothing.
+
+"Tell me," said the Jew, giving him a shake, "what does Uzza know of
+you?"
+
+"He knows," said a thin, grating voice from behind, "that Yusuf's hands
+reek with the blood of Uzza's only child, the fair little Imri, murdered
+in the cause of religion; and ere I could reach him--yes, priest, with
+vengeance in my heart, for had I found you then your blood would have
+blotted out the stain of my child's on your altar!--the false priest had
+fled, forsaken the reeking altar, left it black in ashes, black as his
+own false heart. And then, that vengeance might be satisfied, was Uzza's
+blade turned against the aged grandmother who had delivered the little
+one up to Persian gods. O priest, your work is past, but not forgotten!"
+
+"Uzza," cried the priest, "I neither ask nor hope for mercy. Yet would
+God I could restore you your child! Its smile and its death gurgle have
+haunted my dreams through these long years! 'Twas in my heathendom I did
+it!"
+
+"That excuse will not give her back to me," said Uzza, stepping out of
+the room with the Jew, as the warden came with the keys.
+
+It was not Uzza's purpose to bring about Yusuf's speedy death. As the
+cat torments the mouse which has fallen into its power, so he resolved
+to keep the priest on the rack for a considerable length of time.
+
+Hearing of the conversation between him and Asru, he knew that exquisite
+torture could be inflicted on the priest through Dumah, and determined
+to strike at him first through the poor singer. Dumah's execution was,
+accordingly, ordered.
+
+Early one morning, Amzi, looking out of a little chink in his window
+through which the bare court-yard below was visible, was horrified to
+see a scene revolting in its every detail, and over which we shall
+hasten as speedily as may be.
+
+There in the gray morning light stood Yusuf, bound and forced to look on
+at the death of the bright-haired singer, whose sunny smile had been as
+a ray of sunshine to the two men.
+
+Amzi looked on as if turned to stone--heard Dumah's last cheerful words,
+"Do not weep, Yusuf; it will be all flowers, all angels, soon. Dumah is
+going home happy,"--then, he fell on his face, and so lay for hours
+unconscious of all. Reason came slowly back, and he realized that
+another of the tragedies only too common in those perilous days had
+taken place.
+
+"I am going home happy," rang in his ears. The cold moonlight crept in,
+shining in a dead silver bar on the ceiling. Amzi lay looking at it,
+until it seemed a path of glory leading, for Dumah's feet, through the
+window and up to heaven.
+
+"I am going home happy." Was that home Amzi's home too? Ah, he had never
+thought of it as his home, though he remembered the words--"In my
+Father's house are many mansions." He imagined he saw Dumah in one of
+those bright mansions, happy in eternal love and sunshine, while he,
+Amzi, was without.
+
+For the first time in his life Amzi was concerned deeply about his soul;
+and now there was no Yusuf to answer his questions. Ere another day had
+passed he, too, might be called upon to undergo Dumah's fate. He could
+not say "I am going home happy." How, then, might this blessed assurance
+be his? He strove to remember Yusuf's words, but they seemed to flit
+away from his memory. His whole life appeared so listless, so selfish,
+so taken up with gratification of self! At last he seemed a sinner. How
+could he obtain forgiveness?
+
+He turned over in agony, and the little stone tablet fell against his
+bosom. With difficulty, on account of the manacles on his hands, he drew
+it forth and traced the words with his finger.
+
+"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
+whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
+life."
+
+As when a black cloud passes away from the moon and a flood of
+brightness fills the whole air below, so the light burst upon Amzi. He
+saw it all now! His talk with Yusuf on the love of God came back to him,
+and he shouted aloud with joy:
+
+"Praise the Lord, he hath set me free!"
+
+"Then for the sake of mercy, help me to get out of this too," said a
+voice from the other side of the partition. It was Asru.
+
+"Alas, my friend," returned Amzi, "chains are still on my body. It is my
+soul that soareth upward as an eagle."
+
+"Wherefore?"
+
+Amzi read the verse of Scripture aloud.
+
+"I have heard somewhat of that before," said Asru. "Read it again."
+
+Amzi did so, and explained it as well as he could. Asru listened
+eagerly. This new creed interested him by its novelty, especially since
+he was in forced inaction and had nothing else to think of. But it also
+appealed to a heart which had some noble traits among many evil ones;
+and as Amzi talked, sorrow for his sins came upon him.
+
+"But the promise cannot be given to such as I," he said, wistfully. "A
+long life of wickedness surely cannot win forgiveness."
+
+"O friend," returned Amzi, eagerly, "'believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
+and thou shalt be saved.' How often did they tell me those words and I
+would not believe, could not understand!"
+
+And then Amzi told the story of the thief on the cross, as he had read
+it and talked it over with Yusuf. His voice thrilled with eagerness,
+and, on the other side of the wall, Asru wept tears of repentance. To
+him too, the door was opening, and a great longing for the love of
+Christ and for a better life filled his bosom. So they talked until the
+noise of the awakening Moslems in the passage without rendered it
+impossible for them to hear each other. But joy had come to both Amzi
+and Asru within the prison-walls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A SCENE IN PALESTINE.
+
+    "I had rather choose to be a pilgrim on earth with Thee than
+    without Thee to possess heaven. Where Thou art, there is
+    heaven: and where thou art not, there is death and
+    hell."--_Thomas a Kempis._
+
+
+It was a scene perfect in its calm beauty. A small, low, white house,
+flat-roofed, and dazzlingly clean, nestled at the foot of one of the
+fairest hills in Palestine; and before the door swept the river Jordan,
+plashing with that low, soft ripple which is music everywhere, but
+nowhere more so than in the hot countries of the East.
+
+A grove of banana and orange-trees sheltered the house, and the delicate
+fragrance of the ripening fruit mingled with the perfume of late roses.
+On the green hills near, sheep rambled at will, and an occasional low
+bleat arose above the busy hum of bees, giving an air of life to the
+quiet scene.
+
+In the shade of the trees sat Nathan, his wife and Mary. They had been
+talking of Manasseh,--poor Manasseh, left behind in barren Arabia!
+Nathan too had wanted to stay with his distressed countrymen, but
+failing health had forced him to seek the more genial atmosphere of the
+North; and, after a long, tedious journey, he at last found himself safe
+once more in his beloved Palestine, poor in worldly goods, yet serene
+and hopeful as ever.
+
+And fortune was at last smiling on the Jewish family. Nathan's health
+had come back to him in the clearer, more bracing air of the Northern
+land, his flocks were increasing, and the only gloom upon their perfect
+happiness was the absence of Manasseh, from whom they were not likely to
+hear soon. And yet they gloried in knowing that Manasseh had chosen to
+meet tribulation for the sake of his faith, and that, wherever he was,
+he was helping others and fighting on the side of right.
+
+"Father," said Mary, "how grand it is to be able to do something great
+and noble in the cause! Were I a man, I would go with Manasseh to fight
+for the Cross."
+
+Nathan stroked her hair softly. "The life of everyone who is consecrated
+to God is directed by him," he said. "To Manasseh is given the
+privilege of defending the faith and helping the weak by his strong,
+young arm; to Mary is given the humble, loving life in which she may
+serve God just as truly and do just as great a work in faithfully
+performing her own little part. Think you not so, mother?"
+
+"Ah, yes," returned the mother, with her gentle smile. "Life is like the
+cloth woven little by little, until the whole pattern shows in the
+finished work; and it matters not whether the pattern be large or small.
+So the little things of life, done well for Christ's sake, will at last
+make a noble whole of which none need be ashamed."
+
+"But mother, watching the sheep, grinding the meal, washing the
+garments, seem such very little things."
+
+"Yet all these are very necessary things," returned the mother quietly,
+"and if done cheerfully and willingly, call for an unselfish heart. A
+gentle, loving life lived amid little cares and trials is no small
+thing, my child."
+
+Mary kissed her mother. "Mother, you always say what comforts one; you
+always make me wish to live more patiently and lovingly."
+
+"And yet, Mary," said her father, "mother's life has been one round of
+small duties."
+
+Mary sat thinking for a moment. "Yes, father," she answered slowly, "I
+see now that mother's life has been the very best sermon on duty. I
+shall try to be patient and happy in simply doing well whatever my hands
+find to do. But I wish Manasseh were home;" and she looked wistfully to
+the west, where bands of color were spreading up the sky, saffron at the
+horizon, blending into gold and tender green above, while all melted
+into a sapphire dome streaked and flecked with rosy pink rays and bars.
+
+"How he would enjoy this glorious sunset! Oh, father, how dreadful if he
+were to be killed!--if he were nevermore to sit with us looking at the
+sunsets!" Her voice trembled a little as she spoke.
+
+"We are committing him to the care of Almighty God," returned Nathan,
+solemnly. "God is love, and whatever he does will be best."
+
+"You find great comfort, father, in believing that 'all things work
+together for good to them that love God,'" said Mary.
+
+"For the children of God, everything that happens must be best."
+
+"Even persecution and death?"
+
+"Even persecution and death, if God so will."
+
+Mary looked at his placid face for a long time, then she said: "How very
+peaceful you and mother are!"
+
+"How could we be otherwise," the father replied, smiling, "with Jesus
+with us each hour, each moment? And we know that he 'will never leave
+nor forsake us.' I think, too, that he is very close to my daughter.
+Mary, is there anything in this world that could take the place of Jesus
+to you? Would wealth or honor or any earthly joy make you perfectly
+happy if you could never pray to Jesus more, never feel him near you as
+an ever-present Friend, nevermore have the hope of seeing his face?"
+
+Mary clasped her hands, and her face glowed. "Never, oh, never!" she
+cried. "I would rather be like poor blind Bartimeus begging by the
+wayside, yet able to call, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!'"
+
+The sun had now set, and the sky had faded with that suddenness common
+in Eastern lands.
+
+Nathan arose. "Let us now offer up prayer for the safety of Manasseh,
+and for the steadfastness of the brethren; for we know that where two or
+three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there is he in the midst of
+them. Let us pray!"
+
+The three knelt in the dim chamber, with silence about and the evening
+stars above, and prayed for the lad who, amid very different scenes, was
+in the heart of the strange revolution. And then they sang the words of
+that sublime psalm, than which no grander poem was ever written:
+
+    I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
+
+    My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
+
+    He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee will
+    not slumber.
+
+    Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
+
+    The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
+
+    The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
+
+    The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy
+    soul.
+
+    The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
+    time forth, and even for evermore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE BATTLE OF OHOD.
+
+    "Dost thou not know the fate of soldiers?
+    They're but Ambition's tools, to cut a way
+    To her unlawful ends."
+
+                              --_Southern._
+
+
+While these events had been taking place in the North, Henda had given
+Abu Sofian little peace, urging him every day to pay the dues of
+blood-revenge for her relatives, and taunting him with cowardice in his
+long delay.
+
+At length, in the third year of the Hegira he gathered a considerable
+army, and with three thousand men of the Koreish tribe, among whom were
+two hundred horsemen, left Mecca, accompanied by Henda and fifteen of
+the matrons of Mecca bearing timbrels and singing war-like chants.
+
+The whole army advanced with the intention of besieging Medina, but
+Mohammed's men entreated him to let them encounter Abu Sofian outside of
+the city, and he yielded to their entreaties. With only one thousand
+men,[10] fifty of whom were chosen archers, the prophet took up his
+stand on a declivity of Mount Ohod, about six miles north of the city.
+There, on its black and barren slope, he divided his army into four
+parts, three of which bore sacred banners, while the great standard was
+placed before Mohammed himself.
+
+In order to imbue his men with courage, he came out in full view of the
+whole army, and, in a loud voice that penetrated even the farthest
+ranks, gave promise of victory. Then, for the sake of those who should
+be killed in battle, he expatiated upon the delights of that Paradise
+which surely awaited all who should be slain in the cause, representing
+it such a paradise as would be peculiarly adapted to the tastes and
+stimulating to the imagination of the Arabs--a race accustomed to arid
+wastes, burning sands, and glaring skies; a paradise of green fields and
+flowery gardens cooled by innumerable rivers and sparkling fountains,
+which glittered from between shaded bowers inter-woven with perfumed
+flowers. He gave them promise of streams literally flowing with milk and
+clearest honey; of trees bending with fruit which should be handed down
+by houris of wondrous beauty; he told them of treasures of gold, silver,
+and jewels. "They shall dwell in gardens of delight, reposing on couches
+adorned with gold and precious stones.... Upon them shall be garments of
+fine green silk and brocades, and they shall be adorned with bracelets
+of silver, and they shall drink of a most pure liquor--a cup of wine
+mixed with the water of Zenjebil, a fountain in Paradise named
+Salsabil."
+
+Such was the sensual character of the paradise promised to his followers
+by Mohammed. The soldiers were listening eagerly to the words when the
+army of Abu Sofian was seen, advancing in the form of a crescent, with
+Abu Sofian and his idols in the center, and Henda and her women in the
+rear, sounding their timbrels, and singing loud war-chants.
+
+The horsemen of the left wing of the Koreish now advanced to attack the
+Moslems in the flank, but the archers fired upon them from the top of
+some steep rocks, and they retired in confusion.
+
+Hamza, a Moslem leader, then shouted the Moslem cry, "Death! Death!" and
+rushed down the hill upon the center. The crash and roar of battle
+began. High in air gleamed spear and lance; horses shrieked and reared,
+and tossed their long manes; dark, contorted visages and shining teeth
+shone out from clouds of dust; sashes floated on the air, and sabres
+flashed in the sunlight; all was mad confusion.
+
+In the melee two young men met hand to hand. Both were tall and slight,
+and had dark, waving hair. So like were they that a warrior near them
+called out, "Behold, doth Manasseh fight with Manasseh!" But the youths
+heard not, recked not. Their blows fell thick and fast, until at last
+the Moslem gave way, and fell, wounded and bleeding, in the dust by the
+side of Hamza, who lay stiffening in death.
+
+Then arose the shout, "The sword of God and his prophet!" and Abu
+Dudjana, armed with the prophet's own sword, waved it above his head and
+dashed into the thick of the battle.
+
+Mosaab, the standard-bearer, followed close and planted the standard at
+the top of a knoll. An arrow struck him in the eye. He fell, and the cry
+arose that the prophet himself had fallen. Ali seized the standard and
+floated it aloft on the air; but the Moslems, seized with confusion,
+would not rally, and withdrew to the hill-top.
+
+The Koreish, thinking Mohammed killed, forbore to follow them, and began
+the revolting work of plundering the dead. Henda and her companions
+savagely assisted in the gruesome task; and, coming upon Hamza, the
+fierce woman mutilated his dead body.
+
+By him she found the handsome youth, whom she believed to be Manasseh,
+so torn and covered with blood as to conceal his Moslem adornments. To
+Manasseh she had taken a strange fancy, and she now ordered the youth to
+be conveyed in safety to the camp, with the army which was forming in
+line of march.
+
+The band of Jews who had come with the forces of Abu Sofian, mainly for
+the purpose of delivering those of their afflicted brethren who had
+refused to join Mohammed, and of whom many were imprisoned in Medina,
+now joined with a band of the Koreish, who desired the freedom of some
+of their tribe, and, while the excitement of battle was still fresh, the
+party entered the city by stealth, then, dashing furiously down the
+street to the guard-house, overpowered the guards and battered open the
+doors, setting many of the prisoners free. Among these were Amzi, Asru,
+and Yusuf.
+
+It was Manasseh himself who broke in the door of the apartment in which
+Yusuf was confined.
+
+An exclamation of pleasure burst from him on recognizing the priest, and
+he threw his arms about his neck.
+
+"Yusuf! My dear Yusuf!" he cried.
+
+"My boy!" exclaimed the priest, in astonishment. "What means this?"
+
+"It means that you are free," said the youth as he knocked off the
+chains. "Haste! We must on to the camp ere the Moslems return. Anything
+more than this I will tell you on the way."
+
+Once again Yusuf stepped out into the pure air, along with many others
+who bore part of their chains in the broken links that still clanked
+upon their wrists and ankles.
