There was one John preaching in the country about the Jordan: the
Baptist, they call him, the president said. But go, Joseph, and see the
prophets for thyself. I shall be rare glad to hear what thou hast to
say! And he pressed Joseph's hand, sending him off in good cheer. Banu,
ask for Banu! were the last words he called after him, and Joseph hoped
the ferryman would be able to point out the way to him. Oh yes, I know
the prophet; the ferryman answered: a disciple of John, that all the
people are following. But there be a bit of a walk before thee, and one
that'll last thee till dawn, for Banu has been that bothered by visits
these times, that he has gone up the desert out of the way, for he be
preparing himself these whiles. For what? Joseph asked. The ferryman did
not know; he told that John was not baptizing that morning, but for why
he did not know. As like as not he be waiting for the river to lower, he
said. At which Joseph had half a mind to leave Banu for John; but a
passenger was calling the ferryman from the opposite bank and he was
left with incomplete information and wandered on in doubt whether to
return in quest of the Baptist or make the disciple his shift.
The way pointed out to him lay through the desert, and to find Banu's
cave without guidance would not be easy, and after having found and
interrogated him the way would seem longer to return than to come. But,
having gone so far, he could not do else than attempt the hot weary
search. And it will be one! he said, as he picked his way through the
bushes and brambles that contrive to subsist somehow in the flat sandy
waste lying at the head of the lake. But as he proceeded into the desert
these signs of life vanished, and he came upon a region of craggy and
intricate rocks rising sometimes into hills and sometimes breaking away
and littering the plain with rubble. The desert is never completely
desert for long, and on turning westward as he was directed, Joseph
caught sight of the hill which he had been told to look out for--he
could not miss it, for the evening sun lit up a high scarp, and on
coming to the end of a third mile the desert began to look a little less
desert, brambles began again. Banu could not be far away. But Joseph did
not dare to go farther. He had been walking for many hours, and even if
he were to meet Banu he could not speak to him, so closely did his
tongue cleave to the sides of his mouth. But these brambles betoken
water, he said; and on coming round a certain rock bulging uncouth from
the hillside, he discovered a trickle, and a few paces distant, Banu,
ugly as a hyena and more ridiculous than the animal, for--having no
shirt to cover his nakedness--he had tressed a garland of leaves about
his waist! Yet not so ugly at second sight as at first, for he sees God,
Joseph said to himself; and he waited for Banu to rise from his knees.
Even hither do they pursue me, Banu's eyes seemed to say, while his
fingers modestly rearranged his garland; and Joseph, who began to dread
the hermit, begged to have the spring pointed out to him that he might
drink. Banu pointed to it, and Joseph knelt and drank, and after
drinking he was in better humour to tell Banu that Mathias, the great
philosopher from Alexandria, scorned the prophecies that the end of the
world could not be delayed much longer. And, as John is not baptizing
these days, I thought I'd come and ask if we had better begin to prepare
for the resurrection and the judgment. On hearing Joseph's reasons for
his visit, the hermit stood with dilated eyes, as if about to speak. But
he did not speak; and Joseph asked him what would become of the world
after God destroyed it. Before answering, Banu stooped down, and having
filled his hand with sand and gravel he said: God will fill his hand
with earth, but not this time to make a man and woman, but out of each
of his hands will come a full nation, and these he will put into full
possession of the earth, for his chosen people will not repent....
But the ferryman told me that John gathered many together and was
baptizing in Jordan? Joseph inquired. To which Banu answered naught, but
stood looking at Joseph, who could scarce bring himself to look at Banu,
though he felt himself to be in sore need of some prophetic confirmation
of the date of the judgment. Is John the Messiah, come to preach that
God is near and that we must repent in time? he asked; to which the
hermit replied that the Messiah would have many fore-runners, and one of
these would give his earthly life as a peace-offering, but enraged
Jahveh would not accept it as sufficient and would return with the
Messiah and destroy the world. I am waiting here till God bids me arise
and preach to men, and the call will be soon, Banu said, for God's wrath
is even now at its height. But do thou go hence to John, who has been
called to the Jordan, and get baptism from him. But John is not
baptizing these days, the river being in flood, Joseph cried after him.
That flood will pass away, Banu answered, before the great and
overwhelming flood arises. Will the world be destroyed by water? At this
question Banu turned towards the hillside, like one that deemed his last
exhortation to be enough, and who desired an undisturbed possession of
the solitude. But at the entrance of the cave he stopped: the track is
easy to lose after nightfall, he said, and panthers will be about in
search of gazelles. Thou wouldst do well to remain with me: my cave is
secure against wild beasts. Look behind thee: how dark are the rocks and
hills! Joseph cast his eyes in the direction of Jericho and thanked God
for having put a kind thought into the hermit's mind, for the landscape
was gloomy enough already, and an hour hence he would be stumbling over
a panther in the dark, and the sensation of teeth clutching at his
throat and of hind claws tearing out his belly banished from his mind
all thoughts of the unpleasantness of passing a night in a narrow cave
with Banu, whom he helped to close the entrance with a big stone and to
pile up other stones about the big stone making themselves safe, so Banu
said, from everything except perhaps a bear.
The thought of the bear that might scrape aside the stone kept Joseph
awake listening to Banu snoring, and to the jackals that barked all
night long. They are quarrelling among themselves, Banu said, turning
over, for the jackals succeeded in waking him, quarrelling over some
gazelle they've caught. A moment after, he was asleep again, and Joseph,
despite his fear of the wild beasts, must have dozed for a little while,
for he started up, his hair on end. A bear! a bear! he cried, without
awakening Banu, and he listened to a scratching and a sniffling round
the stones with which they had blocked the entrance to the cave. Or a
panther, he said to himself. The animal moved away, and then Joseph lay
awake hour after hour, dropping to sleep and awakening again and again.
About an hour after sunrise, Banu awakened him and asked him to help him
to roll the stones aside; which Joseph did, and as soon as they were in
the dusk he turned out of his pockets a few crusts and some cheese made
out of ewe's milk, and offered to share the food with his host; but
Banu, pointing to a store of locusts, put some of the insects into his
mouth and told Joseph that his vow was not to eat any other food till
God called him forth to preach; which would be, he thought, a few days
before the judgment: a view that Joseph did not try to combat, nor did
he eat his bread and cheese before him, lest the sight of it should turn
the prophet's stomach from the locusts. It was distressing to watch him
chewing them; they were not easy to swallow, but he got them down at
last with the aid of some water obtained from the source, and during
breakfast his talk was all the while of the day of judgment and the
anger of God, who would destroy Israel and build up another nation that
would obey him. It would be three or four days before the judgment that
God would call him out to preach, he repeated; and Joseph was waiting to
hear how far distant were these days? A month, a year, belike some
years, for God's patience is great. He stopped speaking suddenly, and
throwing out his arms he cried out: he has come, he has come! He whom
the world is waiting for. Baptize him! Baptize him! He whom the world is
waiting for has come.
But for whom is the world waiting? Joseph asked; and Banu answered:
hasten to the Jordan, and find him whom thou seekest.