IV

Suddenly the Jew winced as though stung, exclaiming:

"How could I have forgotten? Your son, Florens?"

"Florens is well," said the Roman, "and in safety. Not here," he

answered to Hazaël's look, "but at your own house, in the care of

your excellent wife. To whom else should I entrust my most valued

possession? Florens is not yet a Christian, but I would have him

one. This, should I die, is my last command to you. Let me hear you

say that I shall be obeyed!"

Hazaël wrung his hands and cried in anguish:

"O, my master! as God lives I swear that I will obey you faithfully!

Were the boy to be dedicated to the Evil One, it should be done

though I were damned for it!"

"Thanks, my friend!" said the father, with moisture showing in his

bright blue eyes. Silently a hand-grip was exchanged between the

ex-Prætor and his Chief Secretary. Then the former resumed:

"Further attend. I shall pass from the tribunal of the Prefect to

the Hall of the Judges. Should the decision of the Court be that I

suffer the extreme penalty, take Florens secretly to the Monastery of

Tabenna, in the Upper Thebaïd. Some time will pass before the

Prefect of the Stationaries of Apollinopolis sends another force to

attack that wasp's nest! You have heard how sturdy a defence they

maintained during the recent siege! The tribune in command of three

maniples was compelled to withdraw his soldiers. Though at the

Monastery of Mount Nitria, and that of Scete, and at Scyras, as at

Aphroditopolis, raids were effected without opposition. Melittus,

Abbot of Scete, was brought to the tribunal three days ago. He was

condemned to be beaten to death with rods. Three of the five monks

who were in bonds with Melittus went to the torture. Two novices

they sent to the mines, in consideration of their youth. I myself

was in the Hall of the Question, sitting on the high seat with the

judges commissioned by the Prefect of Egypt. And as Melittus and his

monks were brought forward to be sentenced, each one looked up to the

right of the Catasta* with a brightened face, and smiled. For He was

there!"

* A platform corresponding to our prisoners' dock.

Hazaël started, so full of awe was the ending of the sentence.

"Do you--you do not mean that you beheld in a vision Jesus of

Nazareth, the Crucified?"

"Not He!" The ex-Prætor bent his head reverently. "Not the Lord,

but one who in visions has often seen Him. The Egyptian, called the

Athlete of Christ, the Saint who founded the Monastery of Tabenna

which stands between Diopolis and Tentyra on the eastern bank of the

Nile. For this house, now under the rule of the venerable Abbot

Pachomius, was built upon the ruins of a tomb or temple of the bygone

people, where the Saint, to enjoy contemplation of things Divine,

lived in solitude as a hermit for twenty years. Now his eyrie is

upon a high mountain looking towards the fastnesses of Sinai and the

Red Sea. Once, he came down--during the persecution of Diocletian,

and travelled to Alexandria with the chain-gangs of Christians, being

brought to the city to confess their Faith and die. No man laid a

hand on him, though he went in and out of the prisons freely,

bringing clothes and food and medicine; tending the sick and

comforting the wretched, preaching and exhorting openly, showing

himself in the Courts under the eyes of the judges, as though he

would have said, 'If ye seek me, come and take me; here I am, here I

am!'"

"I have heard of this hermit," Hazaël assented. "He was protected by

some great person. That is what was said at the time."

"Then the people of Alexandria spoke truth for once. He was

protected by the greatest of all Persons."

Hazaël's face was as a stone mask. He said:

"And so Christ's Athlete shows himself again.... Will he escape this

time, I wonder?"

Said the Roman, not observing or perhaps ignoring a peculiarity in

the Jew's look and tone:

"He followed the captive monks from Nitria, not only to bear witness

to Christ in the prisons and churches, but to confute and crush the

heresy of Arius. Each day in the Hall of the Judges he stood up upon

the left of the Catasta, wrapped in a white linen cloth reaching from

his ankles to his middle, and mantled with the snowy fleece of his

long hair and beard. He leaned upon a staff topped with the Cross,

and as the doomed were led away he blessed them, crying in a voice

that vibrated through the building like the sound of a silver gong:

'Blessed are ye, called by Divine Grace to testify to the Lord, even

Christ Jesus! On with a good courage! for to you He holdeth open the

Gate of Hope!' None laid a finger on him. But the Chief Judge, in

whose full view the Athlete stood, called a lictor and said to him

softly: 'Command that man in my name to withdraw himself from the

Court!' And the Athlete, hearing this, cried in that voice of

silvery sweetness; 'I go from this place, O unjust judge! not at thy

command, but because I have discharged the errand of my Lord. My way

leads through the Libyan Desert to Scete in Nitria, and from the

White Monastery of Aphroditopolis to Tabenna; and from thence I

return through the Desert of Arabia to mine abode. Who would

overtake me let him follow; who would find me let him seek me in the

ruins of the Pagan temple that stands above the Limestone Torrent,

under the crown of the mountain that is called Derhor, standing

between the Arabian Desert and the Gulf of Heroöpolis, looking across

the Wilderness of El Ka to the Mount of Sinai!"