+
+In passing through the court-yard, the priest noticed some one crouched
+in a pitiable heap in a corner of the yard. Manasseh hauled him out. It
+was the peddler, with ashen face and eyes rolling with fear.
+
+"Come along, my man!" laughed Manasseh. "Like the worm in a pomegranate,
+you are apt to do harm if left to yourself."
+
+Abraham writhed and begged for mercy.
+
+"Come along!" said Manasseh, impatiently. "I shall not hurt you; I shall
+merely look after you for awhile."
+
+Thus consoled, the peddler hopped on with alacrity. A hasty mount was
+made and the party set out for the camp of Abu Sofian.
+
+Yusuf then had a chance to ask the question burning at his heart. "How
+comes it, Manasseh, that you again fight against the prophet? When last
+I saw you, you wore the green of the Moslem."
+
+"I!" said the youth in astonishment. "You jest, Yusuf!"
+
+"It was surely you who met me on the field of Bedr."
+
+"Yusuf, are you mad? It was never I."
+
+"Then who can it have been? It was your very face."
+
+"For once, Yusuf, your eyes have played you false. How could you have
+believed such a thing of Manasseh?"
+
+"A strange resemblance!" mused Yusuf; then--"Whom see I before me
+yonder?"
+
+"Manasseh's eyes do not play him false, and he declares it to be Amzi,"
+said the youth.
+
+They hastened up the narrow street, now crowded with soldiers,
+prisoners, camels, and horses; and, escaping the missiles thrown by
+infuriated Moslem women from the housetops, soon overtook Amzi and Asru.
+All proceeded at once to the camp of Abu Sofian.
+
+Some large tents were set apart for the wounded Koreish, and here Yusuf
+and Amzi found speedy occupation in binding wounds, and giving drinks of
+water to the parched soldiers. Manasseh entered with them.
+
+"What means this?" cried Henda. "Did I not have you conveyed, soaked
+with blood, among the wounded of the Koreish?"
+
+"I have not been wounded to-day," returned Manasseh. "Read me this
+riddle, Henda. There must be a second self--"
+
+"Here, Manasseh!" interrupted Yusuf from one side. "Had you a twin
+brother, this must be he."
+
+Yusuf was bending over a youth whose dark eyes spoke of suffering, and
+who lay listlessly permitting the priest to bathe his blood-covered
+brow. His eyes were fixed on Manasseh, who was quickly coming forward,
+and those near wondered at the striking resemblance, more marked than is
+often found between brothers.
+
+"Who are you, friend?" asked Manasseh, curiously.
+
+"Kedar the Bedouin!" returned the youth, proudly. "Though how I came
+into a Koreish camp, is more than I can explain."
+
+"For that you may thank your resemblance to me," laughed Manasseh. "You
+are weak, Kedar, my proud Bedouin, and we will ask you to talk but
+little; yet, I pray you, tell me, who was your father?"
+
+"Musa, the Bedouin Sheikh,"--haughtily.
+
+"And your mother was Lois, daughter of Eleazar?"
+
+"Even so," returned the other, wonderingly.
+
+"My cousin!" exclaimed Manasseh, delightedly seizing his hand.
+
+"And son of my Bedouin friend, Musa!" exclaimed Yusuf.
+
+So the Bedouin youth, the rash, hot-headed Moslem recruit, found himself
+among friends in a Koreish camp.
+
+Night had now fallen, and under cover of darkness, Mohammed's army
+silently returned to Medina.
+
+There were those who censured the prophet for his conduct at this
+battle; and some even dared to charge him with deception in promising
+them victory. But Mohammed told them that defeat was due to their sins:
+"Verily, they among you who turned their backs on the day whereon the
+two armies met at Ohod, Satan caused them to slip for some crime which
+they had committed."
+
+To quiet those who lamented for their slain friends, he brought forth
+the doctrine that the time of every man's death is fixed by divine
+decree, and that he must meet it at that time, wherever he be.
+
+In the morning the majority of Abu Sofian's forces set out for Mecca.
+Among them were Yusuf and Amzi, also Asru the captain; and it was with
+no small sense of comfort that the half-starved prisoners sat again
+about Amzi's well-stocked board.
+
+Manasseh was with them. Kedar, scorning to desert the Moslem army, had
+refused to leave Medina, and, by the earnest intercession of Yusuf and
+Amzi, whose word was of some import in Meccan ears, he had been given
+his freedom.
+
+It was with deep relief that all felt the short respite from the blare
+of battle; and, though they looked forward to the future with anxious
+forebodings, and though their joy was clouded by the death of Dumah,
+they were thankful for present blessings. Not alone prayer, but praise,
+was an essential part of their religion, and their voices ascended in
+song,--
+
+    I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be
+    in thy mouth.
+
+    My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear
+    thereof, and be glad.
+
+    O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
+
+    I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my
+    fears.
+
+    They looked unto him, and were lightened; and their faces were not
+    ashamed.
+
+    This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of
+    all his troubles.
+
+    The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and
+    delivereth them.
+
+    O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that
+    trusteth in him.
+
+    O fear the Lord, ye his saints; for there is no want to them that
+    fear him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE DITCH.
+
+    "Blood! blood! The leaves above me and around me
+      Are red with blood."
+
+
+In the year which followed, Mohammed's forces were more than once
+directed against Syrian caravans, and the plunder divided among the
+Moslem troops after one-fifth had been appropriated by the prophet; but
+otherwise the truce was unbroken, until at the end of the year, the
+Koreish, uniting with neighboring tribes, many of whom were Jews, formed
+the plan of a grand attack which was to free El Hejaz forever from the
+power of the Islam despot.
+
+From the Caaba the call was given to all who could be appealed to
+through religion, through the interests of commerce, or through desire
+for blood-revenge in consequence of the battles of Bedr and Ohod. To the
+more earnest Jews the undertaking took the form of a vast religious war,
+undertaken against the hosts of Satan for the deliverance of a land in
+bondage; to the Meccan merchants it assumed the guise of a commercial
+transaction which would again restore the trade so long ruined by
+Mohammed's hostile measures; to the Koreish and the desert tribes it
+seemed the grand opportunity of clearing the honor stained by the
+unrevenged death of their friends.
+
+Accordingly a host of volunteers to the number of one hundred thousand
+offered themselves, and the vast array set out. Among the volunteers
+were Yusuf, Amzi, Asru, and the valiant Manasseh, all of whom deemed the
+necessity of the hour a sufficient reason for entering upon a course
+foreign to the laws of peace which they would fain have seen
+established.
+
+A mighty host it seemed in a land whose battles had chiefly been
+confined to skirmishes between different tribes. As it wound its way
+down the narrow valley, the women of Mecca stood upon the housetops,
+listening to the trampling, and beseeching their household gods to bless
+the enterprise.
+
+Long ere they reached Medina the prophet had received word of their
+advance, and had had a ditch or entrenchment dug about the city as a
+sort of fortification.
+
+Abu Sofian ordered his tents to be pitched below on the plain, and, this
+done, he at once laid siege to the city.
+
+But his bad generalship ruined the undertaking. For a month he kept his
+men wholly inactive, and during that time Mohammed busied himself in
+sending emissaries in the midst of Abu Sofian's men for the purpose of
+sowing disaffection among them; and so completely was this done that the
+besieging force became hollow and rotten to its core. Tribe after tribe
+left. The few faithful besought their leader to permit them to attack
+the city, and when at last the order was given, but a feeble remnant of
+the original host remained. Notwithstanding this, the command "Forward!"
+was hailed with tumultuous joy, and the besiegers pressed forward in
+irregular yet serried masses.
+
+Scarcely had the attack begun when a terrific storm arose. It was in the
+winter season, and a sudden hurricane of cold winds came shrieking
+through the gaps of the mountains to the north.
+
+Amzi, having, as an influential Meccan, been appointed to the command of
+a division, charged boldly forward in the teeth of the tempest, waving
+his sword above his head and cheering his men on with his hopeful voice.
+Yusuf, Asru and Manasseh pressed forward close behind him. A cloud of
+arrows met them, yet they poured impetuously on. And now the bank was
+climbed and the conflict became almost hand-to-hand. The priest's tall
+form rendered him conspicuous in the fray. Some one came hacking and
+hewing his way towards him. It was the agile Uzza. The priest was beset
+on all sides and was defending himself against fearful odds, when the
+face of Uzza, fiend-like in its hate, burst upon him as a new opponent.
+He raised his weapon for a blow, but the vision of a Guebre altar upon
+which a little, bleeding child lay, rose before him, and his arm fell.
+
+Uzza perceived his advantage. With a howl of triumph he cried, "False
+priest, you shall not escape me this time!" and made a fierce stroke
+with his scimitar. But the blow was parried.
+
+"Simpleton! Would you let him kill you?" cried a harsh voice close by
+the priest. And the next moment Uzza fell with a death-groan at the feet
+of Asru.
+
+And now the storm struck with full fury, howling among the houses of
+Medina, whistling shrilly on the upper air, and bending the palm trees
+low along its furious path. Thatches were torn from the roofs and
+carried whirling through the air; clouds of dust were blown high along
+the streets, and black, ragged clouds scurried across the sky as if
+urged on by demon-force. Horses neighed loudly. Many of them became
+unmanageable, and dashed, with terrified eyes and distended nostrils,
+through the midst of the flying soldiery. The tents of Abu Sofian were
+torn from their pegs and hurled away. Then the rain descended in sheets,
+or, whirled round by the wind, swirled along in columns with almost the
+force of a water-spout.
+
+Suddenly a cry was raised: "It is Mohammed! The prophet has raised the
+storm by enchantment!"
+
+The cry echoed from mouth to mouth above the roar of the tempest. The
+superstitious Arabs were seized with terror and fled precipitately,
+believing themselves surrounded by legions of invisible spirits. Amzi
+and his little band stayed until the last; then, deserted by all and
+blinded by the descending torrents, they, too, were obliged to withdraw,
+and another victory, that of the Battle of the Ditch, had fallen to the
+prophet.
+
+This was the last expedition undertaken by the Koreish against their
+victorious enemy. Mohammed, of course, attributed his great conquest to
+divine agency. In a passage from the Koran he declared:
+
+"O true believers, remember the favor of God toward you, when armies of
+infidels came against you, and we sent against them a wind and hosts of
+angels which ye saw not."
+
+The heart sickens in following further Mohammed's willful career of
+blood. During the following five years he is said to have commanded
+twenty-seven expeditions and fought nine pitched battles. Against the
+Christian Jews in particular the bitterest expressions of his hate were
+directed; and to his dying day this incomprehensible man, from whose
+lips proceeded words of mercy and of deadliest rancor, words of love and
+of hate, words of purity and of gross sensuality--this strange man
+persecuted them to the last, nor ever ceased to direct his arms against
+all who followed that gentle Jesus of Nazareth of whose power this
+blood-marked, self-proclaimed prophet of Allah was envious.
+
+His followers, dazzled by the glare of his brilliant victories or
+solicitous for self-preservation, constantly swelled in numbers, but
+there were a few who, like Kedar, had heard of the peaceableness of the
+religion of Jesus Christ, and who began to sicken of the flow of blood
+which deluged the sands of El Hejaz, and ran even into the Nejd, the
+borders of Syria, and of Arabia-Felix.
+
+Kedar often longed for the friendly touch, the hearty, kindly words, of
+the friends whom he had met and parted from as in a dream. He had soon
+refused to believe in Mohammed's divine appointment. Even this Bedouin
+youth had enough penetration to see that religion must stand upon its
+results, and that the private life of Mohammed would not stand the test
+of inspection. Fain would he have left his ranks many and many a time.
+The brand of coward he knew could not be attached to him for leaving
+victorious ranks to ally himself with the few and feeble Jews, yet there
+was something in the idea of "turning his coat" which he did not like.
+He imagined in a vague way that such a proceeding would compromise his
+principles of honor, and he had not reached the wisdom of that great
+educator, Comenius, who, not long ere his death, wrote a treatise upon
+"the art of wisely withdrawing one's own assertions." So he fought
+doggedly on, until circumstances again threw him into the bosom of his
+friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE FAMILY OF ASRU.
+
+    "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world."
+
+
+On the evening upon which the Battle of the Ditch was fought, the wife
+of Asru, and his daughter, Sherah, now almost grown to womanhood, were
+returning from performing Tawaf at the temple. They had prayed for the
+success of the Koreish expedition; they had drank of the well of Ismael,
+Zem-Zem, and had poured its water on their heads. Now they were
+hastening home to offer prayers to their household gods in the same
+cause, for, during Asru's apostasy to the Moslem ranks, his wife, a
+woman of the Koreish, and her family had never swerved from their
+hostility to Mohammed and all connected with him. For their obstinacy in
+this, they had been cruelly abused by Asru, who, with the superiority
+which most men in the East assume over women, ruled as a tyrant in his
+house.
+
+It was with unspeakable satisfaction that Sherah and her mother found
+that Asru had at last broken all connection with the prophet, but a
+change had come into his manner which was to them most unaccountable.
+Instead of cruelty now was kindness; instead of stormy petulance, now
+was patience; and yet, Asru had not mentioned the cause of his new life.
+A sort of backwardness on the subject, a desire to know more of it
+before communicating with others, strove with him against the dictates
+of his conscience, and he had as yet been dumb. He had not concealed his
+connection with the little band of Jewish Christians. In spite of the
+jeers of his friends among the Koreish, he had attended their meetings
+regularly. That had been the extent of his active Christian work; yet
+his life had been preaching while his lips were still.
+
+Sherah and her mother talked of him as they walked.
+
+"Mother, however it be, father was never kind until he went to the
+Jewish meetings."
+
+"True. Yet many of these same Jews are wicked, thieves, low robbers, not
+fit for such as Asru to mingle with," said the mother haughtily.
+
+"Yet not the Jews who attend the church," returned the girl, quickly. "I
+know them. Most of them are poor, but not thieves; they seem quiet,
+industrious people. Then, Amzi attends there now, you know, and Yusuf,
+who, when the plague was raging, spent weeks in attending the sick. Did
+he not come to father and sit with him night after night, when,
+mother--I shame to say it--both you and I fled!"
+
+The mother walked in silence for a moment.
+
+"There must be some strange power that urges a man to do such acts," she
+said, musingly. "It would be easier far to go out to battle, urged on
+by the enthusiasm of conquest, and cheered by the music and clash of
+timbrels to deeds of bravery. It takes a different spirit to enter the
+houses of filthy disease, to court death in reeking lazar-houses, to sit
+for weeks watching hideous faces and listening to the ravings of madmen
+through the long, hot nights of the plague-season."
+
+"Mother, I am convinced that their religion prompts them to do it. What
+else can it be?"
+
+"What is their religion?"
+
+"I know not; yet we may know for the going, perhaps. See, the lights
+gleam in their little hall. They hold meeting to-night. Let us go."
+
+"What! And let the proud tribe of the Koreish, the guardians of the
+Caaba, see a woman of the Koreish enter there?"
+
+"We can go in long cloaks, mother, and it is well-nigh dark. Come, will
+you not?"
+
+The pleading voice was so earnest that the mother consented. Yet, that
+the influence of the gods in the result of the battle might not be lost,
+they first entered their own house, prostrated themselves before the
+gods, and besought their aid in the Koreish cause. Then, donning long
+outer cloaks, and veiling their faces closely, the two slipped out of a
+back way and stealthily hastened towards the Jewish church.
+
+It was late when they arrived. Neither Yusuf nor Amzi was present to
+raise the hearts of their hearers with words of simple and earnest
+piety, no voice of Manasseh was there to lead in the songs of praise,
+but an old man with snowy hair and a saint-like face was standing behind
+a table, a volume of the Scriptures before him, and the voices of the
+congregation, some twenty in number, arose in the old, yet ever new
+words:
+
+"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in
+green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my
+soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
+Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
+fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
+me."
+
+The Koreish woman listened. She could not understand all this. Yet it
+was beautiful,--"green pastures," "still waters." Could it be that these
+people knew of an Elysian spot, unknown to Meccans--that their God led
+them to such favored retreats? She could restrain her impatience no
+longer.
