The time came for Hiram's departure from the home of Ben Yusef.
"There is one favor more I would claim from the hands of my protector,"
said he to the old man. "You have been a father to us; we would have a
father's blessing in making us one. Let me receive my bride from your
hands."
"Let me look into your eyes," replied Ben Yusef. "Now as Jehovah liveth,
and as thy soul liveth and feareth the curse of its Creator, answer me
truly. Does any other woman than this one hold your vow? Our first
father Adam commanded that 'a man should leave father and mother and
cleave unto his wife, and they twain should be one flesh.'"
Marduk, following the custom of oath-taking among Jews and Phoenicians
alike, placed his hand beneath the thigh of Ben Yusef and declared:
"As Jehovah liveth, no woman but this one ever heard vow from me."
"And she? Is she thy betrothed, and thine alone? Does her father live?
and has he given his child into thy keeping? For I can stand as father
to her, only as I am assured that I transgress no sacred law of
fatherhood among Jews or Gentiles."
"Her father once solemnly betrothed her to me according to the laws of
our people," replied Marduk. "In his presence I placed upon her hand the
ring of betrothal she wears."
"It is enough," said Ben Yusef. "And may this woman bring thee the
blessing that my own Lyda brought me when I took her from the tent of
Terah, her father!"
Several days later the home of Ben Yusef was transformed into a place of
festivity. The old terebinth was hung with garlands. A booth was erected
at a little distance from the family tent. Though very simple in
structure, it was lined with rich stuffs that well depleted the stores
of Marduk, the merchant. These were arranged by Eliezar, the Damascene,
whose ingenuity had never before been so taxed to fill the order of any
merchant as it was by the order of Marduk to prepare the nuptial tent.
The broad divan was covered with that rare fabric of white wool, grown
on the slopes of the Lebanon, and called "damask" from the looms of
Damascus, that weave its fine fibres, and prepare them for the rich red
color of the dyer. It was curtained with lace, the handiwork of a Syrian
peasant woman, and into the elaborate pattern of which had gone many
years of her toil. She could have indicated certain knots that were made
when her eyes were full of tears for some affliction; others wrought
when her fingers flew nimbly as she hastened her daily task in order to
meet some expected pleasure. Oh! if one could only unravel the secrets
of the lives of the workers, and tell the thoughts they had as they
toiled, as one can unravel the stitches, what history we would have!--a
thousand times larger and a thousand times deeper than that preserved in
the annals of our kings!
There was a mirror of polished brass, set in a frame of silver, the
craft of Sidonians. And such a toilet of necklaces and ear-rings, of
gemmed brooches and hair-pins, of bracelets and anklets; such a
collection of tiny vases of rock crystal, of bronze, of glass, of
alabaster, all containing kohl for coloring the eyebrows, or salves for
the lips, or perfumes for the clothing. There was such a wardrobe of
shawls and tunics, veils and sandals! Even Eliezar could not describe
them all, for he had left the selection of these to Hador, the
haberdasher to the King of Damascus.
During the day Zillah had been invisible. The mysteries of her apartment
in the tent of Ben Yusef we must leave to the imagination of our fair
readers, and to the knowledge of Ruth, who waited upon her.
As the day waned, many shepherds of the neighborhood, with their
families, came to join in the festivities; for to salute a new-made
bride was thought to bring blessing upon one's own household.
Just as the sun went down, Marduk emerged from his booth, arrayed in gay
robes, and crowned with myrtle entwined with roses. His garments were
redolent with myrrh and frankincense, and verily, as Solomon described
the comely bridegroom, with "all the powders of the merchant."
The peasants formed in procession to escort the bridegroom from his tent
to that of Ben Yusef, at the door of which, as it was her temporary
home, he would receive his bride, and conduct her to his own dwelling.
Scarcely had the procession begun to move, when it was suddenly halted
by an exclamation of surprise and caution from Elnathan. On top of the
hill had appeared a band of horsemen. Elnathan darted into the great
tent, and reappeared with a number of swords, knives, slings, and such
bludgeons as made every tent an arsenal in those troublous times. The
peasants were quickly armed, even some of the women taking weapons.