"And he departed?"

"He went out from the midst of us, no man daring to touch even his

garment, and I returned somewhat late, to find some tax-gatherers of

the Onophites waiting to pay gathered gold into the Treasury of the

State. And to these I must administer the oath, first covering my

head with the lustrated woollen cap, sprinkling incense on the coals

and invoking the Sabine deity.... And, as has been my wont of late,

I refrained from doing these things.... Then a man in mean clothes

rose up and pointed to me, and cried out: 'Question! Question! Is

an oath made before a Roman Prætor valid and binding, when the usage

and wont of the sacred ceremonial are scamped after a fashion like

this? Dip the olive-twig! Purify the wool with the consecrated

element! ... Throw the incense on the coals, therewith invoking Dius

Fidius! Or else confess that thou, Philoremus Fabius, art a

worshipper of Christ!' Then--I do not quite know what came over me.

I threw the cap upon the floor, and said to all present: 'You have

heard the Accuser! Now hear me! I am a Christian man!'"

The Jew groaned:

"Madness. Possession! A casting away of reputation, honour, and it

may be, very existence! ... And for what? ... You have never

renounced the gods of Rome! ... You have never been baptised by a

Christian priest, or broken," he spat, "consecrated bread, or drunk

wine at one of their accursed love-feasts! You have only mingled

among them unseen, in the robe and cowl of the Parabolani. Idly

listened to a sermon or two--helped to carry one plague-bit to the

hospital.... Listen! ... All may yet be well! ... Only consent to

write plainly, stating these facts to His Excellency Lollius Maxius,

and to the Prefect Mettius Rufus, and entrust both letters to me....

Upon my head and my son's head be it if you find me fail you!

Hasten, O Master! Every moment of delay lessens the chance of

averting ruin. For the sake of the boy Florens do this--if you will

not for your own!"

"My good Hazaël," the Roman said, as the Secretary thrust tablets and

stylus upon him, and drew forward his vacated chair, urging him to

sit down. "To my shame be it said, I have already appealed to the

friendship of the Prefect, though not in such pusillanimous terms as

these you suggest. Until this moment I have waited for an answer in

vain. As for the boy, these white hairs that have appeared upon my

temples since yesterday, testify to the anxiety I suffer upon his

account. Being a child of tender years, you might claim of the State

in his name some portion of my confiscated property. But in this

case he will be placed under a Roman guardian, and reared in the

worship of the gods of Rome. Better be still! Now tell me while

there is time, what of your errand to Ælia Capitolina? Did you

discover Annius Jovius Priscus, the Senator, guardian of my late

wife's property? And does her inheritance, the ancient Israelitish

fortress, once given by King Solomon to Balkis, Queen of Sheba, yet

stand among the vineyards near Joppa, or has Kirjath-Saba resolved

itself into a mountain of disjointed stone?"

The Jew drew a folded skin of parchment from his bosom and gave it to

the Roman as he answered:

"I found the man you bade me seek, in the city that was once

Jerusalem! As for the tower of Kirjath-Saba, it stands as though

fresh wars might yet rage and beat upon its ruggedness, and new

nations arise and flourish and pass, yet leave it there unharmed.

Here, sent to thee by the Senator Priscus, are the writings made when

the Tower with the land about it, was conferred upon the Tribune

Justus Martius of the Tenth Roman Legion, by decree of the Emperor

Vespasian, on the tenth day of the month of August, in the second

year of his reign."

Philoremus murmured, scanning the faded ink characters upon the

sheepskin:

"Justus Martius, ancestor of my wife, led a party of Roman

Legionaries with scaling-ladders in the siege of Titus against

Antonia. He found a breach in the fortress-wall, got through and

killed--"

Hazaël nodded grimly:

"Ay, killed the Jewish sentries, and slew the rest of the defenders.