+
+"Where are the green pastures and still waters?" she cried, impetuously,
+"that I too may go to them!"
+
+The old man smiled with serene kindness. "Daughter," he said, "the green
+pastures and still waters are the pleasant places of the soul. Hast thou
+never known what it was to have doubts and fears, restlessness and
+dissatisfaction in the present, uncertainty for the future, a feeling
+that there is little in life, and a great gulf in death?"
+
+"I have felt so almost every day," she replied, passionately.
+
+"Hast thou not found comfort in thy gods?" he asked, gently.
+
+"Alas, I fear to say that I have not!" she exclaimed.
+
+"And why fearest thou thus?" he said.
+
+"Ah, knowest thou not that the gods are gods of vengeance?" she replied
+in an awed whisper.
+
+"I know naught of your gods," he returned. "Our God is a God of love. He
+gives us the certainty of his presence ever with us in this life, his
+companionship in death, and the privilege of looking upon his face and
+being 'forever with the Lord' in the world to come."
+
+"And are you not afraid of death?" she asked. "To me it seems a dreadful
+thing. It makes me shudder to think that I too must one day suffer the
+struggle for breath, and then lie still and cold."
+
+"To those who love the Lord 'to die is gain,'" he said. "Have we not
+sung 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
+will fear no evil, for Thou art with me'? Surely one who believes that,
+and knows that he is going to be always with the Lord, always able to
+look on his face, need not fear death."
+
+"It is a beautiful thought," the woman said, bowing her head on her
+hands.
+
+"Yet not more beautiful than the thought that the Holy Spirit is ever
+with us; that Jesus himself is our brother, and understands all our
+little troubles; that he has promised to help us in overcoming all evil.
+'For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and
+to him that knocketh it shall be opened.' 'If a son shall ask bread of
+any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? If he ask a fish,
+will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will
+he offer him a scorpion? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good
+gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give
+the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.' Daughter, these are the very
+words of Jesus. Do they not show you the way to the still waters and
+green pastures? Do you not see that the love of our God acts upon the
+heart as gentle showers upon the barren land, causing it to rejoice and
+bring forth fruit worthy of being presented to our Lord and Master? 'He
+hath loved us with an everlasting love.' He loves us ever, therefore in
+our returning this love to him doth the 'peace of God that passeth all
+understanding' lay hold upon our hearts."
+
+"But ye are Jews!" she said. "Such promises are not for the Koreish."
+
+"Such promises are for all," was the confident reply. "Jesus said
+whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
+None so sinful that Jesus cannot wash out the stain; none are excluded
+from his mercy. Daughter, believe, receive. Let the love of God enter
+thine heart, and repent best by doing thine evil deeds no more. Only
+come to Jesus himself. Only have faith in him."
+
+The Koreish woman hid her face in her hands again, and answered nothing.
+The old man turned to the Scriptures and read the story of Jesus and the
+woman of Samaria, raising his voice in triumphant fervor as he reached
+the words: "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
+never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a
+well of water springing up into everlasting life."
+
+Then he turned to the words spoken by Jesus to his disciples just before
+his betrayal, and read: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto
+you. Let not your heart be troubled," and, "Abide in me, and I in you.
+As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine,
+no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the
+branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
+much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing."
+
+The woman listened. With the quick appreciation of the Arab for metaphor
+and simile, she grasped the meaning of the words, and a new, wonderful
+train of thought came into her mind as she sat with bowed head while
+simple, pleading, heart-offered prayer was sent up to the Throne of
+Grace, and the parting hymn was sung.
+
+Then the little band gathered around her, speaking words of cheer, and
+the aged leader dismissed her with a gentle, "Come again, daughter."
+
+As Sherah and her mother walked home, the last remnant of the fearful
+storm that had visited Medina passed over Mecca. They saw the ragged
+clouds borne wildly over the northern hills; they saw the stunted aloes
+bending low beneath the sweep of the wind. Yet to them there was a
+grandeur in it, for there was still upon them the influence of the
+Divine presence, and they thought of Him who "walketh upon the wings of
+the wind."
+
+And as they went on, bowing their heads before its spent fury, Asru,
+Amzi, and Yusuf, far to the northward, struggled on with the fugitive
+army, wondering at the continued triumph of the false prophet, yet
+serene in the confidence that in the Divine Hands all was well, and that
+in the far-distant end, however blurred to human vision, all must work
+for good to those who love God, even though the reason of his working,
+the seeming mystery of the fortunes of the great conflict, might not be
+unravelled until in the bright hereafter, when all things will at last
+be made plain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+MANASSEH AND ASRU AT KHAIBAR.
+
+    "Spirit of purity and grace,
+      Our weakness, pitying, see!
+    O make our hearts thy dwelling-place,
+      And worthier Thee."
+
+
+The Koreish, after their disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Ditch,
+returned in bitter disappointment to Mecca. Many even of the bravest of
+the tribe felt that it was hopeless to strive against the prophet, whose
+phenomenal success seemed to render his troops invincible. Many, too,
+with the superstition at all times common to the Arabs, were in deadly
+dread of his "enchantments," and were only too ready to listen to his
+bold assertions that the momentous storm at the siege of Medina had been
+caused in his favor by heavenly agency; that a great host of angels had
+been in invisible co-operation with the Moslems and had drawn their
+legions about the ill-fated company, crying, "God is great!" and
+striking panic to the hearts of the besiegers.
+
+Because of these superstitions the hearts of the Arabs failed them, and
+they day after day lessened in their hostility, and increased in their
+spirit of submission to the now famous prophet of El Islam.
+
+The Jews, however, held out to the last, and against them the reeking
+blades of Mohammed's army were turned. The Jewish tribes of the
+Koraidha, Kainoka, and the Nadhirites, in the vicinity of Medina, were
+speedily overthrown, and their goods taken possession of by the Moslems.
+Then, before the blood cooled on the scimitars, these conquests were
+followed by the dastardly assassination of the few Jews who were still
+in Medina, and, being possessed of considerable property, were a
+tempting bait to the avaricious prophet, who now, making religion a
+cloak to cover his greed and ambition, went to the wildest excesses in
+attaining his objects.
+
+Many of the Jews, escaping dearly with their lives, fled to the city of
+Khaibar, five days' journey to the northeast of Medina, a city inhabited
+by Jews, who, living in the midst of a luxuriant farming district, had
+grown rich in the peaceful arts of agriculture and commerce. Others
+hastened thither in the hope that Khaibar might become the nucleus of a
+successful resistance of Mohammed's power in the near future; and among
+the latter class was Manasseh.
+
+Late one afternoon he arrived in the rich pasture-lands surrounding the
+city. The air of peace and prosperity, the lowing of herds and bleating
+of sheep, delighted him; and, though weary from his journey, it was with
+a light heart that he urged his flagging horse between the long groves
+of palm-trees until the city came in sight.
+
+His martial spirit glowed as he noted the heavy out-works, and the
+strength of the citadel Al Kamus, which, built on a high rock, and
+towering ragged and black against the orange sky of the setting sun,
+seemed to the young soldier almost impregnable.
+
+He was welcomed at the gates as another recruit to the gathering forces,
+and, on his request, was at once directed to the house of the chief,
+Kenana Ibn al Rabi, a man reputed to be exceedingly wealthy. Here he was
+courteously received by Kenana and his wife Safiya; and, in a long
+conference, he informed the chief of the numbers and zeal of Mohammed's
+army, urging upon him the immediate strengthening of the city, as it was
+highly probable that the prophet would not long desist from making an
+attempt upon a tid-bit so tempting as that which Khaibar presented.
+
+That evening an informal council of war was held in the court-yard of
+the chief's house. Al Hareth, a brother of Asru, a man who, although an
+Arab, had been appointed to high office, and had proved himself one of
+the most distinguished commanders of the Jewish colony, was present;
+and, among others, Asru himself entered.
+
+"Asru!" exclaimed Manasseh, delightedly, hurrying him aside to an
+arbor, "you here! I thought I had become separated from you all in that
+ill-fated storm. Where are Amzi and Yusuf, know you?"
+
+"Gone to Mecca with Abu Sofian's remnant of an army--as miserable and
+hang-head lot of fugitives as ever disgraced field!" said Asru
+contemptuously. "By my faith, it shamed me to see our brave friends in
+their company, even for the journey!"
+
+"Why did they go to Mecca?"
+
+"Because they were firmly convinced that Mecca will be the next point of
+attack," said Asru, "but methinks they shall find themselves mistaken.
+Mohammed will keep Mecca as a sort of sacred spot, dedicated to his
+worship--and the worship of Allah!" with infinite scorn. "But Khaibar is
+a pomegranate of the highest branches, too mellow, too luscious, too
+tempting, to elude his grasp. Yes, Manasseh, Khaibar will be his next
+point of attack. However, I am truly glad that Yusuf and Amzi have gone
+home. The Jews and Christians in Mecca will be safe enough for some time
+to come, and our friends are getting too old to endure much fatigue of
+battle."
+
+"Aye, Asru, you and I are better fitted to face the brunt of the charge
+and the weariness of the march. The work of Yusuf and Amzi should be
+milder, though not less glorious, than ours."
+
+"You say well," returned the other, with kindling eye. "Asru, for one,
+can never forget what they have done for him."
+
+"Asru, are all the stories of the wickedness of your past life--your
+cruelty, your treachery, your blasphemy--true?"
+
+"Manasseh, let my past life go into the tomb of oblivion if you will.
+'Tis a sorry page for Asru to look upon. The cruelty, the
+blasphemy,--aye, boy, I was full of it; but treacherous, never! Whatever
+Asru was, and no devil was blacker than he in many ways, he was never
+guilty of perfidy, except you call the trying to free Amzi and poor
+Dumah perfidy."
+
+"I am glad," returned Manasseh, quietly; "yet it would not matter now,
+since our Asru is a changed man."
+
+Asru looked at the youth earnestly. "Manasseh," he said, "does the old
+nature never come back upon you? Or have you never known what it was to
+feel wrong impulses?"
+
+"Wrong impulses!" exclaimed the other. "Yes, Asru, many and many a time.
+Yet, when one does not even look at the evil, but keeps his face turned
+steadfastly towards the right, the old self seems to lose its hold. In
+drawing near to God we draw away from evil."
+
+"Your words, I know, are true," returned the other; "yet the keeping
+from doing wrong seems to me the hardest thing in living a Christian
+life."
+
+"But, Asru," said Manasseh, "perhaps you are not loving enough. The more
+you love Jesus, and the more you feel him in your life, the easier it
+will be to turn from temptation--to hate the thing that inspires it. If
+you really love him you simply cannot do what will pain him."
+
+"But the temptation to act hastily, to speak unkindly, comes upon me so
+often, Manasseh, that I grow discouraged."
+
+"The only safety is in always looking Above for help. Believe me, Asru,
+I speak from experience. Temptation in itself is not sin; the yielding
+to it is. Little by little the temptations bother us less, and we grow
+in grace. You know this is expected of us. Paul speaks of 'perfecting
+holiness in the fear of the Lord.' He says, too, 'The weapons of our
+warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of
+strongholds.' He said, also, to the Philippians, 'It is God that worketh
+in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure,' and the Lord
+himself has said, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is
+made perfect in weakness.' So, Asru, my friend, the whole secret is in
+accepting that gift, in knowing him, and in keeping the soul in a
+constant state of openness for the working of the Holy Spirit--a
+'pray-without-ceasing' attitude in which one's whole life is resolved
+into the prayer: 'Thy will, not mine, be done.'"
+
+Asru regarded Manasseh curiously.
+
+"How is it, young as you are," he said, "that these things are so plain
+to you?"
+
+"Ah, you forget," said Manasseh, "what a blessed home training I have
+had, and that from my childhood I have had Yusuf for my counsellor. For
+these Christian friends of my childhood, I never cease to be thankful."
+
+Asru turned his face away. "And I, too, have children, Manasseh," he
+said in a low voice, "children who, with their mother, are little better
+than idolaters, and I have never told them differently."
+
+"But you will teach them?" returned Manasseh.
+
+"Ah, yes, if God spares me through this perilous time I shall teach
+them."
+
+"Have you heard or seen aught of Kedar, lately?" asked Manasseh,
+abruptly.
+
+"In the Battle of the Ditch I saw him for a moment, charging furiously
+against one of Abu Sofian's divisions. He was in advance of the rest,
+riding with his head bent in the teeth of the tempest. On a knoll above
+me, I saw him for a moment, between me and the sky, his hair and long
+sash streaming in the wind; then the rain came, and I saw him no more.
+Aye, but he is a brave lad!"
+
+"Poor cousin!" said Manasseh. "It is misplaced bravery. Would he were
+one of us!"
+
+"He is not a Christian; and, unless he were so, a spirit like his would
+scorn to be one of such a craven, contention-torn mob as that which Abu
+Sofian brought to the field. Strange, is it not, that the little band of
+Christians find themselves allied to a set of idolaters, against one who
+would cast idols down?"
+
+"Aye, but Mohammed would trample Christians and idolaters alike. Think
+you that defeat was owing wholly to cowardice of the soldiers?"
+
+"Not so much, perhaps, as to bad generalship of the leader," returned
+Asru. "Nevertheless the superstition of the heathen Arabs, and their
+fear when the cry of Mohammed's enchantment was raised, made a craven of
+every one of them. Manasseh, had we had ten thousand Christian Jews,
+there might have been a different story."
+
+"We are nearly all Jews, here," said Manasseh, proudly. "Have you happy
+forebodings for the issue of the next combat?"
+
+Asru shook his head, gloomily. "There will be a brave resistance on the
+part of our garrisons," he said, "although many of the men are well-nigh
+as ignorant and superstitious as the heathen Arabs; but Mohammed's
+forces have swelled wondrously since the 'enchanted' storm. Well, we can
+but do our best. Now, I see that the council has assembled. They call
+us. Come."
+
+The two left the arbor and joined the others in the middle of the
+garden. And there, while the stars shone peacefully above in the evening
+sky, and the palm-trees waved, and a little bird twittered contentedly
+over its nest in an olive bush, these men talked of measures of
+fortification, of tactics of war, and schemes of blood-shed; a
+conversation forced upon them, not as a matter of choice but of
+necessity--the necessity of a desperate few, earthed by a relentless
+conqueror and a ruthless despot, whose intolerance to all who denied his
+claims has never been surpassed in earth's history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+MOHAMMED'S PILGRIMAGE.
+
+    "Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us, viz.: Avarice,
+    Ambition, Envy, Anger, and Pride."--_Petrarch._
+
+
+In the meantime Yusuf and Amzi had taken up the old routine of life in
+Mecca--the faithful doing of the daily round, the little deeds of
+charity, the duties of business, the attendance at meetings in the
+little church. Everything seemed to sink back into the old way, yet
+there was not a man in the city but held himself in readiness to take
+up arms were an attack made upon them to wrest from them their freedom.
+
+And word came that Mohammed was coming,--coming, not in war, but in
+peace, on his first pilgrimage to the Caaba. Mecca was instantly thrown
+into the wildest confusion. Some deemed the prophet's message honorable,
+but the majority were dubious, and thought that if Mohammed once gained
+an entrance, notwithstanding the fact that it was the sacred month Doul
+Kaada, his coming would be but to deluge the streets with blood.
+
+A hasty consultation was held, and a troop of horse under one Khaled Ibn
+Waled, was sent out to check the prophet's advance. Mohammed, however,
+by means of his spies, early got word of this sally, and, turning aside
+from the way, he proceeded by ravines and by-paths through the
+mountains; and, ere the Meccans were aware of his proximity, his whole
+force was encamped near the city.
+
+A deputation came from his army to the dignitaries of Mecca bearing
+messages of peace; but their reception was haughty.
+
+"Go to him who sent you," was the reply to their overtures, "and say
+that Meccan doors are shut to one against whom every family in Mecca
+owes the revenge of blood."
+
+For days the deputation was sent, with the same result, until at last
+ambassadors of the prophet entered with the offer of a truce for ten
+years.