Elnathan advanced to meet the intruders who had halted upon the
hill-top, as if they were reconnoitring the scene, or waiting for others
to join them. One of the horsemen was clad in the dull russet leathern
suit which indicated a Phoenician soldier. Another wore a white, closely
fitting tunic and the projecting cap of a Persian. A third was dressed
more as one of the wild rovers of Moab, in big turban and flowing
burnoose.
The three awaited Elnathan's challenge, and answered it with, "Peace be
with thee!" then dashed down the hill-side with a cry in three diverse
tongues, "Marduk! Marduk! Marduk!"
"Hanno!" cried Marduk, and had nearly pulled the Phoenician soldier
from his horse before he caught the admonition of his friend, and
repeated louder: "It is Captain Beto of Sidon, as sure as Baal lives!"
"Just as sure!" was the response. The second comer was a stranger to
Marduk, but at once recognized by Elnathan as the Persian officer in
whose escort he had come down the valley of the Litany. The third was a
Sidonian soldier from the house of Sanballat. A few words sufficed to
explain their coming.
It was necessary for Hanno to communicate with Marduk concerning matters
that could be safely intrusted to no one else, so he had assumed the
disguise of a soldier and sought his friend.
"But I would never have found you in this retreat, though I thought I
knew the way from your description, had it not been that I fell in with
these good men, and discovered that this noble Persian, who was
returning from Jerusalem to Susa, by way of Samaria, was directing this
servant of our Lord Sanballat to find Marduk. But woe betide the man who
interrupts a marriage ceremony! Let us all be friends of the
bridegroom."
The new-comers joined with the merry peasants. The procession was
re-formed, and, with Marduk at the head, approached the great tent.
Ben Yusef met them at the door. He held Zillah by the hand. She was
clothed in white, relieved by needlework of gold. Her robe was gathered
at the waist by the kishshurim, or wedding girdle, to be loosed only by
her husband. Her hair was unbound, flowing in a cascade of glossy jet. A
crown of gold, beaten into the shape of ivy leaves, was on her head. She
wore a veil that hid her features, but fell about her form like a
phosphorescence, concealing the sharper folds of her attire, but
revealing their lines of grace.
Ben Yusef, placed the hand of Zillah in that of Marduk, saying:
"Take her according to the law of Moses and of Israel."
Then he added the blessing of the elders at the ancient marriage of Boaz
and Ruth:
"The Lord make the woman that is come into thy home like Rachel and
Leah, which two did build the house of Israel."
Then Ruth pushed aside the veil just enough to kiss her, and, holding
the bride's cheeks between her hands, repeated the extravagant blessing
the family of Rebekah used when they gave her to the patriarch Isaac:
"Thou art our sister: be thou the mother of thousands of millions; and
let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them."
The little crowd of peasants had in the meantime lighted flambeaux and
small hand lamps. Elnathan marshalled them into a procession, which,
making a detour over the hill-side, returned to the booth of Marduk.
Here the couple entered. The crowd gathered under the terebinth, where,
with feasting and songs, they made the night merry, until the east
dropped its gray dawn upon them without a cloud--which they interpreted
into a happy omen for the newly wedded--and, with a hundred shouted
well-wishes to the merchant and his bride, they dispersed to their
homes.
The Persian officer rejoined his own company. The soldier from
Sanballat, who carried a letter to Marduk from Manasseh, set out upon
his return. "Captain Beto" seemed to forget the proprieties of the
occasion, and made himself a companion of Marduk and his wife during
almost all the first day of their wedded life. The three sat under the
terebinth, or walked together over the hill; the devoted couple
apparently as deeply interested in their visitor as in each other.
Whether their interest in "Captain Beto's" talk was warranted or not, we
must leave the reader to judge. He told of events in Phoenicia, some of
which are recited in the next chapter.