The Days of Mohammed | Page 9

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,