+
+The promise of a long respite from blood, and the hope of securing time
+to recuperate their forces, caught the ear of the Meccans. A deputation
+was appointed to treat with the prophet, and Amzi, though a Christian,
+by reason of his wisdom and learning was chosen as one of the
+representatives.
+
+Yusuf accompanied him to an eminence above the defile in which the
+Moslem tents were pitched. A strange sight it was. Far as eye could
+reach, tents, white and black, dotted the narrow valley; horses were
+picketed, and camels browsed; and in the foreground one thousand four
+hundred men were grouped, waiting to hear the issue of the
+conference,--one thousand four hundred men, bare-footed, and with
+shaven heads, and each wearing the white skirt and white scarf over the
+shoulder, assumed by pilgrims. Strangely different were they from the
+ordinary troops of the prophet, strangely unrecognizable in their garb
+of humility and peace; yet a second glance revealed the fact that each
+carried a sheathed sword.
+
+Yusuf remained above, but Amzi descended with the embassy sent with the
+message that the treaty, if suitable, would be at once ratified.
+Mohammed, who, in place of his green garb, now with obsequious humility
+wore the pilgrims' costume, expressed his pleasure at the amicable
+attitude of the Meccans. He was seated upon a white camel named El Kaswa
+in honor of the faithful beast which had borne him in the earlier
+vicissitudes of his fortunes. Beside him, at a table placed on the sand,
+sat his vizier and son-in-law, Ali, to whom was given the task of
+writing the treaty as dictated by Mohammed.
+
+"Begin, O Ali," said the prophet, "'In the name of the most merciful
+God'--"
+
+Sohail, the spokesman of the Meccan deputation, immediately objected,
+"It is the custom of the Meccans to begin, 'In Thy name, O God.'"
+
+"So be it," assented the prophet; then, continuing, he dictated the
+opening of the body of the treaty--"'These are the conditions on which
+Mohammed, the apostle of God, has made peace with those of Mecca.'"
+
+A deep murmur of disapproval arose throughout the Meccan embassy.
+
+"Not so, O Mohammed!" cried Sohail again. "Had we indeed acknowledged
+you as the prophet of God, think you we would have sent Khaled Ibn Waled
+with armed men against you? Think you we would have closed the streets
+of Mecca against one whom we recognized as an ambassador of the Most
+High? No, Mohammed, son of Abdallah, it must not be 'apostle of God.'"
+
+Mohammed again bowed in token of submission. "Write thus, then, O Ali,"
+he said. "'These are the conditions on which Mohammed, son of Abdallah,
+has made peace with those of Mecca.'"
+
+He then proceeded to the terms of the treaty, stipulating that the
+prophet and his followers should have access to the city at any season
+during the period of truce, provided they came unarmed, habited as
+pilgrims, and did not remain over three days at a time.
+
+This business concluded, the embassy from Mecca retraced its way; and
+Mohammed, changing his mind about entering the city at that time,
+ordered that prayers should be offered up on the spot, that seventy
+camels should there be sacrificed, and that the pilgrims should then
+return home.
+
+This was accordingly done, and the people went back in some
+disappointment to Medina, where the prophet announced the success of his
+mission in a new passage from the Koran:
+
+"Now hath God verified unto his apostle the vision wherein he said, Ye
+shall surely enter the holy temple of Mecca, if God please, in full
+security."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE SIEGE OF KHAIBAR.--KEDAR.
+
+    "The drying up a single tear has more of honest fame than
+    shedding seas of gore."
+
+
+In the same year, the seventh year of the Hejira, Mohammed made the
+expected attack on Khaibar. The chief, Kenana, got word of his approach,
+and ordered that the country for miles around the capital should be laid
+waste. For days the long roads leading into the city from every
+direction, swarmed with a moving line of anxious-faced people, driving
+their camels and sheep ahead of them, and leading mules laden with
+household property. Low wagons creaked beneath the weight of fodder for
+the animals, and corn and dates for the people; and the loud "Yakh!
+Yakh!" of the camel-drivers mingled with the thud of the camel-sticks
+falling upon the thick hides of the lazy animals.
+
+Asru was given charge of the expedition for laying waste the country;
+and never was a more considerate destroyer.
+
+"Here, here!" he would cry to an aged man, "let me load that animal for
+you!" and he would lift the heavy burden to the back of the pack-mule,
+while the old man would say, "You are surely a kind soldier after all."
+
+"I will carry this sick girl," he would say, to another, and would lift
+her as gently as a mother and place her in the shugduf in which she was
+to be conveyed to the city.
+
+His spirit of gentleness spread among his men.
+
+"Let us be kind to our friends, men," he would urge upon them. "The day
+is fast coming when we can scarcely be kind to our enemies, be we never
+so willing."
+
+So the people, though sad as they looked back upon their smouldering
+homes and blazing palm trees, were filled with love for the gentle
+soldiers, and went up with a new motive in striking for their liberty,
+for there is naught that will bring forth the strongest powers of action
+like the impulse of love.
+
+Ah, the blight and misery of war! Manasseh looked out from the citadel
+upon the scene which he had deemed so fair--the waving corn-fields, the
+groves of palms and olives and aloes, the nestling houses, the pastures
+covered with flocks--now but a blackened and smoking waste, with here
+and there the skeleton of a palm tree pointing upward like a bony
+finger; and here and there a reeking column of black smoke, or the dull
+glare of a burning homestead.
+
+The people murmured not. "Better let it lie in ashes than permit it to
+fall into the hands of the impostor!" they cried, and they muttered
+curses upon the head of the destroyer of their happiness and prosperity.
+
+All were at last in and the anxious waiting began. Keen eyes peered from
+the citadel night and day. Watchmen were posted at every point of the
+out-works and spies were sent broadcast through the country.
+
+Then the fateful word came. Breathless scouts told of an army fast
+approaching, twelve hundred men and two hundred horse, commanded by the
+prophet himself, his vizier Ali, and his friend Abu Beker.
+
+Al Kamus, the citadel, was immediately crowded with men, and soldiers
+were posted along the walls, neither strong in numbers nor in arms, for
+many were armed but with staves and stones. Desperation was in their
+hearts, and calm, resolute faces looked forth for the advancing host.
+
+Just as the morning sun flashed defiantly from the towers of Al Kamus,
+the Moslem army came in sight. At first it seemed like a moving,
+shapeless mass over the blackened fields,--and as the rising sun fell
+upon it, the moving mass became dotted with glints and lines of silver,
+like the ripple of waves on a sunlit sea; but the watchers recognized
+the deadly import of those bright gleams, and by the flash of scimitars
+and lances were able to compute in a vague way the strength of their
+opponents.
+
+On they came until the stony place called Mansela was reached, and
+there, beneath a great rock, the host halted. The anxious watchers from
+the city could not discern the exact meaning of this, but more than one
+guessed that the halt was made for the offering of ostentatious prayer
+by the prophet.
+
+This indeed was the case. As Mohammed came in full view of the citadel
+he cried out: "There, O believers, is the eyrie to which ye must climb.
+But victory has been promised us. Angels shall again lend us their
+invisible aid. Therefore have courage, O believers! Remember that for
+each of those vile infidels slain, a double joy awaits you in paradise.
+Know ye that every drop of an unbelieving Jew shed is as the crystal
+drops of nectar of paradise to the happy follower of Mohammed, the
+prophet of God. And fear not that ye be slain in this combat, O
+faithful! Ye will not be slain except your appointed time has come, when
+ye must in any case die. Remember that to be slain in battle for the
+cause of Islam is to reap a glorious reward!"
+
+Then, mounting the great rock, he called with a loud voice: "La illaha
+il Allah! Mohammed Resoul Allah!" (There is no God but God! Mohammed is
+the prophet of God!)
+
+And while the fanatics below prostrated themselves he prayed long and
+loudly.
+
+Then the tents were pitched and the siege began. For many days it
+lasted. So abundant had been the supplies of food, and so numerous the
+droves of animals brought into the city, that those within the walls had
+no fear of famine. But so complete was the devastation of the country
+that the prophet's troops began to suffer for want of food. Yet they
+waited, as a suitable time of attack had not arrived. In the meantime
+they were engaged in digging trenches as a protection to the troops.
+
+Manasseh and Asru were much together. They had become like brothers, and
+night after night they met on the citadel and looked out over the
+strange scene that was presented to the inhabitants of Khaibar every
+evening during the siege. For, daily, just as the sun was setting, the
+whole Moslem army, with the prophet praying loudly at its head, set out
+in solemn procession, then proceeded round and round the city until
+seven circuits were completed, as in Tawaf at the Caaba.
+
+Many among the more superstitious Jews of Khaibar and their few Koreish
+adherents felt a thrill of awe as they looked upon this ceremony,
+fearing that the prophet was again practicing his arts of enchantment
+upon them; but the performance never failed to bring the smile of scorn
+to Asru's lips.
+
+"Blind fanatics!" he exclaimed one evening. "A precious set of idiots!"
+
+But Manasseh looked serious. "Asru," he said, "of course, I do not
+believe in all this; yet there is a something solemn in it to me. It
+makes me think of the seven circuits made about Jericho, when the
+priests blew upon the trumpets and the walls fell."
+
+"Ah, but the voice of Jehovah gave the order then; now,"--and he smiled
+contemptuously--"the commanding voice is that of Mohammed, the peaceful
+Meccan trader, anon the gentle prophet of Allah, anon the blood-thirsty
+vulture and cut-throat robber, destroyer of life and liberty."
+
+"Verily, Asru the Moslem soldier has completely changed," returned
+Manasseh, smiling.
+
+"Aye, Manasseh, thanks to the peaceful Gospel of Jesus, Asru the Moslem,
+the lover of war, would now fain see this fair land smiling with happy
+homes and peaceful tillers of the soil. What is that about the child and
+the cockatrice?"
+
+"'And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the
+weaned child shall lay its hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not
+hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of
+the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,'" quoted
+Manasseh solemnly.
+
+Asru looked thoughtfully out towards the distant hills, but he did not
+see them. He saw a quiet home in Mecca, where a pale-faced wife, a
+beautiful daughter, and two bright-eyed boys, sat.
+
+"Manasseh," he said at length, "it may be that I shall be killed in this
+battle. If I am and you are spared, go to my wife and children. Tell
+them the Gospel for me. My great regret is that I myself put it off
+until too late. Will you, Manasseh?"
+
+Manasseh pressed his friend's hand warmly. "You may trust me, if I
+live," he said simply. And the soldier was satisfied.
+
+"Manasseh, I am rich," he continued. "See that my wealth is used for the
+best."
+
+Manasseh pressed his hand again, and the tall soldier left him, feeling
+that, whatever happened, this young man's fidelity and integrity could
+be depended upon.
+
+And now the Moslem army began to weary of inaction. Several desultory
+attacks were made by them, and battering-rams were set in play against
+the walls, but with no effect, until a grand attempt was decided upon.
+Night had scarcely faded into morning, and the rock of Mansela still
+stood black and shapeless against a gray sky, when a commotion was seen
+in the Moslem camp. Mohammed's troops no longer made the wild onslaught
+of untrained Bedouin hordes. The experience of scores of engagements had
+taught their leader the necessity of system; and now the host began to
+move in regular order in three main divisions. Above the center one
+floated the sacred flag of the prophet; to the right waved Ali's
+standard, a design of the sun; and to the left fluttered the Black Eagle
+of Abu Beker's division.
+
+The battle began by an assault led by Abu Beker. Scaling-ladders were
+placed, and the Moslems swarmed up the walls, but a desperate band led
+by Al Hareth met them, and the besieging party, after a sharp fight, was
+compelled to withdraw. Shouts of triumph and jeers of derision arose
+from the city walls. The Moslems were frantic. Cries of vengeance were
+heard from their ranks.
+
+Then Ali, shouting, "For God and the prophet!" dashed forward. He was
+dressed in scarlet, and wore a cuirass of steel. Over his head he waved
+the prophet's sword, and at the head of his division floated a sacred
+banner. Straight on he dashed towards a breach in the wall, and there,
+on a pile of loose stones, he fixed the standard.
+
+Al Hareth rushed to the fore, and a desperate, single-handed combat
+ensued. The Moslem army and the garrison of the city alike held their
+breath. The contest was unequal. In a moment Al Hareth had fallen, and a
+mighty cheer burst from the prophet's men.
+
+Manasseh was stationed at the head of a band of horsemen, whom he was
+now with difficulty keeping in check. Yet for a moment he forgot all in
+watching a figure that was ascending the breach.
+
+Whose but Asru's that gigantic form? Whose but Asru's that floating
+turban of white--that helmet in which flashed a diamond placed there by
+Kenana's own hand? Whose but Asru's that clanking sword and that
+three-pronged spear which none but he could wield?
+
+"Surely now the Moslem will waver!" thought the youth; and with bated
+breath he watched this second combat, waged beside the bleeding form of
+Asru's dead brother.
+
+With dauntless air the Moslem awaited the coming of Asru. They closed
+upon each other. The armies looked on, motionless, breathless, the
+combatants struggled, a writhing mass, broken only by the flash of the
+spear and glitter of the lance, as deadly blows were dealt or
+parried--and the sunshine rained from above. The very air seemed to
+stand still in watching, and the clash of every stroke was borne, with
+painful distinctness, to the ears of Asru's friend.
+
+The combat was an equal one, Ali's agility matching well the superior
+strength of his antagonist, and it was not soon over. At last the Moslem
+seemed to stagger.
+
+There, there, Asru, strike! He falls, he falls! There is your advantage!
+Strike! Joy, joy! victory is ours!
+
+But no! Ye gods, what is wrong! Why stands Asru there, helpless? Why
+does he not act? By Allah, he loses time! Ha! his turban end has become
+twisted over his eyes beneath his helmet! Help! Help! Ye gods! Ha! Ali
+rises with a sharp recoil! He strikes! Woe! Woe! Asru is down!
+
+A shout breaks afresh from the Moslem army as the brave Asru's body is
+dragged to one side of the breach. And now the Moslems dash forward like
+an avalanche. The breach widens; the green and yellow turbans swarm
+within the walls. Manasseh's horse dash forward. Over the open square a
+detachment of Moslem horse is spurring, the horsemen bending low as they
+ride, their maddened animals, gorgeous in trappings of scarlet, yellow
+and blue, with tails knotted at the ends, "like unto the heads of
+serpents." With regular sway the long spears swing with the motion of
+the horses.
+
+Clash! The opposing forces meet. Men fall. Horses roll over in the dust.
+Back! Back! The Moslems are in headlong flight! Yet one youth fights on.
+Straight for the young Jewish leader he dashes. Blows rain on each side.
+Some of the Jewish horse close round.
+
+"Keep off, men!" shouts Manasseh. "Would ye attack a man fifty to one?"
+
+Blows fall faster and breath comes in short gasps.
+
+The Moslem's horse gives way beneath him, and falls with a shriek
+backwards. The gallant youth springs to his feet, then throws up his
+arms and falls. His turban drops off from his brow, and, for the first
+time, Manasseh recognizes Kedar.
+
+He turns sick. Is the Moslem dead? No, his heart still beats. "Here,
+men, take him into that house. I will seek him later."
+
+On goes the young leader to a fresh scene of battle. Alas! in the
+meantime the poorly-armed Jews have been everywhere driven back. The
+Moslems have entered the citadel; the Jews give way before them
+everywhere. Even his own hopeful spirit cannot revive them. They are
+seized with a panic and fly, leaving the brave youth almost alone.
+
+Manasseh was soon overpowered, bound, and thrown into the corner of a
+great hall of the citadel, where he lay apparently forgotten, listening,
+with heavy heart, to the shrieks and cries of his countrymen without,
+and to the hum of war, gradually growing fainter, until it ceased, and
+he knew that the conflict was over. The Moslems began to enter the hall,
+among them Mohammed.
+
+The prophet took his seat at the end of the apartment, and presently
+several of the chief citizens were brought in with hands bound. Manasseh
+perceived that a tribunal was being held, and, from his corner, listened
+eagerly to the sentence passed upon each.
+
+It soon appeared that treasure was the prophet's aim. Exorbitant demands
+were made upon the rich merchants, who, pale and trembling, offered
+their all in exchange for their lives. Among the rest, Kenana, with his
+handsome wife, was brought in.