That was the beginning of the Massacre and the Destruction--to which

that of Nebuchadnezzar the Assyrian, was as a passing shower to the

fury of a storm. With this deed I have to deliver back to you the

signet ring with the head of Hercules, cut in intaglio upon a black

agate, that I carried with me into Palestine; and also my pack-mule's

burden of two thousand sestertia, in good _aurei_ of Hadrian, at 30

to the pound of gold; and with the money a message from Priscus."

"Keep the black onyx intaglio in memory of me. The fellow ring--the

same head cut in relief--is in the coffer with my dear wife's jewels.

Worn by her from her marriage until her death, it will be a precious

legacy for Florens. Give it him when he shall have reached the age

of nineteen. Take the parchment also and keep it in trust for my

son, and the mule-load of money, for I have no need of these." As

the sheep-skin vanished under the Jew's upper garment, "Give me now,"

said the Roman, "the message of Annius Priscus."

"It was: 'Tell the husband of my departed ward to find another

steward to husband her vineyards of Kir Saba and receive the

grape-money from the wine-presser, for I weary of the dust and glare

of Palestine, and desire to end my days in my native city of Rome.'"

The Jew added: "I found Priscus setting forth with his household and

slaves to take ship for Rome at Joppa. Had I arrived at a later

hour, my journey had been in vain. Wherefore, thanking the Most

High, Who had aided me in the execution of my lord's business, I

accepted the invitation of the Senator to accompany him as far as

Lydda, now known as Diospolis; from whence I went to Kirjath-Saba,

two days' journey by road. There gushes forth to water the green

plains of Sharon a river of fattening for the vineyards that stand

about the Tower. Six hundred _schaeni_ of land, I judged, measuring

roughly by the eye. The two thousand sestertia I received represent

but a tithe of the value of the yearly gathering, judging by the

fruit that yet hung upon the vines."

"Old men are easily duped by smooth-tongued stewards."

"The rogue at Kir Saba is a Phœnician, and slippery as an adder.

Yet will he not lose the stiffness of his back-muscles and haunches

until he shall have sacrificed a goose or two to his goddess Tanit,

and caused a slave to rub him with the grease."

A spark of amusement twinkled in the tired eyes of the Roman.

"You beat him?"

"My staff has an affinity with the backs of robbers that may not be

denied. This one, by virtue of the authority bestowed on me, I

summarily deprived of his office; replacing the thief with one

Simeon, a Jew of Joppa, a faithful man and, moreover, a kinsman of

mine own."

"That is well if you judge it well. And now let us speak no more of

money. My son and his future are safe in your true hands."

"Your son's father were also safe, were he to follow the counsels of

his servant," said the Jew with a passionate eagerness. "But consent

to exchange clothes,--giving me your purple-edged prætexta--taking

this travel-soiled robe of mine, this girdle, sword and dagger--this

parchment deed and this purse of money--and topping all with my

mantle of camel's hair! ... Let me sit here, covering my head and

arms as one that weeps, with the folds of this, your mantle!" He

caught up a fur-trimmed hooded outer garment of crimson that lay upon

a neighbouring chair. "Pass the guards!--in your disguise the thing

may be done, I swear it! Hasten to my house. Give to my wife a

written line from me--here are inkhorn, reed and paper--and she will

deal with you faithfully even as myself. Consent! Accept!"

"The sacrifice of your life for mine! A thousand times No!" said the

ex-Prætor, sternly.

Hazaël urged in a low, fierce voice, illustrating his speech with

rapid gestures towards the window; pointing to the helmed head,

muscular brown neck and powerful shoulders of the Legionary posted in

the loggia beyond.

"My life will be in no peril. I swear to you I will but make sure

that you have passed out safely, before I leap upon the guard there,

stab one--strangle the other--and escape. Once in the Jews' Quarter

I am safe as you will be. By a hundred avenues known to none but the

Chosen we can escape from Alexandria. Only consent--"

But the Roman was firm in his refusal.

"Ah, you wish to die, it is clear to me!" exclaimed Hazaël. "The

thirst for death consumes you even as those other Christians, who

think the heavens will open amidst their tortures and the Crucified

appear, surrounded by the Shekinah; and extending His nail-pierced

hands to them; whilst hovering angels offer them the martyr's crown!"

