The Days of Mohammed | Page 3

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