+
+"They tell me, Kenana," said the prophet, "that you have immense wealth
+stored up in this citadel. If you desire your life, inform me where this
+treasure is."
+
+"I have no treasure in the citadel," said Kenana, proudly; "and if I
+had, the apostle of Azazil should not know of it."
+
+The prophet's face colored with passion. "Apostle of Azazil! O
+blasphemer!" he exclaimed. "Do you then thus defy the only, the true
+prophet of Allah?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then we shall see what can be done with a stubborn infidel spirit!"
+returned Mohammed. "Hither! Apply the torture!"
+
+A machine of fiendish invention was applied to the chief's hands. His
+fingers were squeezed until the bones cracked; his veins swelled in
+agony; yet no sound escaped his lips. He could not, or would not, tell
+where the treasure was concealed, and he was handed over to a Moslem
+whose brother Kenana had slain. Manasseh closed his eyes in horror, for
+he knew that Kenana's fate was sealed.
+
+[Illustration: The Moslem's horse gives way beneath him!--See page 76.]
+
+Kenana's wife, Safiya, was taken by Mohammed, and on the homeward march
+she became the wife of the prophet.
+
+Manasseh lay there in great depression of spirit. He was weary in mind
+and cramped in body, and it almost seemed as though he were completely
+forsaken. Yet his ever-present source of comfort returned to him, and
+like a sweet refrain came the words into his mind: "Thou hast been a
+strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge
+from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible
+ones is as a storm against the wall."
+
+The half-starved Moslem troops now began to clamor for food, and the
+defenceless Jewish women were forced to prepare victuals and to serve
+their conquerors. Among these women entered Zaynab, the niece of Asru.
+She placed a shoulder of mutton before the prophet, then went towards
+the door. Perceiving Manasseh in the corner, she severed his bonds with
+a quick stroke of a small dagger, then, shielding him as best she might,
+she bade him begone.
+
+"Have hope!" she whispered in his ear. "I have poisoned the prophet."
+
+Manasseh uttered an exclamation of horror.
+
+"Why not?" she said, with a laugh. "Manasseh fights with a lance, Zaynab
+with poison. Now, fly, ere they see you!"
+
+Manasseh hastened down the dark streets to the house in which Kedar had
+been placed. He found the youth moaning feebly. Hurrying out, he caught
+a couple of stray camels, and fastened a shugduf in its place. Then,
+raising the youth in his strong arms, he laid him in the shugduf, and
+set off in the darkness.
+
+To Mecca he must go. It was a long, weary way. He had little money, and
+the few provisions which a Jewish woman in the house gave him would not
+last long; yet he trusted to Providence, and remembered with
+satisfaction that the dates were now at their ripest. He would nurse
+Kedar tenderly; they would journey in the cool shades of night when
+there was less danger of being stopped on the way. Planning thus, he
+proceeded, as noiselessly as possible, with his precious burden, through
+a gap in the wall, and urged his faithful beasts on in the cool night
+breezes over the blackened plain.
+
+Then he thought of Asru. Asru must not be left to be rudely thrown into
+a grave by infidel hands. There was danger in it, but he must go back.
+Kedar was sleeping. He fixed the camels by a charred palm grove, and
+went back, with flying feet, through the gloom. The towers of Al Kamus
+rose above him, with lights twinkling on the battlements. He wondered if
+the prophet were yet alive and what would be the result to Arabia if he
+were dead. On, on, through the darkness, until the fatal breach was
+reached. It was quite deserted, peopled only by a heap of dead bodies,
+from which, in the night time, the superstitious Arabs shrank in horror.
+Groping among them, he soon came upon Asru's huge form, which he readily
+recognized by its armor. He dragged the precious clay of his friend from
+the mass of dead and brought it, with difficulty, outside of the wall;
+and there beneath a palm tree, he hollowed out a lonely grave,
+loosening the clay with a battle-axe taken from a dead Arab, and
+throwing the clods out with his shield. He then cut a wisp of hair from
+the dead soldier's long locks, placed it in his bosom, kissed the cold
+brow, and uttered a short prayer over the lifeless form. Tenderly he
+placed the body in the shallow grave, and covered it with the clay,
+then, breathing a last farewell, left Asru forever in this life.
+
+In the meantime Mohammed and one of his followers had begun to eat of
+the poisoned mutton. The soldier was ravenous with hunger, and set upon
+the tempting roast with eager relish. Mohammed partook of it more
+slowly.
+
+Suddenly the soldier threw up his arms, and fell back in a convulsion.
+Mohammed started back in consternation. He, too, felt pain, and raised
+the cry of "Poison!" The Moslems came rushing in in great alarm.
+Antidotes were given him, and he shortly recovered, with but a slight
+sensation of burning in his head. The poor soldier was soon stiff in
+death.
+
+Mohammed sent for the woman who had brought him the mutton. She came at
+once.
+
+"Know you who put the poison in this meat?" he asked.
+
+"It was I," she confessed, boldly.
+
+"And how dared you perpetrate so wicked a scheme?"
+
+"If you were a true prophet," she replied, "you would have known that
+the meat was poisoned; if not, it were a favor to Arabia to rid it of
+such a despot."
+
+"See then," exclaimed the prophet, "how Allah hath preserved the life of
+his apostle! Behold, I forgive you. Return to your tribe, and sin not in
+like manner again."
+
+So saying, with one of his strange freaks of magnanimity, he waved her
+off, and soon afterward went to rest.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+MANASSEH AND KEDAR AT MECCA.
+
+    "Home, sweet home."
+
+
+The flame of a smoky oil-dip dimly lighted a spacious room in the house
+of Amzi. At the low table sat Yusuf and his friend with a chart before
+them, anxiously following, with eye and finger, the course of Mohammed's
+northern exploits.
+
+The thoughts of both were with Manasseh. A knock sounded at the bolted
+door. Yusuf opened it, and there, like a cameo in the setting of
+darkness, was the youth himself.
+
+"Manasseh, my son!" cried both in astonishment.
+
+He stepped in, now laughing, now brushing tears from his eyes. "There!"
+he said, freeing himself from their embraces, "I have one more surprise.
+I come like a grandee, bearing my company in a litter. Help me bring him
+in."
+
+They stepped out, and Manasseh's second face, that of Kedar, peered from
+the curtains of the shugduf. None the less warm was the greeting
+extended to the Moslem, whose weak and trembling frame was an instant
+call upon their sympathy.
+
+"Now," said Manasseh, piling up a heap of cushions, in his impetuous
+way, "get us some supper, will you not? I can eat my own share, and half
+of Kedar's. Like the birds, he takes but a peck at a time."
+
+Supper was ordered, and soon attendants entered bearing platters, until
+the copper table was burdened with the most tempting dishes of
+Mecca--roast of spiced lamb, slices of juicy melon and cucumber,
+pyramids of rice, pomegranates, grapes of Tayf, sweetmeats, fragrant
+draughts of coffee.
+
+Kedar watched with a languid smile. The peace of this quiet home life
+affected him almost to tears. Strange had been his emotions when he
+awoke to consciousness in the shugduf, alone with Manasseh, in the
+wilderness--feelings first of indignation, then of gratitude, then of
+admiration for Manasseh, in whom he now discovered the leader of the
+Jewish horse. And on the way this admiration had ripened into love for
+the unselfish Jewish youth.
+
+The weariness of the long journey began to tell upon him now, and he was
+glad that he was among friends. He could eat but little, and was content
+to listen to Manasseh's bright talk, and to watch him as, with flashing
+eye and eloquent gesture, he fought over again the Battle of Khaibar, or
+when, with hushed tone and tearful eye, he told of the death of Asru,
+and his lonely burial.
+
+"I must seek his widow and his children," said he. "This is all I have
+brought them;" and he drew the tangled, blood-stained lock of hair from
+his bosom.
+
+Silence fell on the little group as they looked upon it, then Yusuf's
+tones, falling like the low, deep cadence of a chant, repeated the
+words:
+
+"And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb
+shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his
+face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no
+night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the
+Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign forever and forever."
+
+"Amen!" responded Amzi, fervently. And Manasseh looked out of the window
+towards the bright heavens above Abu Kubays, imagining that he could see
+Asru, clad in shining apparel, with a happy smile on his lips, and the
+courageous eyes of old looking forth with a new love-light from his
+radiant countenance.
+
+"Do you know his family?" he asked.
+
+"Ah, yes; they are now regular attendants at the Christian church. They
+have destroyed all their household gods."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Manasseh, "is this true! How I wish Asru had known it!
+What joy it would have given him!"
+
+Amzi smiled. "Dare you think, Manasseh, that he does not know it long
+ere this,--that he did not know it even at the breach of Khaibar? I like
+to think that our Asru now has a spiritual body wholly independent of
+time or space, capable of transporting itself whenever and wherever the
+mind dictates."
+
+"We cannot know these things as they are, in this time," remarked Yusuf.
+"But the day is not very far distant now, Amzi, when you and I shall
+explore these mysteries for ourselves."
+
+So the talk went on. Kedar listened with interest. He thought it a
+curious conversation, and felt so strangely out of place that it seemed
+as though he were dreaming, and listening to the talk of genii.
+
+Next morning he was in a decided fever. Then came long days of pain and
+nights of delirium, in which Manasseh and his two friends hovered like
+ministering spirits about the youth, whose wounds had healed only to
+give place to disease far more deadly. In those terrible nights of
+burning heat his parched tongue swelled so that he could scarcely
+swallow; he tossed in agony, now fancying himself chained to a rock
+unable to move, while the prophet urged him on to the heights above
+where the battle was raging; now imagining himself fastened near a
+burning furnace whose flames were fed by the bodies of those whom he had
+slain. He would cry out in terror, and beads of perspiration would start
+upon his forehead. He lived the whole war over again, and his only rest
+was at times when, partially conscious, he felt kindly hands placing
+cool bandages on his burning head, or gently fanning his face.
+
+The time at last came when he sank into a heavy sleep, and awoke calling
+"Mother."
+
+It was Manasseh who came, almost startled by the naturalness of the
+tone.
+
+"I have been very ill, Manasseh?"
+
+"Very."
+
+"Long?"
+
+"For weeks. But you must not talk. You will soon be well now."
+
+The invalid closed his eyes, not to sleep, but to think. Presently he
+opened them.
+
+"Manasseh, if I had died, would I have seen Asru?"
+
+Manasseh was embarrassed. "I--I cannot say," he stammered. "I do not
+know you well enough to be sure."
+
+"You do not think I should. I do not think so either," he returned
+decidedly, and closed his eyes again.
+
+In a few days he was able to talk.
+
+"Manasseh, did I hear Yusuf praying for me once when I was ill?"
+
+"He prayed for you every day,--not only that you might be spared to us,
+but that you might come to know Jesus, and to reject Mohammed."
+
+"I do not think that I ever accepted him--that is, in a religious
+sense," he returned.
+
+Manasseh's eyes opened wide in astonishment. "Then why did you follow
+him?" he asked.
+
+"Because, I suppose, his successes dazzled me. It seemed a grand thing
+to be a hero in the war--to ride, and charge, and drive all before me.
+Aye, Manasseh, it is after the war that the scales fall from one's
+eyes."
+
+"How could you, then, follow one whom you did not accept, and must,
+therefore, have deemed an impostor?"
+
+"I tell you, Manasseh, I gave little heed to matters of religion. For
+the first time, during the last few days, I have thought of a religious
+life, or of a hereafter, as I lay here feeling that but for you and your
+friends, I should even now be in the unknown land beyond the grave."
+
+Manasseh talked long and earnestly to the now convalescent youth. Yusuf
+and Amzi too talked gently to him when he seemed inclined to hear, but,
+in his present weak state, they deemed that the consciousness of living
+in a godly house would appeal more strongly than words of theirs. The
+weeks passed on, yet he gave no indication that their hopes were being
+realized. Once indeed he said:
+
+"Manasseh, would that I had had a godly training such as yours!"
+
+"Did your mother not tell you of these things?"
+
+Kedar shook his head. "My poor mother drifted away from her early
+training in our half-heathen Bedouin atmosphere," he said. "The
+Bedouins know little of Christ. They have traditions of the creation, of
+the deluge, and such old-time stories; in all else they are almost
+heathen. When I am well, Manasseh, we will go to them--to my father--and
+you will tell them, Manasseh?"
+
+Manasseh nodded a smiling assent.
+
+It was with no little trepidation that Yusuf and Amzi watched for some
+sign of spiritual growth in the young Bedouin. As the days wore on, and
+he was able to get about, though still weak, he was willing to attend
+the Christian meetings; but he sat in silence, and persisted in wearing
+the garb of a Moslem. The friends did not understand his attitude. They
+did not recognize the sort of petulant shamefacedness that hindered him
+from coming forth boldly in defence of principles which he fully
+endorsed in his secret heart, and made him fear to cut himself loose
+from the side on which he had taken so bold a stand, lest the epithet of
+"turncoat," be fixed upon him. Kedar had not yet been touched by that
+"live coal" which alone can set man in touch with God, and free him from
+all human restrictions. But though he said little, he was thinking
+deeply. He was not indifferent; and there is ever great room for hope
+where there is not indifference.
+
+And while the little Meccan household was thus engrossed in its own
+circle, momentous events were happening without the capital.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+INTERVENING EVENTS.
+
+
+During the months that followed, Mohammed still went on in his career of
+conquest--a course rendered easier day by day, as his enemies were now
+weak indeed. The tribes of Watiba, Selalima and Bedr speedily gave way
+before him, but were permitted to remain in their homes upon the
+payment of a heavy yearly tribute.
+
+He made one more pilgrimage to Mecca, and on this occasion the Koreish,
+in accordance with the truce, offered no resistance; hence for three
+days the prophet and his shaven followers walked the streets of Mecca,
+and performed Tawaf at the Temple.
+
+Mohammed found the Caaba still desecrated by idols, and, while pressing
+his lips to the sacred Black Stone, he solemnly vowed to conquer Mecca
+and to remove the pollution of images from the floor of the sanctuary.
+
+In the meantime, the prophet enticed many of the most prominent families
+of Mecca to his standard. By his marriage with the aunt of Khaled Ibn
+Waled he secured the alliance of that famous soldier; and by marrying
+Omm Habiba, daughter of Abu Sofian, he hoped to gain the friendship of
+his ancient and inveterate enemy.
+
+But time seemed to lag, and his restless spirit soon set itself to look
+about for some pretext by which he might attack Mecca. A casual skirmish
+of a few soldiers of the Koreish with a detachment of his soldiers gave
+the necessary excuse, and he at once charged the Koreish with having
+broken the truce. They were anxious to make overtures of peace, but
+Mohammed would listen to nothing.
+
+All saw plainly that no concessions would conciliate a conqueror thus
+bent upon hostility, and the attitude of Mecca became that of a patient
+waiting, a dread looking for a surely impending calamity ready to fall
+at any hour.
+
+And yet, when it did come, the Meccans were not expecting it, so silent,
+so sudden was the swoop of the conqueror. Every road leading to Mecca
+was barred by Mohammed, so that none might tell of his plans. All his
+allies received a mysterious summons to meet him at a point some
+distance from Mecca, and they came none the less readily that they did
+not know why they were thus assembled.
+
+With a host of ten thousand men, Mohammed set out over the barren
+plains, and through the defiles of the mountains. Like a vast funeral
+procession the long train wound its way in a silence broken only by the
+dull tread of the beasts and the whispered ejaculations of the soldiers.
+In the night they reached the appointed valley. Lines of men came
+pouring in from every side, and at last, as a signal to all the rest,
+Omar, the chief in command, gave the order that the watch-fires be
+lighted,--and at once every summit sent up its spire of flame.
+
+The citizens of Mecca were stricken with awe.
+
+"I myself will go and see what this means," said Abu Sofian; and with a
+single companion he set out over the hills. As they stood in sight of
+the great host below, the step of men sounded near them. They were
+seized as spies, and hurried off to the tent of Omar.