"You forget, I am not even baptised," said the Roman. "I have not

received the instruction of a catechumen. I have abjured the gods of

Rome without knowing whether Christ will accept me.... And yet--and

yet--"

His calmness made the Jew shudder. He looked from the window with a

glance that sought above the palm-trees and acacias, the blue sky,

crossed and recrossed by the airy dance of the swallows, and said

with a smile:

"And yet I have never experienced such wondrous peace of mind. An

ichor runs in my veins that is clear as crystal, cool as snow and yet

glowing as the fire of sunset.... Never have I tasted in my life a

joy so deep as this!"

"He is mad!" groaned Hazaël in his anguished heart. But the

ex-Prætor was again speaking:

"Listen, most dear and faithful friend! ... Should that thing happen

which means that I am not quite rejected, being permitted to die for

the faith of Christ,--take my boy, secretly as I have said, to the

Abbot of Tabenna, and explain that I wish Florens to be baptised and

reared in the Christian faith." He went on as the Jew's face again

darkened, and his eyes once more dilated with horror, "Should Florens

shrink from the life of a monk, let him be a soldier, like the father

who sends him his blessing. Deposit my wife's jewels with the Abbot

of Tabenna,--to be sold for the boy's benefit--all save the

fellow-ring to the signet I have given you--which is to be Florens'

when he is of age. Tell him that the Hercules must stand for

manliness and valour; the knotted club for Truth and Honesty; and the

lion's skin for the wisdom that cloaks itself against the malice of

the world in the experience of trials overpast."

"I will remember!" the Jew said sullenly. "Have I all your

instructions? ..."

"There is but one thing more!" the Roman returned, speaking low and

hurriedly. "The boy being left with the Abbot at the Monastery of

Tabenna, I entreat you to return by way of the Arabian Desert, seek

out the hermitage of Christ's Athlete upon Mount Derhor and deliver

to the Blessed One a message from me. Say to the Saint: 'I bring

greetings from Philoremus Fabius, once Prætor of the Taxes of Egypt

in Alexandria. Without having formally embraced Christ, or received

the waters of baptism, this man has testified to the Faith and died!'

... Further, say: 'He entreats thee to pray that his sins may be

forgiven. And that for him also the Hand that was pierced may open

the Gate of Hope!'..." He added, visibly paling as the distant sound

of a trumpet broke upon his utterance, "All is now said. And it is

well, for that is the trumpet-call of the Prefect's Bodyguard. My

examination takes place before the banquet, it may be! Well, well!

I have no envy of the flower-crowned guest whose place should have

been mine!"

Again the trumpet shrilled, and the two men sat in silence, as the

rhythmical tread of wooden-soled, heavy-nailed sandals falling on the

pavement of the street drew nearer,--grew louder until the solid

walls vibrated: and then--as a harsh voice, echoed by other voices,

was heard to issue some military command--stopped dead. The curtain

at the portal bellied inwards with the draught from the opening of

the house-door: and as the harsh voice issued another command, the

regular tramp of the wooden, iron-nailed shoes of the soldiers

wakened the echoes of the outer vestibule. The Jew caught his

breath, and the Roman, frowning, laid a hand upon his sinewy arm:

"No demonstration of anger," he said sternly, "I forbid it! And now,

for this world, my son--for as one I have loved you!--Farewell!"

"And O farewell, my kindest friend!--my generous protector!"

stammered Hazaël, with tears raining down his bearded cheeks as they

hurriedly embraced. "May the God of Israel so deal with me and mine

as I deal with your son! ... They come!"

The trampling iron-shod footsteps halted at the threshold. The metal

rings shrieked on the rod as a brawny, red-haired arm, partly

sheathed in glittering brass, thrust the heavy curtains back....

Sunlight flashed from naked steel, and the gilded plates of armour.

A Roman officer of the Bodyguard stepped into the room.

V

In consideration of great services rendered to the Empire, the

ex-Prætor of the Egyptian Taxes was beheaded without torture. The

body, exposed upon the public execution-ground according to the law,

mysteriously disappeared. It was whispered that it had been spirited

away by persons with Christian leanings, and secretly buried in the

crypt of some unknown church.

For three days following the death of his patron, the house of Hazaël

was strictly closed.... The Jew, with hair and beard sprinkled with

ashes, mourned, sitting on the floor in a coarse black tunic, rent at

the hem; and observing silence, ate bread and drank water once a day

at the sunset hour. He even said Kaddish for his dead benefactor,

though an act so presumptuous would have scandalised the Rabbinate.