+
+The bright light of Omar's camp-fire revealed the white hair and
+flashing eye of the grim old warrior.
+
+"By the prophet of Allah! Ye have brought in a rich prize!" exclaimed
+Omar, and his dagger flashed in the firelight as he drew it to plunge
+into Abu Sofian's bosom. But deliverance was near. Out from the darkness
+galloped Al Abbas, uncle of Mohammed, mounted on the prophet's white
+mule. He caught the Meccan up with him, and hastened off to the tent of
+the prophet.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Mohammed, "you have come at last, Abu Sofian, to
+acknowledge the supremacy of the prophet of Allah?"
+
+"I come," said Abu Sofian surlily, "to beg mercy for my people."
+
+"Will you, then, acknowledge Mohammed as the prophet of God? Do this,
+Abu Sofian, and thy life shall be spared, and terms of peace granted to
+all Meccans who are willing to follow their leader's example."
+
+Abu Sofian gave a surly assent, and was set free. Favorable terms for
+the inhabitants of the city were then presented to him; and, that he
+might be able to take back with him a full account of the strength of
+the prophet's army, he was placed with Al Abbas at the head of a narrow
+defile, through which the whole army, with fluttering banners and
+proudly flapping standards, passed before him.
+
+Even the stern old warrior stood aghast at the mighty multitude. He
+returned to the city, and, from the roof of the Caaba, once more
+assembled the people of Mecca. Then, while they listened, with bowed
+heads and heaving sobs, he told them of the great host, of the
+uselessness of resistance, and of the terms offered in case of
+submission. To this course, humiliating as it was, he strongly urged
+them. Silent in despair, or weeping wildly, they returned to their
+homes, and that night the darkness which fell seemed like a pall upon
+the stricken city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE TRIUMPHANT ENTRANCE INTO MECCA.
+
+    "One murder made a villain; millions, a hero."--_Porteus._
+
+
+Upon the following morning ere the sun rose, a deputation was sent to
+the prophet to inform him that his terms had been accepted.
+
+The people of Mecca were curious to note the triumphant entrance of the
+great conqueror. Many, indeed, threw themselves upon their faces in
+agony of lost hope; but the housetops swarmed with people, and the side
+of Abu Kubays was moving with a dense crowd of women and children, who,
+at a safe distance, watched for the strange pageant.
+
+The prophet was allowed to enter the borders of the town unmolested, but
+when the deserter, Khaled Ibn Waled, appeared, the rage of the Koreish
+knew no bounds; a howl of derision arose, and an ungovernable mob fired
+straight upon him with their arrows. Khaled dashed upon them with sword
+and lance, but Mohammed, noting the commotion, rode up and ordered him
+to desist.
+
+The melee subsided, and, just as the sun rose over Abu Kubays, the
+conqueror entered the city. He was habited in scarlet, and mounted upon
+a large Syrian camel; and, as he rode, followed by the whole host of his
+army, he repeated aloud passages from the Koran.
+
+Straight on towards the Caaba he went, looking neither to right nor to
+left. Its gates were thrown open before him, and the vast procession,
+with the prophet at its head, performed Tawaf about the temple. Then,
+ere the mighty trampling ceased, Mohammed entered the Caaba--that Caaba
+in which he had been spat upon and covered with mud thrown by derisive
+hands. Little wonder that he felt his triumph complete!
+
+Three hundred and sixty idols still stared from the walls of the temple,
+and, ere night fell, not an image remained to pollute an edifice in
+which, if in ever so blind a manner, the name of the living God had been
+once mentioned.
+
+Mohammed then took his stand upon the little hill Al Safa, and gave the
+command that every man, woman, and child in Mecca, save those detained
+by illness, should pass before him.
+
+Kedar found his weakness a sufficient reason for remaining at home, but
+Yusuf, Amzi, and Manasseh were forced to join the long procession.
+
+One by one, the inhabitants knelt before the victor, renouncing idolatry
+and declaring their fealty to him as their governor and spiritual head.
+But a few among the Christian Jews refused to acknowledge him as the
+prophet of God.
+
+"As conqueror we accept you," they said; "as subjects we will obey you
+in all that does not interfere with our worship of the true God, and his
+Son, the Christ. But as Mohammed prophet of God, we will not acknowledge
+you."
+
+The prophet, however, was in a lenient frame of mind. At no time a cruel
+tyrant when victory was once assured, he was still less inclined to be
+so upon a day when everything augured so favorably for the future.
+Moreover, when it seemed to him practicable, Mohammed delighted in
+showing mercy. This trait is but one of the incomprehensible features of
+his strange, contradictory character.
+
+"So be it," he returned, graciously. "I give you your lives and
+property. They are a gift from the prophet ye despise. Yet, lest ye be
+stirrers up of sedition, I enjoin you to leave the city with what
+expedition ye will. Go where ye please, provided it be out of my
+dominions; take what time ye need to settle your affairs, and dispose of
+your property; then, in the name of Allah, I bid you good speed."
+
+The Jews, among them Yusuf and Amzi, passed thankfully on. A tall,
+gaunt, Bedouin woman, with flashing eyes and hands showing like the
+claws of a vulture beneath her black robe, came next. It was Henda in
+disguise.
+
+"What!" exclaimed the prophet, with a smile, "has Abu Sofian taken to
+the hills again, that his wife thus comes in Bedouin garb?"
+
+Henda, seeing that her disguise was penetrated, fell at his feet
+imploring for pardon.
+
+"I forgive you freely," he said, raising her to her feet. "You will now
+acknowledge your prophet?"
+
+"Never!" cried the Koreish woman.
+
+"Boldly said!" returned Mohammed. "The wife of Abu Sofian doth not
+readily follow in the path of her master. He has trained her but poorly.
+Yet, go in peace, O daughter of the Koreish, and know that the prophet
+of Islam has a merciful heart."
+
+Thus passed the whole long day until the stars shone through the blue;
+and Mohammed went to rest, serene in his triumph, yet troubled by bodily
+pain, for, ever since he had eaten the poisoned mutton at Khaibar, his
+health had been steadily declining.
+
+In a few days he returned to Medina. A fresh revelation of the Koran,
+commending fully his doctrine of the sword, was there proclaimed from
+the mosque; and to Khaled was given the task of subjugating the
+remaining tribes.
+
+The prophet's health now began to give way rapidly, and he resolved upon
+a last pilgrimage to the holy city. In the month Ramadhan, at the head
+of one hundred thousand men, the mightiest expedition he had ever led,
+he started for Mecca. He rode in a litter, and about him were his nine
+wives, also seated in litters; while, at the rear of the procession,
+trudged a great array of camels destined for sacrifice, and gayly
+decorated with ribbons and flowers.
+
+About a day's journey from Mecca, at twilight, the vast host met the
+troops of Ali, returning from an expedition into Yemen, and these
+immediately turned with the pilgrimage. It was a weird and impressive
+scene. In the night, the augmented host now pressed onward, with
+increased impatience, over a plain strewn with basaltic drift. The soft
+thud of padded feet sounded over the hard ground. Huge camels loomed
+shapelessly through the uncertain haze. No voice of mirth or singing
+arose from the vast assemblage, but the night-wind sighed through the
+ribs of the scant-leaved acacias above, and stooped to blow the red
+flames of the torches back in a smoky glare; while, here and there, a
+more pretentious light, issuing from between the curtains of a shugduf,
+shed a passing gleam upon the dusky faces of the pilgrims, plodding like
+eerie genii of the night over the barren wilds.
+
+Next morning, the host reached Mecca. The prophet once more entered the
+sacred court-yard of the temple, and was borne sadly about the Caaba in
+Tawaf. Then, weak as he was, he insisted upon taking part in the
+sacrificial ceremony. With his own hand he slew sixty-three camels, one
+for each year of his life. Then he ascended the pulpit and preached to
+the people.
+
+Upon his return to Medina, he preached again from the mosque, enjoining
+upon the faithful strict compliance with the form of worship set forth
+in the Koran and by the example of the prophet--the giving of alms;
+prayer towards the kebla; the performance of Tawaf, and ablutions at
+Zem-Zem; prostration prayers at the Caaba, and all the rites of
+pilgrimage. Thus did Mohammed formulate the rules for the future
+guidance of the Moslem world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+KEDAR AT THE CAABA.
+
+
+Once more the shades of night hung over the Eastern world. And there,
+while the hush of slumber fell upon the hills of the North, the cities
+of the South awoke to life and bustle, for during the earlier half of
+the hours of darkness the Oriental awakes from the lethargy of the day,
+and really begins to live. The moon, almost at full, and glowing like a
+silver orb on a purple sea, rose slowly over the black top of Abu
+Kubays, tipping its crest with a shimmering line of light, and throwing
+its radiance across the vale below, where all lay shapeless in shade
+save the top of the huge temple, which, with its pall-like kiswah
+(curtain), arose like a bier above the low houses about it. Upon it the
+moonbeams fell with solemn, white light, and the young man standing
+alone by one of the pillars of the portico felt a thrill of awe as he
+looked upon the mysterious structure, and thought of the great antiquity
+of the institution.
+
+For the moment, lost in contemplation, he was oblivious to the swarming
+of the dusky multitudes now pouring into the court-yard on all sides.
+Then, as the increasing hum fell upon his ears, he gave them his
+attention. It was the scene of which he had so often heard, and upon
+which he now looked for the first time. There were the people at Tawaf,
+walking, running, or standing with upturned eyes, sanctimoniously
+repeating passages of the Koran; there were the frantic few clinging to
+the great folds of the kiswah, as though its contact procured for them
+eternal salvation; there were the crowds gulping down copious draughts
+of the brackish water of Zem-Zem, or pouring it upon their heads.
+
+There, too, within a stone's throw of the temple, were the busy stalls
+of the venders, whence issued cries of:
+
+"Cucumbers! Cucumbers O!"
+
+"Grapes! Grapes!--luscious and juicy with the crystal dews of Tayf!
+Grapes, O faithful!"
+
+"Who will buy cloth of Damascus, rich and fit for a king? Come, buy thy
+lady a veil! Buy a veil to screen her charms blooming as the rosy light
+of morn, to screen her hair black as midnight shades on the hills of
+Nejd, and her eyes sparkling like diamonds of Oman!"
+
+"O water! Precious water from Zem-Zem! Water to wash away thy sin, and
+help thee into Paradise! O believer, buy water of Zem-Zem!"
+
+And there, beneath the twinkling lights of the portico, sat a group of
+Abyssinian girls, waiting to be sold as slaves.
+
+As the youth looked upon it all with no little curiosity he observed the
+crowd give way before a man clothed wholly in white, who proceeded
+directly to the Caaba and, pausing beneath the door, gave utterance to a
+loud prayer, while the people about fell prostrate on the ground. Then,
+in a loud voice, he commanded that the stair be brought. Attendants
+hastened to roll the bulky structure into its place, and the priest, or
+guardian of the temple, ascended, and received from his attendants
+several buckets of water which he carried into the edifice.
+
+Presently, small streams began to trickle from the doorway, and the
+guardian's white vestments again appeared, as he proceeded to sweep the
+water out, dashing it far over the steps. The people rushed beneath it,
+crowding over one another in their anxiety holding their upturned faces
+towards it and counting themselves blessed if a drop of it fell upon
+them. It was the ceremony of washing the Caaba.
+
+[Illustration: "Be not discouraged, my son," was Yusuf's reply.--See
+page 87.]
+
+The youth beside the pillar, though he wore Moslem garb, looked on in
+contempt; and, barely waiting for the conclusion of the ceremony, walked
+proudly from the enclosure, merely pausing to examine somewhat
+critically the Black Stone, which, deserted for the moment, was visible
+in the red light of a torch above. Then, passing through the nearest
+gate, he walked, rather feebly, towards the house of Amzi.
+
+Yusuf, wearied after a long day's work, was resting upon the carpeted
+Mastabah (platform) which forms a part of the vestibule of every
+comfortable house in Mecca. There was no light in the apartment save
+that afforded by the dim glimmer of a fire-pan, over which bubbled
+a fragrant urn of coffee. His thoughts had been wandering back over
+the events of his changeful life; events which would culminate, as
+far as his immediate history was concerned, in his early banishment
+from this city of his adoption. The little Jewish band would go
+together--precisely where, they did not know,--Amzi, Manasseh, the
+family of Asru, a few other devoted souls, and, it was to be hoped,
+Kedar.
+
+Yusuf's thoughts dwelt upon Kedar. To-night he seemed to feel a sweet
+assurance that his prayers in the youth's behalf were soon to be
+answered; and, in the darkness, he cried out for the lad's salvation,
+until the blessed Lord seemed so near that he almost fancied he could
+put forth his hand and feel the strong, loving, helping touch of Him who
+said, "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of
+mine.... And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I
+must bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold,
+and one shepherd."
+
+A step sounded on the door-stone, and the very youth of whom Yusuf was
+thinking entered.
+
+"Well, my Kedar," said the priest, "have you been enjoying the moon?"
+
+"I have been to the Caaba," returned Kedar, with amused contempt in his
+voice, "yet I have neither swung by the kiswah nor drenched myself, like
+a rain-draggled hen, at Zem-Zem."
+
+"And you have not kissed the Black Stone?"
+
+"Neither have I kissed the stone. By my faith, if it has become
+blackened by the kiss of sinners, those poor simpletons caress it in
+vain! On the word of a Bedouin, it can hold no more, since it is as
+black as well may be already."
+
+"The worship of our little church, then, suits you better?" The priest's
+tone scarcely concealed the anxiety with which he asked the question.
+
+"You seem to worship in truth," returned the youth, solemnly. "You seem
+to find a comfort in your service which these poor blindlings seek in
+vain. Aye, Yusuf, in living among you I have noted the peaceful tenor of
+your lives, the rest and confidence which nothing seems to overthrow.
+You rejoice in life, yet you do not fear death! Could such a life be
+mine, I would gladly accept it. But I do not seem to be one of you."
+
+The priest made no reply for a moment. Kedar did not know that he was
+praying for the fit word. Then his deep, tender tones broke the silence.
+
+"You believe in Jesus, whom we love?"
+
+"I believe that he was the Son of God; that he lived on the very hills
+to the north of us; that he died to reveal to us the greatness of his
+love. Yet--" He paused.
+
+"'Whosoever believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,'" said Yusuf in
+a low tone.
+
+"I know, but--" the youth hesitated again.
+
+"But what, Kedar?" asked the priest.
+
+"Jesus said to Nicodemus," returned the youth, "'Except a man be born
+again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.' Yusuf, this is what bothers
+me. I cannot understand this being born again."
+
+"Let us call it, then, just 'beginning to love and trust Jesus,'" said
+Yusuf quietly.
+
+Kedar almost started in his surprise. This aspect of the question had
+never appeared to him before. For a long time he sat, deep in thought,
+and Yusuf did not break in upon his meditations.
+
+"Is that all?" he asked at length.
+
+"That is all," returned Yusuf. "To trust him you must believe in him,
+love him, recognize his love, and leave everything to his
+guidance--everything in this physical life, in your spiritual life, and
+in the life to come. Then you will find peace. All your days will be
+spent in a loving round of happy labor, in which no work seems low or
+trifling--happy because love to Jesus begets the wish to do his will in
+every affair of life; and perfect love renders service, not a bondage,
+but the joyful spontaneity of freedom."
+
+Kedar was again silent, then he said slowly:
+
+"Yusuf, I begin to understand it all now; yet--is there something wrong
+still?--I have not the overpowering thrill of joy, the exuberance of
+feeling, the wondrous rapture of delight, which Amzi says he
+experienced, when, in the prison of Medina, he saw the light."
+
+"Be not discouraged, my son," was the reply. "To different temperaments,
+in religion as in all else, the truth appeals in different ways. If you
+are trusting implicitly now in God's love, go on without doubt or fear.
+Most Christians--growing Christians--find that at different stages in
+their experience certain truths stand out more clearly, and, as the days
+go by, their difficulties clear away like mists before the morning sun."
+
+"Yusuf, can I ever become such a Christian as you?" returned Kedar, in a
+half-awed tone at the thought.
+
+"My son, look not on me," returned Yusuf, tenderly. "Strive only to
+perceive Jesus in all your life, to find him a reality to you--a
+companion, ever with you, walking by your side in the hot mart, riding
+by you in the desert, sitting by you in solitude,--then, where he is,
+evil cannot come. Your life will become all upright, conscientious, and
+loving, for his life will show through yours."
+
+"And do temptations never come to those so blessed?"
+
+"Ah, yes, Kedar, so long as life lasts 'our adversary, the devil, goeth
+about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.' Yet, think you
+that the God who 'stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, who layeth
+the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his
+chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who maketh his angels
+spirits, his ministers a naming fire'--think you that such an One is not
+able to stand between you and the tempter? Think you that he before whom
+devils cried out in fear, is not able to deliver you from the power of
+evil? Kedar, know that the Christian may even glory in his own weakness,
+for Jesus has said, 'My strength is made perfect in weakness;' and yet,
+while thus feeling his helplessness, the believer must ever be conscious
+of the unconquerable strength of Christ, and should rest serene in the
+knowledge that, clothed in the full armor of God, he is able to
+withstand all the darts of the wicked one."
+
+Kedar said no more, but from that hour his humility, his patience, his
+gentleness, began to show forth as the outcome of the power of that
+working of the Spirit, whose fruit is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
+gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+KEDAR RETURNS TO HIS HOME.
+
+    "Death exempts not a man from being, but only presents an
+    alteration."--_Bacon._
+
+
+When Kedar left Yusuf on that memorable night it was not to sleep. He
+ascended the stair and went out upon the hanging balcony, where he could
+look at the sky and the mountains, and ponder over the conversation of
+the evening. His was not the excitable, rapturous joy experienced by
+many, but a feeling of quiet contentment that settled upon his soul, and
+brought a calm smile to his features.
+
+So he sat, when Manasseh burst upon him exclaiming, "What! my invalid
+able to stay up all the night as well as half the day! Come, listen to
+me! I have news!"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"This evening a courier from Medina arrived in the city. He has with him
+a proclamation requiring all unsubmissive Jews to leave Mecca by
+to-morrow night at the latest."
+
+"So soon!" exclaimed Kedar. "Where are they to go?"
+
+"I have just talked with Yusuf, and with Amzi, who, poor fat man! is
+trying to get a little sleep in the fresh air of the housetop. They
+propose that we join my father's family in Palestine. Of course, I do
+not object!" added the youth, with a smile.
+
+"Think you it will be safe for so small a band to face the dangers of
+the desert alone?" asked Kedar.
+
+"A caravan leaves for Damascus to-morrow," replied Manasseh.
+"Fortunately we may obtain its protection."
+
+"Good! Then I shall turn aside to the table-lands of Nejd and see my
+parents again," said Kedar.
+
+"Think you your parents would join our band?"
+
+Kedar shook his head. "Not likely. You see my father has lived all his
+days as a Bedouin. To be tied down to commerce he would consider a
+degradation. Neither would he become a shepherd, as watching sheep is a
+task held fit for women only in our tribe."
+
+"And will you stay with them, Kedar?" asked Manasseh.
+
+"I know not. We will see what the future has in store; but, at any
+rate," he added, half slyly, "your cousin Kedar will wear the Moslem
+turban no more."
+
+The tone, rather than the words, told all. Manasseh took a quick, sharp
+look at the face smiling quietly in the moonlight, then he seized
+Kedar's hand warmly and whispered, "I am glad."
+
+The following day was spent in packing and bidding adieux. Yusuf and
+Amzi passed the last hours among their poor, and, from the housetop,
+Kedar and Manasseh saw them returning in the evening, followed by a
+ragged crowd who clung to their gowns or wiped tearful eyes with
+tattered sleeves.
+
+The sun went down as the caravan left the city, and on an eminence
+above, the little Jewish band stopped to take a last look at their old
+home--Mecca, with its low houses, its crooked streets, its mystic Caaba,
+and its weird mountain scenery.
+
+All gray it lay beneath the shades of falling night; yet, as they
+looked, a wondrous change ensued. Gradually the landscape began to
+brighten; the houses shone forth; the aloe trees became green; the side
+of Abu Kubays sparkled with a seemingly self-emitted light; the rocks of
+the red mountain were dyed with a rosy glow; the Caaba grew more and
+more distinct, until even the folds of its kiswah were visible; and the
+sand of the narrow valley shone, beneath a saffron sky above, with a
+coppery radiance. It was the wondrous "after-glow" of the Orient,--a
+scene unique in its beauty, yet not often beheld in so sheltered a spot
+as Mecca.
+
+The exiles, with tearful eyes, looked upon the fair landscape, which
+thus seemed to bid them an inanimate farewell. Then, as the glow paled
+and the rocks again took their sombre hue, and the city faded in
+redoubled shadow, the little band turned slowly away, and followed in
+the wake of the caravan now winding through the pass at some distance.
+
+The Hebrew band consisted of twenty souls, among whom were Sherah, the
+daughter of Asru, and her mother, and the old white-haired man Benjamin,
+who had preached in the church and had become a father indeed to Asru's
+family.
+
+Needless to speak of the long, tedious journey. Suffice it to say that,
+while the caravan wound through the north of El Hejaz, Kedar and
+Manasseh turned aside to the fresher plateaux of the Nejd, and the
+Bedouin once more found himself amid the scenes of his boyhood.
+
+His spirits rose as the cool breeze from the plains struck him. The
+vision of sweet home--sweet to the roving Bedouin as to the pampered
+child of luxury--rose before him, and he urged his horse on with an
+ever-increasing anxiety.
+
+From neighboring tribes they found out the way to Musa's present
+encampment, then, spurring their horses on over a crisp plain, and
+beguiling the time with many a laugh and jest, they proceeded in the
+direction indicated, until, in a broad valley, the circle of tents lay
+before them.
+
+"Come, Manasseh," said Kedar, "let us give them a surprise. Let us take
+a turn up yonder hill and swoop down upon them like a falcon."
+
+"Agreed!" quoth Manasseh; and, with almost childish pleasure, they
+proceeded to make a short detour, and then galloped rapidly down from
+the hill-crest.
+
+The encampment was strangely quiet.
+
+"What is the matter, Manasseh?" asked Kedar. "There is scarcely anyone
+about."
+
+A few dogs now set up a savage barking, and a man came out with a heavy
+whip and drove them, yelping, away.
+
+"What is wrong, Tema?" asked Kedar, anxiously.
+
+"Alas, my young master," said the man, "your father will soon be no
+more."
+
+The youth sprang to the ground and entered the chief's tent. There lay
+the brave old Sheikh, dying, as he had scorned to die, in his bed, with
+pallid face and closed eyes, his gray hair damp and tangled, and his
+grizzled beard descending upon his brawny chest, from which the folds of
+his garments were drawn back. About him knelt his wife and children.
+Lois raised a tear-stained face to her son, then buried it again in her
+hands. Kedar threw himself beside the couch. The old man's lips moved.
+
+"Aha!" cried he, "it is blood-revenge! Mizni, bold chief, I have you
+now! Yes, fly up to your eyrie among the rocks, if you can. I shall
+reach you there! Blood must be spilled. My honor! My honor!"
+
+He was thinking of a fray of his youth in which he had paid the dues of
+blood for an only brother. Again, he seemed to be dashing on in the
+chase.
+
+"On, on, Zebe!" he cried, in a hoarse whisper, "on, good steed! The
+quarry is ahead there! See the falcon swoop! Good steed, on!"
+
+His voice was growing fainter, yet he continued to wave his arms
+feebly, and to move his lips in inaudible muttering. Once more the words
+became distinct:
+
+"Here, Kedar, little man! Let father put you on his horse. There, boy,
+there! You will make a son for a Bedouin to be proud of!"
+
+A tear rolled down Kedar's cheek as the dying man thus pictured a happy
+scene of his childhood. "Poor old father!" he murmured. "Manasseh, it is
+hard to see him die thus godlessly. Had I but come sooner!"
+
+The old Sheikh's breath came shorter. His hand moved more feebly; he
+turned his head uneasily and opened his eyes.
+
+He fixed them upon his son with a look of consciousness. His face
+brightened.
+
+"Dear father," whispered the youth, and kissed his cheek.
+
+A smile spread over the old man's face. His lips formed the words "My
+son!" His eyes closed, and the old Bedouin was dead.
+
+The women broke into a low wail, and Kedar, with a tenderness not of the
+old time, strove to comfort his mother. The rites of anointing the body
+for burial were performed, and all through the evening the different
+members of the tribe gathered mournfully in to take a last look at the
+brave old leader.
+
+When night fell Kedar went out; the atmosphere of the tent seemed to
+choke him. Manasseh stood silently by his side. The wail of the women
+sounded in a low burial-song from within, and groups of men, talking in
+whispers, gathered before the door.
+
+Kedar stood with folded arms and head thrown back, looking upon the
+heavens. A star fell. Every Bedouin bowed his head, for the Arabs
+believe that when a star falls a soul ascends to paradise.
+
+"Manasseh," said Kedar in a low tone, "I cannot let them bury him. They
+would do it with half-heathen rites."
+
+"Can none among all these conduct Christian service?"
+
+"Not one. My mother is the only one who knows aught of Christianity."
+
+"Then," said Manasseh, "if you will let me, I shall offer prayers above
+his grave."
+
+"No, Manasseh," said Kedar decidedly, "these people would resent it in
+a stranger. I shall do it; they will grant me the privilege as the right
+of a son."
+
+"And rightly," exclaimed Manasseh, surprised and pleased at the
+staunchness with which his cousin took his new stand.
+
+On the following day the funeral wound slowly up the defile to the place
+of the lonely grave. And there Kedar prayed simply and earnestly, a
+prayer in which the spiritual enlightenment of the sorrowful people
+about him was the chief theme. They did not understand all its meaning,
+but they were impressed by the solemnity and sincerity of the young
+Arab's manner.
+
+Then the little heap of sand was raised, and four stone slabs were
+placed, according to Bedouin custom, upon the grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE DEATH OF MOHAMMED.
+
+    "Nothing can we call our own but death"--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+While Musa thus lay dying in the tents of Nejd, the cold hand of death
+was fast closing upon another in the land of Arabia. Day by day the
+germs of disease pulsed stronger and stronger through the veins of
+Mohammed. Monarch of Arabia, originator of a creed which was eventually
+to push itself throughout Egypt, India, Afghanistan, Persia, and even to
+the wild steppes of Siberia, he must now die. He viewed the end with
+firmness, and it has been a matter of controversy as to whether in these
+later days he still had the hallucination of being a prophet.
+
+Too feeble to walk to the mosque, he lay, tended by his wives, in the
+tent of Ayesha, his favorite. Not many days before his death he asked
+that he might be carried to the mosque. Willing arms bore him thither,
+and placed him in the pulpit, from whence he could look down upon the
+city, and away to the palm-groves of Kuba. Then, turning his face
+towards the holy city, Mecca, he addressed the crowds of waiting people
+below.
+
+"If there be any man," said he, "whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit
+my own back to the lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation
+of any Mussulman?--let him proclaim my faults in the face of the
+congregation. Has anyone been despoiled of his goods?--the little that I
+possess shall compensate the principal and the interest of the debt."
+
+He then liberated his slaves, gave directions as to the order of his
+funeral, and appointed Abu Beker to supply his place in offering public
+prayer. This seemed to indicate that Abu Beker was to be his successor
+in office; and the long-tried friend accordingly became the first caliph
+of the Saracen empire.
+
+After this the prophet was conveyed again to the house of Ayesha. The
+fever increased, and the pain in his head became so great that he more
+than once pressed his hands upon it exclaiming, "The poison of Khaibar!
+The poison of Khaibar!"
+
+Once, perceiving the mother of Bashar, the soldier who had died of the
+poison in the fatal city, he said:
+
+"O mother of Bashar, the cords of my heart are now breaking of the food
+which I ate with your son at Khaibar!"
+
+At another time, springing up in delirium, he called for pen and ink
+that he might write a new revelation; but owing to his weak state, his
+request was refused. In talking to those about him he said that Azrael,
+the Angel of Death, had not dared to take his soul until he had asked
+his permission.
+
+A few nights before his death, he awoke from a troubled sleep, and,
+starting wildly from his couch, sprang up with unnatural strength from
+his bed.
+
+"Come, Belus!" he cried to an attendant. "Come with me to the
+burial-place of El Bakia! The dead call to me from their graves, and I
+must go thither to pray for them."
+
+Alone they passed into the night; through the long, silent streets they
+walked like phantoms; up the white road of Nedj they glided, until the
+few low tombs of the cemetery to the southeast of the city were in
+sight.
+
+At the border of the bleak, lonely field, where the wind moaned among
+the tombs like the sighing of a weeping Rachel, Mohammed paused.
+
+"Peace be with you, O people of El Bakia!" he cried. "Peace be with you,
+martyrs of El Bakia! One and all, peace be with you! We verily, if Allah
+please, are about to join you! O Allah, pardon us and them! And the
+mercy of God and his blessings be upon us all!"
+
+Thus he prayed, stretching his hands towards the spot where his friends
+lay in their long sleep. His companion stood in awe behind him,
+shivering in superstitious terror, as the white tombs gleamed like
+moving apparitions through the gloom, and the night-owls hooted with a
+mournful cadence o'er the dreary waste.
+
+When he had concluded, the prophet turned towards home. But the
+excitement of mind which had endowed him with almost supernatural
+strength now deserted him. His steps grew feeble and he was fain to lean
+upon Belus on his painful way back.
+
+He grew rapidly worse. His wife Ayesha, and his daughter Fatima, wife of
+Ali, seldom left his bedside. When the last came, he raised his eyes to
+the ceiling and exclaimed, "O Allah, pardon my sins!" He then, with his
+own feeble hand, sprinkled his face with water, and soon afterwards,
+with his head on Ayesha's bosom, he departed, in the sixty-third year of
+his age, and the eleventh year of the Hejira, A.D. 632.
+
+The frenzied people would not believe that he was dead. "He will arise,
+like Jesus," they said. But no returning breath quivered through the
+cold lips or animated the rigid form of him whom they passionately
+called to life; and not until Abu Beker assured them that he was really
+no more, saying, "Did he not himself assure us that he must experience
+the common fate of all? Did he not say in the Koran, 'Mohammed is no
+more than an apostle; the other apostles have already deceased before
+him; if he die therefore, or be slain, will ye turn back on your
+heels?'"--not until then did they disperse, with deep groans.
+
+Mohammed was buried in the house in which he died, his grave being dug
+in the spot beneath his bed; but some years later a stone tomb was
+erected over the grave, and until the present day the place is held so
+sacred that it is at the risk of his life that anyone but a Mussulman
+dares enter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE NEW HOME.
+
+    "On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend,
+    The almost sacred joys of Home depend."
+
+                              --_Hannah More._
+
+
+In the quiet valley in Palestine life had been dealing gently with
+Nathan and his family. The long, long absence of Manasseh was the one
+thing lacking for their perfect contentment.
+
+"It is well," Nathan would say, yet his eyes would turn wistfully
+towards the South, as though he half-hoped to see the beloved face of
+his son appearing over the hill. The mother grew weary with waiting, yet
+she did not murmur, but whispered to her lonely heart, "Living or dead,
+it must be well." Only once she said, "Husband, he is surely dead," and
+Nathan replied:
+
+"Let us still hope, wife, that we may yet see the goodness of the Lord
+in permitting us to behold his face."
+
+So they hoped on, and worked on, amid their orange trees, their corn and
+vegetables, and their sheep browsing peacefully on the hills. And Mary
+tended the jasmine flowers and rose-bushes at the door, carrying water
+to them night and morning, that they might look at their prettiest when
+Manasseh came. Only one letter had reached them--a cheery, hopeful
+letter,--but it had been a long time on the way, and the events of which
+it told had taken place many weeks before it reached the Jordan valley.