On the fourth day he rose: washed and reclothed himself, and returned

to his family as though nothing had transpired. But on a day

following the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, the large

white mule on which Hazaël made his journeys, with the beast that

usually carried his attendant Ephraim, stood waiting with the

pack-mule at the Chief Secretary's door.

A long basket of woven osiers now being brought out by Ephraim and

another servant, and carefully strapped upon the burden of

necessaries carried by the pack-mule, the Chief Secretary, armed as

before, and in the plain travelling garb that he had worn previously,

bade farewell to his wife and family; thrust his mighty bronze-shod

staff once more into its leathern bucket; and rode out of the City of

the Pharos with his small following, by the Gate of the Moon.

A flat-bottomed boat paddled by four negroes, conveyed both men and

beasts across the vineyard-fringed Lake of Mareotis, and for some

miles south-eastwards along the Canal of Alexandria, between

palm-groves, gardens, orchards and the estates of wealthy Greeks,

Egyptians and Roman officials. Above Andron, the ancient city fast

falling through Roman misrule into neglect and dilapidation, the

party landed; Hazaël gave money to the master of the rowers, received

his salutations, and the four negroes, reversing their positions,

soon conveyed the boat away.

Then the Jew, no longer hiding the anxiety that had devoured him,

leaped with fierce energy upon the pack-mule, unstrapped the heavy

osier basket and with the aid of Ephraim, carefully lowered it to the

ground. With shaking hands he unfastened the lid of the pannier, and

as the smiling but bewildered face of a boy of twelve years old

looked up at him, with blue eyes blinking in the sudden glare of the

sun:

"Now thanks be to the Holy One that all is well with thee!" he

stammered. "Not a word, not a movement--your father's true son! See

now--this pad from under thy head, my hands beneath thy armpits.

Leap--and fresh as a salmon from the British Thamesis--a sturgeon

from the Hyperborean Ocean, or a lamprey from Lake Moeris--out you

come!"

He hugged the boy against his breast with almost womanly tenderness,

and running his hands rapidly over the slight body, assured himself

that all was well. Then mounting Florens before the saddle of his

own mule, and followed by Ephraim with the other animals; the

Secretary, following a southward-running road that crossed some

ripening cotton-fields, presently drew the rein, and looked back at

Ephraim, saying:

"The idolaters are true to their word. See, there are their tents

and camels!"

And he pointed to where low black tents were pitched upon a stretch

of scrubby ground lying between the crop-land and the

reddish-coloured desert, upon which camels eagerly grazed upon

withered vetch and wiry grasses; while a small band of Saracens

crouched round a small fire, wrapped in capacious mantles woven of

white wool and black camel's hair, their loaded staves beside them,

and sharp broad-bladed spears planted haft downwards in the ground

near by.

The Saracens rose, seeing men on beasts coming, seized their staves

and plucked forth their spears. Then, comprehending who it was that

approached, their demeanour altered, and they received the Jew with

respect.

"I am Mafa Oabu," said the eldest of the company. "If evil come to

thee, or those who are thy companions, I pay to him whom thou

knowest, with my life and the lives of my sons!"

He touched himself with the right hand upon the breast and brow, and

laid his hands in the hands of Hazaël, as also did the men of his

following. Three young camels were chosen for the travellers to

ride. Two others were loaded with the water-skins, provisions,

fodder, and baggage. Mafa Oabu mounted one of the pack-animals. Two

strong young men, marching with the caravan, would ride by turns upon

the other, the old Saracen said, when either of them required rest.

As for the mules, they remained in the keeping of the Saracens, to be

reclaimed upon the return of the travellers. The price of the

journey, not to be paid until then, was to be one hundred silver

_sestertii_ a day for each of the five camels; fifty _sestertii_ for

Mafa Oabu, and a gift for each of the young men.

The departure was accompanied by shrill ululating cries made by the

women of the Saracens, who kept veiled their faces, painted like

their naked bodies with green and scarlet fishes, serpents and the

signs of the Zodiac, and smeared their hair with butter. Then the

caravan struck southwards into the Nitrian Desert. That night they

encamped under a grove of palm-trees, near a Roman well hollowed in

the living rock, amidst the bellowings of the camels, which purposely

had not been watered before the start.