+It had told them of Yusuf and Amzi, of the little church, of the
+sender's strange meeting with Kedar, and the news he had gathered of
+Lois. Then it had told of the war, and had closed with an affectionate
+farewell, in which the writer expressed his wish, rather than his
+expectation, of being able to make his way to the new home soon.
+
+How long it seemed to Mary since that last word had come! And he was not
+home yet! She kept the precious manuscript in her bosom, and twenty
+times a day she looked down the long valley for the well-known form. One
+morning she sat by the river, idly plashing her bare feet in its golden
+ripples, and looking at the shadows on the little stones near the shore.
+About her gamboled a pet lamb, and above, a soft blue sky was flecked
+with fleecy white clouds. She twirled a sprig of blossoms in her hand,
+but her thoughts were far away in dear, hot, dusty, dreary Mecca.
+
+"It is not so pleasant as this, though," she thought, "if Manasseh were
+only here."
+
+Just then the tinkle of a camel-bell was heard,--a strange sound in that
+secluded spot. Mary looked up, and saw what seemed to be a great many
+people coming over the hill, camels bearing shugdufs, too, and
+pack-mules, heavily laden.
+
+Trembling, she rushed into the house.
+
+"Oh, mother, what means this? See the people! Manasseh would not bring
+all of those with him?"
+
+The mother shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked forth, anxiously.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the train. Who were they? Not Manasseh; Manasseh
+would not come so slowly. Can it be? Not Yusuf! Not Amzi! Yes, yes! O
+joy! It is they!--and many other familiar faces smile also from the
+train!
+
+"Is Manasseh well?"
+
+"Yes, Manasseh is well, and happy."
+
+So questions were asked and answered in joyful confusion; and Nathan
+came in from the hills to bid the travelers welcome. Then the dusty,
+travel-stained tents were pitched once more, this time on a grassy slope
+by the rippling Jordan. A simple repast was spread, and the company
+dined in royal state.
+
+With what surprise did Nathan and his household greet the wife of Asru
+and her sweet-faced daughter as sisters in Christ, and with what
+sympathy did they hear of Asru's sad death!
+
+Then plans for the immediate settlement of the little party were made.
+Pasture-land in abundance was to be had; hence the majority of the
+new-comers would be speedily and comfortably provided with new homes.
+Amzi would take up his abode in some comfortable town-house not far
+distant, and Yusuf would remain with him for the present.
+
+Mary and Sherah were friends at once, and ere evening fell, they sat, as
+girls will, in a cozy nook by the river-side forming plans for walks and
+talks during the long, bright, summer days.
+
+Every cloud had drifted, for the time being, from the happy company;
+and, ere they retired to rest, all united with fervor in the words of
+the grand song:
+
+"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who
+forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who
+redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving
+kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things;
+so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord executeth
+righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.... Bless the
+Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion! Bless the Lord, O my
+soul!"
+
+And later in that same evening, another group came to Nathan's house.
+The door was closed, for the evening was chill without. A knock was
+heard. Mary opened the door, and there was Manasseh himself, radiantly
+happy; and close behind him was another Manasseh with Bedouin eyes.
+
+Mother, sister, and father pressed round the youth until he could
+scarcely move.
+
+"There, there!" he said, shaking them off playfully, "my cousin Kedar
+will be jealous. Mother, this is Lois' son, and there is someone in the
+darkness here still."
+
+The youth went out. Who was this that he assisted from the shugduf?--the
+living image of Lois in her girlhood days! Not Lois, but her daughter, a
+Bedouin maid, fresh as the breeze from her native hills. And can this be
+Lois--this sad-faced yet stately woman? It is, indeed, and the
+long-separated sisters are once more united. Kedar's brothers are there
+too, and one more family is added to the little community.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+A WEDDING IN PALESTINE.
+
+    "God, the best maker of all marriages."--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+For a moment let us look more closely at the little district where the
+Jewish band found a home after all their wanderings.
+
+They settled at a point where the Jordan River, that strange river
+flowing for its entire length through a depression one thousand feet
+below the level of the sea, is cut up by many a cataract; and the
+rushing noise of the water, carried from its mysterious source at the
+foot of Mount Hermon, fills the valley with a music not lost upon ears
+long accustomed to the dry wastes of Arabian deserts. To the north lie
+plains where cold blasts blow, and mountains whose crests gleam with
+never-failing snow; yet in the fair vales of Jordan the tempered breeze
+fans the air with the mildness of a never-ceasing-summer, and the soft
+alluvial soil is luxuriant with the rich growth of the tropics. To the
+west the rugged and picturesque mountains of Judea rise, and to the
+east, at a distance of some ten miles, lie the blue-tinted mountains of
+Moab, rich in associations of sacred history.
+
+In this favored spot, shaded by waving groves and hidden by vines, was
+the house of Asru's wife; and at a little distance from it was a well,
+an old-fashioned well such as is seen only in the East, walled about
+with ancient and worn flag-stones, between which, at one side, the water
+trickled and ran over mossy stones to the river below.
+
+A large tamarisk tree waved above it, and in its shade, with one knee
+resting on the flag-stone, her hands clasped behind her head, and her
+large eyes fixed upon the mountains of Moab beyond, stood Sherah, ere
+the sun rose, on one beautiful autumn morning.
+
+An earthen water-pitcher, such as is carried by the girls of the Orient,
+was beside her, yet she moved not to execute her errand.
+
+The sun arose behind the mountain; the amber sky became golden; the rosy
+pink clouds changed to radiant silver; the birds sang; the dew
+glittered; and the sun shone through the leaves of the trees with a
+flush of green-gold.
+
+The beauty of the scene touched the girl. In a low, clear voice,
+spontaneous as the song of a bird, she sang: "For the Lord shall comfort
+Zion; he will comfort her waste places: and he will make her wilderness
+like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness
+shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."
+
+The song brought comfort to her; for was she not soon to leave this
+fairy spot, this Aidenn, to return to the land of the Mussulman; not the
+land of--
+
+    "Deep myrrh thickets blowing round
+    The stately cedar, tamarisks.
+    Thick rosaries of scented thorn,
+    Tall Orient shrubs, and obelisks
+    Graven with emblems of the time,"
+
+but to the bleak, treeless plains of Nejd, breezy with the warm breath
+of desert-swept winds, bounded by rolling mountains, and dotted by the
+black tents of those roving hordes of whom it has been said that "their
+hand is against every man, and every man's hand is against them,"--the
+fierce, cruel yet generous, impulsive, courteous tribes of the desert.
+
+For Manasseh and Kedar were both going back to the desert tribes,
+braving the dangers of persecution, that they might exert an influence
+in christianizing the Bedouin tribes over whom the Moslems as yet had
+little power. Sherah was going back as Manasseh's wife, and this was her
+wedding-day. She was willing to go, yet she could not help feeling a
+little lonely on this last morning in her mother's home.
+
+Presently the call "Sherah! Sherah!" came through the olive groves, and
+the old nurse hobbled out. The woman was a thorough type of an aged
+Arab, lean, wrinkled, hook-nosed, with skin like shrunken leather, and a
+voice like a raven. Yet Sherah knew her goodness of heart, and loved her
+dearly. She was taking the old woman back with her, for, oddly enough,
+Zama had never felt at home in the new land, and often craved that her
+bones might be buried in the old soil.
+
+"Why disturb me, Zama?" said the young woman kindly. "See you not that I
+am bidding farewell to this dear valley?"
+
+"Aye, aye, child," muttered the old nurse, "but we must put the
+wedding-gown upon you, and twine jasmine in your hair." She stroked the
+glossy masses fondly. "Ah, to-morrow it must be braided in the plaits of
+the matron, and the coins will be placed about my precious one's neck;
+yet it seems only yesterday that she was a toddling baby at my feet."
+
+The two women, the one tall and lithe as a willow, the other bent and
+shrunken, took their way to the house. Mary was already there, and
+assisted in adorning the bride.
+
+The guests arrived, and the simple ceremony was soon over; then the
+company sat down to the wedding feast. Lois and her sister talked in low
+tones to the mother of Sherah, who grieved a little at the separation
+from her daughter. Happy jests and laughter passed about among the
+young people. Amzi went, with beaming face, from group to group; and
+Yusuf looked quietly on.
+
+In the midst of the entertainment some one came to the door.
+
+"It is a peddler!" cried one. "Let us see what he has--perhaps another
+gift for our fair bride."
+
+The young people gathered about the glittering trinkets. Manasseh came
+near, and, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, placed his hand on the
+man's shoulder. The peddler looked up, and his face blanched with fear.
+
+It was the little Jew, who, having escaped like an eel from Manasseh's
+care after the Battle of Ohod, and having become thoroughly frightened
+at the idea of remaining longer in a war-ridden district, had
+disappeared like magic from the plains of Arabia, and had become once
+more the insignificant Jewish peddler in the more secure provinces to
+the north.
+
+"Do not be frightened," laughed Manasseh. "We no longer take prisoners
+of war; yet, for the sake of old acquaintance, I claim you to partake of
+our feast."
+
+The little man was half-dragged to the table and given a place by
+Nathan, who spoke kindly to him. Yet he did not feel at ease. The stolen
+cup seemed to point an accusing finger at him; and he ate little, and
+talked less.
+
+Presently he caught a glimpse of Yusuf. The sight of the man whom he had
+so nearly delivered to death was too much for him. His little eyes
+darted about as if suspicious of some design upon his freedom. He could
+not understand the magnanimity of these people, and, deeming discretion
+the better part of valor, he sprang from the table, shouldered his pack,
+and was off, to be seen no more.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE FAREWELL.
+
+    "Sondry folk, by aventure y-falle in felaweschipe."--_Chaucer._
+
+
+And now, our tale draws to a close, and time permits but a parting
+glance at those who have been so long a goodly company of friends.
+
+Amzi has, in his descent to old age, developed a wonderful activity of
+mind and body. He has become one of the most influential members of the
+little town in which he has taken up his abode. Realizing as never
+before the duty which man owes to man, and fully awakened at last to the
+fact that our talents are given us to be exercised fully, he no longer
+dreams away time in the Arab Kaif; but, from morning to night, his plump
+figure and good-natured old face are seen, up and down, in the mart, in
+the council-chamber, in the church, wherever he can lend a helping hand.
+He has even assumed the role of schoolmaster, and upon the earthen floor
+of an unused hall he gathers day by day a troop of little ones, over
+whom he bends patiently as they cling to his gown for sympathy in their
+small trials, or as they trace upon their wax tablets, with little,
+uncertain hands and in almost illegible characters, the words of a copy,
+or text.
+
+"Aye," he says, "who knows what these little ones may some day become?
+They are as impressionable as the wax upon which they write. Heaven
+grant that the impression made upon them may be mighty for good!"
+
+Kedar has married a Bedouin maid, and is happy in his free life in the
+old land. Naught but the desert could satisfy him; he would stagnate in
+the calm life which those in the Jordan valley are finding so pleasant.
+
+As yet he and Manasseh have not been molested in their work by the
+Moslems; and in their remote mountain recesses they are persistently
+fighting against heathendom, and are leading many to live better and
+nobler lives.
+
+And Yusuf? He is in his home-land again. Once more he stands upon the
+highest point of the Guebre temple. The priests have not refused him
+admittance, for no one has recognized in this harmless old man the once
+Guebre Yusuf.
+
+Ah, it is heathen Persia still! The fires flicker upon the altar, and
+the idolatrous chants arise on the air. Yusuf covers his face with his
+mantle and weeps. He has but a few years of strength before him, but he
+will spend them in trying to bring the Gospel of love to these poor,
+blind people.
+
+He grieves for his benighted country; but when the moon slowly rises,
+shedding her soft rays over the old scene, the mountains, the valleys
+below, all calm, peaceful, radiant, he is comforted. He thinks of Him
+who "created the lesser orb to rule the night," and a great joy fills
+his heart that he has been led to a recognition of Him, and that he has
+been enabled to lead others to Him.
+
+His face glows with serene happiness and hope. He raises his eyes to the
+calm, deep heavens, and says:
+
+"O Father, I thank thee that 'mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
+hosts,' and his dear Son! I thank thee that thou hast led me to see
+Truth! O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I
+declared thy wondrous works! Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O
+God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this
+generation, and thy power to every one that is to come! And now, Father,
+'what wait I for? My hope is in thee,' the great God, the ever-loving
+Father, now and for evermore. Amen and amen."
+
+And there will we leave him.
+
+                      "May he live
+    Longer than I have time to tell his years!
+    Ever beloved and loving, may his rule be!
+    And when old Time shall lead him to his end,
+    Goodness and he fill up one monument!"
+
+                              --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The month of Ramadhan was held as holy prior to Mohammed's time;
+    its sanctity was but confirmed by him.
+
+[2] Medina at this time bore the name of Yathrib, but in this volume
+    we shall give it the later and better-known name of "Medina,"
+    derived from the earlier "Mahdinah."
+
+[3] The Moslems _now_ assert that the sacred fire went out of itself
+    at the birth of Mohammed.
+
+[4] A fourth, the "Darb-el-Sharki," or Eastern Road, has since been
+    built by order of the wife of the famous Haroun al Raschid.
+
+[5] Joseph Pitts, A.D. 1680, says: "Mecca is surrounded for several
+    miles with many thousands of little hills which are very near to
+    one another. They are all stony-rock, and blackish, and pretty
+    near of a bigness, appearing at a distance like cocks of hay,
+    but all pointing towards Mecca."
+
+[6] Burton says the black stone is volcanic, but is thought by some
+    to be a meteorite or aerolite. Burckhardt thought it composed of
+    lava. Of its appearance Ali Bey says: "It is a block of volcanic
+    basalt, whose circumference is sprinkled with little crystals,
+    with rhombs of tile-red feldspath on a dark background like
+    velvet or charcoal."
+
+[7] By the latest statistics the number of Mohammedans now scattered
+    throughout Asia, Africa, and the south-eastern part of Europe
+    amounts to some 176,834,372.
+
+[8] Moslems assert that upon this night Mohammed was carried through
+    the seven heavens of which El Islam tells.
+
+[9] The initial "A" is placed at the top of all Arabian writings. It
+    is the initial of "Allah" and the first letter of the alphabet,
+    and is symbolic of the origin of creation.
+
+[10] Burton gives seven hundred.
+
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+Obvious printing errors were repaired; these changes are listed below.
+
+Title Page     Original text: Elgin, Ill,
+               Correction: Elgin, Ill.,
+
+               Original text: David C Cook
+               Correction: David C. Cook
+
+Chapter V      Original text: may know thee as we should.'"
+               Correction: may know thee as we should."
+
+Chapter VI     Original text: This hullucination
+               Correction: This hallucination
+
+               Original text: McLellan, Psychology
+               Correction: McLellan, Psychology.
+
+               Original text: See page 23
+               Correction: See page 23.
+
+               Original text: called 'El Amin"
+               Correction: called 'El Amin'
+
+Chapter VII    Original text: be poured on my defenseless and
+               Correction: be poured on my defenceless and
+
+Chapter IX     Original text: Death is the end of life
+               Correction: "Death is the end of life
+
+               Original text: "Ikh! "Ikh!"
+               Correction: "Ikh! Ikh!"
+
+Chapter XIV    Original text: He forebore to thrust
+               Correction: He forbore to thrust
+
+Chapter XVI    Original text: For this I am thankful.
+               Correction: For this I am thankful,
+
+Chapter XVII   Original text: giving him a shake. "what
+               Correction: giving him a shake, "what
+
+               Original text: the fair little Imra
+               Correction: the fair little Imri
+
+Chapter XIX    Original text: "Here, Manasseh!" interupted Yusuf
+               Correction: "Here, Manasseh!" interrupted Yusuf
+
+Chapter XXIII  Original text: peace with those of Mecca."
+               Correction: peace with those of Mecca.'"
+
+Chapter XXVII  Original text: thus comes in Bedouin garb?'"
+               Correction: thus comes in Bedouin garb?"
+
+Footnote 2     Original text: derived from the earlier "Mahdinah"
+               Correction: derived from the earlier "Mahdinah."
+
+Footnote 6     Original text: like velvet or charcoal.
+               Correction: like velvet or charcoal."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED***
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