Water-skins brought by the Jews being filled by Ephraim, that the

pure element might not be contaminated by the touch of idolaters, the

Saracens filled their own, and drew water for the camels, which was

given the thirsty beasts in a pitch-smeared skin trough. Mafa Oabu

took no share in these labours, but prostrating himself upon the sand

with his forehead towards the setting sun, remained absorbed in

silent adoration. The Jews washed, gave thanks and ate; sharing with

the child the bread, eggs, figs and dried fish they had brought with

them; drinking a little wine diluted with water, and keeping their

own side of the fire. The Saracens washed down their sparing diet of

dried bread, dates and sheeps'-milk cheese with a drink of charred

corn, crushed, and boiled in water mingled with honey, which they

sipped from the shells of young tortoises, showing their white teeth

in smiles at the hearty appetite displayed by the child. Yet while

the novelty of all about him pleased and excited Florens, he would

pause in the midst of a mouthful to ask Hazaël:

"When we reach where we are going, shall we find my father there?"

"If the Almighty so wills!" was the Jew's invariable answer. The

young Saracens, whose names were Marduk and Belias, pitched a black

tent to shelter the travellers, when sleeping, from the rays of the

new moon. Small, marvellously bright and silvery, it hung high in

the south, rivalling the blue radiance of Jupiter, the evening

star.... In the north-west the Pharos of Alexandria blazed on the

horizon at intervals of an instant. Hazaël looked at the distant

splendour of the city, and muttered, as he thought of his benefactor

murdered there:

"But for the Chosen, and my Miriam and my children, who dwell in the

shadow of thy painted temples like to doves among the rocks, I could

wish that fire and brimstone might descend from Heaven and consume

thee utterly, thou thrice accursed Harlot of the Sea!"

For in the bosom of the Jew, who had witnessed massacres of

Christians without a sentiment of pity or horror, the commission of

that single crime had caused a strange revulsion. Before he lay

down, he looked at the boy, who wearied, was soundly sleeping; and a

heavy tear dropped from his stern eyes upon the woollen covering he

held back. Then he replaced it over the tossed curls and the flushed

face of the sleeper, commended himself to the Almighty care, and

stretched himself upon the ground beside Florens.

Rising to repeat the Shema for the first night-watch, he stepped

outside the tent to leave to Ephraim, who had also wakened, the

freedom of solitude which intensifies prayer. The young Saracens

slept beside the pink embers of the fire, enveloped in their mantles

of camel's hair. Mafa Oabu did not sleep, but sat apart, alert and

wakeful; spear at hand and staff in readiness; his sling lying beside

him, with a supply of rounded stones.

Placing ten small pebbles in front of him, he reckoned that ten days

must pass before the arrival of the caravan at Memphis. Adding ten

more for the return-journey, he surrounded each of the twenty pebbles

with five hundred grains of maize, reckoning up his gains by the

light of the moon and of the fire--which he often fed with dead wood

and dried camel's-dung--regularly discovering to his chagrin that he

had not added the sum due for his own labours, and must begin once

more. When the stars began to pale towards the dawn, he ceased, and

prostrated himself, rising to find Hazaël standing near.

"What do you worship?" the Jew asked him.

"We pray," said Mafa Oabu, "to the Great and Lesser Lights, to the

starry Hosts of Heaven and to the Djinns and Afrits both good and

evil, that eavesdrop at the celestial gates and thereby learn much of

the divine plans of Allah, the Eternal, the Creator of All. The

brilliant lights that sometimes shoot across the sky are in fact

these beings, driven by the Angels from the celestial threshold,

whence their master Iblis, the Peacock of the Angels, was banished

when he rebelled against Allah. We also reverence as the holiest

thing from Kaf to Kaf, the pure white stone that fell with our father

Adam from the Garden of Paradise. It is now no longer white, having

wept so much for the sins of the world, and silver bands prevent it

from bursting. It is imbedded in the wall of the Kaaba, the Holy

House containing more than three hundred and fifty images, built and

carved by Seth, son of Adam, and washed away by the Deluge. Later,

Ishmael, guided by the Archangel Gabriel, discovered the marvellous

stone, buried in the mud left by the retreating waters, and made new

images in place of those lost. We call the period at which these

events occurred, The Time of Ignorance. You, my lord, being of the

People of the Book, the Sons of Isaac, look back with ourselves--the

People of the Desert who are the Children of Ishmael--to Abraham, our

common ancestor."

"So it is said," observed Hazaël, unwilling to offend the master of

the caravan, while he turned aside to spit upon the sand, making a

mental act abjuring kinship with idolaters, condemned by the Almighty

to burn forever in hell.